Digitization of empathy: vital subsumption and digitization of the person

From Firenze University Press Journal: Media Education

Vincenzo Auriemma, Università degli Studi di Salerno

The introduction of technologies capable of making radical changes in the world affects every aspect of living, so says a 2018 article by Pisanu. In fact, in agreement with the author, it should be emphasized that innovation has important impacts not only in the scientific sphere, or in the application of new technologies, but also on society itself, which is faced with increasing challenges. In this scenario, it is not enough for govern-ments to identify the right way to manage change related to technological advancement and the delicate relationships between innovation, business, and society, with a view to adapting to change; it is necessary for society to learn the appropriate knowledge to be able to use these tools and to be able to fit into this new scenario (Pisanu, 2018).

One of the analyses of the situation is contained in the Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook of the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which focuses precisely on adaptation to technological and social upheavals. What emerges from reading the document is a picture characterized by complexity and uncertainty among stakeholders (OECD, 2021). The report simply focuses on the policy changes needed to respond to the “disruptions”, as they are called in the text, taking place in the social, technological, economic and environmental spheres, offering only one of the possible readings.

Therefore, in this paper, an attempt will be made to highlight the social role of these new technologies, emphasizing how digital social work is as necessary as it is delicate. So, a process of digitization, defined in accordance with Lopez & Marcuello-Servos as «the set of relationships, structures and elements involved in the assumption of ICTs in any aspect of life» (López & Marcuello-Servós, 2018, p. 801), that is transforming innovation itself, deconstructing what until now was recognized as a good norm, trivially the caution that some used for network access, and restructuring, in addition to the network itself, scientific practices. How-ever, what is superficially analyzed and what few authors have considered in the analyses addressed to date is the practical change in the relationships, socializations, interactions and reading of emotions that underlie the processes of digitization, i.e., all those that take place because of and through the network. The tendency is to adapt old conceptions arising from a physical interper-sonal relationship to those that occur, today, mediated by a screen (ibidem). It is clear that it is neither useful nor sufficient to implement such a process, as what is lacking are analyses of the mediums used, the manner and intensity of the emotion felt.

Therefore, it leads, on the one hand, to a mitigation of empathy and emotions in general and, on the other hand, to a fetishism of them. Certainly, digitization processes offer new opportunities to involve stakeholders in different stages of the process, and, as is increasingly the case, new job opportunities are generated; but what escapes us is that these new job opportunities, which through distorted uses and behaviors, can create a life subsumption precess that hurts not only work processes, but the individual him-self. Such a process occurs when life becomes labor-pow-er because the brain becomes machine, that is, fixed capital and variable capital at the same time (Molteni & Alì, 2017). So, these attitudes could create a passive use of technologies, becoming the tool at the service of people who fail to critically analyze the mechanisms, generating the vital subsumption that transforms the world-of-life, which Husserl uses to indicate not only a pre-scientific knowledge of the world, but the kind of knowledge that underlies all others and to which we preempt by intuition, into an “other-world”, virtual that overlaps with the real, which lacks critical analysis, insight and, above all, knowledge (Husserl, 1952).

Taking Fea’s words from 2017, in fact, it seems that «the development of technologies that act on the mechanisms of choices and gratifications has the potential to shape our behavior and can foster the unconscious establishment of ‘bad habits,’ that is, habits that have negative consequences and are likely to escape the control of those subject to them» (Fea, 2017, p. 16). This is because, much of human behavior is based on habits, this has an active value for people, making the mental response fast; however, at the same time we are vulnerable to tools that can condition our mechanisms (Ibid.). In fact, technological tools placed on the market are designed and developed to foster their consumption, the same thing happens with social. So, to foster our consumption they need our needs and, more often than not, create new needs. The risk is to become, within a process of subsumption, to be distracted and addicted consumers, not only in the work one does, but also of the emotions one feels within the same work. To explore these aspects in the best way possible, it will be necessary to briefly describe what is meant by social emotions.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/me-13267

Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/med/article/view/13267