Network Culture: A New Field of Emerging Meanings

The rapid development of the Internet has led to the emergence of a new phenomenon called “network culture”. Network culture must not be regarded as a digitized culture. Nor is it inherently incompatible with traditional culture. It establishes its own value series and spaces for the habitation of new digital entities. The special structure of network culture blurs the barriers of traditional culture, forming new flows of meanings. This article covers not only the entire spectrum of approaches to the study of network culture, but outlines methods for its further research in a situation where it has covered most of humanity and acquired a transboundary and multicultural character. The article provides a fundamental difference between network culture and non-network, traditional culture. This text provides an overview of a variety of contemporary digital phenomena, including the concept of personality avatars, the phenomenon of information inflation, the development of network literature, the rise of blogging, and the evolution of network commerce. The work employs a structuralist method that facilitates the decomposition of the fibrous existence of network culture into semantic layers. The foundational layers of network culture comprise myths, rituals, relationships, and ways of organizing space. Consequently, network culture functions as a sign system that symbolizes social relations, and it is also practical. The article attempts to develop a unified approach to further study of network culture, in the context of its development and transformation.