From Amazon to Tinder from Google to Deliveroo there is no facet of human life that the
digital revolution has not streamlined and dematerialized. Its objective was to reduce costs by
forgoing face-to-face interactions and it was a direct result of the free-market shock of the
1980s which sought to expand the marketplace seamlessly in every possible dimension. Today we
can be algorithmically entertained educated cared for and courted in a way that was
impossible in the old industrial society where institutions structured the social world. Today
these institutions have been replaced by monetized virtual contact. As the industrial
revolution did in the past the digital revolution is creating a new economy and a new
sensibility bringing about a radical revaluation of society and its representations. While
obsessed with the search for an efficient management of human relations the new digital
capitalism gives rise to an irrational and impulsive Homo numericus prone to an array of
addictive behaviours and subjected to intensive forms of surveillance. Far from producing a new
agora social media produce a radicalization of public debate in which hate-filled speech
directed against adversaries becomes the norm. But these outcomes are not inevitable. The
digital revolution also offers an exciting path one that leads to a world in which everyone
deserves to be listened to and respected. It explores a new way of living that is historically
unprecedented that of a society based neither on individualism nor on the hierarchical model
of earlier civilizations. Are we able to seize the new opportunities opened up by the digital
revolution without succumbing to its dark side?
