DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS AS A TOOL FOR CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL REALITY

Abstract

The article examines the role of digital communications in the process of constructing social reality. It is emphasized that in the context of the globalization of the information space and the growing reliance on network technologies, social media and digital platforms have transformed not only into channels of information transmission but also into spaces in which new social practices, collective representations, and identities are formed. The digital environment functions as an arena of meaning production, where symbolic codes and narratives emerge and circulate, shaping social orientations, mechanisms of integration, and the prospects for societal and individual development.
The study demonstrates that the globalization of the information sphere accelerates the circulation of knowledge while simultaneously creating risks of manipulative influence and the proliferation of alternative realities. Within digital networks, cultural practices, political discourses, and social strategies intersect, producing substantial effects on democratization processes, the formation of national identity, and security under hybrid threats.
It is substantiated that digital communications should be understood not only as a technological phenomenon but also as a fundamental driver of contemporary social dynamics. They introduce a new logic of organizing social relations, in which information flows, symbolic images, and communicative practices become central. Understanding the mechanisms of social construction in digital environments provides analytical tools for assessing both the opportunities and the risks that confront societies in a globalized information era.
Additional attention is devoted to examining how digital platforms transform mechanisms of social interaction, the legitimation of knowledge, and the restructuring of power relations within the networked society. The algorithmization of communication and the functioning of digital ecosystems create new regimes of visibility, intersubjectivity, and control that shape how events and phenomena are perceived. Consequently, digital communications not only reproduce existing social constructions but actively generate new ones, forming a multilayered spatial and symbolic architecture of contemporary social reality.