[Air-l] New Theoretical Approaches to the Self in Cyber-Culture

[noci]

cristian-

at first i'd like to note that i am not a researcher,
but i have a lot of experience with "online people"
and their behaviour- so here's my quick opinion:

> Are you thoeorizing that the behaviour of a person, reflected in the
> cyberspace, can configure a "self" with owned characteristics?

i think your assumption is right.
from my experience, most people who devote a lot of their time
to online chats develop a defined self.

i.e, in the IRC, the channels are the social space, in which
people interact.
in a specific channel, especially the regular users create
a picture of themselves that is then projected to the others.
they become edgy, defined characters, just like in real life,
because the need to be an individual also exists online.

the interesting questions there:
is the "online self" different from the "real" self?

> Seems to be extremelly interesting that, a new environment like the
> cuyberspace might let a human being put his "self" into virtual space and
> express elements of his personality that are well hidden in the real
world,
> up to the point to configure a new "self".

i've witnessed many different approaches-
what you say is perfectly underlined by one prominent example:
online sex, be it ASCII or via videoconferencing systems.

the new "self" of an online sex consumer (and i mean
voyeurism/exhibitionism, NOT
the relatively passive consumption of online porn) is defined by the
person's sexual needs/drive. in real life, the sexual preferences might be
well
hidden under layers of "decency"-
but online, the social restraints don't apply.
therefore, you might want to consider the resulting characters as being a
single,
deformed facet of the actual character.

that's only one side of online communication, though.
still, I daresay that in most cases, the online character is a more or less
modified replica of the offline self.
the grade of modification makes the difference.

regards,

max doelling