Magdalena Szpunar

The main aim of the article is to present the concept of weak thought and uncertainty as categories that allow the acceptance of conscious ignorance. The author claims that these categories are an expression of the maturity of an individual who accepts his own ignorance, a state of limbo, or approving expectation. Referring to the publications in the field of psychology, philosophy, sociology and cultural studies, the author discusses the importance of the category of negative ability for everyday existence, meaning an understanding and accepting attitude towards emerging uncertainties, doubts and dilemmas. The author puts forward the thesis that achieving it releases us from the compulsive and immediate need to search for causes and make unambiguous decisions.

With the use the Internet for information search and especially the widespread use for this purpose search tools are related two stereotypes. The first concerns the belief that search for content online is an act extremely simple, trivial, requiring no special skills. The second myth refers to the same search engines – treated as instruments, allowing you to reach to any information that is online. These simplified and stereotyped beliefs are not limited to the realm of declarative, but manifest themselves in concrete expression of the information through the Internet behavior. The purpose of the present article is to overcome common stereotypes associated with the use of search tools, but also to show the hidden part of the Internet.

M. Sokołowski (red.), Dryfowanie przez czas. Społeczeństwo spektaklu 20 lat później, Olsztyn Wydawnictwo UWM, 2015, s. 176

The article refers to issues related to the formation of a culture called narcissism. The author hypothesizes that narcissism is becoming a key tool in describing the condition of postmodern man. In the article, the author answers the question whether and why we can talk about the development of a culture of narcissism and what are its determinants. A definition of narcissism in the socio-cultural sense is proposed.

From primary orality to secondary literacy in the era of the dominance of Internet bias

Scientists tend to overestimate writing as the primary form of language, while the oral communication is the primary form of the whole communication. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the crucial r ole of technologies such as writing in the thought processes and evolution of culture.

The article addresses the challenges with the views of Professor Tomasz Goban-Klas on the Internet and his role in the development of communication sciences in Poland. The article includes Goban-Klas´ views associated with the ontological status of the Internet, its specificity as compared to other media and the different models of use - thoughtless surfing and active sailing. The author argues that Professor entered the canon of the Polish media studies and certainly should be considered as one of the first initiators of the Polish communication science.

This article is dedicated to the category of pride, which I treat much more widely than a trait of an individual. In my article, I try to determine how specific representations of pride in the scientific community are manifested, what they result from, but I also explain what types of pride can be distinguished in science and what consequences it has for the entire scholarship.

The goal of the article is to explore mechanisms related to the quantification and indexing of individuals. On the basis of literature analysis, the author puts forward the hypothesis that we are dealing with an increasingly visible quantified self, which becomes an important touchstone of the condition of postmodern culture. Indicating is understood as a vast process of exercising control, allowing the making of comparisons and evaluations, and consequently increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of individuals. The article also explains what the power of statistics in contemporary societies is, which becomes the emanation of power technology in Foucault’s approach. The author refers to the achievements of the trend referred to as datatization, which recognizes data as the only possible method which enables a knowing of social reality. Quantification intensifies the processes of depersonalization and reification, making dehumanization a social fact.

The text presents the fi gure of an extraordinary scholar, Ignacy S. Fiut. It shows him not only as a great scientist, but also a sensitive and good man, whose multifaceted personality is reflected in scientific works as well as poetry.

Setting a demarcation line between narcissism, let’s call it endogenous, and culturally conditioned – let us call it exogenous, is extremely diffi cult. It seems that both internal predispositions and cultural determinants are equally important in this case. Although it is diffi cult to say what is primary and what is secondary, whether a narcissistic individual shapes a narcissistic culture, or narcissistic culture implies an increase in narcissistic behavior, one seems to be certain – the internet is particularly responsible for the intensifi cation of narcissistic personality traits, which indicates many authors. In this article, we will try to bend over the properties of new media, which in a special way may be responsible for the processes of shaping the culture, which I propose to defi ne as the culture of digital narcissism.

The culture of algorithms in which we live is a culture based on reduction, simplification, and model-building. We are overwhelmed by the data fetish, with the imperative of computability and the quantifiability of the world. We do not wonder why, because the only thing that has a value is the thing that is or can be measurable. The reduction to the digit format becomes necessary in order to generate profits. This compulsion to calculate appropriates everything, even the spheres where   countability becomes not so much possible as irrational. In this way, a human being, who cannot be counted in many dimensions, becomes—as Foucault said—a “countable person” fitting perfectly

The mediatisation of science. The role of scientists in the era of paleo- and neo-television

The changes in the mechanisms of mass media functioning led by television forced a transformation within the relations between the media and the science. The article addresses issues related to the change in the status and role of scientists in the era of mass media dominance.