8 Impact Areas

A second area in which culture has an evident positive impact is in the area of "well-being", understood as a global psychophysical perception of mental, emotional and body state, and experiencing these types of collective processes also in the digital sphere helps develop personal and collective psycho-physical benefits. There is now very ample evidence of the (strongly) positive relationship between active cultural participation and life expectancy, between participation and subjective psychological well-being, and even between participation and probability and speed of recovery from certain pathologies, especially in the case of the elderly and / or seriously sick people, as well as for women (only in the absence of serious chronic diseases, of course) (Sacco & Teti, 2017) . For public policymakers, supporting paths of active cultural participation addressed to these subjects can generate a great economic value if we relate it to a possible decrease in public health expenditure (Sacco & Calveri, 2021).  

A significant effect of active cultural participation in the digital sphere has also to do with preventing isolation, and its psychological consequences on mental health, especially for younger generations.  In different forms of online social networks (Marlowe et al., 2017), such as digital communities built around a cult film, a tv series, or a cultural trend or a creative hobby, several members feel that they belong to a group of people with similar interests and characteristics: that positive social media-based relationships can lead to positive as well as meaningful connections with other users (Miño-Puigcercós et al., 2019); these positive relationships are built on a foundation of content that makes young people feel like they are heard and understood and work as an antidote to social isolation and helplessness.