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Abstract

Informed by the philosophies of Martin Heidegger, George Herbert Mead, and Alfred Schutz, this paper presents an emerging concept called the interactional self to illustrate how there are no clear phenomenological distinctions between the so-called "virtual world" and the dichotomously positioned "real world" in Internet-mediated communication settings. Ultimately, the paper shows how the philosophies of human experience can help the communication researcher better conceptualize the tight intermingling of the online with the offline, users' phenomenologically-rooted use-contexts, performative practices, and intersubjective life-world experiences in Internet-mediated sociability.

Journal Title

Iowa Journal of Communication

Volume

37

Issue

1

First Page

27

Last Page

57

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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