Rethinking “digital”: a genealogical enquiry into the meaning of digital and its impact on individuals and society

In the current social and technological scenario, the term digital is abundantly used with an apparently transparent and unambiguous meaning. This article aims to unveil the complexity of this concept, retracing its historical and cultural origin. This genealogical overview allows to understand the reason why an instrumental conception of digital media has prevailed, considering the digital as a mere tool to convey a message, as opposed to a constitutive conception. The constitutive conception places the digital phenomenon in the broader ground of media studies, and it considers digital technologies as an interface between the subject and the world. In this perspective, the media is not added to the experience of the person, but it shapes it from within on a cognitive, expressive and communicative level. The article makes use of two powerful examples to show the shortcomings of an instrumental conception of the digital, and to affirm the value of a constitutive conception for current media studies regarding digital interfaces.