Sañosa, Carl Angelo C.

GED101-A15

12/3/19

The Digital Self: Through the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others

An Insight Paper

The article that we we’re asked to read and understand was “The Digital Self: Through
the Looking Glass of Telecopresent Others” by Shanyang Zhao. To be honest, the article was
too critical to understand. But what I have understood upon reading the article is that our
physical self is being separated by our digital self or telecopresence. Telecopresence is the
situation which peoples tend to be more of an netizen instead of a citizen. Telecopresent others
are persons who use technology to survive the day. Order food online, check trends and stuffs
online, buy things online, everything they do is through online. They use technology as their
living basis instead of doing physical things that will help their body and maintain a healthy
lifestyle that people need in order to survive. I have said that because as a part of the present
generation, I have noticed myself being into more digital activities than doing physical activities
that my body will benefit the most. I admit that some of the time, I tend to relax and watch Netflix
series instead of jogging, exercising for me to lose weight and be healthier. The problem is,
technology have captured every interest a person has. Food, entertainment, pleasure, work, all
of it are nearly just one click away. Even things that we usually do as a person, is being
computerized by technology. And the saddest part, globally, people are not noticing it. People
tend to feel normal about being more of their digital self rather than being their own true physical
self that needs no automatic machine all the time to do things that will satisfy them. Government
have also been supporting scientific and technological innovations that people tend not to
understand and lets it be. They are now aware of the innovation will affect their lifestyle as
citizen, they just want improvement in the system of which their digital self will grow more and
more. The main thing is, as our generation tend to grow more alongside technology, as we
continue to pretend that we know what’s going on and we know the effects of it, more societal
issues will rise, more cases of violence and poverty will emerge at every country. The world will
be at great risk if we the people in it tend to forget that we are human beings, not computers.
We are not machines that is being manipulated by technology, we are not being followed by
person because the really admire us for what we are, followers in social medias are persons
who you don’t really know in person. Giving them more and more of your information will put
your life at risk if the situation turns the other way. If we don’t do anything to the effects of
technology, if we didn’t prevent the cause that will put our lives into danger, we might see our
own self in a digital way.

To conclude it all, digital self is a type of our self that must not be put into the dangerous
way. Meaning it shouldn’t be focused on when it comes to life. We still need to focus on
developing our own self, the self that only us will ever know, no other person will ever know that
we really are. And that is also to them towards their self. We need to focus on clearing uncertain
things in the digital world, not considering the facts that they can make our works and chores
easier and faster, but in the end, we will be enslaved by it and we will forget that we are human
beings.