Knowledge and Well-Being in the Digital Society: Towards a Research Agenda

Abstract

Digital media have permeated all spheres of life in many world regions and drastically changed how people seek information to satisfy their everyday knowledge needs. Successfully fulfilling these needs can impact subjective well-being and life outcomes. This is pronounced in transition-al phases with increased knowledge needs such as emerging adulthood. These needs and their fulfillment are socially structured, for example through skills differences. Simultaneously, how knowledge can be acquired through digital media is also dependent on their structure and governance. This paper contributes first to a better understanding of how sociotechnical infrastructures change, how and where they can be shaped by whom, and what is ultimately required for a future web of knowledge (epistemic web); and second, to making the effects of individual information seeking practices on life outcomes and well-being empirically addressable. Equitable digital societies require understanding and governing how digital media enable access to which knowledge. Considering the knowledge needs and dynamic life trajectories in the digital society, research is needed that can provide critical empirical and theoretical insights for the future of human communication and well-being.