Introduction

As I ride my bicycle to the campus, I see a man walking down the street with earphone in his ear while his eyes and hand is busy with his mobile phone. As I am on a tram, I see (almost) everyone is glued to their gadgets. Are all those people actually on the street and tram?

This essay points out that globalization has created a freedom for every individual to create and develop their own spaces. These spaces are unique from one to another because each space reflects the uniqueness of every individual who develops it. That phenomenon is evident as the traditional conception of space has been diminished when individual is no longer embedded into particular spaces. Space which has determined by geographical and political boundaries has faded. Globalization has offered a conception of space which is abstract, dynamic, unsettled, specific, and unique. Globalization theorists have argued that globalization has generated a fundamental shift in the spatial and temporal constitutions of societies (Rosenberg 2005).

Nowadays, space is not bound to its classic concept which defines space/place as a sensible material such as room, class, house, school, or neighborhood. Hence, space no longer limited to what we call as a nation-state, city, and village. Space has been unlocked from its locality and its boundary. What I see on street and tram illustrates that space with its classic conception has been merged with the ‘cloud’ space (as I borrow from the concept of cloud computing system).

The new concept of space is the extension of traditional space. This phenomenon is possible as globalization offers the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in every aspect of human social life (Held et al. 1999). Furthermore, globalization has been defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa (Giddens 1990).

This essay puts internet as its major facilitator of the increased acceleration of globalization. Internet provides people with billions of channels and pages which enable people to indulge their own interest. People have billions options, from ideology to hobby, from academic literatures to online shopping. As this process has created a new conception of space, a convergence of the classic and the cloud space, which I call: my space, a portable space.

Internet, towards a new conception of space

Data shows that the growth of internet users has been growing remarkably and consistently. Just twelve years ago, by December 2000, there were more than 360 million people who were using internet (Stats 2012). It was only 5 percent of 6,1 billion world population. And by August 2011, there were 2,4 billion internet users (Argaez de 2012). It is more than a quarter of 7 billion world population. It means that from December 2000 to August 2012, the percentage of internet user growth is quite surprising that stands at 528 percent.

Figure 1: The internet big picture, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

With the trend, has been more impossible to separate people activities in the ‘real-world’ and the internet. More people are using email, social media, and blogs as platform to interact, communicate, and organize their life (Argaez de 2012). With those platforms, the conception of space should be redefined.

Long before the internet phenomena has been becoming as ubiquitous as today, Anthony Giddens stated in his BBC Reicht Lectures Interview, that we live at a time in which we can have instantaneous communication across the world that simply has changed the nature of people's lives. He pointed out that the image of Nelson Mandela had become more familiar to us than the image of our next door neighbor (Giddens 1999). Eight years before the interview he explains in his book that modern social life can be identified by the profound processes of the reorganization and the separation time and space. Therefore, social relation is beyond a certain locality (Giddens 1991). As information, communication, and transportation technology has been growing profoundly, the scale of intensity must be now much more evident.

We live at a time in which similarity between spaces have been vanished. Space is no longer exists with its typical template. Each space becomes unique as it mirrors the uniqueness of every human being. Globalization enables people to extend its inner biological identity which has made every individual unique, such as fingerprint, face, gait, ears, eyes, voice, scent, heartbeat, brainwaves, and micro biome that are different from one to another (Williams 2012).

An active individual, a fundamental recipe

Globalization has offered people with billions of options. Within it, Internet offers more than 628 million websites, with 193 million active websites (Netcraft 2012). Each of those websites had gives different feature, service, and facility; from games to social media; from news to encyclopedia. It has enable people to become a more active individual than any human civilization has offered before. Again, it has shown a major shift in communication paradigm.

In 1920s, mass media communication is defined as an effective way to give direct impact to audience. Scholars at that time developed theory which is reflecting the way people perceive mass media communication, such as the Magic Bullet/Hypodermic Needle theory. The theory, which is influenced by behaviorism, views individual as a passive audience. With the paradigm, it could be understood that mass media communication at that time is commonly perceived as a tool to influence people thought and action. A stark example was Nazi propaganda which was widely used in times of war (Baran and Davis 2011).

In 1940s onward, there had been a shift on how mass media communication perceived audience. Audience was regarded as an active individual. Uses and Gratifications Theory is one of its kinds that could demonstrate the idea. This trend is in line with the emergence of humanistic psychology development in 1950s. This emergence was a reaction towards the well-established theories such as behaviorism and deterministic Freudianism (which perceive human as a passive entity). Scholars behind this new approach, such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, introduced the centrality of personal (Schneider et al. 2001).

The availability of options enables people can actively choose the type of media and messages as well as to decode it. By doing so, people are avoided of being dictated by any individual, organization, state, or other entities.

Mobile phone, for example, has become an extension of its owner identity. It also expresses its owner character and interest. It can be identified from apps they are using; website they are visiting; and groups of people they are contacting. This is also happening with other gadget such as tablets, laptop, and personal computer. The more users friendly the gadget is, the more salable the gadget will be. As Joseph Varren, a CTIA-The Wireless Association spokesperson, said that consumers want their phones to do a lot, and they want to do it easily (Choney 2007).

It is interesting to note that based on alexa.com, a web information company, the 20 most visited websites in the world are websites that enable people to be an active user. Those websites are, Facebook, Google, Youtube, Yahoo!, Baidu.com, Wikipedia, Windows Live, QQ.COM, Twitter, Amazon.com, Blogspot.com, Google India, Taobao.com, Yahoo! Japan, LinkedIn, MSN, Sina.com.cn, Google Hongkong, Google Germany, and Bing.com (Alexa 2012b). The trend is commonly similar in many countries. In Australia, the 10 most visited websites are Google Australia, Facebook, Google, Youtube, Yahoo!, eBay.com.au, Wikipedia, Windows Live, LinkedIn, and News.com.au(Alexa 2012a).

My space, the portable space

The concept of space is not merely a place we stand on. But space could also a place we create in our mind. Space is not only a thing that we can see and touch. But space is something that is imaginer and abstract as well. This imaginer space can be brought by everyone wherever and whenever they go.

It is a common occasion to see people disconnected with their 'real world'. People are busy with their mobile phone on train, tram, bus, bike, or even when they are walking. They might be listening to a music bought from iPhone store; reading today news update from their favorite websites; jumping from one news portal to the other; or reading e-book which is bought from Amazon.com. Those activities clearly reflect the portable space which people are bringing. People are creating their own space.

Facebook is one of the examples. Despite of its well-recognized design, we still could easily identify whose account we are visiting is belong to because the page is reflecting its account owner identity. What kind of group they are joining, fan pages they are following, status update they are posting, photos, videos, or websites they are linking.

Not creating its own unique space, Facebook also enable people to create or to join many virtual groups. Despite of its abstract existence, I still regard it as my social network. This form of sociability has been identified by Manuel Castells who points out that internet has restructured social relationship in forming sociability pattern based on individualism (Castells 2001). Castells notion is clearly evident, for example, on my Facebook groups as it is a mirror image of my personal background. Among those groups are:

Name of the group	Description
Keluarga Besar Jurusan Jurnalistik Fikom Unpad	This group is developed for students, lectures, and alumni of Journalism, Faculty of Communication, University of Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia. I join this group because I am one of the alumni.
AIC99ers	This group is developed for Asshiddiqiyah Islamic College alumnus who graduated in 1999. I join this group because I am among the students at the College who graduated in 1999.
Indonesian/English Language Exchange (Melbourne)	This group is developed for everyone in Melbourne who is interested to do an Indonesian or English language exchange with native speakers. I join this group because I am among the founders of the group and its member too.
Dit. KSI Aspasaf	This group is developed for employees of Directorate of Intraregional Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. I join this group because I had worked for the Directorate.

Within those untouchable and immaterial group spaces, I interact, communicate, and share ideas. It connects members of each group from different ‘real-places’ all over the world. Based on our individual action, we create the portable space. They are not dictated by the space; in contrast, they shape the space. At the same time, each member of the group has created their own space which they can access whenever, however, and whatever they want.

I share laptop and iPad with my wife. Sometime, she forgets to sign out from her Facebook account before exiting the website. As a consequence, when I open Facebook, I am automatically directed to my wife Facebook account. Although Facebook account has a particular web design, I can immediately figure out that the page I am entering is not mine. I recognize it by seeing what kind of updates are on the Facebook account wall.

The fading of a classic space

The traditional concept of space is what we can directly see and touch. It has boundaries with its own rules, organs, and values. Therefore, people in that space will be exposed with certain rules, organs, and values. Either consciously or unconsciously, they will think, speak, or act as they should to do in that space. The idea of hegemony is becoming more relevant in this matter. The confined space enables certain culture to rule every individual way of thinking, speak, or act. People cannot escape. There are only limited choices. As a consequence, people are crafted to be identical from one to another.

For example, I had studied and lived at pesantren (Islamic Boarding School) in Jakarta, Indonesia, for six years from 1993 to 1999. Every student should stay at the pesantren 24 hours/7 days. The pesantren was surrounded by fences. Only those who are ill or have a very urgent need could have a permit from the administrator to exit the pesantren. There was only one public telephone line serving to more than three thousand students. And absolutely, there wasn’t any internet connection. Despite of much limitation, pesantren supplied everything to support students' need. In this regards, pesantren can be perceived as the father of the students by dominating every aspect of student life. Unconsciously, it is imposing ‘the law of the father’ (Lash 2007).

There were rules and regulation for almost every single aspect of students daily life, from what time to wake, to sleep, to eat, to study, and to play; what newspaper and book to read (there was only one newspaper –Media Indonesia-- to be put on display so every student can read together), and what time students can watch television (students can only watch television every Sunday and watch it together in the hall). With the limited options, students share the similar space which they cannot develop on their own. It was plausible that when all students graduated, they have a relatively similar way of thinking, speak, and behave.

Conclusion

It can be understood that the density, intensity and level of ‘my space’ formation by every individual is diverse as the immersion scale of every individual into the global system is varied. As Michael Burawoy points out that Giddens understanding of globalization might be biased by his privileged lifestyle of high-flying academics. He questions about who “we” is Giddens referring to in his BBC Reith Lectures 1999, “We are the first generation to live in this society, whose contours we can as yet only dimly see”(Burawoy 2000).

At a glance, we might be thinking that internet is ubiquitous. While the fact is that internet penetration rate is diverse in different parts of the world; from 0,5 percent in Liberia to 89,8 percent in Australia; from 13,5 percent in Africa to 78,6 percent in North America (Stats 2012). These figures show us that even in this 21^st century; globalization which is promoted by internet is still uneven.

Figure 2: Average connection speed, http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/

Manuel Castells stressed that the shrinking world has created a new social divisions between those who have accessibility and capability to the information and communication technology and those who have not. The marginalized are curtailed to their particular and localized space of place because insufficiently globalized (Kiely 2005).

However, observing the remarkable growth of information and communication technology penetration rate in the world, it is plausible that the creation of ‘my space’ of every individual will be much more inevitable. When the time comes, we might be questioning the relevancy of ‘real-space’ as each one of us develops the ‘my-space’. We put it into our pocket; carry it whenever and wherever we go. That is ‘my space’, a unique, an exclusive, and a portable space.