STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO.

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CHAPTER II: UNPACKING THE SELF
A. THE DIGITAL SELF
From before you even wake up in the morning, your day is being encoded into digital data. Your phone
understands when you are active versus when you are asleep. Social media sites know when you’ll make your
first post and which triggers they can plant in your inbox to ensure you do. Soon, several device makers know
you are listening to the morning news, as you do every weekday. Your search engine and many other services
know that you are trying to make the perfect pancake for your kids. A number of databases are recording the
fact that you are at home later than usual today and not requesting a ride anyplace.

Those are just some of the most vivid examples of the personal data that continuously builds the digital
representation of you. Inside your technology, applications work with the digital you to do other work on your
behalf, optimize or manipulate the real-world you, or probably most frequently, sell you products and other
things. While you may know that these digital representations are nothing like you, your opinion doesn’t really
matter to those technologies that interact with your digital self.

The whole process of creating the digital self has mostly crept up on society without any widespread
planning. Only a few decades ago, the digital self wasn’t much more than your email handle and the contents
of your inbox. Today, your digital self spans everything from your text messages to your sexual preferences,
your brand loyalties, your family’s pregnancy statuses, your point-to-point trips, your recent and upcoming job
status, and many other significant and insignificant points in between.

I, ME , MYSELF AND MY USER ID ONLINE

Identity has many definitions, but without getting too metaphysical, we can sum it up in a few words:
you are who you are and what you do. Simply put, your identity is the sum of your characteristics, including
your birthplace and birthday, the schools you attended, your shoe size, and so on. Some of those
characteristics never change, such as your birthday, and some change over time, such as your hair color.
Similarly, when you are using the Internet, your 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 a
different picture of who you are and what you do. Sometimes the different representations 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 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 identity because each one you visit sees you
and your characteristics differently. For example, Amazon has established a partial identity for you based on
the products you buy, whether it’s you at the keyboard or someone else using your account. Yahoo! Finance
has established a partial identity for you based on the stocks you are following, whether you actually own those
stocks or not. Neither one has your full identity, even if they were to put together your partial identities. The
result is that you have one true identity and many partial identities. Some of the information associated with a
partial identity is under your control; other information may be out of your control or even completely invisible to
you. Regardless of what you can and cannot control, they all contribute to “who you are and what you do.”

SELECTIVE SELF-PRESENTATION AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Social media and online community attendance have increasingly become a significant part of our
social lives (Burkell et al. 2014). Managing self-presentation in online communities is an integral part of private
and professional life (Rui and Stafanone 2013). When people become members of a community, they must
select the relevant and appropriate pieces of information for their self-presentation to be consistent with the
profile of the group. According to Schwämmlein and Wodzicki (2012) the willingness to provide personal
information in member profile is high because members gain acceptance through extensive self-presentation
that facilitates the establishment of relationships with other network members.Self-presentation is defined as
behaviors used for creating, modifying, and maintaining other people's impression about oneself. 

Nowadays, people do not only seek to manage their impression face-to-face but also in computer-
mediated environments especially in social media. Impression management can be defined as a study of how
people attempt to manage or control the perceptions which others form of them. The main aim of impression
management is to steer others’ impression with the use of controlling information, photos, and videos and
present them in a proper way in social media. In real life, the impression management takes place through
both verbal and nonverbal communication, including body language, posture, speech and rank. Both in real life
and online, self-representation connects the idea of who we are to the outside world.

In social media, people “operate” their personal home page, photo albums, status and logs through
text, images, audios, videos and other means, in which people interact with each other, this forms a new social
interaction. Such text oriented and symbolic ways are becoming the most important ways of self presentation
in social media.

In order to achieve credibility and advantage, people adopt different strategies to carry out certain impression
management.

Overall, there are three kinds of self-presentation strategies: positive impression presentation, revision
impression control, and vague impression formation of fuzzy control (Fiske, 1991). Proactive strategy refers
that people value other people’s perception of self image in social media, and are willing to show the positive
side, willing to upload photos to show personal image. Fuzzy generalization strategy refers that in order to
avoid others to produce stereotyped images on oneself in social media, individuals tend to express their inner
thoughts and feelings vaguely. Passive strategy refers to control the negative emotions and negative attitudes
in social media.

The study on 425 undergraduates from many Utah State Universities by Chou Hui-Tzu & Nicholas
Edge (2012) shows that those who spend more time on Facebook are more likely to think that Facebook’s
“friends” live a better life”; this indicates from the side view that people present a better side on the Facebook.
In other words, people choose to present themselves in social media: They present more positive emotions
rather than negative emotions in social media (pic 2), and compared to the self-presentation in reality, people
are more willing to show a better side in social media (Lin Qiu, 2012).

Why People Engage in Self Presentation

1. Facilitate Social Interaction The most basic function of self-presentation is to define the nature of a
social situation (Goffman, 1959). Most social interactions are very role governed. Each person has a
role to play, and the interaction proceeds smoothly when these roles are enacted effectively. For
example, airline pilots are expected to be poised and dignified. As long as they convince their
passengers that they possess these qualities, their passengers remain calm and behave in an orderly
fashion.
2. Gain Material and Social Rewards People also strive to create impressions of themselves in the
minds of others in order to gain material and social rewards (or avoid material and social punishments).
Social rewards also depend on our ability to convince others that we possess particular qualities. Being
liked entails convincing others that we are likable; being a leader involves convincing others that we are
capable of leading.
3. Self-Construction Another reason we try to create impressions of ourselves in the minds of others is
to construct a particular identity for ourselves This type of self-presentational behavior serves a more
private, personal function. Convincing others that we possess some quality or attribute is a means of
convincing ourselves.

IMPACT OF ONLINE INTERACTIONS ON THE SELF

BOUNDARIES OF SELF ONLINE

We know that the internet can have myriad negative effects on our lives. Between the damage it can do
to one's mental health and its erosion of our capacity for face-to-face communication, our time online is quickly
making our generation impatient, antisocial, and unhealthy. It can also be addictive, but we can't avoid it: Being
online Is absolutely necessary for living, working, and communicating with others.

We are drawn to living out part of our lives online because it seems like a limitless space where our
minds exist and our bodies do not, where our voices can be heard far and wide as we physically remain in one
place. While on the one hand, this can be wonderful, it's harder for us to create the necessary boundaries that
make using the internet safe, fulfilling, and healthy.
Why are boundaries online necessary?
It's important to create limits in regards to who we follow, what sort of content we consume, and how
much time we spend on the internet. First and foremost, they’re necessary for our safety. As dangers
like hacking and catfishing loom, it’s imperative to set up barriers to protect our personal data and identity from
strangers online, such as increasing our privacy settings or limiting the amount of personal information
available on the internet.
Aside from safety, boundaries are necessary for maintaining good mental health. Research has
indicated that spending too much time on the internet can be linked to heightened anxiety, and that excessive
social media usage could be linked with depression. A look into the science behind the manufacturing of our
technology provides some insight into why this might be.
Research has found the blue light on our cell phones and computers can stimulate our brain to create
more dopamine, a chemical that is associated with motivation and feelings of happiness. This means that
checking our phones more often or spending more time online makes us feel happier, while taking time away
from technology can cause withdrawal symptoms and actually make us depressed. What’s more, the
notifications we receive on our home screen from apps like Twitter or Instagram can cause us stress or distract
us until we check them.

How can we create boundaries online?

First we have to decide what sort of boundaries we are willing and able to create. This process is
different for everyone. When approaching social media, for example, you should ask yourself: What am I
looking for from this platform? Do I want to make friends, make professional connections, or find entertaining
content? These questions can help you decide what sort of boundaries you need to create, and later, how you
can create them.

The most common boundary people are looking to create is a limit to how much of our personal
information other people can access. Unsurprisingly, the best way to create these sorts of barriers would be
through increasing your privacy settings. Keeping your Twitter and Instagram on private, changing your
Facebook privacy settings to ensure strangers cannot contact you, and creating separate emails or social
media accounts for work versus your social life are all good ways to create these barriers.

But privacy settings can’t help create the emotional boundaries many people find are necessary, like
the need we all feel to respond to messages right away or to check a notification as soon as it appears on our
screens. Many experts say that removing push notifications from your home screen or deleting social media
from your phone for certain periods of time can not only lessen feelings of dependency when it comes to the
internet but can also improve sleep, reduce anxiety, and help people reprioritize in-person interactions.

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

Every day, whether we want to or not, most of us contribute to a growing portrait of who we are online; a
portrait that is probably more public than we assume.

A Digital Footprint is the record of your interaction with the digital world. 

You leave a trail of your digital footprints whenever you use technology online. This includes digital cameras,
smart phones, iPods, tablets, laptops and computers. 

Your footprints contains bits of information about you. They could include your name, nickname or other
personal information like your date of birth or address. They could let people know about what you like, are
interested in and the things you like to do. Some of this information we leave out there knowingly, other things
we may not even realize we have left. 

A Digital Footprint is like an invisible report card that accumulates over the years and is a general reflection of
our online activity. 

In order to create a positive Digital Footprint, it is critical that we understand the permanency and implications,
both positive and negative, of our online actions on our online identity. 

While it might seem that these footprints are harmless, they do not disappear when you close a website or
logoff your account and they have the potential to be good or bad for you now and in the future. Your Digital
Footprint should be considered as permanent as a tattoo; in fact, some people call them digital tattoos.

Digital Footprints are used in lots of different ways. Some people use them to work out what you might like and
try to sell you things. A health service might store your information to help you if you are unwell. Someone
might look at your footprint to work out whether they want to give you a job. In the future some universities,
colleges and schools might use your footprint to decide if they will let you enroll with them. Some are already
doing this. So it is important to make sure the footprints you leave behind will help you now and in the future.

Remember!
* Everyone has a Digital Footprint or digital tattoo.
* Once something is online, it could be there forever.
* Digital Footprints, or digital tattoos, can be used for both good things and bad.

Creating and Managing your Personal Brand Online

Creating Positive Digital Footprint

1. Post only positive and interesting aspects of yourself to give others a good impression of your personal
brand.
2. Find ways to ensure your brand reflects who you are, what you stand for, your passions and beliefs.
3. Avoid oversharing.
4. Start a blog, a Facebook Group, create videos or podcasts. These can be about a hobby, sport,
personal interest or civic activity.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
Digital citizenship can be defined as engaging in appropriate and responsible behavior when using
technology. 

It encompasses digital literacy, ethics, etiquette, online safety, norms, rights, culture and more.

A digital citizen is one who knows what is right and wrong, exhibits intelligent technology behavior, and makes
good choices when using technology.
Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps us understand what all technology users should know to use
technology appropriately and responsibly.

Today, billions of people all over the planet interact using various technologies. This interaction has created a
digital society that affords its citizens opportunities for education, employment, entertainment, and social
interaction. 

Why You Should Care About Your Digital Footprint: https://youtu.be/Ro_LlRg8rGg

As in any society, it is expected that digital citizens act in a certain way according to accepted norms, rules,
and laws. Most of today's students are entirely comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately?
Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?