“ROBINSONS” OF THE DIGITAL WORLD

Abstract

The digital revolution changing our lives, defines new communication possibilities of the network society. The concept of network communication is a frame model not only of limited one-to-one broadcasting, but also of one-to-many forum communication. Communication in the digital age is simplified by the mass use of likes, avatars, and icons, blurs the boundaries between public and private, and establishes a contradiction between spiritual and meaningful communication and phatic acts of language communication. Some people remain outside these processes, trying to preserve their own identity. The purpose of the article is an attempt to create a social portrait of people who forcibly or consciously refuse to use information and communication technologies excessively, reserving the right to maintain an information and communication distance. It is important that the conceptual definition of “Robinson” used in the publication is a stylization of the processes of informational and communicative isolation of a person in the digital world. In the context of our research, the image of “Robinsons” is conceptualized as a unique cluster of digital society that preserves the parameters of traditional locality of social life. The characteristic features of the “Robinsons” have been identified: they prefer meaningful language communication, limit their presence in Internet communities as much as possible, do not seek publicity, view privacy preservation as a problem of the new social reality, are sensitive to overload from information noise. It is necessary to single out the “Robinsons” of the generation of Soviet people of the industrial era, who feel the lack of digital skills of the user of social networks or are desperately trying to preserve a way of life based on the projection of the past. The search for universal features was carried out through a critical analysis and an interdisciplinary approach, which made it possible to consider the image of the “Robinsons” through local situations and substantiate the patterns and motives of informational and communicative isolation as general laws. In contrast to a digital person who lives in the symbolic world of virtual reality and wins publicity in social networks, modern “Robinsons” live in a real socio-cultural space. It is noted that they are characterized by the meaningfulness of being, a stable capacity for active and productive activity, a sense of individuality and freedom, the ability to focus on important things and achieving goals, and filling life with meaning. It was possible to illustrate the patterns of human behavior, avoiding the evaluative opposition “good – bad”. Scientific searches for further trends regarding the existence of the cluster of “Robinsons” and their place in the digital society seem promising.