The Psychology of Online Sociability: Theory and Examples

In this chapter, I will review current approaches to online sociability and present and exemplify a psychological theory, the Social Reality theory, of online sociability. By analyzing sociability in a virtual world based university course, I will present and analyze examples on how to understand the students' design of the conditions for sociability as communication about cultural symbols, such as avatars and virtual landscapes, and the social reality of perceived groups of people. The analysis results will be used to illustrate different kinds of online sociability: superficial, convivial, and negative sociability. The chapter suggests solutions and recommendations to designers and researchers with a focus on online communities and networked communication.