Volynets V. Culture virtualization in the era of Internet technologies

The dissertation looks into the peculiarities of culture virtualization; it draws attention to the virtuality’s heterogeneity in culture, thus pointing out the virtual culture emergence as a result of the virtualization of society, forming new principles of interaction with cultural values. A computer virtual reality is noted to ensure the human to perceive culture. This reality forms a personality, the same time contributing to a constantly updated virtual culture formation. The virtualization process is noted to significantly affect the creation of a united virtusphere as a new cultural level of the social community, causing the virtual cultural phenomena emergence and spread. In recent years these phenomena are increasingly becoming more popular than real. Key words: computer virtual reality, virtualization, virtual culture, internet, virtual community, information and communication technologies, information society, culture, cultural practices.