Old songs about the main thing: how sociocultural trends of the pre-digital era are realized in the digital age

The article explores the connection between the cultural and sociological transformations that took place in the pre-digital era and those equivalents that are observed in the modern digital context. At the beginning of the article, the concept of replacing humans with digital technologies is considered. This process is not something new and has its roots in history: from writing and book printing to computers and network technologies, it gives the impression of an endless evolution of mechanisms replacing human labor. The author notes that with each new technology, there is a sense of loss associated with moving away from the human, “warm” nature of communication to more “cold” forms of interaction. Describing the concept of pro-modernity and counter-modernity in the context of the digital age, the author points out that modernity has become an affirmation of an active person who learns and transforms the world, unlike a pre-modern person whose existence was focused on the transcendent. The digital revolution, therefore, is a continuation of earlier social and cultural changes. It also raises questions about how countermodernity, through fundamentalist and conservative ideologies, calls into question the achievements of modernity, for example, in the field of science and technology. The next aspect of the study concerns the post-cultural revolutions that are expanding through the Internet. The author postulates that these changes, which freed individuals from rigid cultural structures and created space for a new level of communication and interaction, represent the latest evolution, which has predecessors in world religions and Enlightenment philosophy. In these religious systems, there are trends of liberation from hierarchical structures, which served as the basis for respect for each person as an equal member of society. Next, the expansion of the market economy as a product of the logic of an “open” society is discussed. The author argues that the transition from medieval hierarchies to modern structures leads to the recognition of the value of material labor and economic interaction. He emphasizes that the revolution of “social materialism” is at the center of this transformation and negates the previous ideals of “social idealism”, thereby creating the prerequisites for the masses as the main element of social interaction. It also examines the problems associated with new forms of elitism and posthumanism trends, in which the digital age offers opportunities to overcome human limitations. The appeal to technologies that improve human characteristics can generate new forms of inequality and hierarchies. In conclusion, the article emphasizes that the digital age is not just a repetition of old stories, but also an opportunity to rethink the relationship between humans and technology, as well as to drive sociocultural changes that continue to evolve within the framework of modernity and its critics.