GED101 – Understanding the Self

Prof. John Mark H. Villanueva

Name: Sañosa, Carl Angelo C. Section: A15 Date Submitted: 12/03/19

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.