Introduction The subject of this thesis primarily revolves around the "provocative" concept of contemporaneity, defined as an "invisible age," before attempting to focus the analysis on the necessary rediscovery of the human, particularly through the retrieval of a social emotion that represents one of its peculiar traits: shame. The phenomenon of invisibility related to the contemporary age represents the culmination of a progressive advancement of the digital dimension, which, through an increasingly massive use of devices, tends to make certain fundamental aspects of the human increasingly opaque. These aspects relate to identity, relationality, as well as specific human faculties such as memory and intelligence. The paper thus starts with study premises seeking to define the characteristics of a reality perception never before experienced by humans, traits that can serve as "evidence of the existence" of an age referred to as "invisible." It can be framed as the age of "non-things" (Han, 2022, p.4), where information has replaced the things of the world in its digital rewriting. Information stands in front of things, making them fade, "opaque." The reality of the world tends to empty and disembodied, reducing itself to a set of "spectral information" resulting from a "derealization" operated by digitization (Han, 2022). The contemporary age is also attributable to the domain of the "infosphere" (Floridi, 2017, p.44), an informational environment in which humans are conceptualized as informational organisms, "inforgs," sharing information with other natural and artificial informational agents who process information autonomously (Floridi, 2017). This is because sophisticated digital devices have made the difference between online and offline life invisible. Hence, it is referred to as "onlife" (Floridi, 2017, p. 84) where humans, as inforgs, seamlessly alternate their connections between two different spaces: the everyday real and the online network accessed through digital devices (Floridi, cited in Pasqualetti, 2021). The contemporary age is thus invisible because it is dominated by an invisible essence: information. With its "spectral" and pervasive essence, it influences behaviors and changes in humans, making certain distinctive traits, including identity and relationships with others, less defined. Identity tends to dissolve into a multitude of identifications that accentuate the narcissistic component of the individual. These identifications are facilitated by a process of "acceleration and alienation" (Rosa, 2015). This process is due to the fact that the digital reality possesses traits of a speed of exposure of its content not always manageable by humans in a balanced way. Consequently, individuals may find themselves trapped within the devices they created, which risk slipping out of their control. The dimension of relationships suffers as the dialogical element is compromised. The problem of the crisis of dialogue is expressed through the consideration of the Other not as a "Thou" but as an "It" (Kaplan, 2021, p.50). Consequently, the Other is dehumanized, and the same dehumanizing approach reflects on the Self, incapable of grasping its own humanity and that of the Other in an environment dominated by the urgency to communicate (Martini, 1993). In practice, the adoption of a technological mentality contributes to the reduction of the Other to a consumable informational object. One of the characteristics of a whirlwind and frenetic communication is "projective identification" (Turkle, 2019, p. 288), a defense mechanism that highlights the projection of one's frustration onto the Other, leading to a loss of meaningful communication in favor of a discursive competition that, in an onlife dimension, has repercussions in real life. Throughout the work, the importance of learning from the experience related to the new anthropological horizon, a result of this unprecedented onlife dimension, has been emphasized. The hermeneutic horizon of what has been defined as the invisible age reveals a new truth/reality: the end of the humanized world as it had been perceived up to that moment. The study initially focused on the Johannine text, and subsequently, the analysis shifted to possible interpretations of the same in a socio-informatic key. The digital apocalypse was then treated as a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one; it was considered as a destined path revealing the death of the old man, making room for a new humanity. At the same time, this "catastrophe" can be a teaching moment to correct the humanistic path. Indeed, the revelation of this anthropological disorientation has a salvation project if read as a didactic key. However, with the absence of reference points for humans in an age where it no longer makes sense to question their destiny, being distracted or captivated by a present sweetened by digital devices, everything becomes simultaneously true and false, and "in a deadly symbiotic embrace, the world dissolves into its digital selfrepresentation" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). The gradual advent of an age defined as "invisible" thus makes certain characteristics of the human regarding its identity project, relational base, sense of community, and bond founded on a dialogue that should preserve individualities and differences while enhancing points of contact, opaque. Moreover, this age may also hide the risk of a probable catastrophe if humans allow themselves to be swallowed by a form of digital-based atomized individualism. The recovery of the human has therefore been the subject of study and analysis based on the following assumption: the Self can make its identity project visible only through the social bond with the Other. This bond can be safeguarded if a social emotion that, understood as a "sense of limit," often set aside in the onlife dimension, is reintroduced: shame. Among all social emotions, shame is the most "social," and its absence highlights the detachment between individuality and social connection (Turnaturi, 2012). When the Internet displays strong individualism and significant social fragmentation, there is a presence of an uncohesive society, likely due to a precarious sense of shame. Shame, as a social emotion, can become a civic passion generating indignation; it is capable of reweaving social ties as an emotion connected to self-love and dignity, through the manifestation of one's individuality and subjectivity never separated from being with the Other (Turnaturi, 2012). In the course of the work, shame has also been considered as a "rebellion hypothesis" referring to the thoughts of Camus (2017). For the Algerian author, rebellion is to be understood as a harmonious and solidary dimension within which man "transcends in the Other" (p. 21). The phenomenon of the desirable rebellion concerning the recovery of the human has therefore been analyzed and dissected into ten possible hypotheses of "human resistance." The objects of these revolts have been identified in "digital" environmentalism (Floridi, 2017, p. 254), in the sense of responsibility, in opposition to automation, in "positive decentralization," in considering risks, in humanity's politics, in the centrality of care, in safeguarding the imaginary, in promoting reading, and in enhancing the artistic and cultural dimension. Objectives and Research Questions The ultimate goals of this work involve proposing a discussion about a possible state of "invisibility," both in terms of identity and relationships, in which contemporary reality finds itself. This discussion aims to provoke the rediscovery of certain typical human traits related to the rational and imaginative dimension, which seem to have been obscured within the digital realm. Therefore, the objectives of the work are as follows: 1. Pay particular attention to contemporary reality, highlighting how identity, dialogue, and a sense of community are subject to partial compromise, along with human faculties such as memory and intelligence, due to an often unconscious and irresponsible use of new digital technologies. 2. Emphasize how the vision of a "digital apocalypse" reveals the possibility of awareness, relative to an inherent didactic premise in this change of humanistic coordinates. 3. Raise the question of the desirable recovery of the social emotion of shame. Considered as a "sense of limit," shame can respond to forms of social atomism by fostering consideration of the Other, whose connection is crucial to completeness of the Self. 4. Propose hypotheses of "revolt" as possible alternatives to contemporary scenarios dominated by forms of economic, political, and social deregulation. In this sense, the term "revolt" aims to achieve harmonious unity among social stakeholders. This stability can be pursued through a "will to creation" intimately connected to the concept of revolt. However, this will does not seek to rebuild the current scenario by starting from its destruction, as in the concept of revolution. Instead, it aims at dialogue between parties to find points of agreement, intending to operate a construction process starting from existing complexity (Camus, 2017). Therefore, the ten hypotheses of revolt that conclude the work aim to highlight how it is possible, if not urgent, to address issues such as digital environmentalism, responsibility, automation opposition, positive decentralization, risk consideration, politics of humanity, centrality of care, safeguarding the imaginary, promotion of reading, and the essentiality of the artistic and cultural dimension. As a result, the research questions of the thesis are as follows: 1. How can the contemporary age be defined today, and how can attention be focused on humans, given the increasingly massive presence and use of current digital technologies influencing the new social imaginary? 2. What is meant by the invisible age, and what are the proofs of its existence? Additionally, what aspects of the human are considered invisible or at risk of invisibility? 3. Why is the existence of this age connected to a form of "digital revelation" capable of serving as a warning to make the use of digital devices and the immersive experience in cyberspace more conscious? 4. How is it possible to recover those human traits that the unscrupulous use of new digital technologies has made less visible, deserving special attention? Specifically, the question arises as to whether the recovery of the trait represented by shame, in its sense of "limit," can favor the resumption of the human identity project, given the compromise of identity in favor of the emergence of various identifications. These identifications, in addition to fragmenting the individual, may lead them to believe that they can operate in an atmosphere of deresponsibilization that cyberspace tends to stage. 5. Is the concept of limit, applied to the production not only of new devices in a trans and post-human perspective, a matter of vital importance for the preservation of the human? Therefore, how should one approach the next frontiers of economic and socio-informatic progress in terms of "digital environmentalism" (Floridi, 2017, p. 254). This perspective has been related to a series of hypotheses, aimed at strengthening the objective expressed in the previous question: that is to say aimed at understanding how some human traits considered at risk of disappearance can be made visible. Thus, it is questioned whether the loss of aspects such as identity, dialogue/relationality, and a sense of community can be rediscovered not only through the proper use of shame but also through the safeguarding of one's imaginative dimension, capable of countering the obsession with production and crisis of creation (Camus, 2017). Finally, it is questioned whether this caring attitude can be nested in the artistic and cultural dimension and whether it can restore a sense of humanity, also through the rediscovery of the sacred dimension, to make the relationship complete, i.e., the existence of the Self in communion with the Other. Regarding the structure of the thesis, it starts with the analysis of the phenomenon related to the invisible traits of humans in their onlife dimension (Floridi, 2017, p. 84), understood as an "invisible" alternation between connections experienced in everyday reality and the digital experience. This analysis is based on the consideration that, at the origins of this unprecedented existential condition, there is the creation of a communicative/interactive space. This space is the result of a need rooted in the birth of the Internet, whose beginnings date back to 1958 with the creation of the ARPA (Advance Research Project Agency) by the United States, an agency dedicated to the exploration of new military defense technologies (Detti & Lauricella, 2013). Therefore, the study also included a historical overview that determined the gradual formation of cyberspace. Its appearance follows an inevitable evolutionary and cultural process that has shifted human attention to a different market value, represented by computer data. The contemporary age of "Dataism" (Benanti, 2020, p. 90) is thus based on an "economy of attention" (Eyal, cited in Coin, 2019, p. 258). The direction of the latter allows the flow of collected data to determine a market for new behaviors, facilitated by a form of "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529) with major information technology companies at its peak. Through the production of devices, management of social networks, e-commerce, and browsers, these companies effectively manage the economic resource represented by behaviors as a commodity to be traded, just as was done with other goods such as land, labor, and money starting from the 1800s (Zuboff, 2019). Thus, if phenomena such as urbanism and industrial revolutions have caused epochal changes in terms of economic management, politics, and social relationships, the same can be said of the creation of a communicative network that serves as an imaginary bridge between what humans were "before" and what they have become "after." The birth and development of the Internet they represent an epochal and inevitable turning point in the anthropological journey. Internet and its "products," particularly the Web and Social Networks, nonetheless constitute a great resource capable of improving and strengthening the human experience. Thus, the thought of Cardinal Martini has been revisited, suggesting that one can relate to media-filtered communication akin to the hemorrhaging woman mentioned in the Gospels who ardently seeks to detach herself from the objectivity of the formless mass surrounding Jesus (Martini, 1993). To recover herself and heal, she endeavors to overcome every obstacle to touch the salvific mantle of Christ. Therefore, the media can represent a similar form of salvation for one's identity, taking care of your “informational environment”, and a wonderful tool for solidarity if one chooses to be active and dialogical receptors (Martini, 1993), avoiding being engulfed within an objectified and inexpressive mass due to a pernicious and often unconscious use of digital devices. These devices symbolize a "Promethean gap" (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129), a concept drawn from Günther Anders' insights. According to the German philosopher, the hubris of contemporary homo faber has exacerbated, in relation to technological progress, the "doing and knowing," forgetting the "predicting and feeling" (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129). The perilous relationship between humans and the use of new digital technologies has thus been analyzed through the risk represented by the surrender of one's self to the machine, not only from the perspective of its identity component but also concerning the autonomous management of neural faculties. The research also focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence, specifically in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), such as home automation systems. The IoT aims to facilitate human actions, leading to a process of substitution where devices take over many household operations. Consequently, the domestic environment is populated by "infoms" (Han, 2022, p. 8), things normally found at home that, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, transform into agents processing information, accustoming the individual to being assisted or replaced in many of his functions. This intelligence undeniably has great potential. When used ethically (like the aforementioned "mantle of Jesus"), it can undoubtedly contribute to simplifying the general life of human beings. However, it should be noted that its continuous "Promethean" experimentation results, more than the humanization of the machine, in the "mechanization of the mind" (Dupuy, 2014, p.11). This is because Artificial Intelligence will hardly replicate the unique anthropological trait represented by consciousness. In this sense, one can refer to the attempt to reduce the sense of responsibility to code: since Artificial Intelligence is "blind to events" (Han, 2022, p. 55), it learns from the past, but the future it calculates is a choice between the two pre-established options represented by the binary code, namely 1 and 0 (Han, 2022). Therefore, it is man who approaches the machine through his not always responsible use. A specific object of study has been the relationship between digital reality and the various ways in which humans use memory and intelligence. The difference between episodic and semantic memory (de Kerckhove, cited in Faletra, 2020) has been analyzed. Episodic memory is based on the iconic aspect of information flows. It essentially works by overlapping or combining visual stimuli, subordinating the sequential and logical component to it. For episodic memory, what matters is the "sensory experience" (de Kerckhove, cited in Faletra, 2020, p. 108) of facts and information. Semantic memory goes further, associating experiences with meanings, concretely generating symbols. This memory takes time, which episodic memory does not enjoy, to interpret the experience, extracting meaning and leaving a trace, a symbol, on which to reflect later (Faletra, 2020). Episodic memory does not truly question the experience; it assimilates it, believing it to be objective, and, by making it its own in a superb manner, can elevate it to a cognitive totem. In contrast, semantic memory has an "in itself scientific" nature, capable of continually refuting its subjective interpretation with great humility. The process of mechanizing the mind can also be favored by the use of a different type of intelligence by humans. It is possible to distinguish between "simultaneous and sequential intelligence" (Simone, cited in Galimberti, 2020, p. 118), in the manner of the already mentioned difference between episodic and semantic memory. Simultaneous intelligence is disorderly and incapable of establishing a hierarchy between pieces of information because it treats them all the same way. When an image is presented, especially for the first time, this is the type of intelligence that activates; it is elementary and less demanding. On the contrary, sequential intelligence uses a rigid analytical procedure to understand the codes of a line of text and requires greater effort (Simone, cited in Galimberti, 2020). Given the contemporary reality characterized by the cult of the image, the use of sequential intelligence is becoming increasingly unnecessary, in favor of a dominance of simultaneous intelligence. This, along with episodic memory, portrays contemporary man as an being who has altered his way of thinking after the (mis)use of devices led him to experience "digital immersiveness." Before the onlife dimension, thinking was founded on analytical, structured, and sequential bases. It has subsequently transformed into a mode of thinking that is generic, vague, global, and holistic (Galimberti, 2020), capable of generating, among various consequences, an atmosphere dominated by "logical conformism" (Durkheim, cited in Maffesoli, 2020, p. 155). In practice, the rapid sharing of images, consumed without leaving a trace and without asking too many questions, can contribute to generating a form of conformism. Once the effort associated with valuing past experiences and the necessary commitment to forming structured thoughts is set aside, this conformism leads the individual to look, think, and exist by dissolving into the aforementioned objectified mass. Throughout the work, it has been emphasized how important it is to treasure the experience linked to the new anthropological horizon, the result of the unprecedented onlife dimension. The hermeneutical horizon of what has been defined as the invisible age reveals a new truth/reality: the end of the humanized world as it had been perceived until that moment. In other words, the end of the world revealed by a "digital" apocalypse capable of laying bare a change in humanistic coordinates. Regarding this theme, the initial focus of the study was the Johannine text; subsequently, the analysis shifted to possible interpretations of the same text from a socio-informatic perspective. To make this comparison, the importance of the imaginary as a narrative element and producer of reality was considered, thanks to its configuration as a "dynamic relational interaction of symbols" (Bovalino, 2018, p. 25). The apocalyptic message, unlike the prophetic one based on the word, often appears in the form of visions. Vision is thus a first element that creates a bridge between apocalyptic writing and the imaginary, especially if the latter is digital and dominated by "conversational images" (Codeluppi, 2018, p. 64). Another connecting element is represented by the extensive use of symbols. Indeed, since the imaginary is the place where symbols interact dynamically, apocalyptic writing can be fully defined as writing of the imaginary. The decisive symbols in apocalyptic interpretation are the figures, comparable to the numerical codes that are famously at the foundation of the digital network. Considering the ancient Jewish technique of gematria, each word can correspond to a number, as each letter of the alphabet has a numerical correspondence (Bianchi, 2012). Therefore, circulating visions in the form of photos and images, connected to symbols resulting from line-by-line code writing, allow considering cyberspace as a novel anthropological scenario. The apocalyptic symbolism is characterized by the prevalence of time over space; transience prevails over permanence (Stefani, 2008). Social networks, in particular, precisely because they are founded on time and its continuous "presentification," relegate physical and mental space (the latter represented by opinions and points of view) to an appendage of time. Space is reduced to a "frame" in which to insert continuous changes resulting from perennial expectations of impossible realizations, as if social networks, in addition to serving as existential fillers, could also provide comforting answers akin to sacred scripture. These "eager expectations," which in the Apocalypse look with confidence toward a destiny in full communion with God, therefore generate mental spaces configured in opinions and viewpoints circulating on the Internet. These spaces, precisely because they belong to cyberspace, are in continuous mutation and leave the user at the mercy of a perpetually transient suspended time. The digital apocalypse has thus been treated as a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one; it has been considered as a destiny-revealing path, indicating the death of the old man giving way to a new humanity. At the same time, this "catastrophe" can be a lesson to rectify the humanistic path; indeed, the revelation of this anthropological disorientation carries within it a salvation project if this revelation is read as didactic. In an age where it makes less sense to ask questions about one's destiny and reference points are scarce, humans experience a sense of disorientation, connected to their distraction or abduction by a present sweetened by digital devices. Everything thus becomes simultaneously true and false, and, "in a deadly symbiotic embrace, the world dissolves into its digital self-representation" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). If the Johannine Apocalypse describes the relationship between the world, man, and God through the event of Christ (Bianchi, 2012), the digital apocalypse describes the relationship between the world, man, and his future through the event represented by the birth of the Internet. The socio-informatic interpretation of the Johannine text specifically considers the symbolism related to the seven churches (in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse) and the first set of visions (between the thirteenth and fifteenth chapters). Regarding the churches, it has been highlighted how the message addressed to the churches of Pergamum, Sardis, and Laodicea is highly relevant. The issue of the church of Pergamum concerns the compromise of Christian faith undermined by paganism. If the digital apocalypse is a kind of re-creation, then it must be up to humans to decide whether the worship of devices should take the place of God or, secularly, if devices should take possession of the rational and imaginary sphere of human beings. The fideistic flexion related to the church of Sardis can instead be correlated with the destiny-revealing manifestation of a man's bewilderment in the mazes of digital chaos. If the weakening of faith is indeed a "physiological" passage that touches humans, the loss of the humanistic narrative can represent a necessary stage for its recovery in the face of an "invisible" age. Regarding the church of Laodicea, John denounces its Promethean hubris, which has made it a community that believes it can be self-sufficient and decide its own destiny. The narrative of this admonition seems to recall the arrogance of humans who believe they can be masters of their Being and Nature through the digital recoding of the world. The analysis of the first set of visions has allowed to reflect on the symbolism expressed by the account of the first beast, a monstrous being with seven heads and ten horns. It represents totalitarian power, which can be seductive through numerous forms. It is therefore capable of generating forms of barbarism that, in the apocalyptic vision of the digital dimension, can be framed in the degeneration of the web, increasingly negatively globalized culturally and victim to totalitarian impulses capable of favoring the "decline of the wise" (Bovalino, 2018, p. 70). The second beast, resembling a lamb with two horns and the voice of a dragon, represents the force of ideological propaganda aimed at worshiping the first beast. In this sense, the Internet has risen to a divine level, through its ability to direct behaviors and, in general, the lives of individuals. The web, when it degenerates, represents a new Babel whose etymology is: "city of idols" (Bianchi, 2012, p. 159). The new digital Babylon has, in fact, the propensity to worship new idols capable of ensnaring the masses, becoming models and even replacing men of science. Among the most widespread idolatries is the exaltation of a pseudo-ideological form that has obtained its consecration on the web: populism, definable as the "shadow of democracy" (Canovan, 1993, p. 44). According to Maffesoli (2009), "in times of change, it is necessary to seek and find the right words, or at least the least false ones" (p. 19). Therefore, during the transition of digital revelation, a necessity could be represented, more than the search for truths, by the unmasking of falsehoods, according to the principle of the conservation of the human species intimately linked to a fundamental aspect: balance, urging a "open-armed" lifestyle (Maier, 2018, p. 69). The advent of the invisible age makes some characteristics typical of the human regarding its identity project, relational/community component, the compromise of some of its faculties, and the bond based on a dialogue capable of preserving differences, opaque. The recovery of the human has therefore been the object of study and analysis, starting from the assumption that the Self can make its identity project visible through the social bond with the Other. This bond can be safeguarded if a social emotion is put back into circulation, understood as a "sense of limit," often set aside in the onlife dimension: shame. Of all social emotions, shame is precisely the most "social." Its absence highlights the detachment between individuality and social bond (Turnaturi, 2012). When the Internet shows strong individualism and great social fragmentation, there is indeed a society that is not very cohesive, probably due to a precarious sense of shame. It can become a civil passion, transforming into indignation. Shame thus has the ability to reconnect social bonds as an emotion connected to the love of Self and one's dignity, through the manifestation of one's individuality and subjectivity never separated from being with the Other (Turnaturi, 2012). The low cohesion of the socio-relational context, a result of individualism and social fragmentation, has been analyzed following the reflections of Charles Taylor (cited in Turnaturi, 2012). The philosopher illustrates how contemporaneity is characterized by confusion between asserting one's authenticity and self-realization. Genuine authenticity finds its path of affirmation through values such as coherence and through the act of sharing the Self always in relation to the Other. However, this idea of authenticity has lost its relational references to become a search for a self-centered and narcissistic Self (Taylor, cited in Turnaturi, 2012), united with the desire to fulfill every desire or impulse. Regarding the traits of self-realization, they indicate a lack of planning replaced by thinking of oneself as an "Ikea individual" (Turnaturi, 2012, p. 22), disassemblable and reassemblable according to pleasure and opportunity. This view of self-realization becomes a late-modern myth and coincides with authenticity, shifting the focus from the "design" of the Self to the "composition" of the Self, without considering limits or authoritative institutions that could hinder the enjoyment of one's narcissistic urgencies. This elusive point of arrival cannot tolerate the obstacle of shame, identified precisely in the limits, institutional figures, or betrayals of the Self (Turnaturi, 2012). Consequently, the Other risks being perceived not as a whole person but as a "piece" needed at that moment. The psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut speaks in this regard of "Self-Objects" (Kohut, cited in Turkle, p. 19). This perceptual mode, typical of a frequent relational distortion in cyberspace, effectively considers the Other as a spare part, useful for the momentary composition of the Self. It is, therefore, a fictitious relational sense that conceals the satisfaction of a narcissistic experience (Turkle, 2019). The psychoanalytic tradition speaks of narcissism not specifically to indicate someone who loves themselves but refers to someone who needs constant support. Therefore, the narcissist can only relate to ad hoc representations of others, and in this sense, the network definitely represents a comfort zone. These representations, the aforementioned "Self-Objects" that other psychoanalysts also define as "partial objects," are therefore all that the narcissistic (and fragile) Self can manage (Turkle, 2019). Online life provides an environment where it is easier to relate to these partial objects, which, however, are not the person in their entirety, thereby risking the relationships that should promote social cohesion (Turkle, 2019). Shame, therefore, being the emotion that presupposes the "common" (i.e., being with), is hidden in the era of "atomized individualism imposed on the community" (Recalcati, 2012, p. 23). In a culture that has transferred liberalism from the economic sphere to the political and finally the social sphere, there is no space for the sense of limit, therefore for shame. Individual entities, capable of effectively promoting the exaltation of self-realization mixed with the defense of their authenticity, can take root within a community made up of atomized individuals and can favor the rise of anachronistic views of the present and future, as recent sovereignties and discriminatory policies are demonstrating. Contemporary society seems to undergo economic, moral, and emotional deregulation in practice (Turnaturi, 2012). The diminishing importance of the concept of shame that arises is not due to embitterment or anthropological cynicism; it is derived from having lost the notion of the Self as a "part of," replaced by the affirmation of the individual Self, whose sense is perceived as being alone against all (Turnaturi, 2012). In the act of feeling ashamed, a person transcends their value as a person above their mood or impulse because "in feeling ashamed, there is an element of oneself that has been disappointed" (Scheler, 1979, p. 119). Shame also promotes the unveiling and recognition of one's Self with which the individual has the possibility of living an "intimate relationship"; through shame, it is possible to discover an aspect of one's being (Sartre, 2008). Feeling shame, therefore, means experiencing a sense of humanity, being alive and present to oneself and the community. Setting it aside and hiding it is, all in all, convenient. Shame is, indeed, an "uncomfortable" emotion that requires continuous confrontation with oneself and others. It demands that the individual preserves their "difficult humanity." It should be noted that shame keeps individuals human by imposing dependence on others because, in the absence of shame, one disappears into oneself (Sartre, cited in Baldassarro, 2012), becoming "invisible." To overcome this condition of invisibility, the work proposes, in the final part, a series of "revolt hypotheses," the first of which can be considered the recovery of shame. These hypotheses have been defined as "revolt" because they draw inspiration from the thoughts of Camus (2017). In revolt, according to the Algerian philosopher, "man transcends himself in the Other, and, from this point of view, human solidarity is metaphysical" (p. 21). Revolt can contribute to the recovery of the human and is preferred over revolution. The latter is an action aimed at obtaining consent, for love or by force, outside of any moral norm, whose historical claim lies in totality because it presupposes the lack of limit. Revolt, on the other hand, arises from the assertion of this limit, the result of the consideration that man is a "divided" being who cannot be denied in the name of a totality to be conquered. Consequently, revolt knows both the "yes" and the "no" because it has within it the necessity of extending values of limit, dignity, and beauty common to all and everything, moving towards unity without denying origins. Its historical claim, therefore, lies in unity (Camus, 2017). In practice, revolt is based on dialogue, on the consideration of the Other and the different parts that make up reciprocal units. It has a necessarily creative foundation based on the life of the being that already exists. In contrast, revolution, based on the death of being to produce another that will never exist, has a nihilistic foundation. The revolutionary being and its aspiration to totality will never exist because they do not contemplate norms, morals, or metaphysics capable of satisfying the hope continually disappointed in triumphal realization. On the contrary, revolt aims to emphasize that its creative force aims to exalt the being that already exists, albeit with its dark sides, trying to follow the guidance of moral norms and claims (Camus, 2017). Ten possible revolt proposals related to the proper use of technology have been analyzed. These proposals aim to recover humanity, which, even in its "difficult humanity," in the relationship with the Other and with the world, can find its own Self. The first hypothesis is represented by the concept of digital environmentalism. As humans have transformed reality into an "informational" environment, definable as the "infosphere" (Floridi, 2017, p. 44), it may be important to formulate digital environmentalism capable of raising questions about onlife. This involves posing questions regarding the individual and collective role of humans as informational organisms, the inforg (Floridi, 2017), along with a critical analysis of its current sociopolitical narratives. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the emergence of new training and sensitivity capable of understanding that the infosphere is a new common space that needs to be protected for the benefit of all (Floridi, 2017). The second revolt hypothesis concerns the recovery of a sense of responsibility. Following the "radical" thinking of the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, responsibility comes before freedom because the subject is constituted based on the ethical relationship with the other (Lévinas, cited in Pulcini, 2017). Creating a connection with shame, the concept of responsibility relates to the response to one's actions. However, it also invokes the emotional dimension of empathy, or "putting oneself in the shoes of the Other," participating in their emotions and experience. This condition is more necessary than ever, especially within the controversial dimension of social networks and the Internet, considered as the "symbolic space par excellence of unlimited freedom" (Pulcini, 2017, pp. 28-29). The third hypothesis can be framed in the contrast to automation. This automation, in addition to being closely connected to the market and the prediction of behaviors related to the issue of the "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529), is linked to an increasingly alienating view of work. This vision, increasingly oriented towards accumulation rather than need, generates in the individual forms of depression and abandonment, setting aside significant reactions of opposition (Han, 2016). In practice, an individual who has been invited in recent decades to become an entrepreneur of themselves, becoming both master and slave of their own being, may tend to develop the same attitude towards a civilization of information that seduces them through a realization of their Self based on technology. The fourth hypothesis of revolt is represented by the concept of positive decentralization, intimately connected to the resistance against automation. Analyzing Žižek's thought (2016), the "radical ambiguity of electronic supplements" was considered (p. 236). They are indeed capable of improving the lives of users, freeing them from burdens and facilitating many operations; however, users pay a very high price that can be framed in a "radical decentralization." The subject is thus "mediated" by operating systems (Žižek, 2016), placed at the center of the multimedia dimension experienced through their identifications but simultaneously decentralized from their own identity. This "simulated centrality" can be countered not only by a will to reclaim one's identity, trapped between the mechanisms of digital automation but also by a subsequent new surrender of the self, this time in the relationship with the Other. Through the experience of "positive decentralization," the subject can also recover juissance (enjoyment), experienced precisely through the Other. If enjoyment becomes the prerogative of the digital device, the subject is forced to seek it frenetically and continuously. The fifth hypothesis concerns the consideration of risks, particularly those linked to the process of social atomization. The individual has been catapulted into a "global risk society" (Beck, 2001), whose turbulences are faced not within the family nucleus or within a community or social group, as in the past, but alone, enjoying a "risky freedom" imposed by a society that does not allow individuals to make decisions taking into account possible consequences (Beck, 2001). A society that, on the contrary, begins to perceive risks, considering itself a "risk society," allows the foundations of its activity and goals to become objects of scientific disputes and public policies; this society becomes "reflexive" (Beck, 2001, p. 165). The sixth hypothesis of revolt can be framed in the promotion of a "politics of humanity." Politics is not only attributable to the canons of various governments, parliaments, and parties. There is a "politics of subsystems," or a "subpolitics" (Beck, 2001, p. 51) protagonist of a "bottom-up globalization" that can be, for example, identified in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Subpolitics shapes society from below in the form of "direct" politics, capable of overcoming representative opinion-forming institutions (parties, parliaments) and often without enjoying legal protection. Organizations like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, or Terre des Hommes position themselves practically halfway between the state and the market, freeing politics from hostile schemes to mobilization and involvement of all sectors of society (Beck, 2001). The seventh hypothesis is represented by the concept of the centrality of care, a noun that, with its etymology, refers to terms such as "concern and solicitude," indicating the ability to grasp the urgencies and priorities one faces and making them the object of attention. The rediscovery of the human could thus be favored by shifting the value of attention, understood as the pivot of economic-digital neoliberalism, to its consideration as a fundamental prerequisite for the manifestation of care. Transitively, the transition from an economy of attention to an economy of care would lead to the affirmation of values such as responsibility, equality, and sustainability. In practice, the future of humanity. Another approach that the subject can experience in caring for the world can be framed in the term "resonance" (Rosa, cited in Pulcini, 2020, p. 167). The experience of resonating with the world consists of entering into a relationship with someone else but also with something else (such as a book, an idea, or a landscape), emerging from it transformed in unexpected and unpredictable ways. This experience is capable of restoring harmony with oneself and the world, fostering the perception that there can be a perspective of a good life. The concept of resonance contrasts with that of alienation and is an existential and emotional concept rather than cognitive (Rosa, 2015). The eighth hypothesis of revolt pertains to the project aimed at safeguarding the imaginary. It can be considered as the "invisible part of the visible," capable of supporting and giving meaning to it, nourishing it through various levels of meaning that are increasingly profound and, due to their invisible nature, require an effort to discover the map and content (Secondulfo, 2019). To emerge from a state of invisibility, it can be useful to rely on a structurally forged element to give meaning, support, and thus "visibility" to other elements. In practice, the invisibility of the imaginary element can favor the visibility of the human element, confused in an invisible dimension produced by a globalized and globalizing digital imaginary. It might be desirable, therefore, to form a new anthropological imaginary capable not so much of contrasting as of balancing the digital imaginary. The contemporary subject is indeed weakened by the image of the postmodern world, whose fragmentary and uncertain nature does not propose an "elsewhere" to which to imagine projecting oneself. Prospective imagination has been replaced by a type of short-sighted imagination, centered on the elements of the "here and now," considered the only horizons of the possible (Meo, 2019). The ninth hypothesis proposes the rediscovery of the importance of the act of reading, a "fuel" capable of setting the imagination in motion. This act leads to renewing self-awareness; reading, in fact, means reflecting, intelligere, or intus legere: reading inside (Ferrarotti, 2021, p. 19). If humans lose the habit of finding themselves in a metareflexive dimension, reachable also through the act of reading, they risk perceiving stress or discomfort in processing complex thoughts and tend to avoid the necessary confrontation with their own self. In this sense, according to information science expert T.D. Wilson, "the untrained mind does not like to be alone with itself" (quoted in Mauceri & Pastore, 2020, p. 175). Therefore, the mind finds in cybernetic hyperstimulation what it considers a cure for its discomfort, an even more effective balm because it satisfies its needs immediately. The tenth hypothesis of revolt, closing the work, nests in the power of art. Its dimension, in addition to giving voice to emotions and feelings, operates a restructuring of the languages through which humans attempt to represent the world. Thinking, for example, of the words recited or sung by an artist, they have the power to orient behaviors in a discontinuous way compared to the past, representing not only communication tools or emotional expressions but also criteria for social organization (Barcellona, 2013). To take care of one's symbolic imaginary, it is therefore essential to recover the power of speech and, in general, the power of artistic language. The revolt inherent in the artistic dimension is indeed able to exalt the humanity of the time considered as a creative and creating community, capable also of rediscovering the necessary moral norms and claims, crucial for its safeguard. The creative force of artistic production is indeed able to manufacture "substitute universes," within which man can "finally reign and know," and represents a "pure" form of revolt (Camus, 2017, pp. 279-280). Therefore, within the "digital solitude" of the invisible age, it is necessary to revolt because, as Camus (2017) states, "in the experience, absurd, suffering is individual. Starting from the movement of revolt, it has the awareness of being collective, it is the adventure of all" (p. 26). Limitations of the existing literature The limitations of the existing literature related to the studied phenomenon have been identified through bibliometric analysis focused on various keywords. Terms such as identity/identification, community, apocalypse, or those framed in the proposed "revolt hypotheses" showed a literature rich in contributions. However, the term shame, understood as a social emotion, revealed limitations, particularly regarding the positive use of shame to facilitate the recovery of individual identity. To address this, searches were conducted using Scopus and Google Scholar. Scopus showed 94 results related to the term shame (https://www.elsevier.com/search-results?query=shame&page=1), all in English. Expanding the search, the keyword "shame" linked to "identity" (101 pages with 1,237 results) and then to "social emotion" (462 pages with 6,582 sources) revealed a focus on shame predominantly from a clinical perspective, with limited exploration in the sociological sphere. Google Scholar, while displaying only 5 results for the keywords "shame social emotion" (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=it&as_sdt=0,5&q=allintitle:+vergogna+emozione+sociale&oq=vergogna+emo), highlighted through related articles and citations that the theme has significant sociological relevance. Consequently, in addition to contributing to the topic, an effort was made to delve into the perspective of shame, framing it as a "sense of limit," in the socio-digital and economic context. Viewing shame as a guide for continuous self-examination was interpreted as a useful indicator for the Other, along with the surrounding environment, to represent the necessary completion of the individual's identity project. The concept of sustainability, not limited to the ecological dimension, was connected to shame as a "sense of limit." This social emotion could facilitate necessary cooperations for the safeguarding of humanity within the onlife dimension, which is not always easy to manage. Considering the economic paradigm, a connection was made between the sense of limit inherent in shame and the sensitivity to understand that the infosphere is a new common space that needs protection for the benefit of all (Floridi, 2017). Examining the state of the art on the phenomenon under study, a possible strategy to protect and adapt the informational reality was studied in terms of a vision capable of combining environmental policies with digital policies, supporting a policy (and economy) of experience rather than consumption. This approach centers on the quality of relationships and processes rather than on things and their properties, aiming to support the environment and develop a sustainable information society (Floridi, 2020). Methodology The methodology employed involved both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative analysis focused on a comprehensive collection and comparison of information presented as reflections and thoughts in the 159 sources that form the bibliography. Simultaneously, a quantitative approach involved collecting data to support the discussion hypotheses derived from the study of the aforementioned sources. Specifically, data from Censis (2021), the “Seventeenth Report on Communication-Media after the Pandemic”, and an investigation on the risks of dependence on technologies and digital media conducted on a sample of 3,302 high school students in Rome (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020) were utilized. The Censis survey, based on a sample of 1200 individuals representative of the Italian population aged 14-80, allowed for correlations between contemporary age traits dominated by the "informational" universe and various aspects broadening the sociological discussion. These aspects include functional illiteracy, the influence of television, smartphone usage, access to the Internet and its potential dependence, the use of social networks, fake news, filter bubbles, confirmation bias, the phenomenon of gamers and YouTubers, the business of digital devices, the choice of purchasing digital devices based on parameters such as speed and time savings, blind trust in the Internet's ability to provide answers, and the idea that personal and professional gratification can be achieved through the Internet and that popularity on social networks is essential to becoming a celebrity. This information was complemented by data from the aforementioned study on a sample of Roman adolescents, focusing on the risks of dependence on technologies and digital media (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020). It provided data on social network preferences and information regarding potential smartphone and social media dependence. Additionally, the quantitative analysis was enriched with statistical contributions extracted from the 32 web pages that constitute the sitography. This enhanced information collection on web browser and social network usage, billing from tech giants, average time spent online by users, and the responsible use of the network for promoting reading. In terms of "integral" sustainability, connecting sustainable development and digital environmentalism (Floridi, 2017), the research horizon was expanded by incorporating data on socio-economic inequalities. Finally, considering the importance of a responsible political vision for safeguarding humanity, relevant data were integrated for the consideration of this necessary attitude. Results The results obtained from the research project offer a series of crucial reflections for understanding the contemporary anthropological trajectory. Firstly, it was highlighted that the process of humanizing machines is actually secondary to a process, not always conscious, of mechanizing the mind. This automation is induced by obsessive forms of production of various digital devices, characteristic of the "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019). In response to this economic logic, it emerged that the future of humanity must be connected to the recovery of elements such as the sacred, the transcendent, utopia, "useless discourse”, (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125), and the surreal. The sacred, seen as a defense against hypercommunication, can leverage the recovery of silence and attention (Han, 2022). Finding one's "sacred space" (Turkle, 2019, p. 337) means recovering a place to recognize oneself and one's responsibilities, away from the sometimes illusory simulations of the digital network. The sacred as meta-human represents the extreme defense of the "human character of human society, the guarantee of its survival, and insurance against its annihilation" (Ferrarotti, 2021). The transcendent, connected to the sacred, is relevant because reality is dominated by an immanent perception configurable in an "irreligious" feeling (Barcellona, 2013, p. 104). The recovery of the transcendent can shed light on the consideration of ultimate issues such as personal death and the end of human history (Serra, cited in Barcellona, 2013). To address this transformation, the importance of a "serious utopian project" (Floridi, 2020, p. 113) was emphasized to give meaning to living together as a community. The idea of "universal trust" (Floridi, 2020, p. 226) was suggested as a principle in which every human being is born as a beneficiary of the world, becomes its trustee, and finally concludes their journey as a donor of the world (Floridi, 2020). The utopian dimension is closely linked to the imaginative faculty of humans. The concept of imagination allows prefiguring possible alternatives to the present, emphasizing the ability to imagine the future (Arendt, cited in Pulcini, 2020) also in the form of actions aimed at spreading good in society. They always produce good fruits, even if it seems that such actions are not verifiable or capable of changing the world (Papa Francesco, 2015). The utopian project can be promoted through "useless discourse," (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125) using words as a way of being. Humanities are considered as a provocatively useless discourse but open to mystery and based on the irreducibility of the individual. These discourses are therefore capable of questioning the concept of "reduction of society to a functional fact" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 126). Finally, it emerged that humans cannot do without the surreal to avoid being overwhelmed by machinic rationality. The surreal, a constituent of the imaginary, becomes essential to balance rationality. Limiting machinic rationality through human irrationality is considered a form of revolt (Camus, 2017). In conclusion, the sacred, transcendent, utopia, "useless discourse," and surreal are all elements linked to artistic sensitivity, capable of constructing imaginaries that serve as criteria for social organization (Barcellona, 2013). Contributions to existing literature The research work undertaken seeks to provide its modest yet passionate contribution to the diverse field of social studies. The analysis of contemporary phenomenological reality inevitably favored an inter and multi-disciplinary epistemic approach. The work aims to fit into sociological literature investigating the critical aspects of the present time and emphasizing humanistic components. The dialectical nature of sociology allowed for movement across philosophical, theological, psychoanalytic, and economic-political terrains, resulting in a series of synchronic and diachronic analyses and reflections. Utilizing philosophical reasoning, it was possible to draw a parallel between Democritus's atomism and the digital rewriting of the world. The digital coordinates of reality embody the atoms that, for Democritus, constitute the real. The atomists therefore explained reality as an alternation between fullness and emptiness (Abbagnano, 2006). Today, the digital reality's imaginary, for users absorbed in cyberspace, embodies a complex of full atoms capable of generating real behaviors in the small void before new digital atoms emerge, recreating a new component of human reality and discrediting the one produced by the preceding atoms. The human species risks finding itself suspended in the empty space between one digital atom and another; human behaviors and beliefs could be determined by the vortex-like and incessant combination of digital atoms/codes. The digital imaginary, populated by "full" codes/atoms, can thus represent the place of different identifications produced by the void of identities left by individuals. This concept can be linked to Žižek's thought, which suggests that "the process of transformation between multiple identifications presupposes a kind of empty band that makes the leap from one identity to another possible, and this empty band is the subject itself" (p.236). In the theological realm, a sort of "digital apocalypse" was identified. Generally, one of the destined messages of the Johannine Apocalypse reveals that access to a new life can only be achieved by "passing through the narrowness of dying" and demanding "the presence of a catastrophe" (Stefani, 2008, pp. 63-64). Since the digital apocalypse was considered a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one, it can be framed as a destined path revealing the death of the old man, making room for a new humanity. Simultaneously, this "catastrophe" can be a teaching moment to correct the humanistic path; the revelation of this anthropological disorientation has a salvation project if read as an educational key. Looking to the future, not only eschatological, the digital apocalypse can reveal what humanity has decided to make of its species and, therefore, be a lesson for the sake of conscious survival on the planet. The forays into psychoanalysis allowed reflections on the recovery of shame. The investigation into this social emotion not only deepened the issue of awareness of the indispensable "digital identity" but also considered shame as a "sense of limit," involving the economic and political paradigm in this study. Contemporary humans find themselves as actors in a problematic and conflictual reality, dominated essentially by a single great contradiction: the search for what the social context deems attributable to the concept of "well-being," in contrast with the effects that such a search can generate for both the individual and the context. The entire research work is founded on the relationship between humans and the digital universe. In reference to a more specifically sociological analysis, a personal experience was exploited to illustrate the stimuli of hyperconnection from a behaviorist perspective. It was highlighted how patrons at a nightclub hosting a rave party, unable to follow extremely fast music, were prone to inducing an altered state to dance "in time." In achieving this state, they were also accustomed to vehemently throwing themselves against the wall; this dangerous reaction justified the adoption of soft panels on the walls of the venue hosting the rave party. This condition was compared to that of the user unable to manage the hyperstimulation associated with digital immersiveness. Not always capable of keeping up with the rhythms of hyperconnection, the user risks unknowingly finding themselves in an altered state linked to forms of behavior not always lucid; in practice, they can become a blasé individual (Simmel, cited in Mauceri, 2020, p. 25), the result of the intensification of the nervous life of the metropolitan environment, which in the onlife dimension can find its extremization. Lastly, undoubtedly, the proposed "revolt hypotheses" cannot be considered entirely original in their genre. However, as expressed in the concluding part of the work, the solutions to the problems afflicting humanity do not necessarily have to be "invented"; rather, they are well present and rooted in the history of human civilization; the problem lies in the will to make them visible to everyone, to share them. Conclusions The conclusions of the work are tied to an awareness of the compromises between the human's identity and relational project and their ability to govern their "Promethean" instinct, particularly directed towards building new realities on technological and digital bases. From a theoretical perspective, an implication drawn from the analyses pertains to the importance of rediscovering the principle of prevention, often supplanted by that of precaution. Since "precaution is to potential risk as prevention is to known risk" (Dupuy, 2010, p. 54), one might think of a "metaphysics of projective time" (Dupuy, 2010, p. 70), involving projecting into the future and turning back from the future itself to look at the present and anticipate its evaluation in hindsight. The future imaginary should, therefore, be thought of in a sufficiently catastrophic manner to be both repulsive and credible, triggering actions capable of avoiding its realization by prohibiting the incident (Dupuy, 2010). A practical implication resulting from the research work concerns the sphere of education. Educational agencies can be decisive in favoring the recovery and safeguarding of the human. In particular, schools, through Digital Literacy and Digital Education (Cortoni, Casaldi & Pastore, 2020, p. 197), can enhance interest in digital environmentalism, utilizing the already well-established use of devices in classrooms through various media education projects. Digital Literacy and Digital Education, understood as "Digital Literacy and Education," are connected to the study of Communication Sciences. This study can be promoted in a curricular perspective, from primary to secondary education. Digital Literacy, specifically, can be understood as a new form of civic education capable of instilling knowledge related to the communicative universe (Cortoni, et al., 2020). Starting from the basics of media languages and reaching the complex dynamics of the communicative system of the digital era, it is possible, in practice, to discuss digital environmentalism or the surveillance capitalism in school classrooms. Digital Education provides the suitable media tools and methods for the didactic setting of Digital Literacy, enhancing the facilitative use of devices in memorization and learning processes (Cortoni, et al., 2020). In this sense, always within the educational context, promoting the act of reading can be identified as the ability to preserve memory. It feeds on memories, highly emotional elements (the term "ricordo" comes from the Latin "cor-cordis": "heart"), indispensable to not lose sight of one's future and avoid being absorbed into an increasingly "chronophagic" society (Ferrarotti, 2018, p. 89). Schools are, by nature, connected to other educational agencies, represented by the family and society. Theoretically, all proposed "revolt hypotheses" could have practical applications, provided that the political-economic paradigm encourages interconnections between these agencies, emphasizing the centrality of care, a determinant attitude for human survival. Limitations and directions for future research The research project was delimited by a limited number of sources consulted (159 bibliographic and 32 web-based), which naturally limits it, given the complexity of the analyzed phenomenon. Therefore, the drawn reflections are inevitably partial and debatable from all interpretative perspectives, also due to any "risky" approaches associated with the inter and multidisciplinary approach. The work is also based on a foundation characterized by continuous and accelerated mutability: the technological/digital universe. Consequently, what represents the result of the analyses may no longer be valid in the short term. Therefore, possible new lines of research, in addition to being based on a richer resource of sources, may also need to analyze further compromises between humanistic reality mixed with the digital one. It seems challenging to significantly curb the process of mechanization of the mind and behavioral direction, but coexistence with the online dimension could be balanced by research trajectories capable of understanding how to leverage the relational context, making the onlife dimension more balanced and, consequently, more "humanized."
Introduzione L’argomento oggetto del lavoro di tesi inerisce innanzitutto al “provocatorio” concetto di contemporaneità, definita come una sorta di “età invisibile”; successivamente tenta di focalizzare l’analisi sulla necessaria riscoperta dell’umano, in particolare attraverso il recupero di un’emozione sociale che ne rappresenta uno dei suoi tratti peculiari: la vergogna. Il fenomeno dell’invisibilità relativo all’età contemporanea rappresenta il compimento di un progressivo avanzamento della dimensione digitale che, attraverso un uso sempre più massiccio dei dispositivi, tende a rendere sempre più opachi alcuni tratti fondamentali dell’umano. Tratti riferibili sia ad aspetti quali l’identità e la relazionalità, sia in merito a specifiche facoltà umane come la memoria e l’intelligenza. L’elaborato pertanto muove da premesse di studio che cercano di definire i caratteri di una percezione di realtà mai provata dall’essere umano, caratteri che possano fungere da “prove dell’esistenza” di un’età appellabile come “invisibile”. Essa è dunque inquadrabile come età delle “non-cose” (Han, 2022, p.4), ovvero delle informazioni che hanno sostituito le cose del mondo nella sua riscrittura digitale. Esse si posizionano davanti alle cose rendendole sbiadite, “opache”. La realtà del mondo tende dunque a svuotarsi e a disincarnarsi riducendosi a un insieme di “informazioni spettrali” frutto di una “derealizzazione” operata dalla digitalizzazione (Han, 2022). L’età contemporanea è altresì ascrivibile al dominio della “infosfera” (Floridi, 2017, p.44), ovvero un ambiente informazionale all’interno del quale l’uomo è inquadrabile come un organismo informazionale, l’inforg, che condivide informazioni con altri agenti informazionali naturali e artificiali, i quali processano informazioni in modo autonomo (Floridi, 2017). Questo perché i sempre più sofisticati dispositivi digitali hanno reso invisibile la differenza tra vita online e offline. Si parla pertanto di vita onlife (Floridi, 2017, p. 84) per affermare come l’uomo, appunto l’inforg, alterni le sue connessioni passando in maniera invisibile e senza traumi tra due spazi differenti: quello del reale quotidiano e quello della Rete a cui accede attraverso i dispositivi digitali (Floridi, citato in Pasqualetti, 2021). L’età contemporanea è dunque invisibile perché è dominata da un’essenza invisibile: l’informazione. Con la sua essenza “spettrale” e pervasiva determina comportamenti e mutamenti nell’essere umano, il quale comincia a rendere sempre meno definiti alcuni suoi tratti distintivi, tra cui la propria identità e la relazione con i suoi simili. L’identità infatti tende a sciogliersi in una moltitudine di identificazioni, capaci di esaltare la componente narcisista del soggetto. Tali identificazioni sono favorite da un processo di “accelerazione e alienazione” (Rosa, 2015). Tale processo è dovuto al fatto che la realtà digitale ha in sé una velocità di esposizione dei propri contenuti non sempre gestibili in maniera equilibrata dall’essere umano, esso può pertanto trovarsi intrappolato all’interno di quei dispositivi che egli stesso ha creato ma che rischiano di sfuggirgli di mano. A subirne le conseguenze è la dimensione della relazione che soffre la compromissione dell’elemento dialogico. Il problema della crisi del dialogo è esprimibile attraverso la considerazione dell’Altro non come un “Tu” ma come un “Esso” (Kaplan, 2021, p.50). Di conseguenza l’Altro viene disumanizzato e lo stesso approccio disumanizzante va a riflettersi sul Sé, incapace di cogliere la propria umanità e quella dell’Altro, in un ambiente dominato dall’urgenza di comunicare (Martini, 1993). In pratica l’assunzione di una mentalità tecnologica è complice della riduzione dell’Altro a oggetto informazionale consumabile. Uno dei caratteri di tale comunicazione vorticosa e frenetica, è “l’identificazione proiettiva” (Turkle, 2019, p. 288), un meccanismo di difesa che evidenzia la proiezione della propria frustrazione sull’Altro con il quale, assottigliandosi il dialogo, si tende a perdere una comunicazione produttrice di significato a favore di una competizione discorsiva che, in una dimensione onlife, non risparmia ricadute nella vita reale. Nel corso del lavoro è stato rimarcato quanto sia importante fare tesoro dell’esperienza legata al nuovo orizzonte antropologico, frutto di tale inedita dimensione onlife. L’orizzonte ermeneutico di quella che è stata definita età invisibile rivela cioè una nuova verità/realtà: la fine del mondo umanizzato come era stato fino a quel momento percepito. Ovvero: la fine del mondo rivelata da un’apocalisse “digitale” capace di mettere a nudo un cambiamento di coordinate umanistiche. Oggetto di studio è stato innanzitutto il testo giovanneo, successivamente l’analisi è stata spostata su possibili interpretazioni dello stesso in chiave socio-informatica. L’apocalisse digitale è stata dunque trattata come una deviazione antecedente al compimento di quella giovannea, è stata cioè considerata come un percorso destinale rivelante la morte del vecchio uomo che lascia spazio ad una nuova umanità. Al contempo questa “catastrofe” può essere d’insegnamento per raddrizzare il percorso umanistico; infatti la rivelazione di tale disorientamento antropologico ha in sé un progetto di salvezza, se tale rivelazione viene letta in chiave didattica. Il problema è però rappresentato dalla mancanza di punti di riferimento, in un’età nella quale non ha più senso per l’uomo porsi domande sul proprio destino, essendo egli distratto o rapito da un presente edulcorato dai dispositivi digitali. Di conseguenza tutto diventa simultaneamente vero e falso e, “in un mortale abbraccio simbiotico, il mondo si dissolve nella sua autorappresentazione digitale” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). Il progressivo insinuarsi di un’età definita “invisibile”, rende dunque opache alcune caratteristiche tipiche dell’umano relativamente al suo progetto identitario, alla sua base relazionale, al senso di comunità e al legame fondato su un dialogo che dovrebbe esser capace di conservare le individualità e le diversità, esaltando però i punti di contatto. Inoltre tale età può nascondere anche il rischio di una probabile catastrofe, se l’essere umano si lascia inghiottire da una forma di individualismo atomizzato su base digitale. Il recupero dell’umano è stato pertanto oggetto di studio e di analisi partendo dal seguente assunto: il Sé può rendere visibile il proprio progetto identitario solo attraverso il legame sociale con l’Altro. Tale legame può essere tutelato se viene rimessa in circolo un’emozione sociale che, intesa come “senso del limite”, nella dimensione onlife viene spesso accantonata: la vergogna. Essa, fra tutte le emozioni sociali, è proprio quella più “sociale” e, una sua mancanza, evidenzia proprio il distacco tra individualità e legame sociale (Turnaturi, 2012). Quando la Rete mostra un forte individualismo e una grande frammentazione sociale, si è in presenza di una società poco coesa, probabilmente anche a causa di un precario senso della vergogna. Essa da emozione sociale può diventare passione civile generando l’indignazione; la vergogna è infatti capace di riannodare i legami sociali in quanto emozione connessa all’amore di Sé e della propria dignità, attraverso la manifestazione della propria individualità e soggettività mai separata dall’essere con l’Altro (Turnaturi, 2012). Nel corso del lavoro, la vergogna è stata anche considerata come una “ipotesi di rivolta” rifacendosi al pensiero di Camus (2017). Per l’autore algerino, la rivolta va intesa come una dimensione armonica e solidale all’interno della quale l’uomo “trascende nell’Altro” (p. 21). Il fenomeno dell’auspicabile rivolta relativa al recupero dell’umano, è stato pertanto analizzato e sezionato in ulteriori dieci possibili ipotesi di “umana resistenza”. Gli oggetti di tali rivolte sono stati individuati nell’ambientalismo “digitale” (Floridi, 2017, p. 254), nel senso di responsabilità, nel contrasto all’automazione, nel “decentramento positivo”, nella considerazione dei rischi, nella politica dell’umanità, nella centralità della cura, nella salvaguardia dell’immaginario, nella promozione della lettura e nell’esaltazione della dimensione artistica e culturale. Obiettivi e domande di ricerca Le finalità ultime del lavoro ineriscono ad una proposta di discussione in merito ad un possibile stato di “invisibilità”, identitaria e relazionale, nel quale versa la realtà contemporanea. Tale proposta di discussione si pone inoltre come scopo quello di tentare di provocare la riscoperta di alcuni tratti tipici dell’umano, legati alla dimensione razionale e immaginativa, che all’interno della dimensione digitale sembrano essere stati occultati. Pertanto gli obiettivi del lavoro sono i seguenti: 1. Porre una particolare attenzione sulla realtà contemporanea evidenziando come identità, dialogo e senso di comunità siano oggetto di parziale compromissione, al pari di facoltà umane quali la memoria e l’intelligenza, a causa di un uso non sempre consapevole e responsabile delle nuove tecnologie digitali. 2. Evidenziare come la visione di una “apocalisse digitale” riveli però la possibilità di una presa di coscienza, relativamente ad un presupposto didattico insito nel cambiamento delle coordinate umanistiche. 3. Sollevare la questione inerente ad un auspicabile recupero dell’emozione sociale della vergogna. Essa, considerata come senso del limite, può rispondere alle forme di atomismo sociale favorendo la considerazione dell’Altro, il cui legame è determinante per dare compiutezza al Sé. 4. Proporre delle ipotesi di “rivolta”, intese come possibili alternative a scenari contemporanei dominati da forme di deregulation economica, politica e sociale. In tal senso, lo stesso termine “rivolta” si pone come obiettivo il raggiungimento di un’unità armonica tra gli stakeholder sociali. Tale stabilità può essere perseguita attraverso una “volontà di creazione” intimamente connessa al concetto di rivolta. Tale volontà però non mira a rifondare lo scenario vigente partendo dalla sua distruzione, al fine di operare un poderoso cambiamento (strategia propria del concetto di rivoluzione); al contrario tale volontà/rivolta punta al dialogo tra le parti per trovare punti di accordo, intenzionata a volere operare un processo di costruzione già a partire dalla complessità vigente (Camus, 2017). Pertanto, le dieci ipotesi di rivolta che chiudono il lavoro si pongono come obiettivo quello di evidenziare come si possa da subito, se non con urgenza, occuparsi di: ambientalismo digitale, senso di responsabilità, contrasto all’automazione, “decentramento positivo”, considerazione dei rischi, politica dell’umanità, centralità della cura, salvaguardia dell’immaginario, promozione della lettura, essenzialità della dimensione artistica e culturale. Conseguentemente le domande di ricerca della tesi sono le seguenti: 1. Ci si chiede come possa essere oggi definita l’età contemporanea e come possa essere focalizzata l’attenzione sull’uomo, alla luce di una presenza e un uso sempre più massiccio delle attuali tecnologie digitali capaci di influenzare il nuovo immaginario sociale. 2. Ci si domanda cosa si intenda dunque per età invisibile e quali siano le prove della sua esistenza, inoltre quali siano gli aspetti dell’umano considerati invisibili o a rischio invisibilità. 3. Ci si chiede perché l’esistenza di tale età sia connessa con una forma di “rivelazione digitale”, capace di fungere da monito al fine di rendere più consapevole l’utilizzo dei dispositivi digitali e l’esperienza immersiva nel cyberspazio. 4. Ci si domanda come sia possibile recuperare quei tratti dell’umano che l’uso spregiudicato delle nuove tecnologie digitali ha reso sempre meno visibili, quindi meritevoli di particolare attenzione. In particolare si pone la questione se il recupero del tratto rappresentato dalla vergogna, nella sua accezione di “senso del limite”, possa favorire la ripresa del progetto identitario dell’essere umano, alla luce di una compromissione dell’identità a favore della comparsa di varie identificazioni. Esse, oltre a frammentare l’individuo, possono indurlo a credere che possa operare in un clima di deresponsabilizzazione che il cyberspazio tende a inscenare. 5. Ci si chiede inoltre se il concetto di limite, applicato a quello di produzione (non esclusivamente dei nuovi dispositivi, in ottica trans e post-umana), debba rappresentare una questione di vitale importanza per la salvaguardia dell’umano. Pertanto ci si domanda come si debba approcciare, in ottica di “ambientalismo digitale” (Floridi, 2017, p. 254), alle prossime frontiere del progresso economico e socio-informatico. Tale prospettiva è stata messa in relazione ad una serie di ipotesi, volte a rafforzare l’obiettivo espresso nella precedente domanda: ovvero comprendere come si possano rendere visibili quei tratti dell’umano ritenuti a rischio sparizione. Ci si chiede dunque se lo smarrimento di aspetti quali identità, dialogo/relazionalità e senso di comunità possano essere riscoperti, non solo tramite il sopracitato buon uso della vergogna ma anche attraverso la salvaguardia della propria dimensione immaginativa, capace di contrastare l’ossessione per la produzione e la crisi della creazione (Camus, 2017). Ci si domanda infine se tale atteggiamento di cura possa essere annidato nella dimensione artistica e culturale, e se questa possa essere capace di restituire quel senso di umanità, anche attraverso la riscoperta della dimensione del sacro, affinché tale senso possa rendere compiuta la relazione, ovvero l’esistenza del Sé in comunione con l’Altro. In merito alla struttura della tesi, essa parte dall’analisi del fenomeno relativo ai tratti invisibili dell’umano nella sua dimensione onlife (Floridi, 2017, p. 84), intesa come alternanza “invisibile” tra le connessioni vissute tra il reale quotidiano e l’esperienza digitale. Tale analisi muove dalla considerazione che, alle origini di tale inedita condizione esistenziale, vi sia la creazione di uno spazio comunicativo/interattivo. Tale spazio è frutto di un’esigenza che affonda le radici nella nascita della Rete Internet, i cui albori risalgono al 1958 con la creazione da parte degli Stati Uniti dell’ARPA (Advance Research Project Agency), un’agenzia votata all’approfondimento delle nuove tecnologie di difesa militare (Detti & Lauricella, 2013). Pertanto, oggetto di studio è stato anche un excursus storico che ha determinato la graduale formazione del cyberspazio. La sua comparsa segue un inevitabile processo evolutivo e culturale che ha fatto spostare l’attenzione dell’essere umano su un inedito valore di mercato, rappresentato dai dati informatici. La contemporanea età del “Dataismo” (Benanti, 2020, p. 90) si fonda dunque su un’economia “dell’attenzione” (Eyal, citato in Coin, 2019, p. 258). Il direzionamento di quest’ultima permette che il flusso di dati raccolti possa determinare un mercato di nuovi comportamenti, favoriti da una forma di “capitalismo della sorveglianza” (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529) avente al vertice le grandi aziende informatiche. Esse, attraverso la produzione di dispositivi, la gestione di social network, e-commerce e browser, di fatto gestiscono la risorsa economica rappresentata dai comportamenti alla stregua di un vero e proprio bene da mercanteggiare; esattamente come, a partire dall’800, era stato fatto con altri beni quali la terra, il lavoro e il denaro (Zuboff, 2019). Dunque, se fenomeni quali l’urbanesimo e le rivoluzioni industriali hanno determinato cambiamenti epocali in termini di gestione dell’economia, della politica e dei rapporti sociali, lo stesso può dirsi della creazione di una rete comunicativa che funge da immaginario ponte tra ciò che l’uomo era “prima” e ciò che è diventato “poi”. Quindi la nascita e lo sviluppo della Rete rappresentano un epocale e inevitabile punto di svolta del tragitto antropologico. Internet e i suoi “prodotti”, in particolare il Web e i Social Network, rappresentano comunque una grande risorsa capace di migliorare e rafforzare l’esperienza umana. Pertanto è stato ripreso il pensiero del Cardinale Martini secondo il quale ci si può rapportare alla comunicazione filtrata dai media alla stregua dell’emorroissa citata nei Vangeli che, ardentemente, vuole staccarsi dall’oggettività della massa informe che accerchia Gesù (Martini, 1993). Per recuperare sé stessa e guarire, cerca dunque di superare ogni ostacolo per toccare il salvifico mantello di Cristo. Pertanto i media possono rappresentare la medesima forma di salvezza della propria identità, avendo cura del proprio “ambiente informazionale”, e un meraviglioso strumento di condivisione solidale, se si sceglie di essere recettori attivi e dialoganti (Martini, 1993), evitando di farsi risucchiare all’interno di una massa oggettivata e resa inespressiva da un uso pernicioso e un abuso spesso inconsapevole dei dispositivi digitali. Quest’ultimi rappresentano l’emblema di un “dislivello prometeico” (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129), concetto mutuato dalle intuizioni di Günther Anders. Per il filosofo tedesco, la hybris dell’homo faber contemporaneo avrebbe estremizzato, in rapporto al progresso tecnologico, il “fare e il conoscere” dimenticando il “prevedere e il sentire” (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129). Il pericoloso rapporto tra l’uomo e l’uso delle nuove tecnologie digitali, è stato pertanto analizzato attraverso il rischio rappresentato dalla cessione del proprio Sé alla macchina, non solo dal punto di vista della sua componente identitaria ma anche in merito alla gestione autonoma delle proprie facoltà neurali. Oggetto della ricerca è stato pertanto anche l’utilizzo dell’Intelligenza Artificiale. Una delle sue modalità di fruizione, di uso quotidiano, inerisce nello specifico all’IOT (Internet of things). Citando l’impiantisca domotica, l’IOT si pone come obiettivo quello di facilitare le azioni umane, fino a generare un vero e proprio processo di sostituzione che vede il dispositivo supplire a gran parte delle operazioni casalinghe. L’ambiente domestico risulta pertanto popolato da infomi (Han, 2022, p. 8), ovvero da quelle cose normalmente presenti in casa ma che, grazie all’Intelligenza Artificiale, si tramutano in agenti che elaborano informazioni, abituando il soggetto ad essere assistito o sostituito in molte delle sue funzioni. Tale intelligenza ha indiscutibilmente delle grandi potenzialità. Utilizzata secondo presupposti etici (come il sopracitato “mantello di Gesù”), può senz’altro contribuire alla semplificazione della generale vita dell’essere umano; va detto però che la sua continua sperimentazione “prometeica” genera come conseguenza, più che l’umanizzazione della macchina, la “meccanizzazione della mente” (Dupuy, 2014, p.11). Questo perché l’Intelligenza Artificiale difficilmente potrà replicare il peculiare tratto antropologico rappresentato dalla coscienza. L’Intelligenza Artificiale è infatti “cieca dinanzi agli eventi” (Han, 2022, p. 55), essa impara dal passato ma, il futuro che calcola, è una scelta tra le due opzioni precostituite comprese tra le basi della scrittura in codice, ovvero 1 e 0 (Han, 2022). Quindi l’eventuale riduzione in codice del senso di responsabilità, comporterebbe comunque una sua considerazione all’interno delle basi della scrittura in codice. È dunque l’uomo ad approssimarsi alla macchina attraverso il suo utilizzo non sempre responsabile. Specifico oggetto di studio è stato il rapporto tra la realtà digitale e le diverse modalità di utilizzo della memoria e dell’intelligenza da parte dell’essere umano. È stata dunque analizzata la differenza tra memoria episodica e semantica (de Kerckhove, citato in Faletra, 2020). La memoria episodica si fonda sull’aspetto iconico dei flussi informativi. Essa lavora sovrapponendo o accorpando essenzialmente lo stimolo visivo, subordinando ad esso la componente sequenziale e logica. Dei fatti e delle informazioni ciò che conta è dunque “l’esperienza sensoriale” (de Kerckhove, citato in Faletra, 2020, p. 108). La memoria semantica si spinge oltre, associa infatti le esperienze ai significati generando concretamente simboli. Tale memoria impiega del tempo di cui non gode la memoria episodica per interpretare l’esperienza, traendone un significato che permette così di lasciare una traccia, ovvero un simbolo, sul quale poter ragionare successivamente (Faletra, 2020). La memoria episodica non mette veramente in discussione l’esperienza, l’assimila credendola oggettiva e, facendola propria in maniera superba, la può ergere a totem conoscitivo. La memoria semantica invece ha un “in sé scientifico”, capace di confutare continuamente la sua interpretazione soggettiva con grande umiltà. Il processo di meccanizzazione della mente può essere favorito anche dall’utilizzo di un diverso tipo di intelligenza da parte dell’essere umano. È possibile infatti operare una distinzione tra “intelligenza simultanea e sequenziale” (Simone, citato in Galimberti, 2020, p. 118), alla maniera della già citata differenza tra memoria episodica e semantica. L’intelligenza simultanea è disordinata e incapace di stabilire una gerarchia tra le informazioni perché le tratta tutte alla stessa maniera. Quando si presenta un’immagine, soprattutto per la prima volta, è questo il tipo di intelligenza che si attiva, essa è elementare e poco faticosa. Al contrario, l’intelligenza sequenziale si serve di una rigida procedura di analisi al fine di comprendere i codici di una linea di testo e necessita di un maggiore impegno (Simone, citato in Galimberti, 2020). Essendo la realtà contemporanea caratterizzata dal culto dell’immagine, l’utilizzo dell’intelligenza sequenziale risulta essere sempre meno necessario, a favore di un dominio dell’intelligenza simultanea. Quest’ultima, insieme alla memoria episodica, tratteggia l’uomo contemporaneo come un essere che ha modificato il proprio modo di pensare, dopo che l’(ab)uso dei dispositivi gli ha fatto provare “l’immersività digitale”. Se prima della dimensione onlife il pensiero era infatti fondato su basi analitiche, strutturate e sequenziali, esso si è successivamente trasformato in un modo di pensare generico, vago, globale e olistico (Galimberti, 2020) capace di generare, tra le varie conseguenze, un’atmosfera dominata dal “conformismo logico” (Durkheim, citato in Maffesoli, 2020, p. 155). In pratica, la vorticosa condivisione di immagini, consumate velocemente senza lasciare traccia e senza porsi troppe domande, può contribuire a generare una forma di conformismo. Una volta accantonata la fatica legata alla valorizzazione delle esperienze passate e l’impegno necessario alla formazione di un pensiero strutturato, tale conformismo porta il soggetto a guardare, pensare e ad esistere sciogliendosi nella sopracitata massa oggettivata. Nel corso del lavoro è stato rimarcato quanto sia importante fare tesoro dell’esperienza legata al nuovo orizzonte antropologico, frutto dell’inedita dimensione onlife. L’orizzonte ermeneutico di quella che è stata definita età invisibile rivela cioè una nuova verità/realtà: la fine del mondo umanizzato come era stato fino a quel momento percepito. Ovvero: la fine del mondo rivelata da un’apocalisse “digitale” capace di mettere a nudo un cambiamento di coordinate umanistiche. In merito a questo tema, oggetto di studio iniziale è stato pertanto il testo giovanneo; successivamente l’analisi è stata spostata su possibili interpretazioni dello stesso testo in chiave socio-informatica. Per operare tale confronto è stata considerata l’importanza dell’immaginario come elemento narrativo e produttore di realtà, grazie al suo configurarsi come “dinamico interagire relazionale dei simboli” (Bovalino, 2018, p. 25). Il messaggio apocalittico, diversamente da quello profetico che si fonda sulla parola, si presenta spesso sotto forma di visioni. La visione è dunque un primo elemento che crea un ponte tra la scrittura apocalittica e l’immaginario, a maggior ragione se quest’ultimo è digitale e dominato da “immagini conversazionali” (Codeluppi, 2018, p. 64). Un ulteriore elemento di raccordo è rappresentato dal grande uso del simbolo. Anzi, essendo l’immaginario il luogo nel quale i simboli interagiscono dinamicamente, la scrittura apocalittica è a pieno titolo definibile anche come una scrittura dell’immaginario. I simboli dell’apocalittica decisivi a livello interpretativo sono le cifre, paragonabili ai codici numerici che, notoriamente, sono alla base della Rete digitale. Considerando poi l’antica tecnica giudaica della ghematria, ogni parola può corrispondere ad un numero in quanto ogni lettera dell’alfabeto ha una corrispondenza numerica (Bianchi, 2012). Dunque: visioni circolanti sotto forma di foto e immagini, connesse a simboli frutto di scrittura in linea di codice, permettono di considerare il cyberspazio come un inedito scenario antropologico. La simbologia apocalittica è caratterizzata dalla prevalenza del tempo sullo spazio; la transitorietà prevale cioè sulla permanenza (Stefani, 2008). I social network in particolare, proprio perché fondati sul tempo e sulla sua continua “presentificazione”, relegano lo spazio fisico e mentale (quest’ultimo rappresentato dalle opinioni e dai punti di vista) ad appendice del tempo. Lo spazio si riduce cioè ad elemento “cornice” nel quale inserire i continui cambiamenti frutto di perenni attese di chissà quali impossibili realizzazioni; come se i social oltre a fungere da riempitivo esistenziale fossero capaci di fornire anche confortanti risposte alla stregua di una sacra scrittura. Tali “frementi attese”, che nell’Apocalisse guardano con fiducia ad un destino in piena comunione con Dio, generano dunque spazi mentali che si configurano nelle opinioni e nei punti di vista circolanti in Rete. Tali spazi, proprio perché appartenenti al cyberspazio, sono in continua mutazione e lasciano dunque l’utente in balia di un tempo sospeso continuamente transitorio. L’apocalisse digitale è stata dunque trattata come una deviazione antecedente al compimento di quella giovannea, è stata cioè considerata come un percorso destinale rivelante la morte del vecchio uomo che lascia spazio ad una nuova umanità. Al contempo questa “catastrofe” può essere d’insegnamento per raddrizzare il percorso umanistico; infatti la rivelazione di tale disorientamento antropologico ha in sé un progetto di salvezza, se tale rivelazione viene letta in chiave didattica. In un’età nella quale ha meno senso porsi domande sul proprio destino e scarseggiano i punti di riferimento, l’uomo vive un senso si disorientamento, connesso al suo esser distratto o rapito da un presente edulcorato dai dispositivi digitali. Tutto diventa di conseguenza simultaneamente vero e falso e, “in un mortale abbraccio simbiotico, il mondo si dissolve nella sua autorappresentazione digitale” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). Se l’Apocalisse giovannea descrive la relazione tra il mondo, l’uomo e Dio tramite l’evento di Cristo (Bianchi, 2012), l’apocalisse digitale descrive il rapporto tra il mondo, l’uomo e il suo futuro tramite l’evento rappresentato dalla nascita di Internet. L’interpretazione in chiave socio-informatica del testo giovanneo, considera in particolare le simbologie riferibili al settenario delle chiese (presente nel secondo e terzo capitolo dell’Apocalisse) e al primo settenario delle visioni (compreso tra il tredicesimo e il quindicesimo capitolo). In merito al settenario delle chiese, è stato evidenziato come il messaggio rivolto a quelle di Pergamo, Sardi e Laodicea possa risultare di grande attualità. La questione della chiesa di Pergamo è relativa alla compromissione della fede cristiana minata dal paganesimo. Se l’apocalisse digitale è una sorta di ri-creazione, deve essere dunque l’uomo a decidere se il culto dei dispositivi deve prendere il posto di Dio o, laicamente, se i devices devono impossessarsi della sfera razionale e immaginaria dell’essere umano. La flessione fideistica relativa alla chiesa di Sardi, può invece essere messa in correlazione con il destinale rivelarsi di uno smarrimento dell’uomo nei meandri del caos digitale. Se l’indebolirsi della fede rappresenta infatti un “fisiologico” passaggio che tocca l’essere umano, così lo smarrimento della narrazione umanistica può rappresentare una tappa necessaria affinché possa verificarsi un suo recupero proprio al cospetto di un’età “invisibile”. In merito alla chiesa di Laodicea, Giovanni denuncia proprio la sua hybris prometeica che l’ha resa una comunità che crede che possa bastare a sé stessa e possa decidere per il proprio destino. Il racconto di tale ammonimento, sembra dunque richiamare l’arroganza dell’essere umano che crede di poter esser padrone del proprio Essere e della Natura, attraverso la ri-codifica digitale del mondo. L’analisi del primo settenario delle visioni ha permesso di riflettere sulla simbologia espressa dal racconto della prima bestia, un essere mostruoso a sette teste e dieci corna. Esso rappresenta dunque il potere totalitario, il quale può essere seducente attraverso numerose forme. Tale bestia è perciò capace di generare forme di imbarbarimento che, nella visione apocalittica della dimensione digitale, possono essere inquadrate nella degenerazione del web; ovvero quando esso tende ad essere negativamente globalizzato culturalmente e diventa preda di pulsioni totalitarie capaci di favorire il “tramonto dei sapienti” (Bovalino, 2018, p. 70). La seconda bestia, simile ad un agnello con due corna e con la voce di un drago, rappresenta la forza della propaganda ideologica volta all’adorazione della prima bestia. In tal senso la Rete è assurta a grado divino, attraverso la sua capacità di direzionare i comportamenti e in generale le vite degli individui. Il web, quando degenera, rappresenta cioè una nuova Babele il cui etimo è: “città degli idoli” (Bianchi, 2012, p. 159). La nuova Babilonia digitale ha infatti in sé la propensione al culto di nuovi idoli capaci di irretire le masse, assurgere a modelli e in grado di sostituirsi persino agli uomini di scienza. Tra le idolatrie più diffuse vi è dunque l’esaltazione di una forma pseudo-ideologica che sul web ha ottenuto la sua consacrazione: il populismo, definibile come “l’ombra della democrazia” (Canovan, 1993, p. 44). Secondo Maffesoli (2009) “nei periodi di cambiamento, è necessario cercare e trovare le parole giuste o quantomeno quelle meno false” (p. 19). Quindi, durante la transizione della rivelazione digitale, una necessità potrebbe essere rappresentata, più che dalla ricerca delle verità, dallo smascheramento delle falsità, secondo il principio della conservazione della specie umana intimamente legato ad un aspetto fondamentale: l’equilibrio, esortando ad uno stile di vita “a braccia aperte” (Maier, 2018, p. 69). L’avvento dell’età invisibile rende dunque opache alcune caratteristiche tipiche dell’umano relativamente al suo progetto identitario, alla sua componente relazionale/comunitaria, alla compromissione di alcune sue facoltà e al legame fondato su un dialogo capace di conservare le diversità, esaltando i punti di contatto. Il recupero dell’umano è stato pertanto oggetto di studio e di analisi, partendo dunque dall’assunto che il Sé può rendere visibile il proprio progetto identitario attraverso il legame sociale con l’Altro. Tale legame può essere tutelato se viene rimessa in circolo un’emozione sociale che, intesa come “senso del limite”, nella dimensione onlife viene spesso accantonata: la vergogna. Fra tutte le emozioni sociali, la vergogna è proprio quella più “sociale”. Una sua mancanza evidenzia proprio il distacco tra individualità e legame sociale (Turnaturi, 2012). Quando la Rete mostra un forte individualismo e una grande frammentazione sociale, si è infatti in presenza di una società poco coesa, probabilmente anche a causa di un precario senso della vergogna. Essa da emozione sociale può diventare passione civile, mutando in indignazione. La vergogna ha dunque in sé la facoltà di riannodare i legami sociali in quanto emozione connessa all’amore di Sé e della propria dignità, attraverso la manifestazione della propria individualità e soggettività mai separata dall’essere con l’Altro (Turnaturi, 2012). La scarsa coesione del contesto socio-relazionale, frutto dunque di individualismo e frammentazione sociale, è stata analizzata seguendo le riflessioni di Charles Taylor (citato in Turnaturi, 2012). Il filosofo mostra come la contemporaneità sia caratterizzata dalla confusione tra l’affermazione della propria autenticità e l’autorealizzazione. La propria “genuina” autenticità, trova il suo percorso di affermazione attraverso valori quali la coerenza e tramite l’atto della condivisione del Sé sempre in rapporto con l’Altro. Tale idea di autenticità ha perso però i suoi riferimenti relazionali per diventare una ricerca di Sé egocentrica e narcisistica (Taylor, citato in Turnaturi, 2012), unita alla voglia di realizzare ogni desiderio o pulsione. Riguardo i tratti dell’autorealizzazione, essi denotano una mancanza di progettualità sostituita dal modo di pensarsi come un “individuo Ikea” (Turnaturi, 2012, p. 22), smontabile e rimontabile in base al piacere e all’opportunità del momento. Questa visione dell’autorealizzazione, assurge a mito tardomoderno e va a coincidere dunque con l’autenticità, spostando quindi l’attenzione dalla “progettazione” del Sé alla “composizione” di Sé, senza considerare limiti o istituzioni autorevoli che possano intralciare il godimento delle proprie narcisistiche urgenze. Tale chimerico punto d’approdo non può tollerare l’ostacolo della vergogna identificata proprio nei limiti, nelle figure istituzionali o nei tradimenti del proprio Sé (Turnaturi, 2012). Di conseguenza l’Altro rischia di essere percepito non come una persona intera ma come un “pezzo” di cui si ha in quel momento bisogno. Lo psicanalista Heinz Kohut parla in tal senso di “Oggetti-Sé” (Kohut, citato in Turkle, p. 19). Tale modalità percettiva, tipica di una distorsione relazionale frequente nel cyberspazio, considera effettivamente l’Altro come un pezzo di ricambio, utile alla momentanea composizione del proprio Sé. Si tratta dunque di un fittizio senso relazionale che cela il soddisfacimento di un’esperienza narcisista (Turkle, 2019). La tradizione psicoanalitica parla di narcisismo non per indicare specificamente chi ama sé stesso, ma si riferisce a chi necessita di un bisogno costante di sostegno. Pertanto il narcisista riesce a rapportarsi solo con le rappresentazioni ad hoc degli altri e, in tal senso, la Rete rappresenta decisamente una comfort zone. Tali rappresentazioni, ovvero i sopracitati “Oggetti Sé” che altri psicoanalisti definiscono anche come “oggetti parziali”, sono quindi tutto ciò che il Sé narciso (e fragile) riesce a gestire (Turkle, 2019). La vita on line fornisce quindi un ambiente all’interno del quale è più semplice relazionarsi con tali oggetti parziali, che non sono però la persona nella sua interezza, mettendo quindi a rischio proprio le relazioni che dovrebbero favorire una coesione sociale (Turkle, 2019). La vergogna dunque, essendo l’emozione che presuppone il “comune” (ovvero l’essere con), viene celata nell’epoca “dell’individualismo atomizzato che si impone sulla comunità” (Recalcati, 2012, p. 23). In una cultura, che ha trasferito il liberismo dalla sfera economica a quella politica e infine sociale, non c’è spazio per il senso del limite, quindi per la vergogna. Singole individualità, capaci di promuovere efficacemente l’esaltazione dell’autorealizzazione mescolata con la difesa della propria autenticità, possono prendere piede all’interno di una comunità fatta di individui atomizzati e possono favorire l’ascesa di anacronistiche visioni del tempo presente e futuro, come i recenti sovranismi e le politiche discriminatorie stanno dimostrando. La società contemporanea sembra in pratica subire una deregulation economica, morale ed emozionale (Turnaturi, 2012). La perdita di importanza del concetto di vergogna che ne viene fuori, non sarebbe però dovuta ad un incattivimento o ad un cinismo antropologico, essa deriverebbe dall’aver perso la nozione del proprio Sé come “parte di”, sostituita dall’affermazione del Sé individuale il cui senso è percepito come essere solo contro tutti (Turnaturi, 2012). L’uomo nell’atto di vergognarsi trascende il proprio valore di persona al di sopra del proprio stato d’animo o impulso perché “nel vergognarsi c’è un elemento di sé che è stato deluso” (Scheler, 1979, p. 119). La vergogna, favorisce inoltre lo svelamento e il riconoscimento del proprio Sé con il quale il soggetto ha la possibilità di vivere una “relazione intima”; attraverso la vergogna è possibile in pratica scoprire un importante aspetto del proprio essere (Sartre, 2008). Provare vergogna significa dunque provare un senso di umanità, significa essere cioè vivi e presenti a sé stessi e alla comunità. Accantonarla e nasconderla è tutto sommato comodo, la vergogna è invece un’emozione “scomoda” che richiede confronto continuo con sé stessi e gli altri. Essa esige cioè che il soggetto conservi la sua “difficile umanità”. Va detto che la vergogna mantiene umani imponendo la dipendenza dagli altri, perché in assenza di vergogna si scompare in sé stessi (Sartre, citato in Baldassarro, 2012), si diventa cioè “invisibili”. Per uscire dunque da questa condizione di invisibilità, il lavoro propone nell’ultima parte una serie di “ipotesi di rivolta”, la prima delle quali può essere considerata proprio quella relativa al recupero della vergogna. Tali ipotesi sono state definite di “rivolta” perché si rifanno al pensiero di Camus (2017). Nella rivolta, secondo il filosofo algerino, “l’uomo si trascende nell’Altro e, da questo punto di vista, la solidarietà umana è metafisica” (p. 21). La rivolta può dunque contribuire al recupero dell’umano e si fa preferire alla rivoluzione. Quest’ultima è infatti un’azione volta ad ottenere un consenso, per amore o per forza, al fuori di ogni norma morale, la cui rivendicazione storica sta nella totalità perché presuppone la mancanza di un limite. La rivolta invece nasce proprio dall’affermazione di tale limite, frutto della considerazione che l’uomo è un essere “diviso” che non può essere negato in nome di una totalità da conquistare. Di conseguenza la rivolta conosce sia il “sì”, sia il “no”, perché ha nel suo intimo la necessità di estendere i valori di limite, dignità e bellezza comuni a tutti e a tutto, procedendo verso l’unità senza rinnegare le origini. La sua rivendicazione storica sta dunque nell’unità (Camus, 2017). La rivolta poggia in pratica sul dialogo, sulla considerazione dell’Altro e delle diverse parti che compongono le reciproche unità. Ha in sé una base necessariamente creatrice fondata sulla vita dell’essere che già esiste; invece la rivoluzione, che si fonda sulla morte dell’essere per produrne un altro che non esisterà mai, ha in sé una base nichilista. L’essere rivoluzionario, e la sua aspirazione alla totalità, non esisteranno mai perché non contemplano norme, morali o metafisiche, capaci di soddisfare la speranza continuamente delusa di realizzarsi in maniera trionfale. Al contrario, la rivolta punta a sottolineare che la sua forza creatrice mira ad esaltare l’essere che c’è già, pur con i suoi lati oscuri, cercando di seguire le guide di norme e rivendicazioni morali (Camus, 2017). Sono state dunque analizzate dieci possibili proposte di rivolta connesse al buon uso della tecnologia e volte al recupero di un umano che, pur nella sua “difficile umanità”, nella relazione con l’Altro e con il mondo può ritrovare il proprio Sé. La prima ipotesi è rappresentata dal concetto di ambientalismo digitale. Avendo l’essere umano trasformato la realtà in un ambiente “informazionale” definibile come “infosfera” (Floridi, 2017, p. 44), può essere importante formulare un ambientalismo digitale capace di sollevare interrogativi relativamente alla vita onlife. Si tratta di porre quindi domande inerenti al ruolo individuale e collettivo dell’uomo inteso come organismo informazionale, l’inforg (Floridi, 2017) unitamente ad un’analisi critica delle sue attuali narrazioni sociopolitiche. Urge quindi la comparsa di una nuova formazione e sensibilità capace di comprendere che l’infosfera è un nuovo spazio comune che occorre tutelare a vantaggio di tutti (Floridi, 2017). La seconda ipotesi di rivolta inerisce al recupero del senso di responsabilità. Seguendo il pensiero “radicale” del filosofo Emmanuel Lévinas, la responsabilità viene prima della libertà poiché il soggetto si costituisce a partire dalla relazione etica con l’altro (Lévinas, citato in Pulcini, 2017). Creando una connessione con la vergogna, il concetto di responsabilità inerisce alla risposta delle proprie azioni; esso però richiama anche la dimensione emotiva dell’empatia, ovvero il “mettersi nei panni dell’Altro” partecipando alle sue emozioni e alla sua esperienza. Condizione più che mai necessaria soprattutto all’interno della controversa dimensione dei social network e in generale di Internet, considerabile come “lo spazio simbolico per eccellenza della libertà illimitata” (Pulcini, 2017, pp. 28-29). La terza ipotesi è inquadrabile nel contrasto all’automazione. Tale automazione, oltre ad essere strettamente connessa al mercato e alla previsione dei comportamenti, quindi riferibile alla questione del “capitalismo della sorveglianza” (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529), si lega ad una visione del lavoro sempre più alienante. Tale visione, protesa sempre più verso una prospettiva di accumulo e non di bisogno, genera nell’individuo forme di depressione e abbandono, accantonando significative reazioni di opposizione (Han, 2016). In pratica, un individuo che è stato invitato negli ultimi decenni a diventare imprenditore di sé stesso, diventando al tempo stesso padrone e schiavo del suo stesso essere, può tendere a sviluppare lo stesso atteggiamento nei confronti di una civiltà dell’informazione, che lo seduce attraverso una realizzazione del proprio Sé su base tecnologica. La quarta ipotesi di rivolta è rappresentata dal concetto di “decentramento positivo”, intimamente connesso al contrasto all’automazione. Analizzando il pensiero di Žižek (2016), è stata considerata “l’ambiguità radicale dei supplementi elettronici” (p. 236). Essi sono infatti capaci di migliorare le vite degli utenti, liberandoli da pesi e facilitando molte operazioni; gli stessi utenti però pagano un prezzo altissimo inquadrabile in un “radicale decentramento”. Il soggetto viene dunque “mediatizzato” dai sistemi operativi (Žižek, 2016), viene cioè posto al centro della dimensione multimediale esperita dalle sue identificazioni, ma allo stesso tempo si trova decentrato dalla propria identità. Questa “centralità simulata” può essere contrastata non solo da una volontà di ripresa della propria identità, intrappolata tra i meccanismi dell’automazione digitale, ma da una successiva nuova cessione del proprio Sé, stavolta nella relazione compiuta con l’Altro. Il soggetto, attraverso l’esperienza del “decentramento positivo”, può recuperare anche la juissance (godimento), esperibile proprio attraverso l’Altro. Se infatti il godimento diviene prerogativa del dispositivo digitale, il soggetto è costretto a cercarlo freneticamente e di continuo. La quinta ipotesi inerisce alla considerazione dei rischi legati in particolare al processo di atomizzazione sociale. L’individuo è stato infatti catapultato in una “società globale del rischio” (Beck, 2001), le cui turbolenze sono affrontate non più, come un tempo, nell’ambito del nucleo familiare o all’interno di una comunità o gruppo sociale, ma da soli, nel godimento di una “libertà rischiosa” imposta da una società che non permette ai singoli soggetti di prendere decisioni tenendo in debito conto le possibili conseguenze (Beck, 2001). Una società che, al contrario, comincia a considerare i rischi percependosi come “società del rischio”, permette che le basi della sua attività e dei suoi obiettivi diventino oggetto delle controversie scientifiche e delle politiche pubbliche; tale società diventa cioè “riflessiva” (Beck, 2001, p. 165). La sesta ipotesi di rivolta è inquadrabile nella promozione di una “politica dell’umanità”. La politica non è infatti soltanto ascrivibile all’interno dei canoni dei vari governi, parlamenti e partiti. Esiste infatti una “politica dei sottosistemi”, ovvero una “subpolitica” (Beck, 2001, p. 51) protagonista di una “globalizzazione dal basso” che può essere ad esempio inquadrata nelle Organizzazioni Non Governative (ONG). La subpolitica configura la società dal basso sotto forma di politica “diretta”, capace di superare le istituzioni di formazione rappresentativa delle opinioni (partiti, parlamenti) e spesso senza godere della protezione da parte della legge. Organizzazioni come Greenpeace, Amnesty International o Terre des Hommes vanno a collocarsi in pratica a metà strada tra stato e mercato, liberando la politica da quegli schemi ostili alla mobilitazione e al coinvolgimento di tutti i settori della società (Beck, 2001). La settima ipotesi è rappresentata dal concetto di centralità della cura, sostantivo che con il suo etimo rimanda a termini quali “preoccupazione e sollecitudine”, indicando cioè il saper cogliere le urgenze e le priorità che si hanno di fronte facendole oggetto di attenzione. La riscoperta dell’umano dunque potrebbe essere favorita dallo spostamento del valore dell’attenzione, intesa come perno del neoliberismo economico-digitale, alla sua considerazione come presupposto fondamentale per il manifestarsi della cura. Transitivamente, il passaggio da un’economia dell’attenzione ad un’economia della cura porterebbe all’affermazione dei valori di responsabilità, uguaglianza e sostenibilità. In pratica del futuro dell’umano. Un ulteriore approccio che il soggetto può sperimentare nell’aver cura del mondo è inquadrabile nel termine “risonanza” (Rosa, citato in Pulcini, 2020, p. 167). L’esperienza dell’entrare in risonanza con il mondo consiste nell’entrare in relazione con qualcun altro, ma anche con qualcos’altro (ad esempio un libro, un’idea o un paesaggio), uscendone trasformati in modo inaspettato e imprevedibile. Tale esperienza è capace di ristabilire una sintonia con sé stessi e con il mondo favorendo la percezione che possa esistere una prospettiva di vita buona. Il concetto di risonanza va a contrastare quello di alienazione ed è un concetto esistenzialista ed emotivo più che cognitivo (Rosa, 2015). L’ottava ipotesi di rivolta inerisce al progetto volto alla salvaguardia dell’immaginario. Esso può essere considerato come la parte “invisibile del visibile”, capace di sostenerlo e dargli senso, nutrendolo attraverso vari livelli di significazione sempre più profondi che, per la loro essenza invisibile, necessitano uno sforzo affinché se ne scopra la mappa e il contenuto (Secondulfo, 2019). Per uscire da uno stato di invisibilità può essere dunque utile affidarsi ad un elemento strutturalmente forgiato per conferire senso, sostegno e dunque “visibilità” ad altri elementi. In pratica l’invisibilità dell’elemento immaginario può favorire la visibilità dell’elemento umano, confuso in una dimensione invisibile prodotta da un immaginario digitale globalizzato e globalizzante. Potrebbe essere auspicabile quindi la formazione di un nuovo immaginario antropologico capace non tanto di contrastare, piuttosto di equilibrare l’immaginario digitale. Il soggetto contemporaneo risulta infatti indebolito dall’immagine del mondo della postmodernità, la cui natura frammentaria e incerta non propone un “altrove” verso il quale immaginare di proiettarsi. L’immaginazione prospettica è stata cioè sostituita da un tipo di immaginazione dalla vista corta, centrata sugli elementi del “qui e ora”, considerati gli unici orizzonti del possibile (Meo, 2019). La nona ipotesi propone la riscoperta dell’importanza dell’atto della lettura, “benzina” capace di mettere in moto proprio l’immaginario. Tale atto porta a rinnovare la propria autoconsapevolezza, leggere infatti significa riflettere, intelligere, ovvero intus legere: leggere dentro (Ferrarotti, 2021, p. 19). Se l’essere umano perde l’abitudine a ritrovarsi in una dimensione metariflessiva, raggiungibile anche mediante l’atto della lettura, rischia infatti di percepire stress o malessere nell’elaborazione di pensieri complessi e tende a rifuggire il necessario confronto con il proprio Sé. In tal senso, per l’esperto di scienze dell’informazione T.D. Wilson, “alla mente non allenata non piace trovarsi da sola con sé stessa” (citato in Mauceri & Pastore, 2020, p. 175). Dunque la mente trova nell’iperstimolazione cibernetica quella che considera la cura per il proprio disagio, balsamo ancora più efficace perché capace di soddisfare i propri bisogni immediatamente. La decima ipotesi di rivolta, che conclude il lavoro, si annida nel potere dell’arte. La sua dimensione, oltre a dar voce ad emozioni e sentimenti, opera una ristrutturazione dei linguaggi attraverso i quali l’umano tenta di rappresentare il mondo. Pensando ad esempio alle parole recitate o cantate da un artista, esse hanno il potere di orientare i comportamenti in maniera discontinua rispetto al passato, rappresentando non solo strumenti di comunicazione o espressioni emotive, ma anche criteri di organizzazione sociale (Barcellona, 2013). Per avere cura del proprio immaginario simbolico, risulta quindi indispensabile recuperare il potere della parola e, in generale, il potere del linguaggio artistico. La rivolta insita nella dimensione artistica è infatti in grado di esaltare l’umanità del tempo considerata come comunità creativa e creatrice, capace anche di riscoprire le necessarie norme e rivendicazioni morali, determinanti per la sua salvaguardia. La forza creatrice della produzione artistica è infatti in grado di fabbricare “universi sostitutivi”, all’interno dei quali l’uomo può “finalmente regnare e conoscere”, e rappresenta una forma “pura” di rivolta (Camus, 2017, pp. 279-280). Dunque, all’interno della “solitudine digitale” dell’età invisibile, risulta doveroso rivoltarsi perché, come afferma Camus (2017), “nell’esperienza, assurda, la sofferenza è individuale. A principiare dal moto di rivolta, essa ha coscienza di essere collettiva, è avventura di tutti” (p. 26). Limitazioni della letteratura esistente L’analisi bibliometrica afferente al fenomeno studiato è stata focalizzata su una serie di keywords. Tra esse, termini quali identità/identificazione, comunità, apocalisse o tutti quelli inquadrati nelle varie “ipotesi di rivolta” proposte, hanno mostrato una letteratura ricca di contributi; pertanto si è cercato di operare connessioni attraverso le fonti esistenti alle quali sono state aggiunte personali riflessioni. Invece il termine vergogna, intesa come emozione sociale, ha permesso di individuare delle limitazioni soprattutto in merito al buon uso della vergogna capace di favorire la ripresa dell’identità dell’individuo. Sono stati pertanto incrociati i risultati di motori di ricerca quali Scopus e Google Scholar. Scopus ha evidenziato 94 risultati suddivisi su 10 pagine relativamente al termine vergogna (https://www.elsevier.com/search-results?query=shame&page=1), tutti in lingua inglese. Ampliando poi le ricerche, è stato notato come la keyword “shame”, legata prima ad “identity” (101 pagine con 1.237 risultati) e poi a “social emotion” (462 pagine con 6.582 risultati) si rapportino alla vergogna quasi esclusivamente sotto il profilo clinico, con poche incursioni nell’ambito della sfera sociologica. Quest’ultima caratteristica è stata maggiormente messa in luce da Google Scholar che, pur avendo mostrato soltanto 5 risultati riferibili alle keywords “vergogna emozione sociale” (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=it&as_sdt=0,5&q=allintitle:+vergo gna+emozione+sociale&oq=vergogna+emo) presenti nei titoli dei contributi, ha evidenziato tramite gli articoli correlati e le citazioni come il tema abbia un’importante eco anche dal punto di vista sociologico. Pertanto, oltre ad aver cercato di dare il proprio modesto contributo all’argomento, si è cercato di approfondire la prospettiva della vergogna, inquadrabile come “senso del limite”, in chiave sociodigitale ed economica. Tale visione ha permesso di operare riflessioni in maniera più ampia, espandendo il concetto di Sé e Altro dalla dimensione onlife a quella di sostenibilità digitale. Il buon uso della vergogna, capace di operare un continuo confronto con il proprio Sé, è stato pertanto interpretato come indicatore utile affinché l’Altro, unitamente all’ambiente circostante, rappresentino il necessario completamento del progetto identitario del Sé. Poiché il concetto di sostenibilità non è afferibile esclusivamente alla dimensione ecologica, l’applicazione di tale concetto alla sfera digitale è stata connessa proprio alla visione della vergogna come “senso del limite”. Tale emozione sociale, può dunque essere capace di favorire quelle necessarie cooperazioni utili alla salvaguardia della specie umana all’interno della dimensione onlife; quest’ultima non sempre di facile gestione. Tenendo poi presente il paradigma economico, è stato dunque operato un collegamento tra il senso del limite, proprio della vergogna, e la sensibilità capace di comprendere che l’infosfera sia un nuovo spazio comune che occorre tutelare a vantaggio di tutti (Floridi, 2017). Considerando lo stato dell’arte circa il fenomeno da studiare, una possibile strategia per proteggere e adattare la realtà informazionale è stata pertanto oggetto di studio relativamente ad una visione capace di unire politiche ambientaliste con politiche digitali, a supporto di una politica (ed economia) dell’esperienza e non del consumo. Una politica centrata dunque sulla qualità delle relazioni e dei processi e non sulle cose e le loro proprietà, allo scopo di sostenere l’ambiente e sviluppare una società dell’informazione sostenibile (Floridi, 2020). Metodologia Le metodologie di ricerca utilizzate hanno previsto un approccio sia qualitativo, sia quantitativo. L’analisi qualitativa del fenomeno è stata orientata su una grande raccolta e comparazione di informazioni, esposte sotto forma di riflessioni e pensieri, presenti nelle 159 fonti che compongono la bibliografia. Lavorando in ottica complementare con la metodologia di ricerca quantitativa, contestualmente è stata operata una raccolta di dati funzionale all’esposizione delle ipotesi di discussione evinte dallo studio delle sopracitate fonti. Nello specifico, sono stati sfruttati i dati del Censis (2021), relativi al “Diciassettesimo Rapporto sulla comunicazione-I media dopo la pandemia”, e i dati frutto di un’indagine sui rischi di dipendenza da tecnologie e media digitali effettuata su un campione di 3.302 studenti iscritti alle scuole superiori romane (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020). L’indagine effettuata dal Censis è basata su un campione di 1200 individui, stratificato per sesso, età, ampiezza del comune di residenza e area geografica, rappresentativo della popolazione italiana di 14-80 anni. Tale indagine ha permesso di mettere in correlazione i tratti dell’età contemporanea, dominata dall’universo “informazionale”, con tutta una serie di aspetti capaci di allargare l’orizzonte della discussione sociologica quali: l’analfabetismo funzionale, l’influenza della televisione, l’uso degli smartphone, l’accesso alla rete Internet e la sua eventuale dipendenza, l’utilizzo dei social network, la questione relativa a fake news, filter bubble e confirmation bias, il fenomeno dei gamer e degli YouTuber, il business dei dispositivi telefonici digitali, la scelta dell’acquisto di dispositivi digitali in base a parametri quali velocità di risposta/esecuzione e conseguente risparmio del tempo, la cieca fiducia riposta nella rete Internet capace di fornire ogni tipo di risposta, l’idea che attraverso la Rete si possa raggiungere gratificazione personale e professionale e che, pertanto, la popolarità sui social network sia fondamentale per essere una celebrità. Tali informazioni sono state completate dai dati inerenti alla sopracitata indagine condotta su un campione di adolescenti romani, focalizzata sui rischi di dipendenza da tecnologie e media digitali (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020). È stato pertanto possibile conoscere i dati di preferenza relativi all’uso dei vari social network e le informazioni relative alla potenziale dipendenza da smartphone e dagli stessi social. Inoltre, l’analisi su base quantitativa è stata arricchita da contributi statistici estratti dalle 32 pagine web che compongono la sitografia. Ciò ha permesso di potenziare la raccolta di informazioni relativamente a: utilizzo di browser web e social network, fatturazione di colossi informatici, tempo trascorso on line dall’utente medio. È stato possibile conoscere anche il buon uso della Rete relativamente alla promozione “social” dell’atto della lettura che, in generale, dalle statistiche proposte risulta comunque in crisi. Inoltre, in termini di sostenibilità “integrale”, intesa come connessione tra sviluppo sostenibile e ambientalismo digitale (Floridi, 2017), è stato possibile arricchire l’orizzonte di ricerca inserendo dati relativi alle disuguaglianze socio-economiche. Infine, avendo ribadito nel corso del lavoro l’importanza di una visione responsabile della politica per la salvaguardia dell’umano, sono stati integrati dati utili ai fini della considerazione di tale necessario atteggiamento. Risultati Le analisi condotte nel corso del progetto di ricerca effettuato, hanno permesso di portare alla luce una serie di riflessioni ritenute estremamente utili per comprendere il contemporaneo tragitto antropologico. In particolare è stato evidenziato che il processo di umanizzazione della macchina è in realtà secondario rispetto ad un processo, non sempre consapevole, di meccanizzazione della mente. Tale automazione è indotta da forme ossessive di produzione e consumo dei vari dispositivi digitali. In risposta a tale logica economica, propria del “capitalismo della sorveglianza” (Zuboff, 2019), è stato rilevato come il futuro dell’umano debba necessariamente essere connesso al recupero di elementi quali il sacro, il trascendente, l’utopia, il “discorso inutile” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125), il surreale. Il sacro rappresenta uno strumento di difesa che, opposto all’ipercomunicazione, può far leva sul recupero del silenzio e dell’attenzione (Han, 2022). Trovare un proprio “spazio sacro” (Turkle, 2019, p. 337) significa recuperare un luogo nel quale riconoscere Sé stessi e le proprie responsabilità, lontano dalle rassicuranti, ma a volte illusorie, simulazioni della Rete digitale. Il sacro come meta-umano rappresenta cioè l’estrema difesa del “carattere umano della società umana, la garanzia della sua sopravvivenza e l’assicurazione contro il suo annientamento” (Ferrarotti, 2021, p. 66). Al sacro è connesso il trascendente. Poiché la realtà è dominata da una percezione immanente configurabile in un “sentimento irreligioso” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 104), il recupero del trascendente può gettare luce sulla considerazione delle questioni ultime come la morte personale e la fine della storia umana (Serra, citato in Barcellona, 2013). All’essere umano serve dunque un “serio progetto utopistico” (Floridi, 2020, p. 113) che permetta di dare un senso al vivere insieme come comunità. L’idea da abbracciare sarebbe quella del “trust universale” (Floridi, 2020, p. 226) secondo la quale ogni essere umano nasce come beneficiario del mondo, diventa poi suo fiduciario in qualità di agente morale, sociale e politico, infine conclude il suo percorso come donatore del mondo (Floridi, 2020). La dimensione utopica è strettamente connessa alla facoltà immaginativa propria dell’umano. Il concetto di immaginazione permette di prendere le distanze dal presente prefigurando possibili alternative, ovvero la capacità di immaginare il futuro (Arendt, citata in Pulcini, 2020), anche sotto forma di azioni volte a diffondere il bene nella società. Esse producono sempre buoni frutti, anche se sembra che tali azioni non siano constatabili o in grado di cambiare il mondo (Papa Francesco, 2015). Il progetto utopistico può essere dunque promosso da “discorsi inutili” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125) che utilizzano la parola come modo d’essere. Sono le discipline umanistiche a possedere le caratteristiche di un discorso provocatoriamente inutile, sempre però aperto al mistero e fondato sull’irriducibilità dell’individuo. Tali discorsi sono capaci dunque di mettere in discussione il concetto di “riduzione della società a un fatto funzionale” (Barcellona, 2013, p. 126). É stato infine evinto dalle ricerche che l’uomo non possa fare a meno della surrealtà per non farsi travolgere dalla razionalità macchinica. L’elemento surreale, uno dei costitutivi dell’immaginario, diventa pertanto indispensabile per creare un equilibrio con quello razionale. Limitare la razionalità macchinica, attraverso l’irrazionalità umana, rappresenta dunque una forma di rivolta (Camus, 2017). Il sacro, il trascendente, l’utopia, i discorsi “inutili” e il surreale sono tutti elementi afferenti alla sensibilità artistica, capace di costruire immaginari costruttori di realtà che fungono anche da criteri di organizzazione sociale (Barcellona, 2013). Contributi alla letteratura esistente Il lavoro di ricerca sostenuto cerca di dare il proprio modesto, ma appassionato, contributo all’interno del variegato ambito degli studi sociali. L’analisi della contemporanea realtà fenomenica, ha inevitabilmente favorito un approccio epistemico inter e multi-disciplinare. Il lavoro cerca dunque di inserirsi nella letteratura sociologica volta ad indagare le criticità del tempo presente e volta alla valorizzazione delle componenti umanistiche. La grande dialetticità che contraddistingue la sociologia ha permesso di muoversi su terreni filosofici, teologici, psicanalitici ed economico-politici, raggiungendo una serie di risultati frutto di analisi e riflessioni sincro-diacroniche. Sfruttando il ragionamento filosofico, è stato possibile paragonare l’atomismo di Democrito con la riscrittura digitale del mondo. Le coordinate digitali della realtà incarnano dunque gli atomi che, per Democrito, sono il costituente del reale. Gli atomi costituiscono cioè la realtà, nel suo essere stata però trasformata in una serie di codici che la “rappresentano”. La realtà è stata infatti dissolta nelle più piccole porzioni di spazio, ovvero un insieme di atomi la cui combinazione genera e produce ulteriore realtà, frutto dell’ordine e della posizione dei codici/atomi. Gli atomisti spiegavano dunque la realtà come alternanza tra il pieno e il vuoto (Abbagnano, 2006). Oggi l’immaginario della realtà digitale, per gli utenti assorbiti nel cyberspazio, incarna il complesso di atomi pieni, capaci di generare comportamenti reali nel piccolo vuoto che intercorre prima che nuovi atomi digitali facciano la loro comparsa, ricreando così una nuova componente di umana realtà e sconfessando anche quella prodotta dagli atomi precedenti. La specie umana rischia di ritrovarsi sospesa in quello spazio vuoto che intercorre tra un atomo digitale e l’altro; comportamenti e credenze umane potrebbero cioè essere determinate dal vorticoso e incessante combinarsi degli atomi/codici digitali. L’immaginario digitale, popolato da codici/atomi “pieni”, può rappresentare dunque il luogo delle diverse identificazioni prodotte dal vuoto delle identità lasciato dai soggetti. Concetto che può essere legato al pensiero di Žižek (2016), il quale sostiene che “proprio il processo di trasformazione tra le molteplici identificazioni presuppone una sorta di fascia vuota che renda possibile il salto da un’identità all’altra, e questa fascia vuota è il soggetto stesso” (p.236). Considerando l’ambito teologico, è stata individuata una sorta di “apocalisse digitale”. In generale, uno dei messaggi destinali dell’Apocalisse giovannea rivela come l’accesso ad una vita nuova possa essere raggiunto solo “transitando attraverso la strettoia del morire” e esigendo “la presenza di una catastrofe” (Stefani, 2008, pp. 63-64). Poiché l’apocalisse digitale è stata considerata una deviazione antecedente al compimento di quella giovannea, essa può essere dunque inquadrata come percorso destinale rivelante la morte del vecchio uomo che lascia spazio ad una nuova umanità. Al contempo questa “catastrofe” può essere d’insegnamento per raddrizzare il percorso umanistico; infatti la rivelazione di tale disorientamento antropologico ha in sé un progetto di salvezza, se tale rivelazione viene letta in chiave didattica. Guardando ad un futuro, non solo escatologico, l’apocalisse digitale può dunque rivelare ciò che l’uomo ha deciso di fare della propria specie e pertanto essere d’insegnamento ai fini di una consapevole sopravvivenza sul pianeta. Le incursioni del lavoro di ricerca nella psicanalisi, hanno permesso di operare riflessioni sul recupero della vergogna. L’indagine relativa a tale emozione sociale, non ha permesso soltanto di approfondire la questione relativa alla consapevolezza dell’irrinunciabile “identità digitale”; considerare infatti la vergogna come “senso del limite” ha permesso di coinvolgere anche il paradigma economico e politico nell’ambito di tale indagine. L’uomo contemporaneo si trova infatti ad essere attore di una realtà problematica e conflittuale, dominata essenzialmente da un’unica grande contraddizione: la ricerca di ciò che il contesto sociale reputi ascrivibile al concetto di “benessere”, in contrasto con gli effetti che tale ricerca può generare per l’uomo stesso e per il contesto nel quale è calato. L’intero lavoro di ricerca è dunque fondato sul rapporto tra uomo e universo digitale; in riferimento ad un’analisi più specificatamente sociologica, è stato possibile sfruttare un’esperienza personale per cercare di mostrare gli stimoli dell’iperconnessione in ottica comportamentista. È stato messo in luce come i clienti di una discoteca nella quale si svolgeva un rave party, incapaci di seguire un tipo di musica estremamente veloce, fossero soliti indursi in uno stato di alterazione per poter ballare “a tempo”. Nel raggiungimento di tale stato, erano però anche soliti lanciarsi con veemenza contro il muro; tale pericolosa reazione giustificava pertanto l’adozione di pannelli morbidi sulle pareti dello stabile nel quale si svolgeva il rave party. Tale condizione è stata messa a paragone con quella dell’utente incapace di gestire l’iper-stimolazione legata all’immersività digitale. Non sempre capace di assecondare i ritmi dell’iperconnessione, egli rischia infatti di trovarsi inconsapevolmente in uno stato di alterazione legato a forme di comportamento non sempre lucide; in pratica può diventare un individuo blasé (Simmel, citato in Mauceri, 2020, p. 25), ovvero il risultato dell’intensificazione della vita nervosa dell’ambiente metropolitano, che nella dimensione onlife può trovare la sua estremizzazione. In ultimo, senz’altro le “ipotesi di rivolta” proposte non possono essere considerate del tutto originali nel loro genere ma, come espresso nella parte del finale del lavoro, in realtà le soluzioni alle problematiche che affliggono l’umanità non devono essere necessariamente “inventate”, esse anzi sono ben presenti e radicate nella storia della civiltà umana; semmai il problema è rappresentato dalla volontà di renderle visibili agli occhi di tutti, per poterle condividere. Conclusioni Le conclusioni del lavoro sono connesse ad una presa di coscienza relativamente alle compromissioni tra il progetto identitario e relazionale dell’umano, e la sua capacità di governare il proprio istinto “prometeico”, rivolto in particolare alla costruzione di nuove realtà su basi tecnologiche e digitali. Sotto il profilo teorico, un’implicazione desunta dalle analisi effettuate afferisce all’importanza della riscoperta del principio di prevenzione, spesso soppiantato da quello di precauzione. Poiché “la precauzione sta al rischio potenziale come la prevenzione sta al rischio noto” (Dupuy, 2010, p. 54), si potrebbe pensare ad una “metafisica del tempo proiettivo” (Dupuy, 2010, p. 70) consistente nel proiettarsi nel futuro e nel voltarsi dal futuro stesso per guardare il presente e anticipare la sua valutazione col senno di poi. L’immaginario futuro dovrebbe pertanto essere pensato in maniera sufficientemente catastrofica da essere al tempo stesso repulsivo e credibile, così da scatenare quelle azioni capaci di evitare la sua realizzazione, proibendo l’incidente. (Dupuy, 2010). Un’implicazione pratica frutto del lavoro di ricerca riguarda la sfera dell'educazione. Le agenzie educative possono infatti essere determinanti per favorire il recupero e la salvaguardia dell'umano. La scuola in particolare, attraverso la Digital Literacy e la Digital Education (Cortoni, Casaldi & Pastore, 2020, p. 197), può potenziare l’interesse nei confronti dell’ambientalismo digitale, sfruttando il già ben avviato utilizzo dei dispositivi all’interno delle aule didattiche attraverso i vari progetti di media education. La Digital Literacy e la Digital Education, intese come “Alfabetizzazione ed Educazione Digitale”, sono connesse allo studio delle Scienze della Comunicazione. Tale studio può essere promosso in ottica curricolare, dalla scuola primaria alla secondaria di secondo grado. La Digital Literacy, può essere nello specifico intesa come nuova forma di educazione civica in grado di infondere conoscenze relativamente all’universo comunicativo (Cortoni, et al., 2020). Partendo dalle basi dei linguaggi mediali, per arrivare alle complesse dinamiche del sistema comunicativo dell’era digitale, è possibile in pratica parlare nelle aule scolastiche proprio di ambientalismo digitale o di capitalismo della sorveglianza. A fornire gli strumenti mediali e i metodi adatti al setting didattico della Digital Literacy, è invece la Digital Education attraverso un uso dei dispositivi volto ad esaltarne l’uso facilitatore relativamente ai processi di memorizzazione e apprendimento. (Cortoni, et al, 2020). In tal senso, sempre in ambito educativo, è possibile individuare nella promozione dell’atto della lettura la capacità di conservare la memoria. Essa si nutre dei ricordi, elementi altamente emotivi (il termine ricordo discende dal latino corcordis: “cuore”), indispensabili per non perdere di vista il proprio futuro ed evitare di essere assorbiti all’interno di una società sempre più “cronofagica” (Ferrarotti, 2018, p. 89). La scuola è per sua natura connessa alle altre agenzie educative, rappresentate dalla famiglia e dalla società. Teoricamente tutte le ipotesi di rivolta proposte potrebbero avere un’applicazione pratica, a patto che il paradigma politico economico favorisca le interconnessioni tra tali agenzie, ponendo l’accento in particolare sulla centralità della cura, atteggiamento determinante per la sopravvivenza dell'essere umano. Limiti e traiettorie di ricerca futura Il progetto di ricerca è stato circoscritto da un numero di fonti consultate (159 bibliografiche e 32 sitografiche) che naturalmente risulta limitato, vista la complessità del fenomeno oggetto di analisi. Pertanto le riflessioni evinte sono inevitabilmente parziali e discutibili da tutti i punti di vista interpretativi, anche in virtù di eventuali accostamenti "azzardati" connessi all’approccio inter e multidisciplinare. Il lavoro si fonda inoltre su una base caratterizzata da una continua e accelerata mutevolezza: l’universo tecnologico/digitale. Di conseguenza, ciò che rappresenta il risultato delle analisi, potrebbe non risultare più valido già nel breve periodo. Pertanto possibili nuove linee di ricerca, oltre che fondarsi su una più ricca risorsa di fonti, potrebbero anche doversi trovare nella condizione di analizzare ulteriori compromissioni tra la realtà umanistica mescolata con quella digitale. Sembra difficile che si possa porre un argine significativo al processo di meccanizzazione della mente e di direzionamento comportamentale, però la convivenza con la dimensione on line potrebbe essere bilanciata da linee di ricerca capaci di comprendere come far leva sul plesso relazionale, rendendo quindi la dimensione onlife più equilibrata e consapevole e, di conseguenza, più “umanizzata”.
L’età invisibile. Per un recupero della vergogna
Ferrante, Davide (FRRDVD78E01F839G)
2024
Abstract
Introduction The subject of this thesis primarily revolves around the "provocative" concept of contemporaneity, defined as an "invisible age," before attempting to focus the analysis on the necessary rediscovery of the human, particularly through the retrieval of a social emotion that represents one of its peculiar traits: shame. The phenomenon of invisibility related to the contemporary age represents the culmination of a progressive advancement of the digital dimension, which, through an increasingly massive use of devices, tends to make certain fundamental aspects of the human increasingly opaque. These aspects relate to identity, relationality, as well as specific human faculties such as memory and intelligence. The paper thus starts with study premises seeking to define the characteristics of a reality perception never before experienced by humans, traits that can serve as "evidence of the existence" of an age referred to as "invisible." It can be framed as the age of "non-things" (Han, 2022, p.4), where information has replaced the things of the world in its digital rewriting. Information stands in front of things, making them fade, "opaque." The reality of the world tends to empty and disembodied, reducing itself to a set of "spectral information" resulting from a "derealization" operated by digitization (Han, 2022). The contemporary age is also attributable to the domain of the "infosphere" (Floridi, 2017, p.44), an informational environment in which humans are conceptualized as informational organisms, "inforgs," sharing information with other natural and artificial informational agents who process information autonomously (Floridi, 2017). This is because sophisticated digital devices have made the difference between online and offline life invisible. Hence, it is referred to as "onlife" (Floridi, 2017, p. 84) where humans, as inforgs, seamlessly alternate their connections between two different spaces: the everyday real and the online network accessed through digital devices (Floridi, cited in Pasqualetti, 2021). The contemporary age is thus invisible because it is dominated by an invisible essence: information. With its "spectral" and pervasive essence, it influences behaviors and changes in humans, making certain distinctive traits, including identity and relationships with others, less defined. Identity tends to dissolve into a multitude of identifications that accentuate the narcissistic component of the individual. These identifications are facilitated by a process of "acceleration and alienation" (Rosa, 2015). This process is due to the fact that the digital reality possesses traits of a speed of exposure of its content not always manageable by humans in a balanced way. Consequently, individuals may find themselves trapped within the devices they created, which risk slipping out of their control. The dimension of relationships suffers as the dialogical element is compromised. The problem of the crisis of dialogue is expressed through the consideration of the Other not as a "Thou" but as an "It" (Kaplan, 2021, p.50). Consequently, the Other is dehumanized, and the same dehumanizing approach reflects on the Self, incapable of grasping its own humanity and that of the Other in an environment dominated by the urgency to communicate (Martini, 1993). In practice, the adoption of a technological mentality contributes to the reduction of the Other to a consumable informational object. One of the characteristics of a whirlwind and frenetic communication is "projective identification" (Turkle, 2019, p. 288), a defense mechanism that highlights the projection of one's frustration onto the Other, leading to a loss of meaningful communication in favor of a discursive competition that, in an onlife dimension, has repercussions in real life. Throughout the work, the importance of learning from the experience related to the new anthropological horizon, a result of this unprecedented onlife dimension, has been emphasized. The hermeneutic horizon of what has been defined as the invisible age reveals a new truth/reality: the end of the humanized world as it had been perceived up to that moment. The study initially focused on the Johannine text, and subsequently, the analysis shifted to possible interpretations of the same in a socio-informatic key. The digital apocalypse was then treated as a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one; it was considered as a destined path revealing the death of the old man, making room for a new humanity. At the same time, this "catastrophe" can be a teaching moment to correct the humanistic path. Indeed, the revelation of this anthropological disorientation has a salvation project if read as a didactic key. However, with the absence of reference points for humans in an age where it no longer makes sense to question their destiny, being distracted or captivated by a present sweetened by digital devices, everything becomes simultaneously true and false, and "in a deadly symbiotic embrace, the world dissolves into its digital selfrepresentation" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). The gradual advent of an age defined as "invisible" thus makes certain characteristics of the human regarding its identity project, relational base, sense of community, and bond founded on a dialogue that should preserve individualities and differences while enhancing points of contact, opaque. Moreover, this age may also hide the risk of a probable catastrophe if humans allow themselves to be swallowed by a form of digital-based atomized individualism. The recovery of the human has therefore been the subject of study and analysis based on the following assumption: the Self can make its identity project visible only through the social bond with the Other. This bond can be safeguarded if a social emotion that, understood as a "sense of limit," often set aside in the onlife dimension, is reintroduced: shame. Among all social emotions, shame is the most "social," and its absence highlights the detachment between individuality and social connection (Turnaturi, 2012). When the Internet displays strong individualism and significant social fragmentation, there is a presence of an uncohesive society, likely due to a precarious sense of shame. Shame, as a social emotion, can become a civic passion generating indignation; it is capable of reweaving social ties as an emotion connected to self-love and dignity, through the manifestation of one's individuality and subjectivity never separated from being with the Other (Turnaturi, 2012). In the course of the work, shame has also been considered as a "rebellion hypothesis" referring to the thoughts of Camus (2017). For the Algerian author, rebellion is to be understood as a harmonious and solidary dimension within which man "transcends in the Other" (p. 21). The phenomenon of the desirable rebellion concerning the recovery of the human has therefore been analyzed and dissected into ten possible hypotheses of "human resistance." The objects of these revolts have been identified in "digital" environmentalism (Floridi, 2017, p. 254), in the sense of responsibility, in opposition to automation, in "positive decentralization," in considering risks, in humanity's politics, in the centrality of care, in safeguarding the imaginary, in promoting reading, and in enhancing the artistic and cultural dimension. Objectives and Research Questions The ultimate goals of this work involve proposing a discussion about a possible state of "invisibility," both in terms of identity and relationships, in which contemporary reality finds itself. This discussion aims to provoke the rediscovery of certain typical human traits related to the rational and imaginative dimension, which seem to have been obscured within the digital realm. Therefore, the objectives of the work are as follows: 1. Pay particular attention to contemporary reality, highlighting how identity, dialogue, and a sense of community are subject to partial compromise, along with human faculties such as memory and intelligence, due to an often unconscious and irresponsible use of new digital technologies. 2. Emphasize how the vision of a "digital apocalypse" reveals the possibility of awareness, relative to an inherent didactic premise in this change of humanistic coordinates. 3. Raise the question of the desirable recovery of the social emotion of shame. Considered as a "sense of limit," shame can respond to forms of social atomism by fostering consideration of the Other, whose connection is crucial to completeness of the Self. 4. Propose hypotheses of "revolt" as possible alternatives to contemporary scenarios dominated by forms of economic, political, and social deregulation. In this sense, the term "revolt" aims to achieve harmonious unity among social stakeholders. This stability can be pursued through a "will to creation" intimately connected to the concept of revolt. However, this will does not seek to rebuild the current scenario by starting from its destruction, as in the concept of revolution. Instead, it aims at dialogue between parties to find points of agreement, intending to operate a construction process starting from existing complexity (Camus, 2017). Therefore, the ten hypotheses of revolt that conclude the work aim to highlight how it is possible, if not urgent, to address issues such as digital environmentalism, responsibility, automation opposition, positive decentralization, risk consideration, politics of humanity, centrality of care, safeguarding the imaginary, promotion of reading, and the essentiality of the artistic and cultural dimension. As a result, the research questions of the thesis are as follows: 1. How can the contemporary age be defined today, and how can attention be focused on humans, given the increasingly massive presence and use of current digital technologies influencing the new social imaginary? 2. What is meant by the invisible age, and what are the proofs of its existence? Additionally, what aspects of the human are considered invisible or at risk of invisibility? 3. Why is the existence of this age connected to a form of "digital revelation" capable of serving as a warning to make the use of digital devices and the immersive experience in cyberspace more conscious? 4. How is it possible to recover those human traits that the unscrupulous use of new digital technologies has made less visible, deserving special attention? Specifically, the question arises as to whether the recovery of the trait represented by shame, in its sense of "limit," can favor the resumption of the human identity project, given the compromise of identity in favor of the emergence of various identifications. These identifications, in addition to fragmenting the individual, may lead them to believe that they can operate in an atmosphere of deresponsibilization that cyberspace tends to stage. 5. Is the concept of limit, applied to the production not only of new devices in a trans and post-human perspective, a matter of vital importance for the preservation of the human? Therefore, how should one approach the next frontiers of economic and socio-informatic progress in terms of "digital environmentalism" (Floridi, 2017, p. 254). This perspective has been related to a series of hypotheses, aimed at strengthening the objective expressed in the previous question: that is to say aimed at understanding how some human traits considered at risk of disappearance can be made visible. Thus, it is questioned whether the loss of aspects such as identity, dialogue/relationality, and a sense of community can be rediscovered not only through the proper use of shame but also through the safeguarding of one's imaginative dimension, capable of countering the obsession with production and crisis of creation (Camus, 2017). Finally, it is questioned whether this caring attitude can be nested in the artistic and cultural dimension and whether it can restore a sense of humanity, also through the rediscovery of the sacred dimension, to make the relationship complete, i.e., the existence of the Self in communion with the Other. Regarding the structure of the thesis, it starts with the analysis of the phenomenon related to the invisible traits of humans in their onlife dimension (Floridi, 2017, p. 84), understood as an "invisible" alternation between connections experienced in everyday reality and the digital experience. This analysis is based on the consideration that, at the origins of this unprecedented existential condition, there is the creation of a communicative/interactive space. This space is the result of a need rooted in the birth of the Internet, whose beginnings date back to 1958 with the creation of the ARPA (Advance Research Project Agency) by the United States, an agency dedicated to the exploration of new military defense technologies (Detti & Lauricella, 2013). Therefore, the study also included a historical overview that determined the gradual formation of cyberspace. Its appearance follows an inevitable evolutionary and cultural process that has shifted human attention to a different market value, represented by computer data. The contemporary age of "Dataism" (Benanti, 2020, p. 90) is thus based on an "economy of attention" (Eyal, cited in Coin, 2019, p. 258). The direction of the latter allows the flow of collected data to determine a market for new behaviors, facilitated by a form of "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529) with major information technology companies at its peak. Through the production of devices, management of social networks, e-commerce, and browsers, these companies effectively manage the economic resource represented by behaviors as a commodity to be traded, just as was done with other goods such as land, labor, and money starting from the 1800s (Zuboff, 2019). Thus, if phenomena such as urbanism and industrial revolutions have caused epochal changes in terms of economic management, politics, and social relationships, the same can be said of the creation of a communicative network that serves as an imaginary bridge between what humans were "before" and what they have become "after." The birth and development of the Internet they represent an epochal and inevitable turning point in the anthropological journey. Internet and its "products," particularly the Web and Social Networks, nonetheless constitute a great resource capable of improving and strengthening the human experience. Thus, the thought of Cardinal Martini has been revisited, suggesting that one can relate to media-filtered communication akin to the hemorrhaging woman mentioned in the Gospels who ardently seeks to detach herself from the objectivity of the formless mass surrounding Jesus (Martini, 1993). To recover herself and heal, she endeavors to overcome every obstacle to touch the salvific mantle of Christ. Therefore, the media can represent a similar form of salvation for one's identity, taking care of your “informational environment”, and a wonderful tool for solidarity if one chooses to be active and dialogical receptors (Martini, 1993), avoiding being engulfed within an objectified and inexpressive mass due to a pernicious and often unconscious use of digital devices. These devices symbolize a "Promethean gap" (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129), a concept drawn from Günther Anders' insights. According to the German philosopher, the hubris of contemporary homo faber has exacerbated, in relation to technological progress, the "doing and knowing," forgetting the "predicting and feeling" (Pulcini, 2020, p. 129). The perilous relationship between humans and the use of new digital technologies has thus been analyzed through the risk represented by the surrender of one's self to the machine, not only from the perspective of its identity component but also concerning the autonomous management of neural faculties. The research also focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence, specifically in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), such as home automation systems. The IoT aims to facilitate human actions, leading to a process of substitution where devices take over many household operations. Consequently, the domestic environment is populated by "infoms" (Han, 2022, p. 8), things normally found at home that, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, transform into agents processing information, accustoming the individual to being assisted or replaced in many of his functions. This intelligence undeniably has great potential. When used ethically (like the aforementioned "mantle of Jesus"), it can undoubtedly contribute to simplifying the general life of human beings. However, it should be noted that its continuous "Promethean" experimentation results, more than the humanization of the machine, in the "mechanization of the mind" (Dupuy, 2014, p.11). This is because Artificial Intelligence will hardly replicate the unique anthropological trait represented by consciousness. In this sense, one can refer to the attempt to reduce the sense of responsibility to code: since Artificial Intelligence is "blind to events" (Han, 2022, p. 55), it learns from the past, but the future it calculates is a choice between the two pre-established options represented by the binary code, namely 1 and 0 (Han, 2022). Therefore, it is man who approaches the machine through his not always responsible use. A specific object of study has been the relationship between digital reality and the various ways in which humans use memory and intelligence. The difference between episodic and semantic memory (de Kerckhove, cited in Faletra, 2020) has been analyzed. Episodic memory is based on the iconic aspect of information flows. It essentially works by overlapping or combining visual stimuli, subordinating the sequential and logical component to it. For episodic memory, what matters is the "sensory experience" (de Kerckhove, cited in Faletra, 2020, p. 108) of facts and information. Semantic memory goes further, associating experiences with meanings, concretely generating symbols. This memory takes time, which episodic memory does not enjoy, to interpret the experience, extracting meaning and leaving a trace, a symbol, on which to reflect later (Faletra, 2020). Episodic memory does not truly question the experience; it assimilates it, believing it to be objective, and, by making it its own in a superb manner, can elevate it to a cognitive totem. In contrast, semantic memory has an "in itself scientific" nature, capable of continually refuting its subjective interpretation with great humility. The process of mechanizing the mind can also be favored by the use of a different type of intelligence by humans. It is possible to distinguish between "simultaneous and sequential intelligence" (Simone, cited in Galimberti, 2020, p. 118), in the manner of the already mentioned difference between episodic and semantic memory. Simultaneous intelligence is disorderly and incapable of establishing a hierarchy between pieces of information because it treats them all the same way. When an image is presented, especially for the first time, this is the type of intelligence that activates; it is elementary and less demanding. On the contrary, sequential intelligence uses a rigid analytical procedure to understand the codes of a line of text and requires greater effort (Simone, cited in Galimberti, 2020). Given the contemporary reality characterized by the cult of the image, the use of sequential intelligence is becoming increasingly unnecessary, in favor of a dominance of simultaneous intelligence. This, along with episodic memory, portrays contemporary man as an being who has altered his way of thinking after the (mis)use of devices led him to experience "digital immersiveness." Before the onlife dimension, thinking was founded on analytical, structured, and sequential bases. It has subsequently transformed into a mode of thinking that is generic, vague, global, and holistic (Galimberti, 2020), capable of generating, among various consequences, an atmosphere dominated by "logical conformism" (Durkheim, cited in Maffesoli, 2020, p. 155). In practice, the rapid sharing of images, consumed without leaving a trace and without asking too many questions, can contribute to generating a form of conformism. Once the effort associated with valuing past experiences and the necessary commitment to forming structured thoughts is set aside, this conformism leads the individual to look, think, and exist by dissolving into the aforementioned objectified mass. Throughout the work, it has been emphasized how important it is to treasure the experience linked to the new anthropological horizon, the result of the unprecedented onlife dimension. The hermeneutical horizon of what has been defined as the invisible age reveals a new truth/reality: the end of the humanized world as it had been perceived until that moment. In other words, the end of the world revealed by a "digital" apocalypse capable of laying bare a change in humanistic coordinates. Regarding this theme, the initial focus of the study was the Johannine text; subsequently, the analysis shifted to possible interpretations of the same text from a socio-informatic perspective. To make this comparison, the importance of the imaginary as a narrative element and producer of reality was considered, thanks to its configuration as a "dynamic relational interaction of symbols" (Bovalino, 2018, p. 25). The apocalyptic message, unlike the prophetic one based on the word, often appears in the form of visions. Vision is thus a first element that creates a bridge between apocalyptic writing and the imaginary, especially if the latter is digital and dominated by "conversational images" (Codeluppi, 2018, p. 64). Another connecting element is represented by the extensive use of symbols. Indeed, since the imaginary is the place where symbols interact dynamically, apocalyptic writing can be fully defined as writing of the imaginary. The decisive symbols in apocalyptic interpretation are the figures, comparable to the numerical codes that are famously at the foundation of the digital network. Considering the ancient Jewish technique of gematria, each word can correspond to a number, as each letter of the alphabet has a numerical correspondence (Bianchi, 2012). Therefore, circulating visions in the form of photos and images, connected to symbols resulting from line-by-line code writing, allow considering cyberspace as a novel anthropological scenario. The apocalyptic symbolism is characterized by the prevalence of time over space; transience prevails over permanence (Stefani, 2008). Social networks, in particular, precisely because they are founded on time and its continuous "presentification," relegate physical and mental space (the latter represented by opinions and points of view) to an appendage of time. Space is reduced to a "frame" in which to insert continuous changes resulting from perennial expectations of impossible realizations, as if social networks, in addition to serving as existential fillers, could also provide comforting answers akin to sacred scripture. These "eager expectations," which in the Apocalypse look with confidence toward a destiny in full communion with God, therefore generate mental spaces configured in opinions and viewpoints circulating on the Internet. These spaces, precisely because they belong to cyberspace, are in continuous mutation and leave the user at the mercy of a perpetually transient suspended time. The digital apocalypse has thus been treated as a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one; it has been considered as a destiny-revealing path, indicating the death of the old man giving way to a new humanity. At the same time, this "catastrophe" can be a lesson to rectify the humanistic path; indeed, the revelation of this anthropological disorientation carries within it a salvation project if this revelation is read as didactic. In an age where it makes less sense to ask questions about one's destiny and reference points are scarce, humans experience a sense of disorientation, connected to their distraction or abduction by a present sweetened by digital devices. Everything thus becomes simultaneously true and false, and, "in a deadly symbiotic embrace, the world dissolves into its digital self-representation" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 106). If the Johannine Apocalypse describes the relationship between the world, man, and God through the event of Christ (Bianchi, 2012), the digital apocalypse describes the relationship between the world, man, and his future through the event represented by the birth of the Internet. The socio-informatic interpretation of the Johannine text specifically considers the symbolism related to the seven churches (in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse) and the first set of visions (between the thirteenth and fifteenth chapters). Regarding the churches, it has been highlighted how the message addressed to the churches of Pergamum, Sardis, and Laodicea is highly relevant. The issue of the church of Pergamum concerns the compromise of Christian faith undermined by paganism. If the digital apocalypse is a kind of re-creation, then it must be up to humans to decide whether the worship of devices should take the place of God or, secularly, if devices should take possession of the rational and imaginary sphere of human beings. The fideistic flexion related to the church of Sardis can instead be correlated with the destiny-revealing manifestation of a man's bewilderment in the mazes of digital chaos. If the weakening of faith is indeed a "physiological" passage that touches humans, the loss of the humanistic narrative can represent a necessary stage for its recovery in the face of an "invisible" age. Regarding the church of Laodicea, John denounces its Promethean hubris, which has made it a community that believes it can be self-sufficient and decide its own destiny. The narrative of this admonition seems to recall the arrogance of humans who believe they can be masters of their Being and Nature through the digital recoding of the world. The analysis of the first set of visions has allowed to reflect on the symbolism expressed by the account of the first beast, a monstrous being with seven heads and ten horns. It represents totalitarian power, which can be seductive through numerous forms. It is therefore capable of generating forms of barbarism that, in the apocalyptic vision of the digital dimension, can be framed in the degeneration of the web, increasingly negatively globalized culturally and victim to totalitarian impulses capable of favoring the "decline of the wise" (Bovalino, 2018, p. 70). The second beast, resembling a lamb with two horns and the voice of a dragon, represents the force of ideological propaganda aimed at worshiping the first beast. In this sense, the Internet has risen to a divine level, through its ability to direct behaviors and, in general, the lives of individuals. The web, when it degenerates, represents a new Babel whose etymology is: "city of idols" (Bianchi, 2012, p. 159). The new digital Babylon has, in fact, the propensity to worship new idols capable of ensnaring the masses, becoming models and even replacing men of science. Among the most widespread idolatries is the exaltation of a pseudo-ideological form that has obtained its consecration on the web: populism, definable as the "shadow of democracy" (Canovan, 1993, p. 44). According to Maffesoli (2009), "in times of change, it is necessary to seek and find the right words, or at least the least false ones" (p. 19). Therefore, during the transition of digital revelation, a necessity could be represented, more than the search for truths, by the unmasking of falsehoods, according to the principle of the conservation of the human species intimately linked to a fundamental aspect: balance, urging a "open-armed" lifestyle (Maier, 2018, p. 69). The advent of the invisible age makes some characteristics typical of the human regarding its identity project, relational/community component, the compromise of some of its faculties, and the bond based on a dialogue capable of preserving differences, opaque. The recovery of the human has therefore been the object of study and analysis, starting from the assumption that the Self can make its identity project visible through the social bond with the Other. This bond can be safeguarded if a social emotion is put back into circulation, understood as a "sense of limit," often set aside in the onlife dimension: shame. Of all social emotions, shame is precisely the most "social." Its absence highlights the detachment between individuality and social bond (Turnaturi, 2012). When the Internet shows strong individualism and great social fragmentation, there is indeed a society that is not very cohesive, probably due to a precarious sense of shame. It can become a civil passion, transforming into indignation. Shame thus has the ability to reconnect social bonds as an emotion connected to the love of Self and one's dignity, through the manifestation of one's individuality and subjectivity never separated from being with the Other (Turnaturi, 2012). The low cohesion of the socio-relational context, a result of individualism and social fragmentation, has been analyzed following the reflections of Charles Taylor (cited in Turnaturi, 2012). The philosopher illustrates how contemporaneity is characterized by confusion between asserting one's authenticity and self-realization. Genuine authenticity finds its path of affirmation through values such as coherence and through the act of sharing the Self always in relation to the Other. However, this idea of authenticity has lost its relational references to become a search for a self-centered and narcissistic Self (Taylor, cited in Turnaturi, 2012), united with the desire to fulfill every desire or impulse. Regarding the traits of self-realization, they indicate a lack of planning replaced by thinking of oneself as an "Ikea individual" (Turnaturi, 2012, p. 22), disassemblable and reassemblable according to pleasure and opportunity. This view of self-realization becomes a late-modern myth and coincides with authenticity, shifting the focus from the "design" of the Self to the "composition" of the Self, without considering limits or authoritative institutions that could hinder the enjoyment of one's narcissistic urgencies. This elusive point of arrival cannot tolerate the obstacle of shame, identified precisely in the limits, institutional figures, or betrayals of the Self (Turnaturi, 2012). Consequently, the Other risks being perceived not as a whole person but as a "piece" needed at that moment. The psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut speaks in this regard of "Self-Objects" (Kohut, cited in Turkle, p. 19). This perceptual mode, typical of a frequent relational distortion in cyberspace, effectively considers the Other as a spare part, useful for the momentary composition of the Self. It is, therefore, a fictitious relational sense that conceals the satisfaction of a narcissistic experience (Turkle, 2019). The psychoanalytic tradition speaks of narcissism not specifically to indicate someone who loves themselves but refers to someone who needs constant support. Therefore, the narcissist can only relate to ad hoc representations of others, and in this sense, the network definitely represents a comfort zone. These representations, the aforementioned "Self-Objects" that other psychoanalysts also define as "partial objects," are therefore all that the narcissistic (and fragile) Self can manage (Turkle, 2019). Online life provides an environment where it is easier to relate to these partial objects, which, however, are not the person in their entirety, thereby risking the relationships that should promote social cohesion (Turkle, 2019). Shame, therefore, being the emotion that presupposes the "common" (i.e., being with), is hidden in the era of "atomized individualism imposed on the community" (Recalcati, 2012, p. 23). In a culture that has transferred liberalism from the economic sphere to the political and finally the social sphere, there is no space for the sense of limit, therefore for shame. Individual entities, capable of effectively promoting the exaltation of self-realization mixed with the defense of their authenticity, can take root within a community made up of atomized individuals and can favor the rise of anachronistic views of the present and future, as recent sovereignties and discriminatory policies are demonstrating. Contemporary society seems to undergo economic, moral, and emotional deregulation in practice (Turnaturi, 2012). The diminishing importance of the concept of shame that arises is not due to embitterment or anthropological cynicism; it is derived from having lost the notion of the Self as a "part of," replaced by the affirmation of the individual Self, whose sense is perceived as being alone against all (Turnaturi, 2012). In the act of feeling ashamed, a person transcends their value as a person above their mood or impulse because "in feeling ashamed, there is an element of oneself that has been disappointed" (Scheler, 1979, p. 119). Shame also promotes the unveiling and recognition of one's Self with which the individual has the possibility of living an "intimate relationship"; through shame, it is possible to discover an aspect of one's being (Sartre, 2008). Feeling shame, therefore, means experiencing a sense of humanity, being alive and present to oneself and the community. Setting it aside and hiding it is, all in all, convenient. Shame is, indeed, an "uncomfortable" emotion that requires continuous confrontation with oneself and others. It demands that the individual preserves their "difficult humanity." It should be noted that shame keeps individuals human by imposing dependence on others because, in the absence of shame, one disappears into oneself (Sartre, cited in Baldassarro, 2012), becoming "invisible." To overcome this condition of invisibility, the work proposes, in the final part, a series of "revolt hypotheses," the first of which can be considered the recovery of shame. These hypotheses have been defined as "revolt" because they draw inspiration from the thoughts of Camus (2017). In revolt, according to the Algerian philosopher, "man transcends himself in the Other, and, from this point of view, human solidarity is metaphysical" (p. 21). Revolt can contribute to the recovery of the human and is preferred over revolution. The latter is an action aimed at obtaining consent, for love or by force, outside of any moral norm, whose historical claim lies in totality because it presupposes the lack of limit. Revolt, on the other hand, arises from the assertion of this limit, the result of the consideration that man is a "divided" being who cannot be denied in the name of a totality to be conquered. Consequently, revolt knows both the "yes" and the "no" because it has within it the necessity of extending values of limit, dignity, and beauty common to all and everything, moving towards unity without denying origins. Its historical claim, therefore, lies in unity (Camus, 2017). In practice, revolt is based on dialogue, on the consideration of the Other and the different parts that make up reciprocal units. It has a necessarily creative foundation based on the life of the being that already exists. In contrast, revolution, based on the death of being to produce another that will never exist, has a nihilistic foundation. The revolutionary being and its aspiration to totality will never exist because they do not contemplate norms, morals, or metaphysics capable of satisfying the hope continually disappointed in triumphal realization. On the contrary, revolt aims to emphasize that its creative force aims to exalt the being that already exists, albeit with its dark sides, trying to follow the guidance of moral norms and claims (Camus, 2017). Ten possible revolt proposals related to the proper use of technology have been analyzed. These proposals aim to recover humanity, which, even in its "difficult humanity," in the relationship with the Other and with the world, can find its own Self. The first hypothesis is represented by the concept of digital environmentalism. As humans have transformed reality into an "informational" environment, definable as the "infosphere" (Floridi, 2017, p. 44), it may be important to formulate digital environmentalism capable of raising questions about onlife. This involves posing questions regarding the individual and collective role of humans as informational organisms, the inforg (Floridi, 2017), along with a critical analysis of its current sociopolitical narratives. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the emergence of new training and sensitivity capable of understanding that the infosphere is a new common space that needs to be protected for the benefit of all (Floridi, 2017). The second revolt hypothesis concerns the recovery of a sense of responsibility. Following the "radical" thinking of the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, responsibility comes before freedom because the subject is constituted based on the ethical relationship with the other (Lévinas, cited in Pulcini, 2017). Creating a connection with shame, the concept of responsibility relates to the response to one's actions. However, it also invokes the emotional dimension of empathy, or "putting oneself in the shoes of the Other," participating in their emotions and experience. This condition is more necessary than ever, especially within the controversial dimension of social networks and the Internet, considered as the "symbolic space par excellence of unlimited freedom" (Pulcini, 2017, pp. 28-29). The third hypothesis can be framed in the contrast to automation. This automation, in addition to being closely connected to the market and the prediction of behaviors related to the issue of the "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019, p. 529), is linked to an increasingly alienating view of work. This vision, increasingly oriented towards accumulation rather than need, generates in the individual forms of depression and abandonment, setting aside significant reactions of opposition (Han, 2016). In practice, an individual who has been invited in recent decades to become an entrepreneur of themselves, becoming both master and slave of their own being, may tend to develop the same attitude towards a civilization of information that seduces them through a realization of their Self based on technology. The fourth hypothesis of revolt is represented by the concept of positive decentralization, intimately connected to the resistance against automation. Analyzing Žižek's thought (2016), the "radical ambiguity of electronic supplements" was considered (p. 236). They are indeed capable of improving the lives of users, freeing them from burdens and facilitating many operations; however, users pay a very high price that can be framed in a "radical decentralization." The subject is thus "mediated" by operating systems (Žižek, 2016), placed at the center of the multimedia dimension experienced through their identifications but simultaneously decentralized from their own identity. This "simulated centrality" can be countered not only by a will to reclaim one's identity, trapped between the mechanisms of digital automation but also by a subsequent new surrender of the self, this time in the relationship with the Other. Through the experience of "positive decentralization," the subject can also recover juissance (enjoyment), experienced precisely through the Other. If enjoyment becomes the prerogative of the digital device, the subject is forced to seek it frenetically and continuously. The fifth hypothesis concerns the consideration of risks, particularly those linked to the process of social atomization. The individual has been catapulted into a "global risk society" (Beck, 2001), whose turbulences are faced not within the family nucleus or within a community or social group, as in the past, but alone, enjoying a "risky freedom" imposed by a society that does not allow individuals to make decisions taking into account possible consequences (Beck, 2001). A society that, on the contrary, begins to perceive risks, considering itself a "risk society," allows the foundations of its activity and goals to become objects of scientific disputes and public policies; this society becomes "reflexive" (Beck, 2001, p. 165). The sixth hypothesis of revolt can be framed in the promotion of a "politics of humanity." Politics is not only attributable to the canons of various governments, parliaments, and parties. There is a "politics of subsystems," or a "subpolitics" (Beck, 2001, p. 51) protagonist of a "bottom-up globalization" that can be, for example, identified in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Subpolitics shapes society from below in the form of "direct" politics, capable of overcoming representative opinion-forming institutions (parties, parliaments) and often without enjoying legal protection. Organizations like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, or Terre des Hommes position themselves practically halfway between the state and the market, freeing politics from hostile schemes to mobilization and involvement of all sectors of society (Beck, 2001). The seventh hypothesis is represented by the concept of the centrality of care, a noun that, with its etymology, refers to terms such as "concern and solicitude," indicating the ability to grasp the urgencies and priorities one faces and making them the object of attention. The rediscovery of the human could thus be favored by shifting the value of attention, understood as the pivot of economic-digital neoliberalism, to its consideration as a fundamental prerequisite for the manifestation of care. Transitively, the transition from an economy of attention to an economy of care would lead to the affirmation of values such as responsibility, equality, and sustainability. In practice, the future of humanity. Another approach that the subject can experience in caring for the world can be framed in the term "resonance" (Rosa, cited in Pulcini, 2020, p. 167). The experience of resonating with the world consists of entering into a relationship with someone else but also with something else (such as a book, an idea, or a landscape), emerging from it transformed in unexpected and unpredictable ways. This experience is capable of restoring harmony with oneself and the world, fostering the perception that there can be a perspective of a good life. The concept of resonance contrasts with that of alienation and is an existential and emotional concept rather than cognitive (Rosa, 2015). The eighth hypothesis of revolt pertains to the project aimed at safeguarding the imaginary. It can be considered as the "invisible part of the visible," capable of supporting and giving meaning to it, nourishing it through various levels of meaning that are increasingly profound and, due to their invisible nature, require an effort to discover the map and content (Secondulfo, 2019). To emerge from a state of invisibility, it can be useful to rely on a structurally forged element to give meaning, support, and thus "visibility" to other elements. In practice, the invisibility of the imaginary element can favor the visibility of the human element, confused in an invisible dimension produced by a globalized and globalizing digital imaginary. It might be desirable, therefore, to form a new anthropological imaginary capable not so much of contrasting as of balancing the digital imaginary. The contemporary subject is indeed weakened by the image of the postmodern world, whose fragmentary and uncertain nature does not propose an "elsewhere" to which to imagine projecting oneself. Prospective imagination has been replaced by a type of short-sighted imagination, centered on the elements of the "here and now," considered the only horizons of the possible (Meo, 2019). The ninth hypothesis proposes the rediscovery of the importance of the act of reading, a "fuel" capable of setting the imagination in motion. This act leads to renewing self-awareness; reading, in fact, means reflecting, intelligere, or intus legere: reading inside (Ferrarotti, 2021, p. 19). If humans lose the habit of finding themselves in a metareflexive dimension, reachable also through the act of reading, they risk perceiving stress or discomfort in processing complex thoughts and tend to avoid the necessary confrontation with their own self. In this sense, according to information science expert T.D. Wilson, "the untrained mind does not like to be alone with itself" (quoted in Mauceri & Pastore, 2020, p. 175). Therefore, the mind finds in cybernetic hyperstimulation what it considers a cure for its discomfort, an even more effective balm because it satisfies its needs immediately. The tenth hypothesis of revolt, closing the work, nests in the power of art. Its dimension, in addition to giving voice to emotions and feelings, operates a restructuring of the languages through which humans attempt to represent the world. Thinking, for example, of the words recited or sung by an artist, they have the power to orient behaviors in a discontinuous way compared to the past, representing not only communication tools or emotional expressions but also criteria for social organization (Barcellona, 2013). To take care of one's symbolic imaginary, it is therefore essential to recover the power of speech and, in general, the power of artistic language. The revolt inherent in the artistic dimension is indeed able to exalt the humanity of the time considered as a creative and creating community, capable also of rediscovering the necessary moral norms and claims, crucial for its safeguard. The creative force of artistic production is indeed able to manufacture "substitute universes," within which man can "finally reign and know," and represents a "pure" form of revolt (Camus, 2017, pp. 279-280). Therefore, within the "digital solitude" of the invisible age, it is necessary to revolt because, as Camus (2017) states, "in the experience, absurd, suffering is individual. Starting from the movement of revolt, it has the awareness of being collective, it is the adventure of all" (p. 26). Limitations of the existing literature The limitations of the existing literature related to the studied phenomenon have been identified through bibliometric analysis focused on various keywords. Terms such as identity/identification, community, apocalypse, or those framed in the proposed "revolt hypotheses" showed a literature rich in contributions. However, the term shame, understood as a social emotion, revealed limitations, particularly regarding the positive use of shame to facilitate the recovery of individual identity. To address this, searches were conducted using Scopus and Google Scholar. Scopus showed 94 results related to the term shame (https://www.elsevier.com/search-results?query=shame&page=1), all in English. Expanding the search, the keyword "shame" linked to "identity" (101 pages with 1,237 results) and then to "social emotion" (462 pages with 6,582 sources) revealed a focus on shame predominantly from a clinical perspective, with limited exploration in the sociological sphere. Google Scholar, while displaying only 5 results for the keywords "shame social emotion" (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=it&as_sdt=0,5&q=allintitle:+vergogna+emozione+sociale&oq=vergogna+emo), highlighted through related articles and citations that the theme has significant sociological relevance. Consequently, in addition to contributing to the topic, an effort was made to delve into the perspective of shame, framing it as a "sense of limit," in the socio-digital and economic context. Viewing shame as a guide for continuous self-examination was interpreted as a useful indicator for the Other, along with the surrounding environment, to represent the necessary completion of the individual's identity project. The concept of sustainability, not limited to the ecological dimension, was connected to shame as a "sense of limit." This social emotion could facilitate necessary cooperations for the safeguarding of humanity within the onlife dimension, which is not always easy to manage. Considering the economic paradigm, a connection was made between the sense of limit inherent in shame and the sensitivity to understand that the infosphere is a new common space that needs protection for the benefit of all (Floridi, 2017). Examining the state of the art on the phenomenon under study, a possible strategy to protect and adapt the informational reality was studied in terms of a vision capable of combining environmental policies with digital policies, supporting a policy (and economy) of experience rather than consumption. This approach centers on the quality of relationships and processes rather than on things and their properties, aiming to support the environment and develop a sustainable information society (Floridi, 2020). Methodology The methodology employed involved both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative analysis focused on a comprehensive collection and comparison of information presented as reflections and thoughts in the 159 sources that form the bibliography. Simultaneously, a quantitative approach involved collecting data to support the discussion hypotheses derived from the study of the aforementioned sources. Specifically, data from Censis (2021), the “Seventeenth Report on Communication-Media after the Pandemic”, and an investigation on the risks of dependence on technologies and digital media conducted on a sample of 3,302 high school students in Rome (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020) were utilized. The Censis survey, based on a sample of 1200 individuals representative of the Italian population aged 14-80, allowed for correlations between contemporary age traits dominated by the "informational" universe and various aspects broadening the sociological discussion. These aspects include functional illiteracy, the influence of television, smartphone usage, access to the Internet and its potential dependence, the use of social networks, fake news, filter bubbles, confirmation bias, the phenomenon of gamers and YouTubers, the business of digital devices, the choice of purchasing digital devices based on parameters such as speed and time savings, blind trust in the Internet's ability to provide answers, and the idea that personal and professional gratification can be achieved through the Internet and that popularity on social networks is essential to becoming a celebrity. This information was complemented by data from the aforementioned study on a sample of Roman adolescents, focusing on the risks of dependence on technologies and digital media (Mauceri & Di Censi, 2020). It provided data on social network preferences and information regarding potential smartphone and social media dependence. Additionally, the quantitative analysis was enriched with statistical contributions extracted from the 32 web pages that constitute the sitography. This enhanced information collection on web browser and social network usage, billing from tech giants, average time spent online by users, and the responsible use of the network for promoting reading. In terms of "integral" sustainability, connecting sustainable development and digital environmentalism (Floridi, 2017), the research horizon was expanded by incorporating data on socio-economic inequalities. Finally, considering the importance of a responsible political vision for safeguarding humanity, relevant data were integrated for the consideration of this necessary attitude. Results The results obtained from the research project offer a series of crucial reflections for understanding the contemporary anthropological trajectory. Firstly, it was highlighted that the process of humanizing machines is actually secondary to a process, not always conscious, of mechanizing the mind. This automation is induced by obsessive forms of production of various digital devices, characteristic of the "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff, 2019). In response to this economic logic, it emerged that the future of humanity must be connected to the recovery of elements such as the sacred, the transcendent, utopia, "useless discourse”, (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125), and the surreal. The sacred, seen as a defense against hypercommunication, can leverage the recovery of silence and attention (Han, 2022). Finding one's "sacred space" (Turkle, 2019, p. 337) means recovering a place to recognize oneself and one's responsibilities, away from the sometimes illusory simulations of the digital network. The sacred as meta-human represents the extreme defense of the "human character of human society, the guarantee of its survival, and insurance against its annihilation" (Ferrarotti, 2021). The transcendent, connected to the sacred, is relevant because reality is dominated by an immanent perception configurable in an "irreligious" feeling (Barcellona, 2013, p. 104). The recovery of the transcendent can shed light on the consideration of ultimate issues such as personal death and the end of human history (Serra, cited in Barcellona, 2013). To address this transformation, the importance of a "serious utopian project" (Floridi, 2020, p. 113) was emphasized to give meaning to living together as a community. The idea of "universal trust" (Floridi, 2020, p. 226) was suggested as a principle in which every human being is born as a beneficiary of the world, becomes its trustee, and finally concludes their journey as a donor of the world (Floridi, 2020). The utopian dimension is closely linked to the imaginative faculty of humans. The concept of imagination allows prefiguring possible alternatives to the present, emphasizing the ability to imagine the future (Arendt, cited in Pulcini, 2020) also in the form of actions aimed at spreading good in society. They always produce good fruits, even if it seems that such actions are not verifiable or capable of changing the world (Papa Francesco, 2015). The utopian project can be promoted through "useless discourse," (Barcellona, 2013, p. 125) using words as a way of being. Humanities are considered as a provocatively useless discourse but open to mystery and based on the irreducibility of the individual. These discourses are therefore capable of questioning the concept of "reduction of society to a functional fact" (Barcellona, 2013, p. 126). Finally, it emerged that humans cannot do without the surreal to avoid being overwhelmed by machinic rationality. The surreal, a constituent of the imaginary, becomes essential to balance rationality. Limiting machinic rationality through human irrationality is considered a form of revolt (Camus, 2017). In conclusion, the sacred, transcendent, utopia, "useless discourse," and surreal are all elements linked to artistic sensitivity, capable of constructing imaginaries that serve as criteria for social organization (Barcellona, 2013). Contributions to existing literature The research work undertaken seeks to provide its modest yet passionate contribution to the diverse field of social studies. The analysis of contemporary phenomenological reality inevitably favored an inter and multi-disciplinary epistemic approach. The work aims to fit into sociological literature investigating the critical aspects of the present time and emphasizing humanistic components. The dialectical nature of sociology allowed for movement across philosophical, theological, psychoanalytic, and economic-political terrains, resulting in a series of synchronic and diachronic analyses and reflections. Utilizing philosophical reasoning, it was possible to draw a parallel between Democritus's atomism and the digital rewriting of the world. The digital coordinates of reality embody the atoms that, for Democritus, constitute the real. The atomists therefore explained reality as an alternation between fullness and emptiness (Abbagnano, 2006). Today, the digital reality's imaginary, for users absorbed in cyberspace, embodies a complex of full atoms capable of generating real behaviors in the small void before new digital atoms emerge, recreating a new component of human reality and discrediting the one produced by the preceding atoms. The human species risks finding itself suspended in the empty space between one digital atom and another; human behaviors and beliefs could be determined by the vortex-like and incessant combination of digital atoms/codes. The digital imaginary, populated by "full" codes/atoms, can thus represent the place of different identifications produced by the void of identities left by individuals. This concept can be linked to Žižek's thought, which suggests that "the process of transformation between multiple identifications presupposes a kind of empty band that makes the leap from one identity to another possible, and this empty band is the subject itself" (p.236). In the theological realm, a sort of "digital apocalypse" was identified. Generally, one of the destined messages of the Johannine Apocalypse reveals that access to a new life can only be achieved by "passing through the narrowness of dying" and demanding "the presence of a catastrophe" (Stefani, 2008, pp. 63-64). Since the digital apocalypse was considered a deviation preceding the fulfillment of the Johannine one, it can be framed as a destined path revealing the death of the old man, making room for a new humanity. Simultaneously, this "catastrophe" can be a teaching moment to correct the humanistic path; the revelation of this anthropological disorientation has a salvation project if read as an educational key. Looking to the future, not only eschatological, the digital apocalypse can reveal what humanity has decided to make of its species and, therefore, be a lesson for the sake of conscious survival on the planet. The forays into psychoanalysis allowed reflections on the recovery of shame. The investigation into this social emotion not only deepened the issue of awareness of the indispensable "digital identity" but also considered shame as a "sense of limit," involving the economic and political paradigm in this study. Contemporary humans find themselves as actors in a problematic and conflictual reality, dominated essentially by a single great contradiction: the search for what the social context deems attributable to the concept of "well-being," in contrast with the effects that such a search can generate for both the individual and the context. The entire research work is founded on the relationship between humans and the digital universe. In reference to a more specifically sociological analysis, a personal experience was exploited to illustrate the stimuli of hyperconnection from a behaviorist perspective. It was highlighted how patrons at a nightclub hosting a rave party, unable to follow extremely fast music, were prone to inducing an altered state to dance "in time." In achieving this state, they were also accustomed to vehemently throwing themselves against the wall; this dangerous reaction justified the adoption of soft panels on the walls of the venue hosting the rave party. This condition was compared to that of the user unable to manage the hyperstimulation associated with digital immersiveness. Not always capable of keeping up with the rhythms of hyperconnection, the user risks unknowingly finding themselves in an altered state linked to forms of behavior not always lucid; in practice, they can become a blasé individual (Simmel, cited in Mauceri, 2020, p. 25), the result of the intensification of the nervous life of the metropolitan environment, which in the onlife dimension can find its extremization. Lastly, undoubtedly, the proposed "revolt hypotheses" cannot be considered entirely original in their genre. However, as expressed in the concluding part of the work, the solutions to the problems afflicting humanity do not necessarily have to be "invented"; rather, they are well present and rooted in the history of human civilization; the problem lies in the will to make them visible to everyone, to share them. Conclusions The conclusions of the work are tied to an awareness of the compromises between the human's identity and relational project and their ability to govern their "Promethean" instinct, particularly directed towards building new realities on technological and digital bases. From a theoretical perspective, an implication drawn from the analyses pertains to the importance of rediscovering the principle of prevention, often supplanted by that of precaution. Since "precaution is to potential risk as prevention is to known risk" (Dupuy, 2010, p. 54), one might think of a "metaphysics of projective time" (Dupuy, 2010, p. 70), involving projecting into the future and turning back from the future itself to look at the present and anticipate its evaluation in hindsight. The future imaginary should, therefore, be thought of in a sufficiently catastrophic manner to be both repulsive and credible, triggering actions capable of avoiding its realization by prohibiting the incident (Dupuy, 2010). A practical implication resulting from the research work concerns the sphere of education. Educational agencies can be decisive in favoring the recovery and safeguarding of the human. In particular, schools, through Digital Literacy and Digital Education (Cortoni, Casaldi & Pastore, 2020, p. 197), can enhance interest in digital environmentalism, utilizing the already well-established use of devices in classrooms through various media education projects. Digital Literacy and Digital Education, understood as "Digital Literacy and Education," are connected to the study of Communication Sciences. This study can be promoted in a curricular perspective, from primary to secondary education. Digital Literacy, specifically, can be understood as a new form of civic education capable of instilling knowledge related to the communicative universe (Cortoni, et al., 2020). Starting from the basics of media languages and reaching the complex dynamics of the communicative system of the digital era, it is possible, in practice, to discuss digital environmentalism or the surveillance capitalism in school classrooms. Digital Education provides the suitable media tools and methods for the didactic setting of Digital Literacy, enhancing the facilitative use of devices in memorization and learning processes (Cortoni, et al., 2020). In this sense, always within the educational context, promoting the act of reading can be identified as the ability to preserve memory. It feeds on memories, highly emotional elements (the term "ricordo" comes from the Latin "cor-cordis": "heart"), indispensable to not lose sight of one's future and avoid being absorbed into an increasingly "chronophagic" society (Ferrarotti, 2018, p. 89). Schools are, by nature, connected to other educational agencies, represented by the family and society. Theoretically, all proposed "revolt hypotheses" could have practical applications, provided that the political-economic paradigm encourages interconnections between these agencies, emphasizing the centrality of care, a determinant attitude for human survival. Limitations and directions for future research The research project was delimited by a limited number of sources consulted (159 bibliographic and 32 web-based), which naturally limits it, given the complexity of the analyzed phenomenon. Therefore, the drawn reflections are inevitably partial and debatable from all interpretative perspectives, also due to any "risky" approaches associated with the inter and multidisciplinary approach. The work is also based on a foundation characterized by continuous and accelerated mutability: the technological/digital universe. Consequently, what represents the result of the analyses may no longer be valid in the short term. Therefore, possible new lines of research, in addition to being based on a richer resource of sources, may also need to analyze further compromises between humanistic reality mixed with the digital one. It seems challenging to significantly curb the process of mechanization of the mind and behavioral direction, but coexistence with the online dimension could be balanced by research trajectories capable of understanding how to leverage the relational context, making the onlife dimension more balanced and, consequently, more "humanized."| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14242/183702
URN:NBN:IT:UNISTRADA-183702