The Social Cognitive Internet and the Cyberself

Abstract

By far the widest area of impact upon how people construct and maintain their online selves appears to stem from situational and social cognitive features of online interactions. This chapter therefore outlines a number of now classical features of social and social cognitive factors that influence online relationships. In doing so, it also explores a new take on a theory that could be used to understand online impression management from a selective, motivated memory-system model perspective. Social factors that impinge play an interactive role in driving online self-presentation that are considered in this chapter include the moral self, promiscuous befriending and the desire to attain social capital. Before providing concluding comments on the whole text, the chapter focuses on the role of culture in self-presentation and the notion of different Internet arenas being synonymous with different cultures. It therefore also focuses on the very different online cultures of gaming and online support arenas.