How Digital Technologies Influence Social Life

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2026 | Viewed by 160

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Utrecht, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: digital literacy; digital citizenship; media literacy; social perception of artificial intelligence and data science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Our society is increasingly mediated by digital technologies and accompanied by (major) developments in the field of AI, society, and education (e.g., Fang et al., 2022; Biagini, 2025). On a daily basis, our public, private, and work lives are (re)shaped by the use of technologies; more specifically, these digital technologies can be used for a broad range of purposes—operating and influencing the social landscape we (continue to) live in (see Chernavin, 2021; Hülür & Macdonald, 2020). To obtain a better grasp of the various roles of digital technologies in this social landscape, this current Special Issue, How Digital Technologies Influence Social Life, aims to publish research on a range of topics pertaining to digital technologies and our social landschape. Examples may include (are but not limited to):

  • How digital technologies (re)shape social and digital identities whilst fostering an inclusive landscape and sustainable public, private, and work lives;
  • The role of Augmented Reality (AR) in identity creation and/or development;
  • The development of social identities via gaming.

The current Special Issue invites research from various fields and will work with a broad conceptualization of digital influence or mediation and social life as an attempt to sufficiently consider its complexity and corresponding influence in/on our lives.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

References

Biagini, G. (2025). Towards an AI-literate future: A systematic literature review exploring education, ethics, and applications. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 35, 2616–2666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-025-00466-w

Chernavin, Y. (2021). Modern digitalization as a social institution and as a sphere of society. Advances in Social Science, Education, and Humanities Research, 527, 149–153.

Fang, M. l., Walker, M., Wong, K. l. Y., Sixsmith, J., Remund, l., & Sixsmith, A. (2022). Future digital health and community care: exploring intended positive impacts and unintended negative consequences of Covid-19. Healthcare Management Forum, 35(5), 279–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221107362

Hülür, G., & Macdonald, B. (2020). Rethinking social relationships in old age: Digitalization and the social lives of older adults. American Psychologist, 75(4), 554–566. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000604

Dr. Leonie Brummer
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • digital society
  • digital citizenship
  • digital literacy
  • digital and social capital
  • social media
  • digitally mediated communication
  • digital communication
  • social identity
  • digital identity
  • social learning

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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