DIGITAL MASS INTERACTION IN THE NETWORK SOCIETY

Abstract

Digital chat and social media technologies have moved far beyond their original function as simple tools of communication. They now shape how people coordinate daily life, perform identity, build relationships, manage visibility, and interpret social status. This article offers a literature-based analytical review of digital mass interaction in the network society, drawing on secondary sources that address WhatsApp, Instagram, social media, networked communication, domestication, stigma, self-presentation, and cultural capital. The discussion brings together Manuel Castells’ network society thesis, Roger Silverstone’s domestication perspective, Erving Goffman’s account of stigma and impression management, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. Taken together, these frameworks show that digital interaction is neither purely liberating nor wholly disruptive. It expands access, speed, and participation, but it also intensifies comparison, pressure, emotional exposure, and the demand for continuous availability. The paper argues that contemporary digital culture should be understood as a condition of persistent mass interaction in which communication, identity, and everyday institutions are reorganized through networked platforms.

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