The dual nature of the new media in online sphere

The article aims to explore the phenomenon of the new media and their dual nature. The objective of the study is to investigate the essential attributes of the new media and present them as a set of binary oppositions: real - virtual, private - public, interpersonal - mass, broadcast - interaction. The author analyzes the new media as a sphere of virtual social being of the modern people, where they are faced with such issues as self-identification, adaptation, responsibility, distinction between true and false or private and public. On the one hand, the diffusion of real and virtual spheres turns online environment into a source of significant social connections. On the other hand, this gives the network identity a playful and changeable nature. Due to broadcasting and interactional models of mass communication coexisting simultaneously, a user immerses into the communication flows of everyone with everyone, where they could be both an influential creator and distributor of content, or a participant of endless chats for the sake of chats themselves. The diffusion between the interpersonal and mass communication leads to plurality and instability of the contexts to which a user belongs. The article examines the conflict potential of online activity through the opposition between the private and public spheres. It describes such effects as erosion of a genuinely public sphere, blending of the opposite social contexts, the phenomenon of hyperpublicity. In conclusion the author discusses a question about the creative activity of the Internet users and emphasizes that the new media environment provides them with opportunities for constructing self-narrative and joining into the global process of sharing ideas, meanings and digital artefacts. As a result, the users expand the borders of their own world, become more autonomous and self-actualizing.