THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF VIRTUALIZATION IN A DIGITALIZED SOCIETY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57033/mijournals-2026-7-0124Keywords:
virtualization; virtual reality; cyberspace; digitalized society; socialization; information society; social identity; virtual space; cyberspace; identification process.Abstract
This article examines the process of virtualization that arises from the
activity of individuals in cyberspace within the context of a digitalized society, treating
it as a socio-philosophical phenomenon. The study demonstrates that virtualization, as
a new and non-real form of socialization, has become a pressing research issue at the
intersection of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and religious studies. Drawing on
theoretical frameworks developed by key Western and Russian scholars including Sorokin,
Durkheim, Baudrillard, Krueger, Sutherland, Lanier, Ivanov, Maslow, and others the article
traces the evolution of the concepts of “virtual reality” and “virtualization,” and analyzes
the principal methodological approaches applicable to the study of virtualization in the
information society. The article concludes that virtualization constitutes a transformation
of real social relations into a technological field and proposes a set of complementary
methodological tools for its further investigation.
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