This article investigates the transformative relationship between screen technologies and human perception through an interdisciplinary framework combining Heidegger’s “revealing/concealing thesis” and postphenomenological analysis. The study systematically examines how screens mediate human-world interactions, reshape sensory engagement, and ultimately reconfigure existential spatial-temporal awareness.
First, Heidegger’s dialectic of technological revealing/concealing provides the foundational lens. While screens reveal hyper-visualized information flows, they simultaneously conceal their material infrastructure and algorithmic operations. This dual process creates an asymmetrical mediation where users engage with curated realities while remaining oblivious to the underlying technical processes that construct them. Postphenomenology further unpacks this mediation by analyzing how screens actively reconfigure perception rather than merely transmitting neutral content.
Second, Albert Borgmann’s “device paradigm” reveals screens’ paradoxical nature as both focal objects and invisible conduits. While screens demand sustained attention through luminous interfaces and infinite scroll dynamics (focal properties), they operate through a “device logic” that obscures their socio-technical complexity. This tension manifests in what we term “distracted immersion”—users become deeply absorbed in screen content while remaining detached from the contextual realities these interfaces mediate.
Third, Meyrowitz’s “no sense of place” thesis is expanded through contemporary screen practices. Location-independent behaviors enabled by smartphones and video conferencing induce spatial dislocation, where physical environments become interchangeable backdrops to screen activities. This de-localization fosters a paradoxical “ubiquitous placelessness”—users operate simultaneously everywhere (digitally) and nowhere (physically), eroding embodied connections to specific locales.
Fourth, postphenomenological distinctions between screen-mediated and screen-centered perception clarify escalating technological influence. Screen-mediated perception enhances human capabilities (e.g., microscopes extending vision), while screen-centered perception creates self-referential ecosystems (e.g., social media feeds prioritizing algorithmic engagement over external reality). The latter generates a closed-loop effect where sensory input and behavioral output both originate from screen interfaces, progressively detaching users from unmediated lifeworld experiences.
Finally, Arendt’s concept of “worldlessness” frames the socio-political consequences. As screens fragment shared reality into personalized digital enclaves, the sensus communis essential for public discourse deteriorates. Social media’s filter bubbles and recommendation algorithms exemplify this erosion, replacing communal frames of reference with hyper-individualized perceptual universes. This dissolution of common ground manifests in polarized discourses and the collapse of shared epistemic foundations.
The analysis concludes that screens function as existential mediators reshaping human perception across three dimensions: 1) perceptual (mediated vs. direct experience), 2) spatial (disembodied presence vs. situated embodiment), and 3) social (fragmented collectives vs. communal world-building). These transformations demand critical examination of how screen technologies reconfigure the fundamental structures of human experience and collective existence.
