Homo Digitalis in a Convergent Network Communication Space

Abstract

Today, the “revolutionary” transformations caused by the digitalization of society, are actively manifesting themselves in everyday life and thus are already productively involved in the dynamic reformatting of our identity. This undeniable fact prompts to include in the sphere of scientific interests various researches in order to make attempts to describe possible horizons of inevitable change of behavior of “human speaker” (homo loquens) as “human social” (homo socialis) and at the same time as “the digital person” (homo digitalis) with its fluid identity in this constantly changing and expanding “world” of learning digital format or “digital knowledge”. Moreover, the scale and scope of modern changes in society, related to the pace of development and the intensive spread of paradigmatic format of digital technologies among the members of society, causes not only great interest to the predicted results of technological changes, but also gives rise, at the same time, to just anxiety about the coming changes in various spheres of society. The presence in the society of supporters and skeptics, at the same time with impatience and apprehension waiting for the future of information and technological transformations in the social life of individuals, is a normal and predictable phenomenon, because such transformations and changes are inherent in almost any period of the beginning of the intensive introduction of new technologies into various spheres of society. In the circumstances suggested, it is possible that there are situations in which the process of “digitized” societal change will not only affect the speed and manner of implementation «total digitalization in the life activity of society, but also the problems of the paradigm change of communication and interaction with each other and society. This inevitably raises questions about expanding the basis for identifying, or more precisely “digital” identification of participants in convergent and combined communication. In these circumstances, it does not seem a coincidence that optimists and skeptics agree in their assessments and forecasts that as a result of the active digital impact “super-functional personalities” will appear — “digital people” or “digital people”. “Supermanofunctional personalities” are people who can easily deal with several tasks simultaneously. It is quite obvious that the effective interaction of the ordinary “man speaking” (homo loquens) with such actors-interlocutors or interactants will inevitably cause a change in his usual communicative behavior — from the natural, ordinary, physiological to the format of scenario-daily communicative behavior and, accordingly, adjust to these changes their identity to adapt to the new convergent — combined reality.