Cognitive and social interaction in cyberspace:Prosthetic functions of the Internet

Abstract

This is a qualitative social constructivist research of individuals living in the area of Bergen and their daily Internet use. I argue that we are living in a prosthetic culture within the cyberculture. Cyberspace is influenced by offline environmental space and humans interconnect with the Internet and ICT-devices; humans interact with other humans through cyberspace, constructing what I have referred to as social/wired cyborgs. Moreover, humans may socially distribute their individual cognition online. I have studied informant's lives in cyberspace through the phenomenology of perception and how the Internet enhances and extended their cognitive, social, and motor skills/abilities. In addition my research consists of three individuals with reduced mobility and four able-bodied individuals. Key words: Cyborg, Cyberspace, ICT, Phenomenology, Cognition, De-compartmentalize