Online

• The world is at your fingertips
• Before this used to be an exaggeration, but now it has become the norm
• We live in highly mediated times
• It is now easy for people to access data and information through the internet from anywhere around the world
• Expressions of identity nowadays involve layers of make-believe selves
• Many people are used to maintaining social media accounts and presenting themselves in a particular manner to a much bigger audience
• People nowadays are more interconnected than at any point in history
• With the digital revolution in full swing, the challenge to maintain a coherent sense of identity is prominent
• Online identity


  The totality of a person's appearance, expression, behavior and interaction within the digital platform, particularly the INTERNET
• Online identity


  The totality of a person's appearance, expression, behavior and interaction within the digital platform, particularly the INTERNET
• Online identity


  • Often created to engage in virtual communities found in various websites and social networking sites
• Digital self-presentation


  The process of creating a positive self-image by carefully selecting personal information to disclose online
• The digital world presents a different reality as compared to the actual physical reality that people usually live in
• In digital realities, interactions occur behind the screen so documenting the daily life and experiences through posting photos and videos, sharing interests and life events as they happen now characterize the new norm
• Digital self-presentation


  Enables the individual to control other people's perception to oneself, thereby, reinforcing the creation of online identities
• The digital world allows people to present themselves in ways that they want to be seen without having to deal with the now seemingly awkward face-to-face conversations
• Disinhibition effect


  People feel so much freedom to express their "true selves" without the fear of being seen or judged
• Online self expression, through vlogs, photos or even video-sharing can indeed be therapeutic for some individual online users because it provides an opportunity for self-analysis and reflection
• THE OTHER I: LOVE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA

   In this day and age, nothing beats falling in love with the boring

  bits cut out

   Virtual romance speeds through moments and cuts to the

  chase

   “Digital Meet Cute”

  You have to be careful as well when we meet people online because

  there are instances where it is what we call catfishing and we may fall

  prey to this kind of situation. When we talk about…
• Catfishing – it is the act of luring someone into a (largely

  virtual) relationship with the use of online alter-egos.

  Reality as Abstraction

   Given the pervasiveness of numerous reality simulations,

  abstraction is fast becoming a staple of (modern) human

  experience

   Abstraction - the non-physical properties one gets to try and

  interact with when consuming technology

   According to Kimberly Rosenfeld (2015), varying

  manifestations of abstraction can be mapped on a continuum
• Real-Life Reality


  The reality with which you engage most frequently, pertains to life away from digital devices
• Simulation


  Basic purpose is to copy reality as closely as it can, offers uncanny representations of real-world aspects, can also be used for instruction
• Augmented Reality


  Real-life reality spliced with the unreal, permits you to creatively interact with both the tangible and digital world (often at the same time e.g Pokemon go, snapchats, effects on messenger etc.)
• Virtual Reality


  Type of abstraction completely detached from real-life reality, here, you are granted freedom to explore open worlds using a custom-made character
• Hyperreality


  More than anything, this abstraction is a state of mind, the inability to distinguish the real from the otherwise, a utopia of the mind; people exist as the best versions of themselves
• THE CYBERSELF

   Identity is, in many ways, interrelated with performativity.

   Technology, for all its faults, provides new venues for forging

  identities and personhoods (Rosenfeld, 2015)

   In short, our lives online revolve around performance.

   Participating online is equivalent to performing to a crowd.

   The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) – Erving

  Goffman’s landmark book which analogizes the nuances of

  social interaction with those of the theater.

   The book tells of socialization as heavily role-oriented, with

  individuals being assigned specific ones to portray.
• Dramaturgy of the SELF

  Social interaction, as in theatrical performances, has the front stage, back stage, and off-stage regions
• Front stage


  • Performer's consciousness of an audience's expectations impacts the performance
• Back stage


  • Where the performer can relax and be himself/herself
• Off-stage


  • When the performer gets to meet members of the audience completely separate from his/her performance
• Impression management


  A process wherein each attempt to manufacture and present one's self positively to avoid embarrassment
• Erving Goffman added that people, when engaged in social interactions, internalize what he calls impression management
• Performance


  The set of activities in which the self participates in front of others (labeled "the audience")
• Performance


  • Through performing, people are able to express meaning about themselves and their present situation
• Setting


  The scenery where an interaction will take place
• Setting


  • The actor needs always to consider altering his/her performance to fit the needs of the setting
• Appearance


  The function of appearance rests mainly on its ability to portray the self's various statuses
• Appearance


  • On social media, display pictures (often "selfies") and cover photos embody this element
• Manner


  How an actor sends various signals to the audience to ultimately inform them in advance of the role he/she seeks or is about to perform
• Manner


  • People's manners should merely function closely with their self-presentations (physical or virtual), lest they be misread