La cultura di massa nell'era digitale = Mass culture in the digital era

Abstract

In recent decades, the so-called "digital revolution" has massively driven individuals to move the main activities they perform in their daily lives within entirely digital spaces. This is obviously leading to significant cultural and social consequences, and mass culture is one of the areas that has been most affected by these consequences. It is therefore relevant to wonder how the arrival of the digital world has changed the nature and functioning of mass culture. It is difficult to develop a detailed analysis of the changes that have taken place within the framework of a (necessarily short) journal article, but it is nevertheless possible to try to summarily "map" these changes. Furthermore, it is also possible to attempt to focus on the most relevant characteristics to mass culture in the current digital age. The article also attempts to consider two particularly important features of mass culture in the digital age. The first concerns the progressive lowering of the quality of the expressive aspects of languages, while the second relates to the growth of what sociologist Fran?ois Jost (2013) called the "cult of the trivial" a few years ago