INTRODUCTION:

 The Self in the Age of Technology

 Social media is defined as the websites and applications that make it easier to create
and share information, ideas, and interests. It also allows people to create other forms
of self-expression via virtual communities and networks.

 Through the use of social media, people may act differently since interaction in social
media do not happen face-to-face and there is no physical presence required. With this,
people are less likely to display their real “selves” to others, especially to strangers.

 Digital Identity

 People generally have role identities. These are the characters and roles an individual
creates as a member of a particular social group. Following this definition, “self” is
composed of identities ranked by importance. The greater the commitment of an
individual to a particular identity, the greater the importance of this identity.

 In an online environment, one’s role identity is vitally important in order for him/her to
project himself/herself in the said environment. Amidst the technological tools and
channels surrounding individuals and online activities that people engage in, one’s
online identity enables him/her to participate in a virtual society.

The Concept of the Digital Self

The digital self is the persona you use when you’re online. Some people maintain one or more online
identifies that are distinct from their “real world” selves; others have a single online self that’s more or
less the same as the one they inhabit in the real world.

Did you know?

 The Philippines was among the top users of Facebook in the world with around 86 million users
as of December 2020 data. With more than 2.7 billion Facebook active users all over the world,
Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide. The latest data show that there are 4.33
billion social media users around the world at the start of 2021, equating to more than 55
percent of the total global population.
 YouTube was originally designed to be a dating site!

1. I, ME, MYSELF AND MY USER ID ONLINE IDENTITY

Types of Identity

 Personal Identity – the interpersonal level of self which differentiates the individual as unique
from others
 Social Identity – the level of self whereby the individual is identified by his or her group
memberships
 Online identity – the sum of your characteristics and interactions because you interact
differently with each website you visit, each of those websites will have different picture off who
you are and what you do.
What is online identity?

Is the sum of your characteristics and interactions because you interact differently with each website
you visit, each of those websites will have different picture of who you are and what you do. It implies
that there is a distinction between how people present themselves online and how they do offline.
Sometimes the different representation of you are referred to as partial identities, because none of
them has the full and true picture of who you are.

“Your online identity is not the same as your real-world identity is because the characteristics you
represent online differ from the characteristics you represent in the physical world. Every website you
interact with has its own idea of your iddentity because each one you visit sees you and your
characteristics different. “ (InternetSociety.org, 2011)

What is an identifier? And how is that different from my identity?

An identifier is a way of referring to a collection of a person’s characteristics or what we have described

here as a partial identity. For example, if you have an Instagram, you must create an identifier by way of
making your own username. Most websites, including search engines (Google), prefer to have you sign
up (or register) so they can maintain information about your identity, such as a profile, or store your
profile information more securely. In some cases, the identifier may be invisible to you.

Key Terms

 Identity -The complete set of characteristics that define you. Ex. Name, nicknames, birth date
and any other unique characteristics that combined make you who you are
 Identifier - A way of referring to a set of characteristics. Ex. Your email address (myID@me.com)
or user name (RaulB) or an account number (7633)
 Partial Identity - A subset of the characteristics that make up your identity. Ex. Demographic
information about you or any purchase history is stored in your account at a website
 Profile- Information collected by others about your actions and characteristics. Ex. A search you
conducted for “discount shoes” or a list of websites visite
 Persona - A partial identity created by you to represent yourself in a specific situation. Ex. A
social network account or your online blog

How do you build your online identity?

 Create an account with a unique identifier

 Provide information needed for partial identity
 Profiling interactions with online platforms (websites)

Every website that you interact will collect its own verson of who you are, based on the information that
you have shared. It is up to you how you will represent yourself as closely as who you are and what you
do in real life or selectively, to create a representative far from your real life.

2. SELECTIVE SELF PRESENTATION & IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

SELF PRESENTATION refers to how people attempt to present themselves to control or shape how
others (audience) view them. It is a range of strategies that people adopt to shape what others think of
them. Self-presentation is often directed to external audiences such as friends, lovers, employers,
teachers, children and even strangers. It is more likely to be conscious when the presenter depends on
the audience for some reward, expects to interact with the audience or values the audience’s approval.
Yet self-presentation extends beyond audiences that are physically present to imagined audiences and
these imagined audiences can have distinct effects on behavior.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT it is used when people are directly involved with one another or when
interaction is indirect and the target is not in the immediate area. It is the way people influence how
others think about something else, usually themselves. People usually do this either to get something
they want from others or establish an independent identity. \

SELF-PRESENTATION vs. IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

It involves expressing oneself and behaving in ways that create a desired impression. Self-presentation is
a part of a broader set of behavior called impression management. Impression management refers to
the controlled presentation of information about all sorts of things including information about other
people or events. Self-presentation refers specifically about the self.

According to Newman, impression management is an act presenting a favorable public image of one self
so that others will form positive judgments. It self-presentation techniques focuses on improving a
person’s image in the eyes of others. It presents constructive and favorable images to the public,
encouraging appositive outcomes. In regards to the social implication impression allows people to
carefully craft and constructs their public perception in order to obtain a favorable social appearance. Its
purpose is to understand the process through which people try to control he impression of other people
and how they form of them.

3. IMPACT OF ONLINE INTERACTION ON THE SELF

Social media is a term for numerous technologies that allow instantaneous communication, status
updates, and social networking among individuals. Social media platforms today include text messaging
via cellular phones and social networking sites such as Facebook. The use of social media by youth
(preadolescents and adolescents) continues to increase across the world on a yearly basis.

Social media can have a positive impact upon loneliness, intimacy, and relationship maintenance during
adolescence. However, adolescents also experience relational issues via social media and are more
reckless online. Social media, particularly Facebook, may have both a positive and a negative impact on
mood symptoms and other mental disorders. Social media may play a role in identity formation by
allowing younger users to experiment with different behaviors and interactional styles.

POSITIVE IMPACT

 Enhancement of social contact

 Independence
 Communication 
 Sense of emotional connection with others
 Educational benefits 

Communicating online allows people to enhance existing relationships as well as foster new ones with
similar people that they may not encounter day to day.
Adolescents are motivated to use online communication for companionship and to maintain their
relationships with others.

Instant messaging, which involves sending electronic messages back and forth in an online conversation,
can contribute to the well-being of adolescents who are distressed by providing an outlet for their
emotions. Instant messaging was found to result in improvements to one’s emotional state such that
adolescents experience emotional relief following such conversations with their peers.

Particularly for younger children, there is evidence that “safe and secure online communication” can
teach understanding of and positive attitudes towards other cultures and foster learning about the
world and multiculturalism (Hou et al. 2015).

NEGATIVE IMPACT
 Online meanness and bullying
 Misunderstandings 
 Unwanted contact
 Unintentional disclosure 

Negative consequences of social media use have focused on depressed affect.

Troubled adolescents (i.e., those experiencing victimization and depression) form closer online
relationships than other adolescents, which suggests that online relationships may attract more socially
and emotionally vulnerable adolescents
Psychological well-being is compromised by frequent Internet use since these interactions displace
those everyday face-to-face interactions with friends and family

There is also a phenomenon called “Facebook depression”. “Facebook depression” describes a situation
where individuals become depressed due to Facebook use (Jelenchick et al. 2013) or, due to being
rewarded with attention from close others when they post depressive status updates, wherein
individuals’ online personas may appear to be depressed even when the individual is not (Moreno et al.
2011).

It does not suggest that Facebook use per se predisposes individuals to become depressed but it may be
that some individuals are more at risk when faced with this particular stress.

The information presented illustrates the significance of social media in the lives of youth. Given the
nature of SNSs and the amount of time that youth spend on such sites, it can be argued that social
networking platforms such as Facebook can serve as developmental contexts for adolescents. It is
expected that such settings are particularly important for preadolescents and adolescents given that
these individuals are experiencing a period of rapid change physically, socially, and emotionally. In this
sense, social media might be especially influential during this developmental period, since SNSs provide
a forum in which youth can explore aspects of themselves, their peers, and the world.
In summary, friendships with peers are of high importance to youth and are one of the most essential
parts of their lives during the transition from childhood to adulthood. The use of social media,
particularly social networking platforms such as Facebook, is frequent among youth and has steadily
increased over the years. Social media use becomes much more prevalent from preadolescence to
adolescence and adolescent usage even exceeds that of adults. Adolescence is the developmental
period where social media is most likely to be used and teenagers are less likely to be supervised while
using online resources, putting them at greater risk for maladjustment than other age groups. SNSs are
primarily used as a means for young people to connect with their friends for social purposes and provide
them with a wide range of information that is available to them virtually all of the time. Young people
experience both positive (e.g., opportunities for social contact) and negative (e.g., cyber-bullying) effects
when using social media. 

4. PRIVATE VS PUBLIC

Private self Public Self

 the person’s true self
 The way a person act around others is not
the same as how you act when by yourself
or when with people whom he/she is
comfortable with.
 It is the personal emotions, morals of a
person and what a person hides from most
people.
 It is the parts of a person that he/she
decides to show to the world.
 How a person want people to view
him/her and how he/she act around
others.

“We can be whatever we want behind the doors of our homes” (quote)
Sociologist Erving Goffman (1959) distinguished between "back stage" and "front stage."

FACTORS AFFECTING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SELF:

 the popularity of social networking sites
 “Fear Of Missing Out”-
 Disinhibitation Effect

SETTING BOUNDARIES ONLINE

 Consider your purpose.
 Take things slow.
 You don’t have to interact with every email.
 Share only what makes you feel good.
 Don’t forget privacy is important.

SOCIAL IDENTITY
the set of characteristics by which a person is definitively recognizable or known by the society in which
they live.
These are characteristics that are attributed to the individual by others (the society).
These characteristics serve as markers that indicate what that person is, in the eyes of others (their
society)
This takes place through interaction in the social setting.
At the same time, this means that these characteristics put that person in the same group as other
individuals who share the same attributes.
Examples of social identities include being a father, mother, student, physician, lawyer,
evangelical, homeless person, Catholic, etc. Another way to define social identity is
“Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s)”.
According to Richard Jenkins,‘ social identity can be understood as our understanding of
who are and of who other people are and reciprocally other people’s understanding of themselves and
others. This highlights that social identity is created as the individual
interacts with others and identifies himself as part of the society.’

SELF-IDENTITY/ INDIVIDUAL SELF

sets us apart as distinct individuals. Self-identity defines our unique sense of
ourselves and our relationship to the outside world
Dictionaries define self-identity as the conscious recognition of the self as having a unique identity
It is an awareness of and identification with oneself as a separate individual.

Personal identity can simply be understood as the sense of self that an individual develops as he grows
older.
Social identity is the story the society (others) says about you while self-identity is the story you
say of yourself.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY

SEX
Sex is the biological, fixed and immutable state that corresponds to
what we might call a “man” or a “woman”
(West and Zimmerman 1987)

GENDER
World Health Organization:
"gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society
considers appropriate for men and women"
‘masculine' and 'feminine' are gender categories

a socioculturally specific set of norms that are mapped onto a category of sex
(Kessler and McKenna 1978)
It is historical, and is produced by media and popular culture (Gaunlett 2008; van Zoonem 1994)

SEXUALITY
is about who you are attracted to sexually and romantically. It’s about understanding the sexual
feelings and attractions we feel towards others, not who we happen to have sex with.

SEXUALITIES:
  Straight/Heterosexual- Attracted mostly to people of the opposite sex or Gender.
 Gay/Homosexual- Attracted mostly to people of the same sex or gender (refers to guys – and
often to girls, too).
 Lesbian- Attracted mostly to people of the same sex or gender (refers to women).
 Asexual- Not really sexually attracted to anyone, but still might have intellectual or emotional
relationships.
 Demisexual- An individual who, once they have formed an emotional bond with someone, feels
sexual attraction.
 Queer- Used to describe sexual identities that are not heterosexual or that might not fit into
specific categories.
 Bisexual- Attracted to both men and women.
 Pansexual- Attracted to romantic and sexual partners of any gender, sex or sexual identity.
(‘Pan’ means ‘all’.)
 Polysexual- Attracted to romantic and sexual partners of many but not all genders, sexes or
sexual identities. (‘Poly’ means ‘many’.)
 Closeted- Describes a person who is not open about their sexual orientation or gender identity.
 Out- A person who self-identifies as LGBTQ in their personal, public, and/or professional lives.

PERFORMING GENDER ONLINE

Disembodiment hypothesis
Internet users are free to actively choose which gender or sexuality they are going to portray with the
possibility of creating alternative identities(Wynn and Katz 1997).

The ability of the users to self-consciously adapt and ply with different gender identities would reveal
the choices involved in the production of gender, breaking down binaries and encouraging fluidity in
sexuality and gender expression.

PERFORMING GENDER ONLINE

Blogs that are written and read by women are usually about fashion, make-ups, food, parenting, etc.
Blogs that are written and read by men are usually about technology, politics, sports, etc. (Chittenden
2010; Hindman 2009, Meraz 2008)

Although technologies are the same, the norms and mores of the people using them differ.

“The social web can’t exist until you are your real self online.” -Sheryl Sandberg