Cognitive and social interaction in cyberspace

This is a qualitative social constructivist research of individuals living in the area of Bergen, Norway 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 informants' lives in cyberspace through the phenomenology of perception and how the Internet enhances and extends their cognitive, social, and motor skills/abilities. In addition my research consists of three individuals with reduced mobility and four able-bodied individuals.

Kristina Gulvik Nilsen was born in Norway, Larvik in 1988 where she spent her childhood and adolescent life. She moved to Bergen in 2008 after graduating high school and Karmøy Folkehøgskule (non-degree granting college). She finished a bachelor and master degree in digital culture; and her master thesis is the topic of this book.