The concept of time in the digital narrative of social media

The paper aims to philosophically explore the relationship between digital time and digital narrative. It explains two general topics. The first topic is the meaning of narrative as a literary genre. In addition, the paper seeks to formulate a different meaning of narrative depending on some philosophical thoughts. Then it explores the relationship between time and narrative. It concludes that narrative exists in time. Without time, narrative cannot live. Although language is important to narrative, it is merely a locator of where time is. The link between time and events is strong. An event is the only narrative component that embodies time. However, to have a philosophy of narrative as a carrier of the meaning of time and explanation of life and existence, narrative must be discussed as a philosophical way, not as a literary genre. The second general topic of the paper is about digital narrative and the digital concept of time. In this topic, narrative is not discussed as an independent topic; it links to several concepts, such as digital community and digital narrator. Some characteristics of digital media are explained to understand what this paper means by digital narrative. Narrative, understood as the carrier of meaning of time and the explainer of life and existence, exists by social media and within digital time, not by a human narrator. In digital narrative, several concepts drastically change. One or two aspects of interest can form a digital community. In addition, the past and the future do not exist on social media. Users live in unlimited ‘nows.’ This unlimited ‘now’ is shaped by the feature of permanence and continuity of social media, in which man’s engagement with social media has no end or limit.

1 Introduction

Man’s life is about narrative. He exists in a narrative. His life from birth to death is a mere story. His story is part of other stories (such as his father, children, wife, country, and the world). As man exists in narrative, he understands the world and life through narrative. The most indiscernible concept is time. But man can realize it through narrative. Thus, time and narrative or narrative within time play an important role in human understanding of life and existence.

The task of this paper is challenging as it uses a common concept (narrative in the literary field) to build an uncommon meaning of the term (narrative as a carrier and explainer of the meaning of life and existence). Unlike previous communication media, social media’s advent and spread were rapid. From its first emergence to its peak, people and researchers were not given enough time to understand the new media and why it appeared. The speed of emergence was followed by a speed of adoption, as well as the change of many concepts, including concepts that are easy to observe, such as digital societies, or concepts that require research and philosophical insight to understand, such as the concept of time and its relationship to narrative in the digital community. The paper uses philosophical thoughts, such as Ricoeur’s time and narrative, to make a solid ground for the new meaning of narrative. Understanding the philosophical meaning of the concepts surrounding digital narrative opens the gate to being aware of where man’s life is situated in the new technology. The approach of the paper is interpretivism.

This paper does not address the problem of digital communication as a way that has reshaped some of the human concepts. For this paper, the reshaping of human concepts (such as community and friendship) is merely the result of the convergence of several different fields. For example, the mass media were limited to cultural, political, and other elites, with the public simply being recipients. Consequently, these elites were the ones who built societies (values, customs, traditions, etc.), shaped economic concepts, and performed other tasks. Digital media, however, has merged the characteristics of the public communication sphere with the private communication sphere. One of the results of integrating these two spheres is controlling the public over the digital mass communication media. Due to the smaller number of elites compared to the public, populist perspectives have sidelined the elite, and the popular voice has become dominant, holding the power to change and reshape life concepts. This paper does not simply present this as a problem to study; what makes it more complex is that the elites of traditional mass media were educated and professional in their various fields (politics, economics, sociology, etc.). The construction of cultural, social, political, and economic values was based on knowledge and well-defined foundations. The popular presence in digital media, replacing the elitist one, reshapes concepts based on short-term life experiences driven more by emotion than reason. Given that narrative for man is not merely a story, but rather how they construct their understanding of life and existence (as the first section of this paper discusses), this paper has chosen to examine the concept of digital narrative and its relationship to time in the digital world. Based on the foregoing, this paper poses several questions: Since the relationship between narrative and man is deeply rooted, is narrative an elitist literary construct for specific audiences? Or does it possess a broader meaning? What does the embodiment of time through narrative signify? What impact have digital communication technologies had on man’s understanding of narrative? What changes have occurred in the concept of narrative within the digital age? What are the characteristics and attributes of the narrator in digital narrative? And what is the effect of digital narrative on man and his perception of life and existence?

The paper is divided into four sections. The first section concentrates on narrative. It explores the meaning of narrative depending on philosophical thoughts. Then the section builds a new uncommon concept of narrative which is to explain life and existence. In the second section, the paper discusses the concept of time and its relationship to narrative. The digital narrative is the topic of the third section. Finally, the final section focuses on the digital narrative and its link to time.

2 The concept of narrative

The concept of narrative is one of the oldest concepts in human history. It is a part of every culture and human being. The deep roots of narrative in the cultural consciousness of humanity have attracted the attention of philosophers and thinkers to address it in various eras. This section does not claim to summarize every thought and opinion made around narrative. Rather, the section examines narrative as a concept through six topics: the concept of “narrative,” plot, the philosophical meanings of narrative, and personal and societal narrative.

Narratives have surrounded human beings since their first existence. Narrative, for human beings, is not a mere story; rather, it is their lives. Ricoeur (1979) states that “[t]he first function of narratives is to establish man at that level of temporalization—the time of everyday life” (25). The time of everyday life is essential to human beings. The link between human and narrative, in Ricoeur’s thought, explains how narrative is an integral part of human existence. Human life is a story. Every human being’s life consists of events (plots), whether it is narrated or remains without linguistic embodiment. Alasdair MacIntyre asserts that not only in his action and practice, man in his fictions, too, is a storytelling animal. For MacIntyre, man “becomes through his history, a teller of stories that aspire to truth” (216). Throughout the narrative, human beings learn and understand life.

Human beings understand the world through narrative. Velleman (2003) suggests that stories do not only recount events, but they recount “events in a way that renders them intelligible.” For Velleman, narrative conveys both information and understanding (1). Narrative reveals the law of life and the law of existence. Trott (2017) points to the role of narrative in constructing humans’ consciousness. Narrative, for Trott, teaches human beings causes and gives them a sense to predict the future (192). Throughout the narrative, human beings understand the causes of good and evil, happiness and pain, and other concepts regarding their existence. Ricoeur (1983) assures that “the world is apprehended from the angle of human praxis rather than from that of cosmic pathos. What is resignified by narrative is what was already presignified at the level of human acting” (81). The existential concept uses narrative as a means of instilling identity and principles inherent in human beings through historical moments embodied in the narrative. Arnett and Holba (2012) mention that narrative is “a testimony that has temporal limits and understands identity as embedded within narrative” (97). Narrative is a tool for intellectual formation for man. Through narrative, man not only understands what was, what is, and what will be, but it also reveals the reasons and opens the horizon of prediction for him. Narrative meaning explains the strong connection between existential human and narrative.

What does narrative mean? This short question requires a long answer. Different schools and philosophers discuss the meaning of narrative. What is important for this paper is the concept of narrative that presents in man, builds his concept of life, constructs his identity, and establishes his relationship with the world and environment around him. Some philosophers consider spoken language as a main condition of narrative. For example, Bunnin and Yu (2004) define narrative as a “mode of discourse that establishes orders or logical relations among various events and places them in a sequence.” For Bunnin and Yu, the sequence indicates a chronology of events and “a configurational understanding by which each occurrence introduced in the narrative forms part of a meaningful whole. In this way a narrative forms a story.” (453). Ricoeur (1983) agrees with Bunnin and Yu in their assertion of the spoken or written language as a fundamental component of the concept of narrative. Narrative, for Ricoeur, is the organization of the events (36). The events for him are shown in the spoken or written language. Clearly, Ricoeur (1984) states that narrative “is one of the broadest classes of discourse, that is, of sequences of sentences put in a certain order” (30). In fact, Ricoeur’s concept of narrative is not a mere spoken or written language that narrates an event. Ricoeur suggests that an isolated action sentence cannot make a narrative. For him, “[o]nly a sequence of statements constitutes a narrative syntagm and allows us, retroactively, to speak of the action sentences that compose this chain as narrative (58). In these definitions, spoken or written language is the main part of the narrative. In other words, Narrative cannot exist outside of language. But this way of defining narrative comes as the only definition of narrative that is seen as a literary genre. Other philosophers and thinkers discuss narrative from another side, away from literature. They connect narrative to human life regardless its relation to any type of knowledge or filed. It is a mere philosophical perception.

The link between narrative and story poses questions about their difference, their relation to human beings, and their formation. MacIntyre (2007), in his After Virtue, uses the word “narrative” 124 times; the majority of them point to something that does not belong to spoken and written language. For example, he believes that every human life is a type of narrative (128). Narrative, in this point of view, is more than an esthetic literary genre. It is a philosophical explanation of life and existence. Throughout narrative, man connects between causes and results and differentiates between good and evil. This perception of narrative widens the task of narrative. Narrative becomes the carrier of the meaning of existence. According to Arnett and Holba (2012), “[a] narrative is a story composed of practices agreed upon by a group of people; it is this collective sense of agreement that separate a story from narrative” (38). From narrative, man receives a complete life experience. Relating narrative to “practices agreed upon by a group of people” exposes man to what this paper calls multiexperience. Constructing man’s consciousness and non-consciousness is made through the multiexpersience offered by and embodied in narrative. Maignant (2021) suggests that polyphonic narrative leads to “the multiplication of perspectives on an object or a situation favors the production of a collective knowledge on them” (5–6). Understanding narrative as a philosophical life guide and interpreter frees narrative from its existence only through spoken or written language (literary genre). Currie (2010) mentions that “narrative-making need not involve writing or speech, since there are narratives in other media” (21). Said Yaktine differentiates between the concept of the story and the discourse that conveys the story. For him, the story means the events in their interconnectedness and sequence, and in their relationships with the characters and their interaction, as for the discourse, it appears to us through the presence of the narrator who presents the story (30). Although Yaktine’s idea relates to his analysis of literary narrative, the separation between events and the discourse widens the meaning of narrative. Depending on Yaktine’s view, narrative can be viewed as a literary genre or a philosophical concept of life. To set methodology for the study of narrative liminality, Herrmann et al. (2022) suggest that “narrative can be conceptualized as a symbolic form that circulates in culture alongside other symbolic forms” (13–15). Herrmann and his colleagues connect narrative to collective practices. By means of the collective practices, the concept of multiexperience exists to provide man with the meaning of life and existence. However, despite the difference between philosophers and thinkers about the meaning of narrative, they agree on the importance of events for narrative. Events are a cornerstone for narrative. As mentioned above, narrative forms the concept of life in the human mind. This role of narrative indicates the importance of events that shape humans’ awareness. The importance of the events to narrative denotes that not every event composes narrative. According to Velleman (2003), “a narrative typically organizes events into chains of cause and effect. What counts as a single event in the summary of a plot is invariably a complex of many events causally related” (3–4). In addition, Currie (2010)’s idea agrees with Velleman’s causality of events in narrative. However, Currie clearly states that “there would have to be more than one” (33). Suppose narrative is understood as a group of events chained in causality, carrying meanings of life and existence. In that case, the primary function of narrative becomes explanation, explanation of meanings related to life and existence.

Narrative reveals the Being of the meaning. It is one of the main functions of narrative. Ricoeur (1983) assures that “the narrativists have successfully demonstrated that to narrate is already to explain” (178). Narrative does not intentionally seek to be an interpreter, but the process of interpretation, which is a fundamental function of narrative, is an implicit, unintended, but inevitable function. According to Ricoeur (1984), “to narrate a story is already to ‘reflect upon’ the event narrated” (61). The explanatory function of narrative appears through reflection. The latent feature of the interpretive function of narrative makes the interpretive process of narrative completely different from any other interpretive process. Velleman (2003) highlights this unique feature of narrative and calls for a new and different term (4). The latency characteristic in the interpretive function of narrative refers to its indirect and unobservable impact on man. Plots come to reinforce this function. The explanatory feature of narrative can be found in the answer to how plots are built. An ordinary man does not ask such a question, but their brain infers the answer throughout their understanding of the role of the plot.

2.1 The role of the plot

Plot is the heart of any narrative. Philosophers, as we will see later in this section, differentiate between narrative and other terms depending on the existence of a plot. Narrative becomes narrative if it has a plot. However, in this section, the meaning of narrative, explained in the previous section, leads this paper to examine the plot, its importance, and function from the perspective that views narrative as a philosophical term, rather than a literary genre, although the paper benefits from thinkers and philosophers’ perspectives on plot in narrative as a literary genre.

The concept of plot has multiple definitions, but this multiplicity of perceptions is not problematic, as the general idea of plot is agreed upon by thinkers and philosophers. Ricoeur defines plot several times in his Narrative and Time and also in “The Human Experience of Time and Narrative.” he sees “a plot is a way of connecting event and story” (1979, 24). In general, Ricoeur’s definitions of plot relied on levels of convergence and divergence between three concepts: a story, narrative, and events. Ricoeur (1983) views plot “as the ordering of the events into the total action constitutive of the narrated story” (56). Although Ricoeur concentrates his Narrative and Time around the two concepts (narrative and time), he organizes the relationship between narrative and time. For Ricoeur (1979), “a story is not bound to a merely chronological order of events.” Narratives have two dimensions: chronological and non-chronological. The chronological dimension “characterizes the story as made out of events.” And the plot, in the non-chronological dimension, “construes significant wholes out of scattered events” (24). Through Ricoeur’s notion of narrative and time, time is essential to events, whereas plot, composed of events, does not belong directly to time; rather, it benefits from the time of the events. In Narrative and Time, Ricoeur (1983) clearly states that plot “is a mediation between the individual events or incidents and a story taken as a whole” (65). Depending on this understanding of the relationship between time and events, on one hand, and events and plot, on the other hand, the narrative is constructed through a chain of causal chronological events.

Causality is what connects events to each other chronologically. Currie (2010) denies the ability of a plot to exist without causality. Currie mentions that the absence of causality, “there would be nothing but a soup of physical occurrences, out of which no plot could ever precipitate” (3–4). The importance of causality in events and plot lies in its role in constructing the meaning of the narrative, the primary entry point for understanding and interpreting the narrative. The main function of causality is to imbue a sequence of events with a shared meaning, and this shared meaning often serves the interpretive function that characterizes narrative.

The explanatory function of narrative derives its power from plot. In the previous paragraph, the paper explains two aspects: the relationship between events and time and their role in constructing the plot, and the link of causality to the plot. Ricoeur (1983) ensures that “the composition of the plot is grounded in a preunderstanding of the world of action, its meaningful structures, its symbolic resources, and its temporal character” (54). The preunderstanding, mentioned in Ricoeur’s quotation, indicates that the plot conveys the meaning of existence, and if it were not so, this preunderstanding would have no significance. “A story must be more than just an enumeration of events in serial order; it must organize them into an intelligible whole, of a sort such that we can always ask what is the “thought” of this story” (65). Ricoeur links plot to the thinking process. He confirms that “to narrate a story is already to ‘reflect upon’ the event narrated” (1984, 61). In this context, Velleman does not find a difference between “the understanding conveyed by a plot” and “that conveyed by other genres of explanation” (2). In sum, narrative conveys the meaning of life and existence through the plot. The plot utilizes the group’s agreed-upon thoughts. Explanation of existence and life is hidden between these types of thoughts. This function of narrative, the explanatory function, shows narrative as a philosophical way of understanding the meaning of existence, which is broader than the literary perspective of narrative.

2.2 The philosophical meanings of narrative

The use of the term narrative in the research and academic fields is associated with the literary aspect. However, this paper focuses on narrative as a philosophical term that explains the meaning of life and existence. Viewing narrative as a philosophical term does not narrow it to the spoken and written languages. This perspective of narrative is not new to the term. There are signs of this usage among several thinkers and philosophers. As mentioned above, MacIntyre uses the term narrative 124 times in his After Virtue; most of his uses of the term do not indicate the narrative as a literary genre. Moreover, when he links narrative to a literary genre (heroic poetry), MacIntyre discusses narrative in this type of poetry as a moral structure of social values (128–129). He concludes that the narrative is a framework “of epic or saga, a form embodied in the moral life of individuals and in the collective social structure. Heroic social structure is enacted epic narrative” (129). In addition, MacIntyre reinforces the idea that “human life already had the form of dramatic narrative” (143–144). Trott (2017), in her article “Philosophy as Storytelling,” speaks of the history of philosophy as a type of narrative. She concludes that “philosophy as a human pursuit is a continuing master narrative” (194). In short, for this paper, viewing narrative outside the boundaries of literary genres is grounded in philosophical thoughts. Broadening the meaning of narrative beyond literature expands its impact and understanding.

The philosophical perspective of narrative does not limit the way of the existence of narrative. Any change in the form of literary narrative poses a problematic position for literary scholars. Ricoeur (1984) argues that a change in the style of language of any literary genre leads to the emergence of a new genre (11–12). In this sense, according to Ricoeur, the change in the narrative plot will lead to the establishment of a new form of narrative. Ricoeur tries to be optimistic about the future of narrative. For him, “new narrative forms, which we do not yet know how to name, are already being born, which will bear witness to the fact that the narrative function can still be metamorphosed, but not so as to die. For we have no idea of what a culture would be where no one any longer knew what it meant to narrate things” (28). Obviously, social media brings a new form of narrative. Viewing literary narrative as the only form of narrative will cause a loss of the great power of narrative and its significant impact in the digital age. In fact, we can claim the “death of the narrative” if we do not allow it to make the changes it needs to be alive. “The reference to an eventual death of the art of narration even revealed the precariousness whose shadow accompanies this perenniality of the narrative function, which is nevertheless present in the many different ethnic cultures identified by cultural anthropology” (29). Although Ricoeur’s Narrative and Time concentrates on analyzing literary narrative, he admits the changes that modern narrative is heading toward. Eventually, Ricoeur acknowledges the forms of the new narrative (oral, written, drawn, acted) and the various classes of narrative “(myths, folklore, fables, novels, epics, tragedies, dramas, films, comic strips, to say nothing of history, painting, and conversation)” (29–30). His admission of the new forms and classes of narratives does not mean that he speaks of narrative outside the boundaries of literature. The alteration of the concept of narrative leads Ricoeur to deny the ability to apply any inductive approach to study the new forms of narrative (30). Another optimistic opinion toward the future of narrative comes from Herrmann et al. (2022). For them, “[i]f all these assessments were right, if, by the end of the twentieth century, the concept of narrative was dead after all, the unending stream of obituaries certainly was evidence of a lively afterlife” (9). With the rise of digital communication mediums, Narrative becomes able to break free from the control of the literary field over it in the philosophical and research domain, and it was able, as is evident from the words of Ricoeur and others interested in narrative as a literary genre, to be present among popular realms in new forms and different methods of influence.

With the emergence of social media, the margin not only appears, but also controls mass communication media, as the communication tools that influence cultural formations fall into the hands of the silent majority. By the silent majority, I mean by the silent majority people who were previously the receivers of traditional mass communication channels. TV channels, Radios, Newspapers, and magazines were controlled by the elite. They formed narrative according to their professional field. Social media comes and changes the role. Narrative becomes more popular than elitist. Indeed, even in the literary view of narrative, its characteristic reinforces the fast changes made to it with the rise of social media. MacIntyre (2007) assures that narrating is inherent in man. He states that “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal. He is not essentially, but becomes through his history, a teller of stories that aspire to truth” (216). Narrative, to ordinary people, gains its importance and impact as it approaches their life experiences. Herrmann et al. (2022) point to the ability of narrative to change Americans’ views on specific political issues (10). Narrative, for man, is his life and the way of forming his identity.

Man’s identity and understanding of life and existence are shaped by narrative. It is a bold claim. Indeed, philosophers and thinkers, despite their different perceptions of narrative, see a strong connection between man’s life and narrative. MacIntyre (2007) believes that human beings live out narratives in their lives. And because they understand their lives “in terms of the narratives,” they understand others through narrative also. For MacIntyre, “[s]tories are lived before they are told-except in the case of fiction” (212). The question is whether lived stories are considered narrative? Or they need to be expressed to be seen as narrative. MacIntyre emphasizes that “human life is embodying a certain type of narrative structure” (174). He points out the ability “to think of the self in a narrative mode” (206). “Thinking of the self” does not require expressing the self in spoken and written language. Moreover, MacIntyre states that “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal” (216). He indicates the importance of understanding oneself to learn how others respond to others. This understanding of the self comes through narrative (216). The process of self-understanding and the other’s response to the self does not demand a spoken or written narrative. Ricoeur (1983) assures the narrated human action is “always already articulated by signs, rules, and norms. It is always already symbolically mediated” (57). Although Ricoeur does not consider the articulated signs, rules, and norms of human action a narrative unless they are expressed in a spoken or written language, he links narrative to the life experience. “When life is narrated, it is also lived, according to its narrative construction” (Goodson and Gill, 2011, 6). Trott (2017) views narrative as inherent in man. For him, “nothing in our speculations and imaginings excludes narrative as a method for furthering the rational movements of the human mind” (195). In this context, man’s life is a narrative, regardless of whether it is embodied in language or remains unspoken. Considering narrative as an integral part of man denotes the importance and the role of narrative in constructing society in which it consists of men.

The community is built by man whose lives are shaped by narrative and who understands existence through narrative. The strong connection between man and community questions the role of narrative in community. Before discussing philosophers’ and thinkers’ views of the relationship between communities and narrative, it is important to say that the first and obvious link between community and narrative is human beings who build it. Human beings’, as mentioned several times before, understanding of life and existence are shaped by narrative. As a result, social culture is impacted by narrative. One of the features of narrative, according to Goodson and Gill (2011), is the social encounter, which means “all narratives are told to an audience and will inevitably be shaped by the relationship between the teller and the listener” (4). Both the teller and the listener are members of the community. The narrative shaped by the relationship between the teller and his audience directs their perspective of life and existence. Goodson and Gill point to the interest of sociologists in the relationship between narrative and life and its impact on constructing self-identity. For them, identity “itself can never be seen simply as a psychological concept. Rather it is simultaneously cultural, historical, social and personal” (6). Within this framework, the narrative components are derived from the community. Herrmann et al. (2022) describe narrative as ‘social construction’ (10). However, MacIntyre (2007) sees the community as “a dramatic character which enacts the narrative of its history” (145). In this context, the community not only seeks to construct the meaning of the narrative for man, but it is a main part of its construction.

To conclude this section, it reviews the different meanings of narrative: narrative as a literary genre and narrative as a philosophical concept. The section does not claim that there is no philosophical aspect in the literary narrative. Indeed, it examines narrative from the side of its initial formations and the field to which it belongs. Although the paper depends on Ricoeur’s philosophy of narrative and time on the relationship between them, the concept of narrative it adopts is close to MacIntyre’s philosophy. The concept of narrative for this paper does not exclude the literary narrative. In fact, literary narrative is part of the concept, not the only way to view narrative. Narrative is akin to man’s life. It explains the existence and articulates the man’s life experience. The concept of narrative, in its wide sense as this paper adopts, can be perfectly understood when the idea of time within narrative is illustrated.

3 Narrative within time

Time is an inherent part of narrative. Discussing narrative requires examining the concept of time. Without time, narrative cannot exist. However, although time can be investigated outside its relationship to narrative, the latter is the way to embody time. This section explores the relationship between narrative and time through several topics: the concept of time, narrative within time, and time and narrative discourse.

The concept of time is a complicated topic. It is one of the most disputed topics in philosophy. The complexity of the subject and its long discussion are among the challenges for this paper. However, this section explores the concept of time and its relationship to narrative from the perspective that helps to understand the idea of philosophical narrative that the previous chapter ends with.

Time is one of the most common and frequently used terms on all levels. Defining time is a difficult task. This difficulty leads the paper to provide some meanings of the concept of time rather than defining the term. Nevertheless, what is time? Klein (2009) seeks to answer the question, after discussing the concept of time in 34 pages, he concludes that “If anything is clear by now, then it should be the fact there that is not a single notion of time. But it is also clear that the many facets of time are not an arbitrary collection of phenomena” (15). The concept of time in philosophy has received considerable attention from philosophers. The wide interest of philosophers in time explains the method Klein employed to discuss the term. He depends only on “elaborate views of particular philosophers, from Anaximander to Heidegger and Wittgenstein” (4). Then he does not examine all these “elaborate views.” Rather, he provides only “three characteristic examples from modern times” (4). Ricoeur (2004) clearly declares his adoption of Heidegger’s philosophy of time which is that time constitutes “a major characteristic of the being” and “the characteristic that signals the relation of this being to being qua being” (345). Existence and time are two interdependent concepts. The absence of either leads to nonentity. Life experience is a way to the perception of both terms: existence and time. There is a strong link between movement and the perception of time. Ricoeur (1990) assures that “there is no possible existence of time itself without that of movement” (15). From a human perspective, man’s life is about a series of events. Through these events, man perceives time. Ricoeur (1979) differentiates between two concepts of time: lived time and universal time. The first concept “is called within-timeness, because at that level, time is held as that ‘in’ which events occur” (20). Because man perceives time through events, he uses movements, by which events occur, to understand time, such as a clock, the movement of the sun, and the phases of the moon. The terms day, week, month, year, and season are built upon the movements of the clock hands, the sun, and the moon. The terms day, week, month, year, and season are built upon the movements of the clock hands, the sun, and the moon. In addition to these movements, narrative embodies time through events.

Narrative is withintimeness. Man understands time through narrative. Narrative explains the meaning of life and existence through events that use time. Events are movements that embody time. Additionally, narrative events shape man’s life experience. Ricoeur (1990) suggests that “there can be no thought about time without narrated time” (241). The narrated time cannot be without events. Ricoeur, who focuses on his analysis of narrative in language, states that “temporality cannot be spoken of in the direct discourse of phenomenology, but rather requires the mediation of the indirect discourse of narration.” In this context, he considers narrative as a guardian of time (241). The main difference between the direct discourse of phenomenology and the indirect discourse of narration is that the latter requires plots, the carriers of meaning withintimenss. Ricoeur (1979) describes the time of narrative as “the time proper to the ‘being together’” (26) of narrative characters because plots, as the carriers of time, convey the meaning that explains life and existence. The ‘being together’ points to the function of narrative, explained in the previous section. Ricoeur (1979) takes plot as the leading thread of his discussion of time in narrative (26). He clearly declares that “plot displays some remarkable temporal structures which help us to bridge the gap between an inquiry into narrativity and an inhelp us to bridge the gap between an inquiry into narrativity and an inquiry into temporality” (23–24). For Ricoeur, the description of these temporal structures cannot be done without discussing plot as a main topic (24). The importance of the plot and its unique feature to embody time leads Ricoeur to divide narrative into two dimensions: chronological and non-chronological. The chronological dimension “characterizes the story as made out of events” (24). And the non-chronological dimension is called “the configurational dimension, according to which the plot construes significant wholes out of scattered events” (24). It is a differentiation between the narrative discourse (non-chronological) and the narrative plot (chronological).

The concept of time in narrative and in the linguistic system overlaps. Also, the relationship between narrative and human experience is temporal. Ricoeur (1979) ensures this meaning when he mentions the correlation “between the activity of narrating a story and the temporal character of human experience.” For Ricoeur, “time becomes human to the extent that it is articulated through a narrative mode, and narrative attains its full meaning when it becomes a condition of temporal existence” (52). The system of tenses exists in both: the human experience and the activity of narrating a story. But it is not the only way to embody time. Ricoeur (1984) mentions that “the system of tenses provides a storehouse of distinctions, relations, and combinations from which fiction draws the resources for its own autonomy with respect to lived experience” (62). The system of tenses is to link the narrative to the receiver. “Tenses are no more than signals addressed by a speaker to a listener, inviting this listener to receive and decode a verbal message in a certain way” (Ricoeur, 1990, p. 189). Ricoeur depicts the system of tenses as a notice to the reader (189). Tenses only code the time of events, not the time. However, the time of narrative exists in the historical past and the imperfect. Yaktine (2005) divides time in narrative into two aspects: the time of the verb in language and multi-domain time (61–62). Philosophers, who pay close attention to the role and importance of narrative discourse, are interested in it for two reasons. First, for them, narrative discourse conveys time. Ricoeur (1979) indicates that “narrativity is the mode of discourse through which the mode of being which we call temporality, or temporal being, is brought to language” (17). Second, philosophers focus on narrative because, for them, narration is a literary genre. However, as explained above, narrative discourse merely conveys the concept of time in narrative. An event is the narrative component that time has a direct relationship with.

In sum, the second section focuses on time and its relationship to narrative. The concept of time is one of the complicated philosophical topics. There are many philosophies about the essence of time. The multiperspective understanding of the concept of time makes defining time a hard task. However, time and narrative have a special relationship in which man reaches an understanding of time through narrative. An event is the narrative component that carries the meaning of time. Through events, man realizes time. The narrative discourse is an important aspect of narrative. It conveys the sense of time. Depending on the discussion of philosophers’ views of the relationship between time and narrative discourse, narrative discourse serves as a tool to connect time (embodied in events) to man. Studying narrative discourse is not about studying time, but the characteristics of the linguistic components that enable the discourse to convey the sense of time. When philosophers speak of the death of narrative, they primarily refer to the literary narrative. However, understanding narrative philosophically means that it never dies due to its strong connection to humanity. With the rise of social media, literary critics look for literary narrative. But narrative, as the carrier of the meaning of life and existence, appears on social media. The following section explores the new form of narrative, digital narrative.

4 Digital narrative

Every means of communication has an impact on society, culture, humanity, and knowledge. This impact derives from their characteristics. Social media is the latest and most controversial communication medium. Social media alters people’s understanding of life, community, needs, priorities, values, etc. These changes occur at different levels and in various aspects. Narrative is one of the concepts that undergoes alteration in its concept and function. This section aims to explore the concept of digital narrative depending on several topics: introduction to digital narrative, digital community, digital narrator and audience, and digital readers.

A quick look at social media reveals one of the most significant features that has contributed to making social media a different means of communication from other communication media, which is public control over the mass communication medium. Although, before social media, popular narratives existed, elites had control over them and the way they were disseminated. Social media not only gives ordinary people the power to build their life and culture publicly, but also provides them guidance (social media characteristics) to construct different aspects in their community, culture, and values accordingly. Glitsos (2019) states that “digital culture performs and generates ontological shifts that rewrite the relationship between media, time, and experience” (par. 1). Man, in the age of digital media, undergoes changes in his way of experiencing life and existence. Examining digital narrative reveals this way. “Indeed, the fast growth of online platforms forces everyone to adapt to a new reality, where the mass distribution of information, news, and entertainment seems no longer the privilege of the institutional few” (Dijck and Poell, 2013, p. 3). It is not a choice; man has to change. The changes that social media imposes on individuals, society, and values are imperceptible and cannot be noticed by ordinary people because they are changes in the unconscious, reshaping the perception of life and existence through reconstituting human experience. Narrative has a strong relationship to the community. In the digital age, both concepts (narrative and community) change.

The traditional term for community refers to a group of individuals living in a certain environment and bound by shared characteristics. The connectedness between individuals and the community suggests that the characteristics of the community are reflective of the characteristics of its members. Ricoeur (1983) sees in the community an analogical extension of the role of its members. Depending on this decisive feature of the community, Ricoeur describes the community as “one great individual, analogous to the individuals who make it up” (74). However, with the rise of social media, the change does not only occur in the meaning of the community, but also in the concept of the environment in which the community is located. The environment becomes virtual, as does the community. Social media, such as openness, permanence and continuity (Alasmari, 2024, 52), reshape the community according to its characteristics. In addition, concepts relate to the community gain changes, too, such as narrative. After analyzing several studies about narrative in social media, Zhang et al. (2025) conclude that “social media narratives are characterized by high speed, low complexity, and low volume” (203). Unlike any communication medium, social media not only conveys people’s messages, but also reconfigures people’s character through their information in their personal accounts. Barrasi and Zamponi (2020) mention that requiring social media individuals to write their own information on the profile is a way to collect information about the users and to predict their future needs (602). With this information about the users, the digital community finds its way to exist, in which its members gather depending on one or two common interests. The digital community is narrower than the concept of the traditional community. In the transitional community, the community shares several interests, such as values, beliefs, language, etc. On the other hand, the digital community depends on what Dijck and Poell (2013) call “specialized relationships” (8), usually no more than two or three common interests. To widen the way we look at the topic, it is important to mention the social media use of AI. Social media tries to read users’ interests and manage what they can see. The idea of a timeline, in the X platform, for example, is to show certain posts. These posts change from user to user depending on their information. With the timeline, people are surrounded by what X thinks they are interested in. In sum, social media is more than a communication medium. It influences and changes people’s way of thinking and expressing. It is the new narrator.

In social media, determining the narrator reveals the characteristics of the digital narrative. Narrative, as mentioned in the first two sections of this paper, consists of events. Time appears through events. A plot contains events and forms what is called a narrative. The narrator is the one who conveys the narrative to others. The question is whether these concepts can be applied to the digital narrative? If a user writes a narrative and posts it on a social media platform. The concept of narrative will not face a considerable change. However, this paper does not address digital narrative in this way. Digital narrative, for this paper, is the way of viewing topics for users. As mentioned before, the narrative that this paper concludes is not literary; rather, it is a philosophical concept that one of its main functions is to explain the meaning of life and existence. Social media cannot be considered only as a communication medium. For this paper, the main function of social media is narrating. It narrates what is in the timeline, hashtags, reels, etc. Social media uses algorithms to promote the new individualism, isolating people to specific topics and people, depending on their interests. Velleman (2003) believes that in the digital media, programming and flow concentrate their emphases on code, users, and programmability (5). For him, with programmability, “popularity is conditioned by both algorithmic and socioeconomic components.” Each social media platform “has its distinct mechanisms for boosting popularity of people, things, or ideas, which is measured mostly in quantified terms” (7). The hashtag in the X platform, for example, is a narrative. Every hashtag has its own narrative. Users use hashtags not as narrators but as creators of events. The narrator is X platform. The ability of narrative to configure human experience (Maignant, 2021, 3–4) indicates the role of digital narrative to change people’s thoughts, the community, the values, etc. Moreover, social media changes some concepts related to time and narrative, such as speed and memory. The following section explores the digital narrative within time.

5 Digital narrative and the concept of time

The virtual way of communication provided by social media does not only change the concept of place, but also the concept of time.

The virtual way of communication provided by social media not only changes the concept of place, but also the concept of time. Time appears on social media in different ways. Each post has a publication time. And the time when posts appear to the public follows two systems: the chronological system and the thematic system. Time is also linked to the durations of some posts, such as videos and reels. There are also other uses of time in these platforms. This section focuses on the concept of time from several topics: digital time formations, the continuous present, and the digital memory.

To have a narrative, as mentioned above, it should be within-timeness. If a narrative cannot embody time, there is no narrative. If we consider social media a narrator, and also some of its features events and plot (hashtags, timeline, stories, and reels), the components of time in narrative mentioned in the first and second sections appear. To examine one of the features of social media as narrative, this paper compares one of Ricoeur’s thoughts on narrative time to the digital narrative. Ricoeur (1983) states that “the repetition of a story, governed as a whole by its way of ending, constitutes an alternative to the representation of time as flowing from the past toward the future, following the well-known metaphor of the ‘arrow of time’” (67–68). Depending on this quotation, hashtags in X can be viewed as ‘a recollection inverted’ in which what appears first is the end of the story. “In reading the ending in the beginning and the beginning in the ending, we also learn to read time itself backwards” (67–68). In addition, digital narrative reinforces the idea of liberation from the time of the universe, which the novel had previously begun. Ricoeur (1990) points to the result of freeing the novel itself from the time of the universe. For him, each novel unfolds only its world (128). In social media, the speed and shortness features make the digital narrative concentrate only on its limited world.

One of the concepts in time that has changed with social media is the speed of sending, receiving, and responding. Unlike in traditional writing, in social media, a user writes: will you go to the restaurant with me? Then he expects an immediate response. In this situation, the writer (user) deals with a time different from that of the writer before the rise of social media. In social media, the time is displayed with each post. This feature allows for precise tracking of when a message was sent and when it was interacted with. The feature makes time measurable, a point noted by Ricoeur (2004, p. 223). Indeed, time spins, in social media, take a unique form.

Social media not only offers a way to communicate, but it also provides a new style of living. Event time, in social media, is different than the time of real life. Boundaries between time classifications, in social media, do not exist. Every moment in social media is ‘now.’ “Saying ‘now’ becomes synonymous for us with reading the hour on the clock when the machines that serve to measure time are divested of this primary reference to natural measures, that saying-now returns to the abstract representation of time” (Ricoeur, 1983, p. 63). In social media, users engage in unlimited ‘nows.’ They post, respond, and interact with others, and anticipate others to join their communication at the same moment. Every post is capable of interacting with, regardless of the time at which it is posted. Brandtzaeg and Lüders (2018) indicate that capturing moments in social media “collapse time, muddling the distinction between the current version of a life narrative and previous versions” (4). Glitsos (2019) agrees with Brandtzaeg and Lüders, and he concludes that one of the myriad temporal contingencies in social media is the ability “to pull the past into the present” (Par. 2). Snapchat reinforces the concept of ‘now.’ With social media, events that do not appear are outside of time.

6 Conclusion

The paper’s task is to formulate and explain two general topics. First, the paper discusses the meaning of narrative as a literary genre. Then it elicits a different meaning of narrative depending on some philosophical thoughts. In addition, the paper explores the relationship between time and narrative. It concludes that narrative exists in time. Without time, narrative cannot live. Although language is important to narrative, it is merely a locator of where time is. The link between time and events is strong. An event is the only narrative component that embodies time. However, to have a philosophy of narrative as a carrier of the meaning of time and explanation of life and existence, narrative must be discussed as a philosophical way, not as a literary genre. The second general topic of the paper is about digital narrative and the digital concept of time. In this topic, narrative is not discussed as an independent topic; it links to several concepts, such as digital community and digital narrator. Some characteristics of digital media are explained to understand what this paper means by digital narrative. Narrative, understood as the carrier of meaning of time and the explainer of life and existence, exists by social media and within digital time, not by a human narrator. In digital narrative, several concepts drastically change. For example, the digital community abandons many of the components of the traditional community, such as common interests, social values, and language. One or two aspects of interest can form a digital community. In addition, the past and the future do not exist on social media. Users live in unlimited ‘nows.’ This unlimited ‘now’ is shaped by the feature of permanence and continuity of social media, in which man’s engagement with social media has no end or limit.

Digitalization is not merely reshaping human concepts; it is the path that transforms human attributes into digital ones. If narrative, as mentioned above, shapes man’s understanding of life and existence, then digital narrative, the digital narrator, and digital time are imbued with the essence of the digital concept. Contemporary man absorbs and is influenced by these concepts, which then shape their understanding of life and existence. The formation of the meaning of life and existence within the digital model suggests that humanity’s future will be entirely different. This raises a crucial question and a subject for future research: What is the meaning of existence in the digital world? A man lives his life through his understanding of the meaning of life and existence. The concept of morality, values, and different human concepts change according to man’s understanding of life and existence. In Being and Time, Martin Heidegger (2008) links three terms to each other: Being, Dasein, and existence. For Heidegger, Dasein “understands itself in terms of its existence … The question of existence never gets straightened out except through existing itself. The understanding of oneself which leads along this way we call ‘existential’” (33). The meaning of life is understood through understanding existence. In this context, the meaning of life for the primitive man differs from that of a contemporary man. This difference in the meaning of life is built upon their understanding of existence. The difference between the understanding of two men from different eras commands distinctions in their life priorities, values, morals, and various life concepts. In sum, the meaning of existence in the digital age is a crucial topic. Determining its meaning and how the digital generation understands existence not only makes it easier for us to comprehend the transformations that have occurred and arisen in the digital age, but also what the fate of the human mind will be as the digital world, with its artificial intelligence, encroaches upon the human mind. With the emergence of Literacy, writing functions as a memory for man besides his human memory, creating a revolution in the world of knowledge and science. In the digital age, the question is What might change in the human world when artificial intelligence performs the tasks of the human mind?

Author contributions

FA: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Conceptualization.

Funding

The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. The project was funded by KAU Endowment (WAQF) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The author, therefore, acknowledge with thanks WAQF and the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) for technical and financial support.

Conflict of interest

The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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The author(s) declared that Generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.

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