Generation of digital value through dynamic material hermeneutics: A postphenomenological analysis of human-technology relations with digital goods

Abstract

This paper examines how meaning and value are derived for digital goods from a consumer perspective. It applies a postphenomenological framework to analyze the relationships between humans, digital technologies, and digital goods/virtual worlds. Postphenomenology is expanded into the concept of "dynamic material hermeneutics" to account for the recursive, adaptive roles technologies and digital goods play in mediating experiences. Four postphenomenological relationship modes are identified - embodiment, hermeneutics, background, and alterity - and it is argued these relationships generate moments of meaning formation. By separating digital goods from the technologies used to access them, their potential for materialization and possession is explored. This involves four relationship modes: embodiment (where technologies merge with users' experiences), hermeneutics (interpretation of digital goods through technology), background (socio-cultural contexts of technologies), and alterity (distinctiveness of technologies). These interactions contribute to value creation by fostering interpretive dynamics and communal understanding within cultural-technical frameworks, emphasizing that meaning formation through these mediated experiences is central to the perceived worth of digital goods.