The Digital Self (PSYCH 1100) PDF

Ch. 2 DIGITAL SELF PSYCH 1100  ACTIVITY: Three Facts, One Fiction Construct four sentences. Three of the four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and behavior. One statement should be a lie -...

Ch. 2 DIGITAL SELF PSYCH 1100  ACTIVITY: Three Facts, One Fiction Construct four sentences. Three of the four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and behavior. One statement should be a lie - something that you just made up about yourself. Make the activity more fun by making your classmates believes that the statement is true. 1. I am ______________________________________________________________________. 2. I am ______________________________________________________________________. 3. I am ______________________________________________________________________. 4. I am ______________________________________________________________________.  EXAMPLE: Three Facts, One Fiction Construct four sentences. Three of the four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and behavior. One statement should be a lie - something that you just made up about yourself. Make the activity more fun by making your classmates believes that the statement is true. 1. I dropped one of my subjects during college. 2. I love cats and dogs. 3. I love spicy foods. 4. I get easily attached with people older than me.  INTRODUCTION The number of people who are becoming more active online continues to increase worldwide. More than half of the population worldwide now uses the internet. It has only been 25 years since Tim Berners-Lee made the World Wide Web (WWW) available to the public, but in that time, the Internet has already become an integral part of everyday life for most of the world’s population. The Philippines is among one of the countries with the most active Internet users.  SELECTIVE PRESENTATION process of controlling how one is perceived by other people. REAL LIFE SPACE  A. REAL-LIFE REALITY Outside the cyberspace is the reality with which you engage most frequently. Basically, this pertains to life away from digital devices and where interaction happens on a physical level.  B. SIMULATION Quite simply, simulation’s basic purpose is to copy reality as closely as it can. Microsoft’s now-discontinued multimedia encyclopedia Encarta offers virtual tours of historical landmarks, while Facebook’s 360- degree view feature enables you to panoramically survey places as if you are really there.  C. AUGMENTED REALITY This is real-life reality spliced with the unreal. Through rather creative ways, augmented reality permits you to simultaneously interact with both the tangible world and various digital add-ons for a more enhanced experience. Example: Pokemon Go Craze Snapchat filters that appear to alter one’s face (often for comedic effect) in various ways when used. VIRTUAL SPACE  A. VIRTUAL REALITY Type of abstraction completely detached from real-life reality. Here you are granted relative freedom to explore and eventually inhabit digitally made-up worlds vicariously through a character or avatar you can create yourself. This is often aided by devices such as game controllers and keyboards, and VR technologies like the Oculus Rift. Sherry Turkle (1997) enumerates 3 signs that virtual reality is starting to take over our conception of reality.  B. HYPERREALITY What separates hyperreality from other abstraction is that it is, more than anything, a state of mind. In postmodern societies that run on technology, hyperreality is the inability to distinguish the real from otherwise. In a way, it can also be seen as a more evolved from reality, a utopia of the mind, where people exist as the best versions of themselves and are insulated from the woes of real-life reality.  THE CYBERSELF “Choose your self-presentation carefully, for what starts out as a mask may become your face.” - Erving Goffman  THE CYBERSELF With the advent of the digital age, we, nowadays are termed not just simply as “individuals” but also as “users”, slowly adjusting to the notion that multiple realities (as manifest in various social networking sites) naturally require the construction of multiple representations (or “digital/online selves”). Some people have different Facebook accounts to cater separately to both their families and friends; or an Instagram account to showcase an idealized version of their “lifestyles” while also reserving the Twitter platform for off the cuff rants.  THE CYBERSELF Participating online, along with the creation of digital avatars and user profiles, is equivalent to performing to a crowd… A. Front Stage Factors like the performer’s consciousness that there is an audience and their expectations of him/her influence or impact the performance. In the context of social media, the front stage region is when people’s carefully-constructed digital selves engage in online activities, such as publicly commenting on posts, choosing which “selfie” to upload, or even deciding on what thoughts to publish.  THE CYBERSELF B. Back Stage This is where the performer can relax and be himself/herself, away from the prying eyes of the crowd. When someone simply logs out and momentarily abstain from social media use. C. Off-stage Someone is then considered if he/she gets to meet members of the audience completely independent or separate from the performance. When people actually meet up with different people they only know on the internet, or at least those they perform to online through various cues and expressions.  ELEMENTS OF THE DRAMATURGICAL SELF 01 PERFORMANCE Refers to the set of activities in which the self participates in front of others (labeled the “audience”). Through performing, people are able to express meaning about themselves and their present situation. SETTING 02 This primarily centers on the scenery where an interaction will take place (from the highly public environment of Facebook to the more intimate one provided by Twitter). With this, the actor needs always to consider altering his/her performance to fit the needs of the setting.  ELEMENTS OF THE DRAMATURGICAL SELF 03 APPEARANCE This function of appearance rests mainly on its ability to portray the self’s various statuses, with one of its several props being a person’s attire of choice. On social media, display pictures (often “selfies”) embody this element, as they are imbued with meaning as to how the self wants to be perceived online, at least at a given point in time. MANNER 04 This pertains to how actor sends various signals to the audience to ultimately inform them in advance of the role he/she seeks or is about to perform; a prompt if you may. When you are known for posting about your thoughts on a regular basis only to stop doing so all of a sudden one day, your friends or followers will be puzzled.  ELEMENTS OF THE DRAMATURGICAL SELF 05 FRONT This works as a kind of social script that actors follow for a more guided performance. There are various ready-made fronts that actors choose from for very specific situations or undertakings. Thumbs up emoticons  IDENTITY CRISIS: ANONYMITY AND PSEUDONYMITY IN CYBERSPACE ANONYMITY Is the act of communicating wherein the sender does not openly reveal his/her identity. Occasionally, taking part in online interactions sometimes require that one’s digitally performed identity be temporarily concealed. Example: The question and answer websites Ask.fm and Formspring (now known as Spring.me under new management) offer users optional anonymity when they publish questions. One issue here is the absence of user accountability when he/she posts, or asks about, something demeaning or disparaging. PSEUDONIMITY Lies in the middle of the identity continuum, especially as it combines both the benefits of anonymity and the joys of assuming some semblance of identity. During the Spanish times when Filipino propagandists who wrote for the La Solidaridad and other related pubications used several pennames (“Dimasalang” and “Laong-Laan” for Jose Rizal, “Taga-Ilog” for Antonio Luna et al.) to protect themselves from persecution. Today, most online games furnish users the option of pseudonymity through unique usernames, letting them vent against their opponents without openly revealing who they are. THE DISINHIBITED SELF Online Disinhibition Effect The removal of social inhibitions and/or restrictions imposed upon people’s behavior when engaging in the web. TWO CATEGORIES BENIGN DISINHIBITION TOXIC DISINHIBITION The relatively positive side of the On the other hand this sits on the said effect. opposite end. Centered on online avenues that encourages emotional growth and positive self-disclosure. THANK YOU.