Digital Technologies’ Agency in Meaning-Making: A Theoretical Conceptualization

Semiotic resources such as digital technologies have become the tools of the trade in various social practices and are promoting the digital globalization of educational contexts. Through constant renewals, technological impacts on education have elicited several challenges. This paper advocates a theoretical study on how digital technologies can challenge social settings, a conceptualization guiding upcoming empirical explorations on digital technologies in education. By synthesizing research data, new theoretical propositions can be initiated based on previous empirical analyses. An extended critical perception of technologies’ social agency and how technologies regulate meaning-makers’ social, political, and economic life can be obtained as an understanding of the democratization of the Internet space. The following research questions were used; During the last five years, what effects do digital technologies have on social practice, and how can the effects be theoretically conceptualized? Peer-reviewed research papers addressing digital technologies between 2017 and 2022 will be retrieved from scholarly databases. Through meta-synthesis strategies, theoretical conceptualizations of the consequences different digital platforms for Internet navigation and social media have on social practices will be obtained. Findings indicate that the association between the concepts of calculation center, platform leadership, immaterial labor, and mindshare is interesting to strengthen critical perspectives on technical agencies for understanding the democratization of the Internet space. We conclude that there is a need for continuous critical expansion of theories to enrich educational research with tools for problematizing the digital globalization.