ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the several unique psychological components of the Internet environment. It describes the way the factors impact on humans' well-being. The online world is very different, since on the Internet, people are free to expose as much of their physical appearance as they want. The online world also grants people a high degree of control over their social interactions, far greater than that that exist offline. Conversely, the online world contains infinite numbers of people, with an inestimable number of interests and hobbies. The research found that higher participation in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender online groups was related to greater social capital. The Internet, which started as a mainly anonymous environment, has changed dramatically with the advent of social networks, which are becoming increasing dominant on the net. Y. Amichai-Hamburger, G. A. Kaplan and N. Dorpatcheon showed that social network use gives an advantage to extroverts.
