الصحة النفسية بين غرف الدردشة و شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي

Abstract EN

Chat rooms, web forums and social networks are characterized by a sort of disinhibition effect, in that they stimulate individuals to communicate more and more with the others, giving them the possibility of revealing things they would not disclose otherwise, that is to say in usual communicative situations.

Subjects using social networks become more willing to express hidden thoughts and feelings and, as such, more is disclosed about the self.

Hence, the following questions arise: does usage of digital communicative contexts (such as the Internet and chat rooms) exploit the same mind reading strategies that are usually adopted in everyday life? And how do digital social networks act as incentives to communicate with the others and to facilitate mental and emotional ‘readings’? The fact that digital chat rooms enable a disinhibition effect encourages individuals to define themselves and even disclose private issues more than in other communicative settings.

Participants tend in chat room to divulge the self in front of others, express their views and state their personal attitudes overtly without the slightest reservation.

This makes the process of mind reading more accessible in the world of conversation on the Web when compared to the normal social world, and here psychotherapy become easier.

The rationale behind this accessibility is that these chat rooms constitute not only a disinhibition effect but include also a range of characteristics, which are envisaged and discussed in depth in the current article.