Digital Communication

Digital communication refers to the exchange of information and meaning through electronic and networked technologies, such as email, messaging apps, social media, video calls, forums, and online games, and to the social changes that accompany these forms of interaction. Marshall McLuhan argued that the medium shapes the message and social organization, while Harold Innis examined how communication technologies affect time, space, and power. Manuel Castells analyzed the rise of the network society and mass self-communication, and Barry Wellman proposed networked individualism, in which people maintain personal communities across dispersed ties. Sherry Turkle expressed concern that constant connection can erode depth in relationships, while danah boyd studied how teenagers manage identity within networked publics characterized by persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences. Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis has been applied to online self-presentation, and Jurgen Habermas’s public sphere is used to assess digital debate. Jan van Dijk and Pippa Norris highlighted the digital divide. Eli Pariser’s filter bubble and Cass Sunstein’s discussion of echo chambers address political polarization. Digital communication also raises concerns about surveillance, misinformation, and harassment. It remains central to research on media, relationships, identity, inequality, and social change.