Scientists assessed the risks of exiting the digital realm.

The results of the study were published in the journal Sociodynamics. The term “socio-technical convergence” refers to the co-development of humans and digital services, devices, and technologies. This leads to the formation of a new socio-technical (hybrid) reality, where mixed interactions between people in virtual and real environments become prevalent.

A common example is two people sitting over a cup of coffee while engaging in conversation both in person and through messaging apps, creating a unified communication flow. Such a reality cannot be adequately analyzed solely through the lens of social or technical factors, as it represents a complex system of interdependencies.

In contemporary daily life, digital services play an increasingly important role. Today, their use is a necessary condition for social adaptation. This results in a situation where an individual must transform their connections and relationships into a digital format. During this period, they exist in a liminal state: between life in a hybrid world, where both people and “smart” digital technologies interact on equal terms, and life in a traditional world, where only relationships between people are preserved. In sociology, this transitional state is traditionally referred to as a marginal position, and the process itself is known as marginalization. In our case, this is digital marginalization.

In the context of modern realities, the phenomenon of marginalization requires reevaluation, which necessitates the clarification of factors influencing its development. According to scientists' hypotheses, among these factors, the risks of socio-technical convergence should be highlighted, and it is crucial to understand their impact on the marginalization process of segments of the population in an intensively developing digital environment. Such risks prevent parts of the population from accepting the emerging reality. As a result, they may find themselves outside the actively evolving “hybrid reality.” Here, we are already dealing with the alienation of individuals from society, as well as society from individuals.

“Our first article is dedicated to identifying and assessing the risks of digital marginalization from the perspective of the expert community. We start from the position that dangers exist objectively, while risks are something that arises in a person's consciousness and can affect their behavior. For example, most of us do not understand the processes and causes of various technical failures, but we recognize that they happen during the operation of digital services with a certain probability and specific negative consequences for us.

As a result, the “service” danger transforms into a risk of using technologies. The more frequently service failures occur and the more serious their consequences are, the more we become aware of the risks associated with using digital technologies in everyday life. In such moments, we increasingly question whether it is truly wise to rely on these digital services and devices,” said the first author Vitaly Zotov, a leading researcher at the Educational and Scientific Center for Humanities and Social Sciences of MIPT.

This behavior, where an individual refrains from using widely accepted devices in society, can lead to them being on the fringes or completely excluded from the digital world. Ultimately, a digital marginalized person deprives themselves of societal benefits. For instance, the rapidly increasing electronic government document flow directly affects every member of society. Not using government services, which are becoming proactive (offering the necessary sets of government services on their own), means missing out on these opportunities.

“Already now the question arises: what could prevent a person from entering the established hybrid world? Our research has shown that, as a rule, individuals refuse primarily due to technical failures they cannot assess, understand, and consequently predict and avoid. In second place are the risks associated with the actions of others, linked to fraudulent use of personal data,” emphasized Vitaly Zotov.

These factors become the initial impulse for marginalization. The study revealed that these dangers primarily affect the older generation. The project “Digital Marginalization in the Context of Socio-Technical Convergence” is supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.