The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge and understanding of how an identity is constructed on the internet and if it is different from the everyday identity. To analyze this, I have studied the theories of how identity is constructed in everyday life and then applied this on the empirical data that I have collected. In this study, I have chosen to pursue a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to gather the empirical data. In the study, six informants participated and all of them has an active social life both on and off the internet. The results that I have found in this study shows that an identity online is constructed in a similar way as it does in real life, however, some limitations that exist in everyday life do not exist online. In the study, I have also concluded that annonymiteten on the Internet can have both negative and positive effects on the construction of an identity. Of the empirical evidence I have gathered has shown that individuals can both use the anonymity that the internet provides to increase their confidence in social interactions. The empirical material have also shown that the same anonymity can make people behave in undesirable ways that they would in everyday life would never do.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-20092 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hellberg, Jesper |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds