Theories of information societies in the context of network identity

Abstract

In the modern social philosophy the problem of determining the ontology of the social reality that followed the industrial society is topical as never before. Topicality and variability of the problem resulted in creating an abundance of theoretical concept of society, which often oppose. The article uses the notions of «information», «modern», «network» societies as equal, since having different methodological and research base, these categories come from the analysis of one and the same social phenomenon: formation and development of the new type society that is different from the industrial and post-industrial societies. Such a society features the increasing role of information, knowledge and information technologies, increase in the number of people engaged in information technologies, communications and manufacture of information products and services, creation of global information space ensuring the effective informational interaction between individuals via the access to global information resources, informational products and services, which in its turn brings up the problem of personality adaptation to the altered social and cultural environments. The article discusses the theories of M. McLuhan, A. Toffler and M. Castells as theorists of post-industrial society, who consider the communication technology as a decisive factor of the process of forming this or that social economic system. The authors analyze problems of network communities existence, their influence on a human and his identity in the context of these theories.