Understanding new media and participatory culture: Well-being or ill-being?

Abstract

This article deals with participatory culture through the prism of new media, identi-fied as standard with the development of information and communication tech-nologies (ICT) and information technology (IT). These technologies (co-)constitute the foundation of the network society, also referred to as the information society, and influence the economy and - undoubtedly - the cultural sphere. The main re-search problem posed in this article concerns reflections on participation patterns mediated by the new media in the context of psychological well-being and its op-posite the state of ill-being. This task requires a redefinition of the notions of par-ticipatory culture and new media and the adoption of specific determinants of well-being and ill-being, which - unlike in the case of the psychology of happiness - is concretised through sociologically understood categories of redistribution and recognition.