Digital subjectivity as a new research paradigm in psychology in the context of an algorithmic society

Abstract

This article provides a theoretical justification for digital subjectivity as an integrative category of contemporary psychology. The argument starts from the premise that digital environments are no longer external channels of information delivery but active sociotechnical infrastructures involved in the regulation of attention, choice, communication, self presentation, and personal self determination. A substantial part of research on digital behavior still relies on explanatory models developed before the algorithmic transformation of social life. As a result, digital experience is often described fragmentarily and reduced either to individual cognitive processes or to external media effects. In response to this methodological gap, the article proposes the concept of digital subjectivity, understood as the individual’s capacity to preserve authorship of action, reflexive control, and value based autonomy under algorithmically organized conditions. A multilevel model of digital subjectivity is developed, including neuropsychophysiological, individual psychological, personal subjective, socio interactional, and sociocultural levels of analysis. The article shows that this model makes it possible to conceptualize digital behavior as the outcome of an interaction between psychological mechanisms and platform architecture. It is concluded that digital subjectivity may serve as a productive theoretical framework for integrating research within the psychology of the digital age.