Between what we say and what we think: Where is mediatization? 241 The Janus face of digital connectivity: The transformation of social dependencies Stig Hjarvard University of Copenhagen Abstract: The experience of digital connectivity has a Ja- nus face: Online media empower the individual to commu- nicate and act beyond his or her immediate social space, but such media also create new forms of dependencies due to the increased presence in everyday social life of in- stitutionalized demands from, for instance, the workplace and the market. Building upon theoretical insights from media dependency theory (Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001), crit- ical theory (Habermas, 1989), symbolic interactionism (Goffman, 1971), and theories of social network media (Dijck, 2013), I specify how digital connectivity involves a restructuring of social interdependencies. The ambigu- ous experience of increased connectivity reflects a wider process of mediatization in which instrumental rationali- ties become present and influential in life-world settings. The theoretical arguments are illustrated by results from a survey of media dependency in Denmark. Keywords: connectivity, dependency, digital, individual, mediatization, virtualization