Transformation of human subjectivity: ontological diffusion in the digital age

Abstract

A comprehensive philosophical analysis of the transformation of human subjectivity in the context of the total digitalization of modern society has been conducted. This study examines the nature of the phenomenon of ontological diffusion, which is conceptualized as a process of blurring the boundaries of the classical autonomous subject and its disarticulation across the physical, digital, and information-algorithmic modes of reality. Methodological framework combines dialectical, systemic, and phenomenological approaches, as well as the principles of critical rationalism, digital anthropology, and posthumanism. It has been determined that the emergence of the “digital human” and its evolution toward the “post-human” is accompanied by decorporealization, the reduction of the individual to digital profiles and codes, as well as the hybridization of agency between human and non-human (technological) actors. This study analyzes the broader sociocultural consequences of ontological diffusion, in particular the radical changes in the economic sphere (the digitization of business, virtual assets) and in political life (the transformation of political participation, the emergence of algorithmically mediated forms of communication, echo chambers, and new digital actors). It has been proven that digitalization is not merely an external tool but an internal factor in the deconstruction of the humanistic ideal, which heightens the risks of fragmentation of thought, loss of the integrity of the “Self,” and strengthening of algorithmic control.