Existential risks and problem of escapism under conditions of e-culture

Liudmila Baeva

Astrakhan State University


Abstrakt

The article is devoted to the study of new existential problems of man in the conditions of electronic culture, forms of alienation from reality, virtual escapism, “being to death” in network communities of suicidal orientation, new forms of transcendence in electronic culture. The human existence under the e-culture conditions causes a shift in its main spheres (communication, creativity, education, leisure, art), forms a range of new problems both in value, ethical and ontological-existential relations. On the basis of the existential-axiological approach, it is shown how the values of the reality and game, life and death shift in the minds of young people in network communities and “death groups” in search of their own individuality and freedom from the society. It is identified that the electronic environment allows to transform communication, change the character of sociality, existence and transcendence of a person in the virtual being. The study results show that today the electronic environment has become not only a stronghold of modern communication and unprecedented integration of the society, but also a ground for deliberate and unconscious escape from the social reality, new manifestations of escapism and giving up the desire to live in the reality.


Słowa kluczowe:

digital (online) culture     e-culture     escapism     escape from reality     hikikomori     death group     risks, values


Ackoff, R. L. (1989), From Data to Wisdom. In: Journal of Applies Systems Analysis. 16(4), 3-9.

Baarda, R./Rocci, L. (2012), The Use and Abuse of Digital Democracy. In: International Journal of Technoethics. 3, 50-69.

Baeva, L. (2018), Escapism in digital society: from hikikomori to “death groups”. In: Values and meanings. 2, 39-54 [in Russian].

Baudrillard, J. (1994), Simulacra and Simulation. Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor.

Brey, P. (1999), The Ethics of Representation and Action in Virtual Reality. In: Ethics and Information technology. 1(1), 5-14.

Capurro, R. (2006), Towards an Ontological Foundation of Information Ethics. In: Ethics and Information Technology. 8(4), 175-186. Retrieved from http://www.capurro.de/oxford.html.

Castells, M. (1997), The End of the Millennium, the Information Age: Economy. Cambridge.

Castronova, E. (2008), Synthetic Worlds. Chicago.

Chang, C. L. (2011), The Effect of an Information Ethics Course on the Information Ethics Values of Students – A Chinese guanxi culture perspective. In: Computers in Human Behavior. 27, 2028-2038.

Cockton, G. (2004), From quality in Use to Value in the World. In: Proceedings of the CHI’04 Extended Abstracts on Human factors in Computing Systems (CHI’04). New York, 1287-1290.

Duff, A. (2008), The Normative Crisis of the Information Society. In: Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace. 2(1). Retrieved December 2017, from http://cyberpsychology.eu/view.php?cisloclanku=2008051201&article=3.

Gabbay, D./Thagard, P./Woods, J. (2008), Philosophy of Information. Hardbound.

Gareth, D. (2017), Social media ‘teen death groups’ encouraging suicides sweep across Russia prompting 57 percent increase in youngsters taking their own lives. 07.04.2017. Retrieved February 2018, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4374978/Social-media-death-groups-prompts-57-rise-suicides.html#ixzz57Rb7E69z.

Giddens, A. (1990), The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge.

Gilbert, R. L./Murphy, N. A./Ávalos, C. M. (2011), Communication Patterns and Satisfaction Levels in Three-Dimensional Versus Real-Life Intimate Relationships. In: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 14(10), 585-589.

Haddon, L. (2004), Information and Communication Technologies in Everyday Life: A Concise Introduction and Research Guide. Oxford.

Hemingway, C. J./Gough, T. G. (2000), The Value of Information Systems Teaching and Research in the Knowledge Society. In: Informing Science. 4(3), 167-184.

Ishikawa, R. (2006), Confusion of the Concepts of Hikikomori and NEETs: Seen from the Perspective of People Who Regard Themselves as Hikikomori. In: The Journal of Educational Sociology. 79, 25-46.

Okorokovа, V. (2018), Escapism of virtual reality as its personal feature. In: ScienceRise. 8(8), 58-60.

Kallenberg, B. J. (2001), Ethics and Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject. Notre Dame.

Kosnik, A. (2016), Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom. Cambridge.

Kuss, D. J./Griffiths, M. D./Karila, L. et al. (2014), Internet addiction: a systematic review of epidemiological research for the last decade. In: Current Pharmaceutical Design. 20, 4026-4052.

Marshall, J. P. (2012), Culture, Disorder, and Death in an Online World. Virtual community participation and motivation: Cross-Disciplinary Theories. In: Honglei, L. (ed.), Virtual Community Participation and Motivation: Cross-Disciplinary Theories. Hershey, 330-346.

Miller, V. (2013), Understanding digital culture. London.

Ott, M./Pozzi, F. (2011), Towards a New Era for Cultural Heritage Education: Discussing the Role of ICT. In: Computers in Human Behavior. 27, 1365-1371.

Raban, D. R. (2009), Self-Presentation and the Value of Information in Q&A Websites. In: Journal of the American society for information science and technology. 60(12), 2465-2473.

Rogerson, S. (1998), Social Values in the Information Society. FTI Annual Report 1998. In: Forum of Information Technology, Milan, Italy. Retrieved January 2018, from http://dehn.slu.edu/courses/fall06/493/rogerson.pdf.

Ronchi, A. M. (2009), E-Culture. New York.

Schwartz, S. H./Bilsky, W. (1987), Toward a Psychological Structure of Human Values. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53, 550-562.

Turner, R./Eden, A. H. (2008), The Philosophy of Computer Science. In: Journal of Applied Logic. 6, 459 626.

Veltman, K. H. (2004), Towards a Semantic Web for Culture. In: Journal of Digital Information. 4(4), article No. 255.

Verplanken, B./Holland, R. W. (2002), Motivated Decision Making: Effects of Activation and Self-Centrality of Values on Choices and Behavior. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 82(3), 434-447.

Zhou, L./Ding, L./Finin, T. (2011), How is the Semantic Web evolving? A Dynamic Social Network Perspective. In: Computers in Human Behavior. 27, 1294-1302.

Opublikowane
30.06.2020

Cited By /
Share

Baeva, L. (2020). Existential risks and problem of escapism under conditions of e-culture. Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski, 11(1), 299–313. https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.5991

Liudmila Baeva 
Astrakhan State University