virtual space and identity

During the past few years, virtual space and new media, as a new area of study in social sciences, has essentially attracted the researchers’ attention of Iran. The present research aims to conduct a meta-analysis on recent studies about virtual space and identity. The research method is meta-analysis and statistical population includes all the articles which have been published from 2001 to 2013 on the subject of virtual space and identity. The findings suggest that national identity and modern identity, as the dependent variable, has been investigated more than other dimensions of identity (such as religious, ethnic and social identities). Moreover, the result of analyzing effect sizes indicates that the amount of using virtual space, as an independent variable, has the greatest impact on modern identity and religious identity. Additionally, the time devoted to virtual space has the greatest effect on modern identity. The kind of virtual space usage has the greatest effect on modern, national and social identities. Participation and activity in virtual space has the greatest influence on modern identity. Finally, the process of actualizing the content of data in virtual space has the greatest effect on modern and social identities.