Alienation, depression, dementia

effects of digitalization diagnosed by the sociology of Hartmut Rosa, the social psychology of Jean Marie Twenge and the neuroscience of Manfred Spitzer

Abstract

This article aims to approach the formation of the digitalization of the world in contemporary modernity and the different scientific explanations of its forms and effects, demonstrating how interdisciplinarity can be useful in understanding this social problem in its totality. Using the interdisciplinary method that connects Hartmut Rosa’s sociology, Jean Marie Twenge’s social psychology and Manfred Spitzer’s neuroscience, we developed a theoretical research to articulate the scientific diagnoses of the three areas of knowledge. We took as our axis of analysis three central objects of study in Rosa, Twenge and Spitzer in the context of digitalization, respectively: alienation, depression and dementia. The effort to use interdisciplinarity stems from the need to understand digitalization as a complex social phenomenon, strengthening a sociological analysis capable of capturing the negative effects of digitalization from different angles and expanding the senses of the critique of modernity for contemporary social theory.