Abstract

The Net can be seen as the last technical product through which the imaginary is overlapping reality: the relationship with the Net has led to some significant transformations in our way of living, thinking and building bonds of friendship and love. It is conceivable that this change primarily concerns the young generations and, in this sense, those socially withdrawing can be seen as a symptom of the contemporary world that affects us all. In our contribution we identify four effects of the Net on people socially withdrawing: the sense of protection from the outside world, in respect to shame; imaginary satisfaction, which offers the opportunity to live a kind of experience that is parallel to that of real life; the fall of cautions, meaning that the virtual body can do anything the real body cannot even hope for; finally, the ethical indifference so that the moral limits of imaginary action coincide with the possibilities offered by the technical tool. The exercise of violence is confined within the virtual world and does not receive a moral condemnation.