Communicating space and time perception and ideology in online texts

This thesis emerges from the realization of the paradox that lies beneath online technology which promises to change the way we think, yet penetrates our lives by employing a systematic simulation of our most basic cognitive skills. In order to understand this paradox in terms of space and time, the research examines the ways in which time and space are communicated on two disparate Internet websites. The assembled data are analyzed using an interdisciplinary approach that leads to a textual analysis based in theories of semiotics. The study finds that the Internet is fundamentally framed in spatial terms. The space bias is ideologically significant; commercial websites use it to produce a textual environment that assimilates the user and, thus, enables the promotion of conspicuous consumption.