Meta-presentiality, Digital Health, and Collective Health

Abstract

In this essay, I present preliminary reflections on digital technologies as new forms of health promotion in the contemporary world. First, I introduce the concepts of technology, reality, presence, virtual reality, and extended reality, through critical realism. Second, I discuss the emerging concept of meta-presentity as fundamental for the socio-technical appropriation of digital technologies in the fields of Education and Health. Third, I critically analyze the notion of Distance Education, in contrast to the idea of meta-presential learning spaces, in the context of an innovative model of Higher Education. Fourthly, I briefly discuss Digital Health as a set of knowledge, techniques, and practices capable of overcoming the dualism of "hard " vs. "soft" technologies in health. Finally, I evaluate epistemological issues specific to the field of Collective Health, to redefine telehealth as health care mediated by meta-presentiality.