Network mentality and net-thinking in post-industrial culture

The issues in this article implements a field analysis of network mentality and “net thinking”, having a decisive influence on all network processes, who actively in in systems and discourses of information culture; the discourse and symbolic character of the Internet space is revealed. The author seeks to justify specific network mentality as psychosocial personal status, which is based on the illusion of sovereignty and authentic identity, while the logic of net-thinking implements the so-called proteic model of mental activity, cultivating a new style of self-presentation and self-positioning of individuals within the limits of virtualized freedom. It is assumed that the information and media networks of post-industrialism as global network phenomena of world civilization should be determined by the axiological boundaries of “network thinking”.