Based on the administrative framework outlined in the agreement between the University of Turin’s Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences and the Bruno Kessler Foundation, this doctoral project proposes an in-depth inquiry into the theme “Digital Technologies and Solitude,” within the interdisciplinary context of Religious Studies, ethics, and socio-technical systems. The project aims to examine how digital technologies—ranging from social media and AI companions to immersive virtual environments—both catalyze and mitigate experiences of solitude in contemporary societies. This ambivalence will be approached not merely as a psychological phenomenon, but as a deeply ethical and spiritual issue that intersects with shifting regimes of presence, attention, and care in technologically mediated life.
From a religious and ethical standpoint, solitude has often been valorized as a privileged condition for spiritual introspection, contemplation, and transcendence. Traditions ranging from Christian monasticism to Sufi retreat and Buddhist meditation have long codified solitude as a space of encounter with the divine, the self, or the absolute. In contrast, the digital age reconfigures solitude within economies of distraction, hyper-connectivity, and algorithmic interpellation. The project seeks to understand how digital technologies transform solitude from a voluntary practice of withdrawal into an involuntary condition of social exclusion, while paradoxically offering tools to alleviate its effects—such as AI-based mental health apps, virtual religious rituals, or online support communities. This dual capacity—wounding and healing—calls for a nuanced ethical evaluation, attentive to both the anthropological shifts and the spiritual reinterpretations at stake.
The project will analyze case studies of digital interfaces and platforms that shape experiences of solitude in different cultural and religious contexts, drawing on a semiotic methodology enriched by philosophy of technology, moral theology, and media anthropology. Special attention will be given to the role of interface design, algorithmic nudging, and AI personification in shaping the phenomenology of solitude. How do digital agents simulate presence, and to what extent do they fulfill or distort the human longing for relational depth? How does the digitization of religious or spiritual experiences—such as livestreamed liturgies, VR pilgrimages, or chatbot confessions—alter the traditional balance between communal belonging and solitary introspection? These questions will guide an exploration of solitude not as absence, but as a contested site where meaning, faith, and ethics are renegotiated.
Throughout the three-year doctoral period, the candidate will combine critical theoretical analysis with empirical investigation, including digital ethnographies and interviews with users of religious or therapeutic technologies.