How Digital Screen Use Alienates Human Societies

Halldorsson’s How Digital Screen Use Alienates Human Societies examines recent processes of technological rationalism, which were intensified by the COVID pandemic, and it explores how they alienate human societies in the name of progress. Challenging the prevailing assumptions of such ‘progress’, the book argues that these processes undermine the essential ‘social magic’ – the everyday human sociality that builds communities – which results in societal fragmentation, marked by alienation in the form of social isolation, consumption, polarisation, fear and conflict.

The paradox of how increased connectivity through digital networks can lead to lack of human connection is the critical question this book pursues. It explores how intense processes of technological rationalisation have undermined human sociality and alienated the world by replacing human-to-human relationships with human-to-machine interactions. The author argues that communication with/through screen machines is incapable of replacing vital social relationships that breed ‘social magic’ and build communities. This disconnection, which is driven by technological capitalism, undermines human sociality and causes alienation. Ultimately, the book asserts that humanity needs more social magic, fostered through human-to-human relationships, and offers critical sociological analysis and potential remedies.

This book is a critical academic treatise. It will be of interest to social science scholars and students as well as a broader audience seeking to resist the relentless makeover of human societies, in the name of technological rationalisation, and make the world more humane, meaningful and magical.