Cost of being seen: Digital life and erosion of inner privacy

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The most defining characteristic of the modern age is that humanity has changed not only the world it inhabits, but also the way it perceives itself. In a time when technology surrounds life and screens have become central to everyday existence, human beings increasingly establish their relationship with truth through images. This is not merely a technical transformation; it is also a moral, intellectual, and ontological rupture. “Dijital Çağda Hayâ Ahlakı: Beden Ülkesinde Gözün Darbesi” (which could be translated into English as “The Ethics of Modesty in the Digital Age: The Assault of the Eye in the Kingdom of the Body”), written by Mehmet Görmez, is a remarkable work that places this rupture at its center and analyzes the destruction caused by digital civilization through the conceptual framework of Islamic thought. Published by the Islamic Thought Institute, the book approaches one of the most significant issues of our age – the “crisis of perception” – not merely as a sociological problem, but as a direct intervention against human nature itself.

From its very title, the book establishes a powerful intellectual framework. The phrase “the assault of the eye in the kingdom of the body” vividly illustrates how modern humanity is surrounded by visual culture. Today, not only the human eye, but also the mind, heart and world of meaning are being reshaped under the domination of screens. While the digital age claims to offer limitless communication and visibility, it simultaneously transforms human beings into entities that constantly watch, are watched, display themselves and consume. Görmez does not interpret this new form of civilization merely through technological developments. Rather, he questions how it transforms human morality, the sense of privacy, the understanding of family, and the relationship with truth.

One of the most important aspects of the work is its engagement with the theory of the ethics of…

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