Communication and Information Environment: Dangers of the Basic Digitalization Processes

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the main processes of digitalization. The authors proceed from the fact that the defining, main process of digitalization is the process of creating digital platforms as sociotechnical systems that organize algorithmic relationships between actors in a certain field of activity. This process is accompanied by the derivative processes of networking, datating and algorithmization. During the period of quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, these platforms actually began to implement all human activities: work, study, everyday communication. The existence of such dangers of the functioning of digital platforms is confirmed by the results of our sociological study “Digital Network Space of the Russian Society” (Internet survey combined with a field survey, December 2021): personalization of information, advertising of goods and services (70 %); obsessive recommendations to add to the list of contacts (“friends”, “favorites”) (69 %) and immersion in the information capsule of digital platforms (52 %). Simultaneously with the development of the information and communication environment, the process of generation and accumulation of data took place. Based on the analysis, supported by the results of a mass sociological survey, the authors come to the conclusion that there are manifestations of dangers for the main processes of digitalization.