Self Identity in the Digital Age
Who am I? A question we all ask. What does the impact of of our digital lives have on making sense of who we are and how we go about that?
Who am I? It is a question many of us ask throughout our lifetimes and most probably start considering in our teenage years when we go all rebel on our parents. In today’s digital world, we are flooded with so many ways to, well, be. Will this make it harder to find our self, or easier? As usual, it’s nuanced. And complicated.
One of the wondrous aspects of social media is that we are able to share our lived experiences with one another more broadly and more intimately. While there is good and bad with social media, as with any communications technology, it does offer us a unique glimpse into what it means to be human on a global scale.
But the self is not a fixed entity. Our self is dynamic, mutable and ever changing. Our self evolves as we age, influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, cultural and social forces.
Up until the arrival of our current digital age, the influences on our self were fairly contained and changes to the self were, arguably, fairly slow. When we lived far apart, wandering about the planet munching on berries and things, we lived in small groups. External influences were relatively rare. Our social settings changed very little. Our self evolved, but within fairly stringent social systems.
Fast forward to today and we can, through a screen, explore how someone lives in any part of the world at any time. We can hear their music, watch their dances, find recipes to try. A teenager in Berlin can watch what a teenager in Mumbai does. Get ideas. And we love ideas. We may mock them at times, or we may adopt them, build on them. There are many more influences on our self identity than ever before. And few social norms to guide the evolution of self than before.
In most Western cultures like America and Canada and even some ways in European societies, we are encouraged to be independent from a very young age. To figure out “who we are” and be “ourselves”, which at a young age, we are more of a blank canvas.
In America and Canada, there are many cultures that have built these countries since colonialism edged out the First Peoples and largely squashed their cultural influence. So the self in these countries is an amalgam of many cultures. American parents generally expect their babies to express individuality before they can even speak.
These are all amplified by today’s communications technologies via social media channels. It is perhaps, no surprise then that we’ve seen increased interest in self help books, spirituality leaders. An endless ream of TikTok and Instagram video shorts on how to be this or that, reclaim this or find that certain way.
These are not bad or wrong. They are legitimate ways of exploring ones self. In a world now awash with so many ways to find ones self, ones true identity and meaning, we also find the words identity crisis to be more common. We see growing interest in New Age religions, 12-step programs, videos and courses on how to manifest your true destiny. We have long been doing these things, but in today’s hyper-connected, always on world, they are amplified to new heights.
Whether this is really good or terrible for us as humans, as a society, is hard to tell. It is too early in the arrival of these technologies and the sharing of so many ways of being, to draw any conclusions. We can make guesses, intimations, but that is all.
“Groups are not homogeneous, but heterogeneous; not stable, but changing; not simple, but complex” — Charles Lindholm, Psychology Anthropologist
We have long been preoccupied with self-discovery and the seeking of authenticity. It’s just that we’re also doing this in a more public way than ever before. Although in the late nineteenth century in Viennese society when sexual prohibitions were very arbitrary and the patriarchy was very much based on double standards, young women would display neurotic symptoms as a way of acting out symbolically. Unfortunately, what else does one do in the face of such a patriarchal system? This is an earlier example of social structure and its impact on self identity.
A New Path to Exploring Ourselves?
So will we find it harder then, to find our sense of self because of all these new tools? Or easier? Will perhaps, personal AI agents help us find our self more easier, faster? Probably none of the above.
As I wrote earlier, our self is not fixed, it is dynamic and constantly emerging. Who you are today is not who you will be in twenty or thirty or more years. When one has children, one’s identity fundamentally changes. As we age and have lived experiences, so does our sense of self change.
One challenge however, is if we socialize less in the real world. Part of our self identity comes from socializing. With friends, family, co-workers, community groups and volunteer activities. Research is showing that Americans are socializing less. This is likely happening in other countries as well. And socializing is not just important for self identity, it is important for our mental health.
While there are risks and dangers to so many ways to explore our sense of self, it is at the same time, wonderful. As the saying goes, you can only be yourself because everyone else is taken. But our sense of self has always been influenced by external factors and lived experiences.
If we take little bits from Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, mindfulness, stoicism and so many other religions, spiritualities, ideas and theories, there is nothing wrong with that at all. In some ways, our minds are opened to new experiences and ideas from cultures around the world.As long as we don’t end up misappropriating a culture.
When we learn from others, we learn more about ourselves and over time, we can understand one another better and when we understand one another better, we grow not just ourselves, but our societies and we find that we rather prefer getting along than not.
In time, research by anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists will likely be able to provide insights into the effects of social media and digital life engagement on self identity.
This is not to suggest that we will end up in some lovely utopia, hugging trees every day and singing songs around the campfire. We’re human. We do unexpected things. But we are seeing one another in new ways. There is and long will be, turbulence, but perhaps more calm. All because digital technologies help us see ourselves as much as we can see others.
Humans love to tell stories. It’s a survival mechanism. We tell stories to form social groups, we also tell stories to understand ourselves and at their most basic, communications technologies enable us to tell stories.