«Self-image» of modern students in virtual communication

The article presents an analysis of modern students’ self-presentation issues in virtual communication. The «Self-image» of students was studied using the following methods: a questionnaire survey, the questionnaire «Level of Subjective Control», the Twenty Statements Test «Who am I?» by M. Kuhn and T. McPartland, content analysis of the respondents’ personal accounts on social media. The study has shown that in 100 % of cases modern students use social media for the purposes of virtual communication, receiving news, creative self-realization, and entertainment, while spending an average of 2-3 hours a day online. More than half of the respondents state their ability to realize their personal potential without the help of virtual space, indicating that the impact of social networks on their real life and behavior is minimal. The general internality indicator shows the predominance of respondents with an internal locus of control. The content analysis of the respondents’ personal accounts in social networks was based on the study of conceptual components such as information about oneself, obscene language, writing style, nickname and avatar, conflicts and manifestations of aggression, additional accounts, subscriptions, posts, personal notes. The analysis of young people’s self-representations identified the following conceptual blocks of statements that highlight the significant focuses of self-representations of the experiment participants: «The Social Self», «The Acting Self», «The Perspective Self», «The Reflective Self», «The Communicative Self», «The Physical Self», «The Material Self», «The Virtual Self», with «The Reflective Self» category dominating. Virtual space today is an environment of educational, professional, and communicative activities in which modern students are actively integrated, demonstrating a multifactorial «Self-image». The consideration of its nature and components determines the success of virtual interaction among all participants of the educational process.