Nicknames a vitruální identita

Mgr. Natálie Raclavská

Bachelor's thesis

Nicknames and virtual identity

Abstract:

Nicknames a internetová identita Práce se zabývá vztahem internetové a reálné identity uživatelů chatu. Byl definován pojem nicname a jeho význam pro internetovou komunikaci. Byla vytvořena nová typologie nicknames a jednotlivé typy nicknames rozděleny podle věkových skupin uživatelů. Také byla provedena anlýza názvů jednotlivých místností na chatu a mapovány nicky uživatelů, kteří tyto místnosti navštěvují.

Abstract:

Nicknames and virtual identity This paper contents material collected from Internet chat sites, analyzing a total of 500 nicknames employed in several channels and chat rooms, being among our objectives the intention of establishing differences in the use of such nicknames. Therefore, we defined a typology which could allow us to classify the assembled material; once the categorization was made, attention was centered in finding out which specific nicknames were the most frequent in every type of chat room. Results showed how the criteria through which nicknames are chosen varies depending on the age of the user. Thus, for example, the elder group of subjects pick up his nicks using names in much greater degree than younger groups, which base their choice on appellatives, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc. By this is demonstrated how, in some instances, the real identities are connected to the virtual ones more than in others. These elder users construct their Internet personalities according to their authentic ones; that is, in such cases, nicknames are providing us factual data about the subjects. By this it is evidenced how the specter separating real and fake identities can be shorter or longer, and we believe that such distance can be determined to a large extent through study of nicknames. May this work be useful to understand the relevance of nicknames as the entrance key to the unknown territory that virtual communities and universes, as far as their participants is concerned, are often for us.

Keywords

virtuální identita, nicknames, pseudonym, internetová komunakace, chat virtual identity, internet communication, chat

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 9. 6. 2010

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 14. 6. 2010
• Supervisor: Mgr. Roman Madecki, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Bachelor programme / field:
Philology / Polish Language and Literature