Communication in the New Hybrid Ontoligies From Platforms to the Metaverse

This book explores the recent evolution of the digital media and communication. If media are not just tools, but complex environments capable of reshaping our social identities and cultural values, it is fundamental the understanding of their interactions with our being. Between the recent enthusiastic narrative on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Neo-Critical approaches against the domination of algorithms, this work investigates the complex relationship between digital media and human creativity, always generating new hybrid ontologies. Therefore, the book explores two main trajectories: the convergence between production and consumption (prosumption) and the integrations between the digital and the physical sphere (phygital). In this phygital world based on new hybrid ontologies, everything that exists can be individualized, emotionalized, communicated, and exploited in a complex and competitive market of identities. The time has come to reflect both on the desirable and regrettable aspects of the contemporary innovations, exploring this “brand new world” made up of smart objects, customized contents, tangible images, and lucid emotions, at the same time enriching and saturating our daily experiences.

is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication at IULM University (Milan), where he teaches Sociology of Media and Sociology of Fashion. His research interests include sociology of media and communication, culture, fashion, consumption, and politics. He has published numerous books, articles, and short essays in Italy as well as in USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Russia. Currently, he is investigating the relationships between culture, power, and emerging media.

Introduction 1 The Creation of a Customer-Centric Ecosystem 2 From the Age of the Spectacle to the One of Self-Branding and Making 3 Californian Ideology, Platformization of Life, and Automation of Taste 4 From the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the Pandemic Crisis 5 The Age of Ontobranding: Integrating the Map and the Territory 6 From Virtual to Augmented Reality 7 From Human to Virtual Influencers 8 Phygital Ecologies: The Store of the Future and the Omnichannel Perspective 9 Wearable Technologies and User- Generated Traces 10 The World of NFT and the Jump into the Metaverse References