Alone Together. Self Identity and Social Network: Consumers in the New Era of “Click Personality”

Interpersonal relationships are changing under new media influences (Kiesler, 1997; Suler, 2000; Bauman, 2000) and value plays a new role in the determination of the identity of Social Networks users. Identity and values are not “monolithic” but connected concepts, in real as virtual life: How kind of interaction and continuity of personal Self is possible in Social Networks? According to the Ego Identification Square model (Trentini, 2001), through a descriptive-exploratory research on “avatars personal identity” (2 Focus Group, 10 interviews and an on line survey with 600 SN users), the study highlights the “angle” from which Ego states his/her values seems particularly relevant to the meaning of Self. The hypotheses take into consideration the four Ego Voices in which it is possible to divide the mediatrix function of Ego (Super-Ego/Ideal Ego/Ego Ideal/Idealised Ego) and consider which of these represents the cyberconsumers identity and his/her behaviour in the personal web profile.