DIGITAL SELF:

WHO AM I IN
THE CYBER
WORLD?
P R E PA R E D & E X C E R P T E D B Y:

BRO. CARLOS B. DAVID O.P.

 INTRODUCTION
These days, more people are becoming active in using the
internet for research, pleasure, business, communication,
and other purposes.
On the other hand, people assume different identities while
in the cyberspace.
People act differently when they are online and offline.
We have a real identity and online identity.
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Define online identity
2. Compare real identity versus online identity
3. Describe the influence of internet on sexuality
and gender
4. Discuss the proper way of demonstrating
values and attitudes online
 LESSON PROPER
It has only been 25 years since Tim Berners - Lee made the World
Wide Web available to the public, but in that time, the internet has
already become an integral part of everyday life for the most of the
world's population.
Almost two-thirds of the world's population now has a mobile phone.
More than half of the world's web traffic now comes from mobile
phones. More than half of all mobile connections around the world
are now "broad band." More than one in five of the world's
population online in the past 30 days.
 LESSON PROPER (cont’d)

Media users in the Philippines grew by 12 million or

25% while the number of mobile social users
increased by 13 million or 32%.
Those growth figures are still higher compared to the
previous year. More than half of the world now uses a
smartphone.
Digital Progression Stats (2017)
 Stats Interpretation
Based on Figure, the number of digital users
worldwide increases.
More people are becoming interested and
devoted in using the Internet for various
activities.
In Philippines, adolescents are among the most
avid users of the internet.
 Stats Interpretation (cont’d)

ONLINE IDENTITY is actually the sum of our

characteristics and our interaction.
PARTIAL IDENTITY is a subset of characteristics that make
up our identity.
Meanwhile, PERSONA is the partial identity we create that
represents ourselves in a specific situation.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management
According to Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995): SELF-
PRESENTATION is the "Process of Controlling how one is
Perceived by other people" and is the key to relationship
inception and development.
To construct positive images, individuals selectively provide
information about them and carefully cater this information
in response to other's feedback.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
Anything posted online should be considered "Public" no matter what our "Privacy" setting are.

PERSONAL IDENTITY is the interpersonal level of self which differentiates the individual as
unique from others.

SOCIAL IDENTITY is the level of self whereby the individual is identified by his or her group
membership.
BELK (2013) explained that sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon
as human being formed.
Digital devices help us share information broadly, now than ever before. In older Family albums,
the photographer was not often represented in the album (Mendelson and Papacharissi –2011),
whereas with arm’s length photos, they are necessarily included.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
As Schwarz (2012) mentioned, we have entered an extraordinary era of self
—portraiture.
Blogs and web pages have been continually used for greater self-reflection
and self-presentation.
Facebook and other social media application are now a key part of self-
presentation for one sixth of humanity.
As a result, researchers and participants become concerned with activity
managing identity and reputation and to warn against the phenomenon of
"over sharing".
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
Many teenagers, as well as adults, share even more intimate details
with their partners like their passwords (Gershon 2010).
This could be an ultimate act of intimacy and trust or the ultimate
expression of paranoia and distrust with partners. This condition has
been called "Fear of Missing Out".
People would like to remain updated and they keep on sharing
themselves online because it adds a sense of confidence at their end
especially if others like and share their post.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
One of the reason for so much sharing and self-disclosure online is the so called "Disinhibition
Effect” (Ridley 2012: Suler 2004.) the lack of face-to-face gaze-meeting, together with feelings of
anonymity and invisibility, gives people the freedom for self-disclosure but can also “flame”
others and may cause conflict sometimes.

The resulting disinhibition causes people to believe that they are able to express their “true self”
better online than they ever could in face-to-face context [Taylor 2002].

However, it does not mean that there is a fixed “true self.” The self is still a work in progress and
we keep on improving and developing ourselves every single day.

Seemingly self-revelation can be therapeutic to others especially if it goes together with self-
reflection (Morris et al. 2010.) But it does appear that we now do a large amount of our identity
work online.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
When the Internet constantly asks us “Who are you” and
“What do you have to share?”, it is up to us if we are going
to provide answers to such questions/ queries
Prepared by MIGUEL C. CIERVA JR. Page70 every time we
use the internet and do what extent are going to share
details ourselves to others.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
Many of us share the bad, embarrassing and lustful things we experience.
We also react and comment on the negative experiences of others. Sometimes we
empathize with people.
We also argue w/ others online. Relationships may be made stronger or broken
through posts online.
Blogs and Social Media are the primary digital for a on which such confessions,
occur, but they can also be found in photo- and video sharing sites where blunders
and bad moments are also preserved and shared ( Strangelove 2011).
According to M. Foucault, confessing our secret truths feels freeing, even as it binds
us in a guilt-motivated self-governance born of a long history.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
According to Foucault`s (1998) Confession along with
contemplation, self-examination, learning, reading, and
writing self- critical letters to friends, are a part of the “
technologies of the self” through which we seek to purge and
cleanse ourselves.
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
Despite the veil of invisibility, writers on the internet write for an
unseen audience (Serfaty 2004). Both the number and feedback of
readers provide self validation for the writer and a certain celebrity
(O` Regan 2009). Confessional blogs may also be therapeutic for the
audience to read; allowing both.
Sincere empathy and the voyeuristic appeal of witnessing a public
confession (Kitzmann 2003).
 Selective Self-Presentation and Impression
Management (cont’d)
Thus, we should have a filtering system to whatever information we
share online, as well as to what information we believe in, w/c are
being shared or posted by others online.
In the same way, we should also think before we post or share in
order to prevent conflict, arguments, and cyber bullying and to
preserve our relationships w/ others.
 Gender and Sexuality Online
According to Marwick (2013), the term “sex”,
“gender” and “sexuality” are often thought of as
synonymous, they are actually quite distinct.
The differences b/w the common understandings of
these terms and how researchers think about them
yield insights about the social functioning of gender.
 Gender and Sexuality Online (cont’d)
SEX is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call a
“man” or a “woman”. While “sex” is often explained as biological,
fixed, and immutable, it is actually socially constructed (West and
Zimmerman 1987).
Gender- is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced
and how sex manifests in behavior, personality, preferences,
capabilities and so forth.
Gender and Sexuality Online (cont’d)
A person with male sex organs is expected to embody a muscular gender.
While sex and gender are presumed to be biologically connected, we can
understand a socio culturally specific set of norms that are mapped onto a
category of “sex” (Kessler and Mc Kenna 1978, Lorber 1994).
Gender is historical. It is produced by media and popular culture. It is taught by
families, schools, peer groups, and nations states (Goffman 1977).
It is reinforced through songs, sayings, admonition, slang, language, fashion,
and discourse (Cameron 1998; Cameron and Kulick 2003), and it is deeply
ingrained.
Gender and Sexuality Online (cont’d)
Sexuality is an individual expression and
understanding of desire.
While like gender, this is often viewed as binary
(homosexual or heterosexual), in reality, sexuality is
often experienced as fluid.
 Performing Gender Online
Theorist Judith Butler (1990) conceptualized gender as a
performance.
She argued that gender was performative in that it is produced
through millions of individual actions rather than something that
comes naturally to men and women.
According to the disembodiment hypothesis, Internet users are free to
actively choose which gender or sexuality they are going to portray
with the possibility of creating alternate identities (Wynn and Katz
1997).
Performing Gender Online (cont’d)
Social Media sites like Twitter and YouTube have led to the emergence of a “free
culture” where individuals are empowered to engage in cultural production
using raw materials, ranging from homemade videos to mainstream television
characters to create new culture of memes, mash-ups, and creative political
activism allows for civic engagement and fun creative acts.
While Digg, 4chan, and Reddit are used mostly by men, most social network site
users are women; this is true in Facebook, Flickr, Live Journal, Tumblr, Twitter,
and Youtube (Chappell 2011; Lenhart 2009; Lenhart et al.2010)
 Setting Boundaries to your Online Self: Smart
Sharing
The ff. guidelines will help you share information online in a smart
way that will protect yourself and not harm others. Before posting or
sharing anything online, consider the ff:
1. Is this post / story necessary?
2. Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm- hearted,
teachable-or am I just making noise online without purpose?
Setting Boundaries to your Online Self: Smart Sharing
(cont’d)
3. Have we (as a family or parent/ child) resolved this issue? An issue
that is still being worked out at home, or one that is either vulnerable
or highly emotional, should not be made public.
4. Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family
values?
5. Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, 15 yrs.? Or is this post better
suited for sharing with a small group of family members? Or maybe
not at all?
 Rules to Follow
Here are additional guidelines for proper sharing of
information and ethical use of the Internet according
to New (2014) :
 Stick to safer sites
 Guard your passwords
 Limit what you share
 Rules to Follow (cont’d)
 Remember that anything you put online post on a
site is there forever, even if you try to delete it.
 Do not be mean or embarrass other people online.
 Rules to Follow (cont’d)
 Always tell if you see strange or bad behavior
online.
 Be choosy about your online friends.
 Be patient.
 Gentle Reminder!
DON’T FORGET
TO DO YOUR ACTIVITY
FOR THIS
LESSON..