Information technologies, ICT and Industry 4.0 are developing particularly fast in the fourth technological revolution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the scale of digitisation and internationalisation of remote communication processes and various aspects of economic activity. Digitisation of the economy is currently taking place simultaneously in many areas of economic processes and the functioning of many economic entities and public, financial and other institutions. Many companies, enterprises and public institutions that previously operated mostly or solely offline during the pandemic have switched to remote, electronic operation via the Internet. The development of electronic banking is also increasing, including internet and mobile banking. The share of electronic, cashless payments via the Internet and payments with electronic bank cards is increasing. In addition, in recent years, the range of applications of Data Science, Big Data, and Data Analytics technologies in economics, finance and organisation management, including enterprises, financial and public institutions, has been increasing. Therefore, the importance of implementing analytical instruments for advanced processing of large Data Science data sets in enterprises, financial and public institutions is also growing, including the construction of Big Data Analytics platforms to support organisation management processes in various aspects of operations, including improvement relationship with customers. The scale of cybercrime has also increased during the pandemic, as has the importance of improving cybersecurity techniques and instruments.

At the threshold of emerging parallel immersive environments and metaverse worlds, the use of social media to build interpersonal relationships is a common phenomenon. This study aimed to diagnose, describe, and compare the use of social media to build and sustain interpersonal contacts and to refer to the level of interpersonal competences among students of pedagogical courses in two selected universities in Poland and Portugal. The studies were quantitative and employed the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire by D. Buhrmester, W. Furman, M.T. Wittenberg and H.T. Reis, as well as the author’s own questionnaire. The analyses show that social media play a major role in building interpersonal relationships for Polish and Portuguese students in areas such as establishing new contacts, maintaining offline relationships, mutual learning and self-presentation. Non-face-to-face relations may interfere with establishing contact face to face. The analyses also show that the level of interpersonal competences among the respondents in terms of the skills and readiness to provide emotional support to others is differentiated by the way and scope of social media usage in the area under consideration. It can be assumed that in the group of respondents, the more they are willing and able to provide emotional support to others, the more effective and balanced way they use social media in building interpersonal relationships.

The article concerns selected problems in the development of the Internet in terms of its impact on the religious attitudes of young Poles. On the base of the research on the use of the Internet and the development of religiosity, their situation is presented in the context of the situation of American teenagers. Americans are one of the largest media markets and have strong and traditional Christian communities. Therefore, certain trends in religious attitudes could have appeared earlier and outlined more strongly there than in other parts of the world. Which of them are reflected in the Polish situation? How is the Internet used by young users in the United States and Poland? Is there anything specific to the Polish situation in shaping religious attitudes via the Internet? The final results of the comparative analysis undertaken are to lead to conclusions showing the characteristics of the Internet that enable it to influence the shaping of the world-view and to forecast directions in which these changes may go. Research on the Internet’s influence on religiosity has a short history, but dynamic changes in both religiosity and technology call for the opening of new research spaces.

The article outlines a position expressing the view that cyberspace opens up a new dimension of politics, in which cyber campaigns have the potential to become an important means or alternative to warfare in order to achieve strategic advantage. The consequences of cyber measures may not necessarily lead to disasters or military reprisals that disable a state’s critical infrastructure at an unexpected moment but instead may affect the sources of power and its legitimacy. This fact forces one to ponder the question of the nature of the cyber conflict. Global awareness among policymakers about cyber warfare has increased significantly over the past few years, and many states are preparing to defend themselves against this threat. Cyber warfare is part of the evolution of conventional warfare, which in turn is linked to the broad changes in the social and political spheres and, above all, in the technological sphere. This paper aims to seek an answer to the question: are we facing cyber warfare? The answer to this question will be provided by analysing the events in the initial stage of the war in Ukraine in 2022.

The subject of this article is a critical evaluation of application of competition law to the undertakings active on the copyright market. The study focuses on the conduct of the collecting organizations of copyright. Its aim is to present new aspects and methods that need to be considered in analyzing the market position of national collecting organizations. The clarification of the main problem is preceded by examination of the notion of dominant position as defined in Polish antimonopoly law. Next, the article address the implications of cross-border online copyright trade on the evaluation of the market position of national collecting societies. Further considerations argue for an integrative approach that give attention to the dynamic factors of competition and highlights public interest issues.. In this regard the claim is that the development of competition on the copyright market has to sustain the objectives of intellectual property regulations. The author point out that ratio legis of copyright law is anchored in the Constitution, that determine the need for balancing the individual and public interest in respect to the creative activity.

The impact of television on shaping stereotypes

Niezliczona liczba informacji docierająca do nas z zewnątrz powoduje, że aby nie zgubić się w informacyjnym gąszczu podejmujemy próbę oceny. Najczęściej przy ocenie pomijamy niektóre (wydawać by się mogło) istotne informacje bądź – z drugiej strony – przypisujemy większą rangę innym, co w konsekwencji tworzy nam prosty ogląd otaczającej nas rzeczywistości. Taki ogląd przyczynia się do rozwoju strategii, którą nazywamy kategoryzacją. Kategoryzowanie rzeczywistości społecznej (poprzez częste powtarzanie i utrwalanie oraz brak głębszej analizy) w dużym stopniu wpływa na powstawanie stereotypowych skojarzeń. W tej sytuacji pomocne mogą być media, które przychodzą z pomocą i utrwalają – albo zmieniają ugruntowany obraz (stereotyp).

Daily Life and Some Meanings of the Internet. Visual and Conversational Analysis of a Comic Book Fragment Sent to the All-Polish Sociological Competition “Life in the Internet”

In order to answer the research questions, the visual and conversation analyzes of a part of the selected work of art (a cartoon) were carried out and presented. The work was submitted by a student of an upper-secondary school to the Polish Nationwide Sociological Competition „Life on the Internet” organized by the Institute of Sociology of the University of Economy in Bydgoszcz. The competition had been inspired by the similar undertakings carried out in Poznań by Florian Znaniecki in the beginnings of the 20th century. The project bases on the assumption that the social reality is a creation of constant, everyday interactions taking place between its members and the objects to which social meanings were given. The Internet, still remaining in the phase of social construction, is such an object, too, and the source of meanings for it are the complex interactions between the Internet-users. Therefore, it has been assumed that the users direct their actions towards the object basing on the meaning they have for it. The aim of the paper is to reply to the question of what meanings are socially given to the Internet within the everyday (habitual) social interactions via the text (language), the social actions and the images.

Forums and Literary Portals, or the Web as a Place for Writing Initiatives

The following paper will discuss selected literary forums and portals as environments in which users can attain, develop and perfect creative writing skills. They will also be examined as spaces enabling the introduction of innovative literary concepts that would be impossible or difficult to put into practice off-line or before the advent of computer networks. Due to these qualities, a description of such forums and portals could balance out the perception of the Internet as a medium promoting profanity and graphomania. The paper will describe the functioning of literary portals, which can be seen to initiate and promote creative writing on the Internet not merely by constituting hubs for on-line literary activity but mostly through various activities stimulating and encouraging literary production. Examples of such online activities will be provided, and demonstrated to encourage writing activity. They include relay writing, literary slam, and other practices providing non-material, non-financial gratification to writers. Finally, the paper will examine some problematic issues in the functioning of such literary environments.

Messages directed to potential volunteers via Polish-language websites. An example of voluntary work in African countries

Internet communication is widely used by Polish NGOs in communicating with the public. It is also used by foundations and associations that organize volunteering in Africa. The purpose of this article is to characterize the communications concerning participation in volunteering in the African area, which have been posted on the Polish-language Internet by the aforementioned NGOs. This article presents theoretical issues relating to the Internet as a tool of communication in NGOs, the image of the Other in Polish society (in relation to Africa and the inhabitants of the continent) and volunteering in Polish NGOs. It presents the results of the author’s own qualitative research conducted using an analytical technique, the content analysis method. Messages posted on the websites of NGOs focus on the person of the volunteer experiencing exotic adventures and gathering attractive experiences, at the expense of presenting the beneficiaries of the volunteer’s activities. The described communications present reality in a way that perpetuates stereotypes, while conveying information about the professional, ethical and intelligent nature of the activities of foundations and associations.

The following article constitutes a presentation of the occurrence of the media in the process of education and its consequences. A great stress has been put on applying the new information and communication technologies (ICT), such as the Internet, in the process of educating adults It draws attention to the great importance of the media in human functioning in the physical, psychic and social sphere. It underlines the possibilities that are enabled by the new technologies in the area of breaking the boundaries of time and space in the education of an adult. It also points out the potential threats accompanying man in their existence in the media reality

New requirements in education that arise due to technical progress and development of informational technologies, requests for new managers and workers, who are educated generally and are able to keep more key competences professionally. The authors of this contribution are showing some options to keep on learning informational-communicational competences for the managerial staff at present school.

Contemporary reality evidently points to the fact that childhood has been dominated by the media and multimedia. Nowadays, children live in a global culture created by the development of new information technologies, electronic media and the Internet. Their childhood is characterised by individual behavioural patterns at home; it is more ‘private’ as spent by electronic devices where dominant relations are indirect and communication with others is maintained by means of a computer keyboard. The cyberculture, i.e. television, advertisements and the Internet can generate long-lasting state of fear, hyper-agitation, fear of being oppresed by others, night fears and desensitisation in the youngest generation. However, it is sufficient to implement the basic educational rules, such as spending time with children, positive parental presence in the lives of children and showing some honest interest in their problems and interests and talking them through.