However, I do think, that the internet has, or seems about to, change our notions of the self in that it is going to enable us to create social selves that might be said to act on their own and yet might be argued to be a part of our self.

i agree with that point- i've interacted with quite a few individuals who created such semi-independent selves. now you might argue along the lines of dana boyd, stating "those are performed selves"- which is certainly true for the bulk of people- but some of the folks whom i've met acted as "round/complete" characters (sociable, solving problems in their ccommunities, etc. etc.) denied the existence of their own actions. it's a paradox...they were socially involved, yet when confronted with the question "you think this is real?", they'd deny it. "real" here suggests that online and offline social interaction are basically the same, and that's what i'm pointing at: those people's behaviour was basically the same as "in real", yet the link to physical reality and "real" social space was missing. thus, i've talked to constructs who were acting on their own behalf. sure, they were once spawned by a physical self, but as soon as they started differentiating between online and offline space, they became semi-independent beings, vaguely disconnected from the parent minds, but still functional, valid characters. nite. :) max d