Will the zombie box eat your brains for breakfast?

Abstract

Introduction. The review is devoted to the publication of the book “Cyberhumanism. How communication technologies transform our society” by Nizhny Novgorod researcher A. N. Fortunatov – the Doctor of Philosophy, specialist in the field of communication studies, media philosophy and the history of television. Theoretical analysis. In the book by A. N. Fortunatov, methodological principles of communicative theory, media philosophy and humanism as a philosophical trend were combined. The result was the emergence of the term "cyberhumanism", which serves as a characteristic of the aggressive nature of communication technologies aimed, according to the author, at subordinating a person to digital means of communication and media. The author claims that the digital transformation of society is a natural phenomenon that arose as a result of the development of scientific and technological progress, however, the “callousness” of the digital sphere negatively affects the personality, that becomes only a reflection of the media. A. N. Fortunatov shows how digital media reality is constructed, where the subject and the object change places. A person ceases to be a subject in interaction with the media, since it is not he who influences them, but, on the contrary, the means of communication subordinate him to their will and the logic of existence. Conclusion. Such an ambiguous approach to the consideration of the phenomenon of media constitutes the research value of the book, which may be of interest to a wide range of readers dealing with the problems of digital society.