1: Introduction

Sociology has made significant strides in relation to the conceptualisation and empirical study of digital societies. The move from a primary focus on new forms of digital data has expanded, developed and reconnected with a wider consideration of social and technological change. The rapid development and social impact of social media continue to be felt, now accompanied by new disruptive digital technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), that have the potential to intensify and accelerate the goods, bads and unintended consequences associated with social media’s impact, while generating new avenues into existing social domains and forms of life in ways that will likely transform some of their routine features in predictable but also novel ways. Furthermore, some of the popular forecasts for how the next wave of disruptive digital technologies will, allegedly, transform social life increasingly invite healthy sociological scepticism as our understanding of ‘hype cycles’ and promotional ‘visioneering’ is comprehended as part and parcel of a social–technical landscape characterised by competing commercial cultures, marketing and ideological ambitions that are expressed through proactionary ‘world making’ narratives. Yet, within this context, there remains ample opportunity to inform wider public discourse concerning digital transformation through both theoretical and empirical means.