FREE-FLOATING IDENTITIES: SOCIAL PAIN OR SOCIAL GAIN?

Abstract

The article is focused to the problem of identity. It sketches some basic assumptions and questions the notion of identity. Identities are not stable and everlasting entities of some sort, because it is typical of the present time to be aware of the absence of any firm ground that could make universal identification possible. The truth about identities has to be sought first and foremost in its constant course of redefinition and denial, some continuous cutting of the rotten away from the good parts; it is not, as could well be expected, a goal of some kind that individuals might eventually achieve. The question of identity is problematized within the new media environment too. The potential of virtual reality lies actually in the very process of redefinition of identities itself, which is very typical for this reality. The individuals should find out that they themselves are constructed but that they can redefine again their individuality and identity in the corresponding internet environment. As far as idea of “virtual liberation” is concerned – we come across many questions and problems. The first problem concerns the fact that virtual persons are still “the same” persons. The question of creativity is connected to this because it is more and more obvious that the biggest limitation in virtual world are the people themselves. They project into virtual space all that they have learnt and realized in everyday life. In this sense the internet and popular culture connected with it are especially and above all an extension and not the alternative to the existing culture.