The Internet environment as communication space of national and civic self-identification of the cyber generation

Abstract

The author investigates the Internet information and communication environment as amulticultural virtual space of interaction of people speaking different languages and representing different cultures. The Internet space is a hybrid environment created by means of the information and communication technologies (ICT) in the course of integration of the elements of real and virtual life. In the process of interaction between different social subjects user’s identification features are developed in the Internet environment. The author considers the following peculiarities of selfidentification of the cyber generation in the Internet space. Self-identification process proceeds simultaneously in the real socio-cultural space and in the virtual Internet environment. The self image construction in the virtual Internet space occurs by a) copying of the real identity, particularly national and civic identity; b) creation of the virtual image, which is different from the real identity; c) combination of the elements of the virtual and real identities in the hybrid model (according to J. Suler). The possibility to create different self images in the virtual Internet space causes the development of the changeable, dynamic and unstable identity. The author argues that the process of self-identification of the young citizens of the country is combined with the crisis of their child identity formed in the framework of the actual system of social relations under the influence of the parents and their involvement in the virtual world of the Internet with its new systems of values, norms and rules of behavior. An empirical study of the peculiarities of the student self-identification in the virtual Internet environment proves that the majority of the young people (62%) present their real national and civic identity in the Internet environment, and one third of the students demonstrate elements of the hybrid identity model. The portion of young people who create only a virtual self image do not exceed 1.5%. Almost 93% of the respondents choose visual forms of presenting their national and civic identity. They use symbols, colors, attributes, fragments of the national patterns and other forms. The most acceptable forms of the Internet communication in which national and civic identities manifest themselves are interactive polylogues, namely charts, forums, commentaries on social network sites, blogs and micro blogs.