Computer-mediated communication: Identity and social interaction in an electronic environment

Social scientists are increasingly interested in understanding the characteristics of computer-mediated communication and its effects on people, groups, and organizations. The Ist effect of this influence is the revolution in the metaphors used to describe communication. In this article, these changes are described. Then a framework is outlined for the study of computer-mediated communication. The 3 psychosocial roots of the process by which interaction between users is constructed-networked reality, virtual conversation, and identity construction-are discussed. The implications of these changes for current research in communication studies are also considered, with particular reference to the role of context, the link between cognition and interaction, and the use of interlocutory models as paradigms of communicative interaction. Communication is seen not only as a transfer of information, but also as the activation of a psychosocial relationship, the process by which interlocutors co-construct an area of reality.