Some specific characteristics of the “information space”

The article focuses on the analysis of the concept of “information space”. The reasoning rests on a comparative analysis of the distinctive features of the “information” and “social” spaces. The aim is to identify the unique features of the “information space”. The study employs the systematic approach. The author concludes that a special form of existence in the information society is dwelling in the information space, the symbolic “nature” of which eliminates material restrictions for individuals' self-expression. An individual colour of existence in the information reality forms such specific quality of the information space as multidimensionality, conditioning the construction of alternative worlds based on fantasy and imagination in complete isolation from reality. This affects the growth in the volume of information, which becomes uncontrolled, and the scale of the growth of the information space is no longer measured. The gap with the cultural and historical meanings of the content of the information space is primarily associated with its technogenic mediation. This situation leads to the loss of cultural and historical identity of both individuals and society as a whole. The development of information technologies has led to the complex socio-cultural changes in the life of society and the individual, who now perceives the world through the prism of communication in the information-symbolic environment. Accordingly, social interactions are moving into the information environment, and the difference between the social and information spaces are becoming weakly expressed. In this situation, the urgent task of modernity is the preservation of cultural traditions, the historical experience of previous generations as part of the information, technological world.