Dixitale

Dixitale is a theoretical construct in media studies and digital sociology used to describe a society in which digital mediation is pervasive and structuring everyday life. It treats digital infrastructures not merely as tools but as constitutive elements of social relations, culture, and institutions.

The term was coined by theorist Lucia Kessler in 2012 to discuss the integrated nature of technology in daily life. The name blends digital with a Latinate suffix to evoke a condition rather than a device.

Core ideas include ubiquitous data generation, platform-centric economies, algorithmic governance, and networked sociality. In dixitale contexts, screens and sensors are embedded in objects and spaces, shaping attention, memory, and decision making.

Applications span education, work, politics, entertainment, and urban life. Researchers analyze how data flows, privacy regimes, and algorithmic surfaces reorganize labor, citizenship, identity, and cultural production.

Dixitale is related to but distinct from digital culture, network society, and platform capitalism. It emphasizes infrastructures and practices rather than individual technologies.

Critics argue the concept risks technological determinism and obscures agency by focusing on infrastructure. Proponents contend it helps reveal power asymmetries in data, governance, and platform design.

As AI, surveillance, and data markets expand, dixitale may adapt to describe newer configurations of digitally mediated life.