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Introduction
Throughout its history, humanity has gone through three industrial revolutions. Each time people adapted better to the changes in the environment, but at the same time, they were less and less ready to endure these changes without technology. The first industrial revolution the transition from manual to machine labor freed humans from physical exertion. The second contributed to the emergence of in-line production using electricity. The third revolution brought information and computer technologies, which continue to develop up to this day. However, the era of the fourth digital revolution has come, and it brings radical transformations to society with it.
Changes in Ways of Communication
It is generally accepted that modern technology speeds up peoples lives. In the context of technological development, if one talks about the speed of communication, there are certain physical limitations associated not only with the speed of light but also with the quickness of human perception. However, the question of whether there are any restrictions related to social interactions arise. Perhaps, the user needs for communication speeds to grow further or maybe they do not, and the issue is with the quality of communication. If one considers the speed of message delivery, for example, from Tokyo to New York, then one can state: indeed, it has increased many times over in the last decade, for example.
Meanwhile, a researcher must ask themselves several rather specific questions, such as the consequences of this change, and how does it influence social practices. Wolff (2021) states that at the heart of fights over new technologies and their resulting global changes are often two conflicting visions of technology: a fundamentally optimistic one, and a fundamentally pessimistic one (p. 2). The optimists view technology as humanitys means for achieving greater success, while pessimists fear that it has reached the point where it cannot be controlled anymore.
In the context of answers to the questions above and, more broadly, of understanding how technology affects society, quite alarming assessments of the situation have been provided. In these assessments, it is generally said that there was supposedly an authenticity, and that technology changed it beyond recognition. For example, now people can talk to anyone, and any text is available to them, but they have forgotten how to highlight the essential information. Thoughtful reading has been replaced by scrolling through innumerable posts, opinions, and statements. From the point of view of technology critics, it is a significant loss that will severely affect future generations. In this sense, they talk about the danger of rapid consumption of information and rapid communication, urging people to stop or slow down.
Proponents of purity and authenticity criticize the situation when schoolchildren or students sit at McDonalds and, it seems, do not talk to each other but look at smartphone screens. However, these critics do not pay attention to the fact that schoolchildren constantly show each other the contents of their gadgets they do not simply send but share. New phenomena have emerged, both at the physical level and at the conceptual level, related to the fact that people now spend a lot of time in the Internet environment. Still, even now, people are discussing the content they found during digital surfing. They talk about it the same way they used to talk about movies or anything else, which is the crucial aspect of the issue. Moreover, Walden University (2022) adds that platforms like Twitter have been particularly valuable to traditionally marginalized groups such as LGBT community, playing a significant role in the creation of protest movements and support networks (para. 2). Feeling the need to communicate about things they sent or received, people forego the screens they make eye contact if they need to, smile, cry, and express love or hate.
This suggests that many patterns of behavior and many habits of direct and emotional communication continue to be vital to humans. Habits, attitudes, and principles mutate and become hybrid but do not disappear. In one form or another, people continue to update interactions that may seem outdated or irretrievably lost. People change their behavior: they learn quickly and adapt to the rapid growth of the social and digital world. GeeksforGeeks (2022) states that both technology and society are co-related, co-dependent, co-influence each other (para. 1). Accordingly, statements about the loss of authenticity are incorrect, which makes the question of radical and social changes in the context of this authenticity in the age of the internet debatable. In order to answer it more or less consistently, researchers need to remain vigilant about observing how people interact with gadgets, as well as with each other.
Privacy Management
One of the most important aspects of changing attitudes is privacy for example, architecture and privacy management. Privacy in social networks has a specific nature associated with the process of managing the incoming flow. One can allow or not allow themselves to watch content, let or not let someone into their life, and establish the boundaries between ones own and others space. Consider this question on the following example: a teacher, most likely, cannot afford to post too explicit photos from drunken parties. Even if they want to share these photos, they cannot do it as they could potentially endanger their job. A female teacher might post photos in a swimsuit and then delete them before the start of the school year, as she is convinced that students should not see their teacher like this. However, she could still leave one photo on the avatar the most modest of all drawing interest to her person and at the same time not violating any of her moral codes regarding the situation.
Nietzschean philosophy, as part of the immunological metaphor used in many social studies, proposes that in order to get rid of a problem or potential danger, it must be let in. Therefore, on the internet, a person can often perform certain actions that seem unacceptable to them, or even harmful in everyday life, but do so in a dosed amount. Through negotiations, persuasion, and threats to themselves, a person uploads one specific photo such as in the example with the teacher. Thus, the person attracts attention and immediately limits it. It is the principle of the membrane : let something in and let something out, identifying ones own and someone elses. This is how the practices of managing the attention of others and managing ones own representation are formed.
Changes in Communicating with Reality
As many different modern studies reveal, the influence of media communications extends to cultural and social changes, reflecting the transformation in the structure of values, patterns of behavior, traditions, and rituals. In addition, media personalities, through the means of communication, facilitate socialization and also contribute to the integration of social groups depending on their interests. According to Nam (2021), the core element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the convergence of various technologies that fused into various new forms to create new added value (p. 64). Under the influence of media communications, the learning process and the establishment of social control take place.
Computer games simulators, action, shooters, RPGs (role-playing games) in which physical activity began to be expressed through a psychological association with a game avatar, have constructed an entirely new sphere for a person. It blurs the boundaries between virtuality and reality in a way that has never been experienced before with any other media. The player behind the monitor can run around in the form of a virtual simulation commanding an entire army and simultaneously feel like they are in two worlds: physical and virtual. The optionality of the reality of the other, for example, when the program turns out to be the opponent of the person, forms a unique structure of communication. The player ceases to perceive the difference between a real person and a computer simulation. In games, the system of relations in society is reproduced and the games own laws and ethics are formed. A new reality is created in which, for greater reliability, one also needs to eat, drink, and train. This creates a unique form of perceiving reality through the lens of the virtual world that, in its nature, reflects the existing society.
Conclusion
The changes that technology brings with it are inevitable: it has already influenced society and will continue to do so as it develops further. The main question that offers ground for discussion is how people are affected by these changes, how they adapt to the new world, and what new concepts arise. By creating a new reality via the internet, games, and other digital means, humanity enters a new turn in its evolution, developing new habits and attitudes. Studying this unique growth is vital for the society of tomorrow, as the inter- and intrapersonal relationships between its members, as well as the people and technological advancements, will continue to transform in the future.
References
GeeksforGeeks. (2022). Impact of technology on Society.
Nam, S. (2021). Things not to be missed in a rapidly changing society. International Journal of Clinical Preventive Dentistry, 17(2), 64-64. doi:10.15236/ijcpd.2021.17.2.64
Walden University. (2022). How is digital technology changing our interactions with each other.
Wolff, J. (2021). How is technology changing the world, and how should the World Change Technology? Global Perspectives, 2(1). doi:10.1525/gp.2021.27353
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