Semantic transformation of the concept purity in Russian internet discourse through the lens of technological axiomatics

Abstract

The article studies the evolution of the concept “PURITY” in the modern Russian-language digital space. The relevance of the work is driven by the need to examine the transformation of key cultural concepts under the influence of digitalization, which is essential for the analysis of communicative practices, digital ethics, and cybersecurity. The research is based on data from the Russian National Corpus, specifically the “Social Media” module, as well as a selection of contexts from IT forums, blogs, and social networks, totaling over 500 contexts, using the methods of contextual, semantic, and conceptual analysis. The analysis reveals that the original semantics of physical and moral purity undergo significant expansion. In tech-oriented contexts, stable collocations such as “clean data”, “clean code”, and “clean traffic” emerge, where the concept actualizes the meaning of destructive or risky elements’ elimination. The article shows how archaic meanings (holiness, order) are transformed into metaphors of cyber hygiene and content moderation. Thus, the study concludes that, while adapting to the challenges of the digital age, the concept of “PURITY” retains its connection to the archetypal core, simultaneously becoming a key axiological benchmark that regulates safety, authenticity, and ethical interaction in the virtual environment.