The Image of "Homo Travels" in the Context of the Digital Age

Abstract

Purpose. The main purpose of the article is to understand the place and role of a person in the digital environment and to overcome the forms of alienation in the algorithmically directed sphere of social existence that provide him or her with a sense of freedom through spatial mobility in leisure, travel, and entertainment. The risks of sensory isolation, emotional exhaustion, fragmentation of attention, and changes in sensation, perception of space and time are included in the analysis. The subject of the analysis is the identification of opportunities and threats that cause a change in a person’s worldview. Theoretical basis. The study is based on modern approaches to technology and socio-cultural analysis of human relations. The authors rely on the SWOT analysis methodology to assess the positive and negative effects of digitalisation, which correct human perception of reality and influence the worldview. Originality. The authors propose their own view on the digitalisation of services as a factor of anthropological transformation in the context of human-technology relations, which changes the quality of human existence and leisure. It is proved that the concept of "Homo travels" defines a new anthropological model of mobile human behaviour, for whom travel is a form of self-knowledge, meaning-making, interaction with the social world and the digital aggressive environment. An attempt is made to analyse the phenomenon of the latest technologies, within which the new digital mobility poses challenges to human autonomy, emotional stability and identity, resulting in a new worldview that transforms human emotions, which become a catalyst for change and move into a new dimension of interaction between the physical and virtual environment. Conclusions. The paper states that the digitalisation of services creates a new format of social interactions, expands the possibilities of self-knowledge, but subject to their ethical and human-centred implementation. By introducing the concept of Homo travels, the authors emphasise that the process of digitalisation in the transport sector transforms a person from a passive object of utilitarian use of technology into an active participant in socio-cultural processes that shape human life, act as a means of socialisation, a condition for personal self-improvement, and also contribute to cognitive and emotional-psychological development.