The article presents online communication as a specific form of interaction characterized by the hybridization of spoken and written, everyday, existential, and institutional discourse.Formally, the development of online communication is influenced by hypertextuality and creolization, as well as the widespread use of acronyms and emoticons.Based on English-language examples, the study demonstrates that user interaction in the online environment is a type of computer-mediated communication carried out through electronic text messages.This form of communication is characterized by its virtual nature, anonymity, distance, global reach, playfulness, the neutralization of temporal and spatial parameters, the leveling of communicants' status, and the absence of social coercion.The article argues that the concept of "politeness" exists in the consciousness of English speakers and has the potential for verbalization within communicative space.This potential is reflected in lexical units recorded in lexicographic sources.The semantic content of these lexemes allows politeness to be interpreted, on the one hand, as a general characteristic of human behavior and its verbal manifestation, and, on the other hand, as both the external expressions of such behavior and its internal motivation.The research findings indicate that when English lexical units representing the concept of "politeness" in English linguocultural consciousness function in modern English-language online communication, corresponding meanings are constructed in users' minds.The specificity of constructing these meanings is determined by the nature of contemporary English online communication as a cognitive-communicative phenomenon, a process, and a result of users' speech activity.This includes perceiving the world as text, the fragmented identity of users, playfulness and non-seriousness, the leveling of communicants' status, the absence of social coercion, and, most importantly, the erosion of norms and values alongside pluralism.