The ups and downs of academic critical thinking in the digital age

The article offers a reflection on the process of fluctuation of critical thinking in the social context, in modern times, from the last century to the present. It highlights the existing tension between the single predominant thought in the West, which tends to impose "universal" principles on a diverse and multicultural globalized world, which is populated by approximately 7,000 million human beings. Critical thinking is considered an inherent component of human rationality; however, it is usually muted and overshadowed by the prevailing thought of the moment. This work explores the recent opacities of critical thinking as a product, amongst others, of the coexistence of components such as the growing presence of new information technologies, the traditional tools of political repression and the fall of the Berlin Wall. This text ends examining possible signs of its resurgence, not precisely in universities, but in the most unexpected spaces: virtual communication, social networks, the web, internet, etc., central components of the "new digital age".