And what if the only reality in existence was virtual reality? The individual identity in virtual reality has always been studied with regards to individual identity in reality. Indeed, the individual in virtual reality is considered as a real individual to whom we removed fundamental features: spatial unity (Leibniz) and temporal identity or sameness (Ricoeur, 1990). In other words, a virtual ...

Sense of virtual community is an important component of successful virtual communities. Defined as members’ feelings of belonging, identity, and attachment with each other in computer-mediated communication, sense of virtual community distinguishes virtual communities from mere virtual groups. Sense of virtual community is believed to come from members’ exchange of social support as well as cre...

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) expand traditional ways of social interaction and thereby feed back on the society that created them. Users have to navigate their enhanced social context and in doing so legitimately strive to apply familiar concepts such as the notion of residence or the intuitive handling of roles. We introduce the concepts of Virtual Residence and Identity Ma...

Virtual healthcare communities are incorporating social network features to motivate more participation. Using the lens of social identity theory, this study looks at how the social network structure of virtual healthcare communities influences participation via social identity. In specific, the effect of cognitive, emotional and evaluative components of social identity are investigated. Uncert...

virtual colonialism (ameli, 2011) is reflecting a new trend of colonialismin the virtual space parallel to the physical space. according to ameli(2007), withthe “dual spacization” of life,the imperial powers like the united states of americatake the advantage of the synchronization and translocality of the virtual space toexpand their realm of imperial power through the “attraction” and “persua...

A variety of information technology artifacts, such as those supporting reputation management and digital archives of past interactions, are commonly deployed to support virtual communities. Despite the ubiquity of these artifacts, research on the impact of various IT-based features on virtual community communication is still limited. Without such research, the mechanisms through which informat...

nowadays, new informational and communicative media, and the rate of their use by individuals have caused deep metamorphoses in the material and non-material dimensions of human lives, and individuals’ mental regulation. the use of these media, especially the internet and virtual social networks, among iranian teenagers has unnoticeably increased, and providing numerous facilities and options m...