To Be or Not To Be Digital Sociology?

Abstract

The article deals with the nature of digital sociology and those "pitfalls" that hinder its development. The origins of digital sociology, namely the expansion of social reality through the emergence of digital measurement in it; digitization and the emergence of new types of digital data, which change the usual views on a secondary analysis; the rapid development of new media and the corresponding digital methods of sociological research; the crisis of empirical sociology and a transition from sample surveys to the research of digital data, latently reflecting the social trends, are analyzed. It is demonstrated that digital sociology aims to explore patterns of social existence of modern man, living simultaneously in two worlds: the real and the digital one. The article is provocative and should serve as a basis for discussions on potential ways of development of digital sociology and the degree of its necessity in the digital epoch. It is concluded that, even if the digital sociology does not take place as a new sociological discipline, but the digital techniques will no doubt occupy a worthy place in the research arsenal of sociologists.