Title: Digital christmas greetings - the viral communicators, public sphere and democracy(Digitala julhälsningar - de virala kommuniktörerna, offentligheten och demokratin)Number of pages: 41Author : Anna-Sara TorgnysdotterTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse : Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring, semester 2010University: Devision of Media and Communications, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study is to see if social media could be an arena for the usersto increase democracy and the public sphere. Studying the role and possibilitys of the individual.Is there a space for any one to act and debate?Method: A qualitative analysis based on interviews with ten users of social media - viralcommunicators. They were discussing public and private sphere, democracy, norms andbehavior in social media.Theoretical platform: The theoretical basis has its roots in sociology: Ervin Goffman´sidea on self-presentation and social interaction, Manuel Castels´ theories of the networksociety and Jürgen Habermas idea of the public spehere.Main result: The viral communicators are ambivalent in their use of socialmedia. They are users because they want to be but also because they feel forced to - professionalor private. Their primary aim in communicating in social media could summarize“self-expression”.The users of social media talks contradictivly about their feelings wheter they feel safe orunsafe in the social media situation.They talk about lacking time to debate on the internet and they feel confused about what´sprivate and whats public.Social norms and unwritten laws rules communication in social media and the loosening inpublic and private sphere creates confusion about to whom and where you communicate.This results in avoiding messages that might offend or harass. Because the viral communicatorscommunicate with a broad group of people, including every one - from your cousin toyour boss - there is a vague idea of the tolerance from the target audiences and therefor themessages tend to be very conservative and safe.The viral communicator uses that public arena the social media offers like traditional postcards. A christmas greeting to keep in touch and stress their prosperity and wellbeing.Keywords : Social media, viral communication, Habermas, Goffman, Castells, publicsphere, private sphere, social norms, unwritten laws