Abstract

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a virtual meeting point where people from al1 over the world can meet and talk. On context new strategies for creating shared systems of significance, and strategies for constructing an identity, have evolved. These strategies consist mostly of linguistic resources, since the access to visual or auditory features such as appearance or accent, which are significant identiwcreating factors in face-to-face interaction, is quite limited. In this paper, and following the theoretical framework of social constructivism, it is analyzed how chat participants may develop and sustain an identity in IRC chatrooms by using several linguistic and/or graphic resources on the web.