Lord of the Flies and the toxic communities of video games, a disturbing parallel
Year: 2025
Type: other
Abstract: William Golding's dystopian novel, Lord of the Flies, published in 1954, tells the rapid descent into barbarism of a group of British students shipwrecked on a desert island. Traditionally interpreted as a grim allegory of human nature and the fragile veil of civilization, the work reveals, on contemporary analysis, a surprising foresight. This article argues that Golding Island is not just a parable about the human condition, but an exceptionally accurate allegorical model for analyzing the emergence of toxic social dynamics in unregulated digital spaces, particularly in online video game communities. The island, an isolated microcosm devoid of external authority, functions as a structural analogue of a video game server: a space in which social norms are renegotiated from scratch and, all too often, degrade into tribalism, dehumanization, and violence.
Author: Paduano, Ivan
Institution: Sapienza University of Rome
Language: English
Topic: Digital Games and Media
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7101669002
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