Virtual identity of a personality and its psychological content

Abstract

Belonging to a virtual community for a modern person is an important need for involvement in the Internet environment, since almost all social institutions (offices, universities, shops, government bodies) and personal relationships have been transferred to the virtual space. The relevance of studying virtual identity is determined by its significance as a phenomenon of modern social interaction. Virtual identity is considered as a subsystem of a person’s ego-identity, reflecting the accepted norms of communication of the virtual community and the psychological characteristics of Internet communication. The structure of virtual identity includes the following components: a tendency towards cyber addiction, a virtual image and the acceptance of a subculture. The subject of research in this work is the psychological characteristics and content of a person’s virtual identity. The scientific methods used included an analysis of psychological literature, a review of publications on the subject of research, a psychological study of virtual identity, and a generalization of the data obtained. The results of the study record the reasons for the possible discrepancy between real and virtual personal identities, features of the formation of virtual identity, and characteristics of its structural components. The conclusions of the work note that the degree of expression of each structural component of virtual identity can vary significantly according to the level of Internet addiction or its absence, indicators of activity and vitality, as well as individual psychological characteristics.