INTRODUCTION

With unprecedented global access, speed, and relative anonymity with respect to how one is able to present oneself to and interact with others, computer-mediated communication (hereafter CMC) contexts provide many new worlds through which we may express and develop our identities as persons and form relationships with others. Through text-based e-mail and chat-room style forums, or Web site and Web cam technology, we may present or even ‘showcase’ ourselves to others, and we may enter and contribute to all sorts of communities, such as hobby and mutual interest groups, and develop various sorts of relationships with others. Indeed, for many people, significant aspects of key roles and relationships in their professional, business, and even personal lives are now conducted online.

It makes sense then, to consider if these CMC contexts, where people are increasingly presenting themselves to and undertaking various activities and relationships with others, might tailor the content of these relationships and the self that is presented to others online in any notable ways. For many, opportunities to express and form relationships have been enormously increased by computer communication technology. But what sorts of identities and relationships are really possible online? How might our pursuit of values that constitute and regulate our ideals of personal identity and various significant relationships be sensitive to such communication environments?

It is clear that contextual features of the setting within which we express ourselves to others can significantly influence the content and nature of our communication.