The Phenomenon of Digital Culture in the Modern Technological World

Abstract

XXI century has witnessed a transition into a technological dimension, and in every human activity, there is now a digital model being implemented. The substantial change can be observed in culture as well – a new digital culture, completely different from the traditional one, has emerged and views the world from a dual perspective: “live” (real) on the one hand, and technological on the other. Human consciousness is also changing, bringing selfism, virtual identity, narcissism, global relationships, a novel perception of time and space, defiance of authority, all of which make the generational rift increasingly obvious. The digital culture that exists in two dimensions (global and local) is creating a new global technological landscape that is no longer bound by geography and through its networks, influences people in both positive and negative ways. Several new generations have been and are being formed, which differ markedly from the earlier ones and uphold different principles and lead their lives in accordance with different values. In the cultural cyberspace, on platforms brought about by ever-improving technology, people find a variety of ways to actively exchange information (private messages, public comments) and basically live in the virtual world, thereby creating digital culture. The notion of “cultural space” is controversial: on the one hand, it goes against the traditional, defying convention, though the human still physically exists in this environment and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future; on the other hand, the human is trying to create and augment virtual realities that go against what is traditionally accepted. The digital cultural space has three basic criteria: time and space, digital identity, and theform of communication. All three acquires new features in a digital environment. In the modern society, post figurative, co(n)-figurative, and prefigurative cultures exist simultaneously, with the first being focused on the past, the second – on the present, and the last – on the future. Keywords: culture, digital, virtual, information, content, phenomenon, identity, communication, global, local, glocal, transformation, postfigurative, co(n)figurative, prefigurative.