Abstract
This essay explores the transformation of social bonds and the concept of institutions in the context of increasing technological mediation, adopting an interdisciplinary approach that integrates law, philosophy, and anthropology. Through a theoretical dialogue with Thomas Hobbes, Arnold Gehlen, and Santi Romano, the work reconstructs the originally protective and aggregative role of technology, conceived as a response to the structural fragility of the human being and as a foundation for communal and institutional order. However, the core thesis lies in a contemporary reversal of the Hobbesian paradigm: technology, once a tool for constructing the “we,” has turned into a factor of disintegration, fostering a new multitude of isolated “I”s. The hyperconnected individual, shielded from direct interaction with others and immersed in dynamics of automation and self-referentiality, becomes detached from genuine forms of collective belonging. Within this scenario, the notion of institution is also reconfigured, losing its original symbolic and social cohesion function, and becoming a functional device devoid of shared legitimacy.