To be without being Seen

Abstract

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) is hypothesized to create a new social identity dimension. 570 participants answered a questionnaire in order to evaluate the importance they attached to 48 group memberships. Time spent with Internet and with computer-mediated communication was also assessed. A PC factorial analysis aggregated computer-using items in a new technologies information (NTI) identity factor. A set of regression analyses showed that all identity patterns were best predicted by demographic variables except for NTI and community social identities that were best predicted by time spent in CMC and in the Internet. Although there is no ground for claiming that CMC brings some change to people’s evaluation of their group memberships, the authors can state that Internauts’ identity does not integrate self-perceptions of significant interpersonal connectedness or of orientation toward meeting different people, as most sociological and psychological literature has underlined.

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