Connected Individualism between Digital Technology and Society

This article shows, first, how digital technologies have incorporated autonomy and networks – two key characteristics of contemporary society – into their frame of use and, second, how they have performed emergent uses, thus reinforcing new lifestyles. In the first part we see how ‘connected individualism’ seems to be a strong trend in contemporary society in both private and professional contexts. The second part examines how some computer specialists have incorporated these new lifestyles, that first emerged in the seventies, into their techniques. While the use of ICT has been influenced by modes of organization and sociability within the family and the firm, these tools contribute, in turn, to individuals’ definitions of identity and the construction of their networks of relations. In the third part we consider how they provide resources for individuals in the development of their connected individualism.