Integrated Communications but Disintegrating Society. Quo Vadis?
The goal of this article is to show the interconnection of the new quality of social communications defined by the term “digital integrated communications” and the social structure crisis. To do that, the author carries out the analysis and conceptual differentiation of the “communication”, “information” and “knowledge” notion; and brings forth the problem of harmful information - the information noise. Communications integration is analyzed in historical and modern contexts as a controversial factor of social and cultural dynamics that intensifies information exchange and social strife. The author reveals the social context of digital integrated communications: global urbanization and the strengthening of hedonistic individualism as mass worldview. The author arrives at the conclusion that integrated communications deepen anthropological crises at a time of weak values and institutes of social integration.