Introversion of Public Space: Sound, Light, Thought

The relevance of the study is determined by the total introversion of experience under the influence of digital technologies, which necessitates a rethinking of classical philosophical categories. The phenomena of "introversion of sound" (the shift from the concert hall to private headphones) and "introversion of light" (from collective cinema viewing to personal screens) represent not merely a change of media, but a fundamental restructuring of perception and sociality. Concurrently, a migration of thought is occurring – from the public agora to the digital feed, where the oratorical gesture is replaced by publishing activity. Analyzing this triple transformation – of sound, light, and thought – through the lens of the private/public dialectic allows us to diagnose key conflicts and paradoxes of contemporary culture related to personal autonomy, the nature of the social contract, and new forms of alienation. The research is based on historical-philosophical analysis combined with an examination of the transformation of media technologies. The method involves a dialectical understanding of the private/public boundary (Descartes, Kant, Hegel) and a phenomenological description of technological transformations of perception (sound and light) as key mediators of the private and public in the modern world. The author demonstrates how this metaphysics of light and word becomes secularized in modern philosophy, giving rise to the problem of the autonomous subject (Descartes) and his right to the public use of reason (Kant). The key focus of the work is the analysis of the technological "introversion" of perception: sound, striving for maximum public audibility, ultimately migrates into the private space of the personal audio environment, while the light of visual arts, having traveled from public frescoes and collective cinema, becomes inverted and localized in the emitting screens of personal devices. Paradoxically, technologies that expand access to content lead to the individualization of experience and the erosion of traditional boundaries between spheres. Having undergone a process of expansion, the consumption of information from the public sphere begins to take on a private character, while private leisure for its own sake ceases to exist altogether.

private, public, subject, technology, introversion, media, thought, sound, light, leisure