Digital Production of Subjectivity in Governmental Processes

Proceedings of The 4th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2021

DOI:

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Digital Production of Subjectivity in Governmental Processes

Claudia Landolfi

 

ABSTRACT: 

Is there a subjectivation process traceable on the internet? Are we conscious of subject modeling and the impacts of human-digital interaction on our brain? The findings of neuroimaging show that: neuroplasticity (brain modification) is a phenomenon that continues into adulthood and does not cease in childhood; digital causes brain changes; and the changes in the brain induced by digital are related to components that make up subjectivity. The objective of the paper is to conduct a critical investigation about the effects of the Internet on the components of subjectivity by referring to fMRI scans; the purpose is to identify a process of subjectivation conveyed by the digital. The methodology is interdisciplinary. The approach is genealogical: the subject is investigated as the product of a social process that takes place on the Internet. The reference articles selected are based on the neuroimaging research methodology, i.e. on the sampling of the population divided by gender, age, sex, and type of activity conducted online. The purpose of this work, on the other hand, is to overcome the fragmentation of the analysis by unifying the scientific results, bringing them back to a broader theoretical vision in order to become aware of the existence of a more generalized problem. This theoretical operation is built on the hypothesis that, as statistics show that the screen time of digital devices has soared for everyone in recent years, the effects of digital on the brain can be understood in the same pattern of subjectivation.

keywords: subjectivation, neuroimaging, neuroplasticity, digital users, governmentality.