Socio-psychological features of Internet users

The Internet contains a great amount of information, and it is a huge area of human communication. Communication in the Internet has its specific features and characteristics. Using multiple opportunities of the worldwide network leads to structural and functional changes in the mental activity of persons. In particular, specific features of the communication in the net generate two kinds of phenomena: firstly, the Internet allows users to construct virtual personalities; secondly, there is a risk of emerging internet addiction among the users. Modern Internet technologies allow people to shape personality according to quite new criteria - now persons are mainly characterized by the number of friends in social networks, by the number of people interacting with them, the number of tweets and contacts in general. This leads to changes in the social norms and standards of “normal behavior”: now it is quite common to demonstrate publicly own thoughts (LiveJournal diaries), everyday life, to use obscene words in the practice of online comments, etc. And there emerges a general cultural narcissism, the key factor of which is that the Internet environment encourages people to form illusions about themselves. Boundless space for self-realization gives the Internet users the illusion of their unlimited possibilities, if not of omnipotence.