Representation of Chuvash ethnicity in cyberspace

The article examines the forms, methods and mechanisms of representation of Chuvash ethnicity in cyberspace, characterizes the space of ethnic history and culture of the Chuvash on the Internet, describes the forms and ways of representing the ethnic image of the Chuvash in the Internet space, analyzes the structure of Chuvash cyberspace; characterizes the degree of activity and motivation of participants in virtual communities in the process of representation of ethnicity. The research is based on the study of the content of the «Chuvash» Internet: online platforms, Internet services, resources, a virtual «field» – an online survey of users of social networks. The study showed that cyberspace reflects the real picture of ethnocultural processes in the Chuvash world, in particular in the field of communication, demonstrates the functionality of elements of ethnic culture (songs, costume, etc.). At the same time, the global network is forming its own space of Chuvash ethnicity, based on markers that are significant from the point of view of Internet users (language, songs, visual images of Chuvash culture). By broadcasting them through social networks and web services to the real world, users construct their identity and form a cyberspace with significant potential for preserving the ethnicity of the Chuvash in the real world. Thanks to the content in Russian and other languages, the Chuvash culture and language are being popularized. At the same time, the activity of Chuvash Internet users in ethnocultural topics is low, and in most cases it is expressed by passive forms of information perception, which probably indicates the limited nature of the impact of virtual ethnicity on the processes of ethnic identification of Chuvash in reality.