THE DIGITAL SELF:

SELF AND OTHER IN CYBERSPACE

 AT THE END OF THIS LEARNING MODULE,
THE STUDENT IS EXPECTED TO:

• a. Discuss about online identity and their “self” in cyberspace and user
ID
• b. Expound selective self-presentation and impression management
• c. Evaluate the impact of online interactions on the self
• d. Establish boundaries of the online self: private vs. public, personal
vs. social identity online; gender and sexuality online.
 INTRODUCTION

The term “online identity” implies that there is a distinction

between how people present themselves online and how they do offline.
But any split between “online” and “offline” identity is narrowing, for
two reasons. In contrast to the internet of the 1990s, people today use
social media primarily to communicate with people they know in “real
life” contexts like home, work, and school. Second, wireless networking
and portable devices like smartphones and tablets make it easy to access
social media as part of day-to day life, rather than having to formally “log
on” to the internet (Marwick, A. 2013).
 INTRODUCTION

• We are living in a digital age and other than face to face

interaction, we have interactions involving technology cellular phones,
computers and other gadgets. Thus, we build our DIGITAL SELF. What
is your Digital Self? How do you represent yourself online? This chapter
module will help you understand how online identity is established based
on what information you offer in technology-interactions. It will present
the risks and dangers for posting much of your personal life or
pretending you are somebody else in the social media world. This
chapter module will also present what you can do to protect your online
personality that can affect your offline personality.
 1 . ONLINE IDENTI TY ANS ‘S ELF ' IN CYBERS PACE :
(I, ME, MYS ELF, AND MY USE R ID ONLINE
I DENTIT Y)

• • Online Identity is the sum of your characteristics and interactions

“Online, most research on identity focused on self-presentation”; (boyd 2010; Wynn & Katz
1997; Papacharissi 2002; Baym 2010). Social media like social network sites, blogs, and
online personals require users to self-consciously create virtual depictions of themselves.
One way of understanding such self-presentation is the information and materials people
choose to show others on a Facebook profile or Twitter stream. But identity is also expressed
through interacting with others, whether over instant messenger or email. Since there are
fewer identity cues available online then face-to-face, every piece of digital information a
person provides, from typing speed to nickname and email address, can and is used to make
inferences about them” (Marwick, A. 2013).
 2 . SELECTIVE SELF-PRESENTATION
AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

• These are characteristics showing behaviors designed to convey an

image about ourselves to other people an to influence the perception of
other people of this image. This explains why our behaviors can change
if we notice that we being watched or observed. This self-presentation
can also change depending on who we are interacting with or what
personal information we need to be providing to present ourselves in a
way that that will be acceptable to others. Thus, we can select only what
we want to present and impress to others, what we view beneficial to our
personality, especially when we create a digital self. We carefully choose
representation or expression of one’s real world to online world.
 3 . IMPACT OF ONLINE INTERATIONS
ON THE SELF

• When interacting with other people, we automatically make inferences

about them without even being consciously aware of it. We cannot help
but ponder what they are thinking about, what their facial expression
mean, what their intentions are, and so on. This predisposition is what
makes social interactions so demanding. This suggests that interaction
with human partners requires more emotional involvement, and thus
more cognitive effort, than interacting through a computer.
• Is it true that Facebook provides opportunities for
increased identity development? YES!
• Research suggests that young users report increased self-
esteem and general wellbeing following instances of
positive feedback on social networking sites (Valkenburg,
Peter, & Schouten, 2006). Relatively results from a 2009
survey of college students indicated that the heaviest
Facebook users were also most satisfied with their lives
and exhibited greater social and political engagement
(Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009).
• However, online interactions cannot reveal our true feelings and
can decrease people’s happiness levels.

The extra effort involved in face-to-face interactions can be spared

in online interactions that are founded on minimal or constrained
social cues; most of these signals can be summed up in emoticons
or punctuation. Hence, it is easier to hide our emotions behind
email, a Facebook post or a tweet. Studies were conducted to show
that within the first two years after people first accessed the
internet, their happiness level decrease (Kraut, 1998) and that
social media has a small, yet significant detriment on overall well-
being
• We can control our self-presentations on online
interactions and this may be both beneficial and harmful to
the individual. Compared with face-to-face presentations,
online interactions enable us to self-censor to a greater
extent and manage our online identities more strategically
which provides greater opportunity to misrepresent
ourselves. This due to asynchronous communication
(time-delayed interaction that does not require participants
to be online simultaneously).
• POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA and ONLINE
INTERACTION ON THE SELF
• • Social media sites inform and empower individuals to change
themselves and their communities.
• (https://turbofuture.com-Nick McGillivray)
• • Increased self-esteem when receiving many likes and shares.
• • Boost one’s moral and feelings of self worth (Toma, 2010-
Social Media & Identity 2013)
• NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA and ONLINE
• INTERACTION ON THE SELF

• • Extensive online engagement is correlated with personality

and brain disorders like poor social skills.
• • Low self-esteem due to the risk of being
• Exposed to cyberbullying and cyberpornography
(healthxph.net-2015)
• • More occupied in giving attention to social media than in
keeping their customs and practices. (phblogspot2013)
 4 . EXTENDED SELF IN A DIGITAL
WORLD – RUSSEL W. BELK

• A glimpse on the ideas of Russell W. Belk on his “Extended Self in a Digital

World” could give more ligth on the topic, Belk presents five changes emerging
from our current digital age:
• 1. Dematerialization
• Things are disappearing right before our eyes – our information,
communications, photos, videos, music, calculations, messages, “written” words
now largely invisible and immaterial, composed of electronic streams stored in
digital storage devices in locations we will never know. The question is “Can we
gain status or an enhanced sense of self from virtual possessions?” Belk proposes
four functions of virtual consumption:
• Four functions of virtual consumption by Belk, R. :

1. Stimulates consumer desire for both material and virtual

goods
2. Actualizes possible daydreams such as those of wealth
and status by enacting them in video games
3. Actualizes impossible fantasies such as being magician
or space enacting the in objects
4. Facilitates experimentation such as being criminal in a
video game.
• 2. Reembodiment
• This is characterized as the “breakout of the visual” online, leading to new
“constructions” and definitions of the self in the virtual world where online
games, blogs, web pages, photo and video-sharing sites, internet dating sites
are possible; we are disembodiment and reembodied as avatars, sharing
identity with the chosen avatar virtually.
• 3. Sharing
• In Facebook, social media friends know more than the immediate families
about our daily activities, connections, and thoughts. Diaries that were once
private or shared only with close friends are now posted as blogs for
everyone to read. There is loss of control due to sharing – uncontrolled
sharing of information by online participants or friends; restrictions are not
observed.
• 4. Co-construction of Self
• Our digital involvement is social in nature. Our blogs invite comments, social interaction
which help in constructing our individual and joint extended sense of self as the new
version of Cooley’s “Looking Glass Self Theory“ know as the collaborative self. What
are the effects of this? Seeking affirmation is obviously identified. Friends also help to
co-construct and reaffirm each others sense of self through their postings, tagging and
comments.
• 5. Distributed Memory
• In a digital world, there is a new set of devices and technologies for recording and
archiving our memories. The dilemma is seen in the narrative self. Our identity is not to
be found in behavior nor in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular
narrative going, done by continually integrating events in the outside world into our
ongoing story about the self. Photos posted in the online world may not be accurate in
giving memories of the past since photos, blogs, etc. may just be selected representations
of happy times hence, may not be sufficient to tell our stories.
 5 . BO U N D A RI E S O F T H E O N L I N E S ELF : P RI VAT E V S .
P U BL I C ; P E RS O N A L V S . S O CI A L I D EN T I T Y O N LI N E ;
G E N D ER A N D SE X U A LI TY O N L I N E.

SETTING BOUNDARIES TO YOUR ONLINE SELF

• Stick to safer sites.
• Guard your passwords.
• Be choosy about your online friends.
• Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever, even if you
try to delete it.
• Don’t be mean or embarrass other
People online.
• Limit what you share.
• Adolescents online interactions are both a literal and a
metaphoric screen for representing major adolescent development
issues, such as sexuality and identity. Because of the public nature of
internet chat rooms, they provide an open window in to the expression
of adolescent concerns.
Research states that there are more gender-related similarities in
establishing an online self and blog use (Huffaker, 2004) and that the
online self is a good venue for gender expression and sexuality. This is
because ones online identity, there is no physical embodiment of gender
or other physical markers of identity (Subrahmanyam et al., 2004) and
the online interactions serve as an agency for negotiating and expressing
sexuality (Boonmongkon, 2013). Age and sex are the primary categories
to which people are assigned (Brewer & Lui, 1989) but in online identity,
these are not evident and non-explicit. Interactions online are important
sources of sexual information for teens ( Borzekowski & Ricket, 2001;
Ward, 2004). Yet extra care with full sense of accountability must be
observed in the use of the social media to protect the self.
•
QUIZ
1. It is the term implies that there is a distinction between how people present
themselves online and how they do offline.
a. Online Identity
b. Social Media
c. Digital Age
d. Digital self
2. We are living in a ________ and other than face to face interaction, we have
interactions involving technology cellular phones, computers and other gadgets.
a. Online Identity
b. Social media
c. Digital Age
d. Digital self
3. It is the sum of your characteristics and interactions.
a. Online Identity
b. Social media
c. Digital age
d. Digital self
4. It is like social network sites, blogs, and online personals require users to self-
consciously create virtual depictions of themselves.
a. Online Identity
b. Social media
c. Digital Age
d. Digital Self
5. We can select only what we want to present and impress to others, what we view beneficial to our personality,
especially when we create a ____________.
a. Online Identity
b. Social media
c. Digital age
d. Digital self
6. We can control our self-presentations on online interactions and this may be both beneficial and harmful to the
individual.
a. True
b. False
c. Maybe
d. None of the above
7. Online interactions can reveal our true feelings and can decrease people’s happiness
levels.
A. True
b. False
c. Maybe
d. None of the above
8. It is one of the positive impact of social media and online interaction on the self.
a. Social media sites inform and empower individuals to change themselves and
their communities.
b. Increased self-esteem when receiving many likes and shares.
c. Boost one’s moral and feelings of self worth
d. All of the above
9. He presents five changes emerging from our current digital age and four functions
of virtual consumption.
a. Russel Belk
b. Rusel Belk
c. Russel Belk
d. Russel Bulk
10. All of them our setting boundaries to your online self. Except
a. Stick to safer sites.
b. Guard your passwords.
c. Be choosy about your online friends.
d. All of the above