Digital Age Alienation: Applying Buddhist-Existentialist Ethics to Modern Technological Society

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of digital alienation using the intersecting perspectives of Buddhist thought and existentialist morality. With present-day technologized society becoming both more hyperconnected and so isolating, it is increasingly out of unnatural contact with true being and mindful existence. Based on the critique of technological enframing (Gestell) by Heidegger and the ideas of suffering (dukkha) and attachment (upadana) in Buddhism, this paper examines how digital technology produces new versions of alienation and also perhaps creates a form of escape. This paper offers a synthesis of academic sources from 2018 to 2024 that will allow establishing the importance of Buddhist-existentialist ethics as a perspective to explain and resolve the alienation in the digital age. The article looks at how social media has contributed to an inauthentic way of living, the commercialisation of attention and presence, and the loss of contemplative rituals. It suggests that mindful orientation to technology based on Buddhist awareness and existentialist authenticity resists the alienation brought about by the digital. The study holds that although technology further escalates the existential angst of authenticity and meaningfulness, Buddhist teachings on mindfulness and detachment, as well as the existentialist impetus on authentic choice, are practical ways of achieving a meaningful digital life. It is a cross-disciplinary contribution to the emerging forms of both digital wellbeing and contemplative technology research.