Tożsamość transwersalna - rzecz o cyfryzacji komunikacji

The functions of traditional literary genres, such as the telegram or the telegraph, have gradually been replaced by the telecommunication service (SMS – Short Message Service) to eventually become practically disused because of instant messengers, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, etc. But the possibilities connected with modern digital media are not limited to a mere exchange of communications between the sender and the receiver. So it would be a mistake to limit the research to an analogy between all the existing forms of written communication. They do not only have an unquestionable influence on the organisation of social life, but also they are crucial to the process of creating the identity of both the sender and the receiver. In the past, the identity was perceived as the creation of a coherent vision of ‘Myself’, as opposed to the concept of Otherself. It was usually achieved by choosing attributes that helped ‘Me’ to define ‘Myself’. As a consequence, the identity was described as constant – ‘I’ was described by the same attributes regardless of the circumstances. Wolfgang Welsch, one of the most important German philosophers, claims that nowadays the creation of identity is more complicated. Integrity is not preconditioned by its invariability, but by the ability of switching, choosing the proper ‘I’ from a lot of different constructions. This kind of identity, described by the philosopher as a transversal, is a result of the social life plan and the way of communication used in it. So far, the problem of the impact of digital communication on the identity of Internet users has not been discussed in detail in the scientific discourse. But it is still very important because thinking about it could enrich many points of view in a lot of specializations like media comparative studies, cyberpsychology or media studies. The discovery and understanding of the relationship between the way of communication and the transversal identity could contribute to a deeper analysis of the processual character of the activities performed by Internet users, regardless of their nature. Most of all, it would help us to understand why one type of activity is given preference over others. It would be very useful principally in case of hypertext stories or other forms of experimental literature, where the line between the sender and the receiver is not defined and when they are mostly changing their roles. A writer faces the challange of recreating potential activities performed by the reader and during the process of intepretation the reader has to try and recreate the author's ideas by creating that kind of hyperlinks which will show him a logical narration. However, the author of this article does not attempt to find the answer to this question. They try to prepare the ground for further analysis of communication via digital media.