Virtual Identities in the New Media Environment

Abstract

History bears witness to the primordial desire and need of people to present themselves in different environment or in a “better and more beautiful” light, which is still mediated today by new forms of technological formats. Such modified forms of representation have multiple consequences, especially for adolescents and young people who build a degree of distinction between the real and the imaginary or go through different forms of socialization building their personal, social or collective identity. The text presents an analysis of the reduced research results of two master’s theses in which a survey of the target group (N=112, N=200) was conducted on the reasons, forms, ways, platforms, constructions and presentations of real and virtual identities in new media environment and the consequences of such representation. The research strats from the hypothesis that virtual identities and modified representations are not credible, but young people consciously recognize and use them to represent themselves, regardless of consequences that usually result in stigmatization, social exclusion or conformity.