Real and virtual sides of self on the Internet: an interaction model

The current stage of social development has seen a tendency for the subject to transformto an imaginary symbol - the simular. This process is especially vividly illustrated on the Internet, which, due to its technical features,creates a specific psycholinguistic area to expand the variety of ways of a person's self-presentation. In most occasions, it results in aloss of identity and transformation to a symbolic subject. This study attempts to make up a model of the structure of the subject of the ecommunicationbased on the analogy to a literary character. This makes it possible to conclude about the nominal status of the author asone of the crucial effects of the Internet. The real person hidden behind the virtual personality stays in the background of the author andhis/her character and out of the direct address of the Other, who thus stops being interested in the real self of the interlocutor. The realperson grows inaccessible not for geography or anonymity reasons but due to the disagreement of the codes used by the author, thecharacter and the real subject. The character is born by the author, the author is a part of the real subject but neither the first nor the secondcan be proved as absolutely identical to the real person who makes an e-chat. The model of the e-subject presented in the articlemakes it possible to describe its structure and explain some unique features of the e-chat in contrast with the real interaction.

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