საქართველო ციფრული ეპოქის კვალდაკვალ: მართლმადიდებელთა ვირტუალური იდენტობები

In the digital age humans are getting more and more attracted to virtual social networks. Speed at which the
number of users of such social networks grow makes this subject undoubtedly focal point of our everyday
life. Observing the question will create the possibilities of visualization and analyzing social, religious and
ethical challenges presented in a civilized society.
As a result of different political situations Georgia became a country in which the freedom of traditional
media was often restricted. Therefore, it’s not a surprize that virtual social newtorks are becoming the main
source of impartial informational flow in Georgia. To my mind, Georgian society is excessively politicized
and there are quite enough researches made about this topic. As for me, I try to avoid the politics – my
target of research will be “digitalized” social identities, specifically their religious dimensions. My main goal
is to determine whether the largest virtual social network in Georgia – facebook – has the potential to
influence on virtual identities and general social life of the Georgian people.
Basically there is no secondary data about the impacts of facebook on religious practices in Georgia. But this
should serve as a challenge and a good motivator for the research, not an obstacle. Tasks of the research are
describing orthodox online identities of Georgians, determining interdependence of such identites with real
social identities, finding out relationship between “virtual ethics” and religiosity.
The basic method of the research will be discursive analysis of the interviews. I made such decision because
of the sensitivity of the subject – as you know, there was a huge passion outbreak as intense religious
feelings were concerned in the nearest past of Georgia. I think that sketchy questionnaires would leave
many obscured questions without responses. Face to face interviews put very interesting problems on the
front burner - problems that I couldn’t even imagine in the beginning of the research.