Well-being in the digitalization era: Opportunities, challenges, and threats

By digital transformation we mean a set of cultural, social, creative, and organizational changes triggered by the progressive adoption of technological and digital solutions. Digital transformation is hinged into three pillars: (a) creation of digital culture among citizens, (b) adaptation of procedures on digital basis, (c) adaptation of infrastructures. It is therefore not a mere technological phenomenon, but a real transformation of the way of living and interacting. Digitization seems today an unstoppable process. However, as Pierpaolo Pasolini already noted, "development" and "progress" should not be considered synonymous. The first term concerns the progressive adoption of technological and scientific solutions essentially aimed at profit, the second refers to an effective improvement in the quality of life and social well-being. In companies, digital transformation is experienced as a virtuous process and in many respects a necessary and unavoidable step to guarantee the competitiveness and survival of companies in a globalized context. The impact of digitization in the personal sphere poses many more problems because it is necessary to put development at the service of progress or, in other words, it is necessary to ensure that digitization is functional to well-being. In this chapter we will describe, without any ambition of completeness, some of the main areas of application of digital functions in the life of citizens and communities, highlighting the opportunities for progress they determine and the risks associated with a distorted adoption of technology. The trade-off between these two factors determines the impact on well-being.