The Implications of Digital Communications Expansion for the Development of Human Capital: the cognitive potential of sociological approaches

What is the impact of the digitalization of society, primarily of the communicative sphere, on its human capital? Will the new generations, whose abilities and capabilities have been enhanced by digital technology, be more educated and more efficient than the previous ones? Or does the proliferation of new technologies have side effects in the form of restrictions on the growth of human capital, which will lead to impoverishment, diminution of the capabilities of the modern worker? Similar questions arose during the formation of each new technological order, and were first expressed by Plato in the dialogue Phaedrus, where he asks whether people will forget how to remember, having learned to write. They are also relevant in the era of digitalization. Sociologists have always been interested in the consequences of the development of technology and technology for society, its structures and institutions, for the perception of a person. A sociological view of the consequences of digitalization makes it possible to identify not only the advantages, but also new cultural, structural and institutional constraints for human capital - the spread of clip consciousness, shifting to decision-making machines, the loss of reliability of educational content and the risks of inaccurate information, the growth of the supply of unskilled labor based on digital platforms, transformation of the employee’s attitude and requirements to working conditions, etc. The author concludes that the cognitive potential of sociological approaches to studying the impact of digital communications on human capital consists in identifying its limitations and, at the same time, the possibilities of their metamorphosis into new points of growth.

digitalization, digital communications, information society, human capital, sociological theories of technology, sociological theories of our time

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