Module 9.

Digital Self
More than half of the population worldwide now uses the Internet.
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.

 Online identity is actually the sum of all our characteristics and our interactions.
 Partial identity is a subset of characteristics that make up our identity.
 Persona is the partial identity we create that represents ourselves in a specific situation.
Selective Self-Presentation and Impression Management
SELF PRESENTATION - 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
the information in response to other’s feedback.
Sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon as human beings were formed.
Digital devices help us share information broadly, more than ever before.
We have entered an extraordinary era of self-portraiture. In older family albums, the photographer was
not often represented in the album, whereas with arm’s-length photos, they are necessarily included (e.g.,
selfies and groupies).

 Personal Identity – the interpersonal level of self which differentiates the individual as unique
from others
 Social Identity – the level of self whereby the individual is identified by his or her group
memberships.
Conversion of private diaries into public revelations of inner secrets; the lack of privacy in many aspects
of social media make the users more vulnerable.
Sharing the good things, the bad, embarrassing, and “sinful” things we experience; we also react and
comment on negative experiences of others; empathize with people; argue with others online.
Blogs and social media are the primary digital fora 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.
We should have a filtering system to whatever information we share online, as well as to what
information we believe in, which are being shared or posted by others online.

 Anything posted online should be considered “public” no matter what our “privacy” setting are.

Gender and Sexuality Online

The terms “sex,” “gender,” and “sexuality” are often thought of as synonymous. They are actually quite
distinct:
Sex is the biological state that corresponds to what we might call a “man” or a “woman.” It is often
explained as biological, fixed, and immutable. It is actually socially constructed.
Gender is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced and how sex manifests in behavior,
personality, preferences, capabilities, and so forth; as a socioculturally specific set of norms that are
mapped onto a category of “sex.”
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
Judith Butler conceptualized gender as a performance.
Gender was performative, in that it is produced through millions of individual actions, rather than
something that comes naturally to men and women.
The ability of users to self-consciously adapt and play with different gender identities would reveal the
choices involved in the production of gender, breaking down binaries, and encouraging fluidity in
sexuality and gender expression.

Social media has been celebrated for facilitating greater cultural participation and creativity;
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, memes, and humor.
While the number of male and female bloggers is roughly equivalent, they tend to blog about different
things;
Although the technologies are the same, the norms and mores of the people using them differ.

 Setting Boundaries to Your Online Self: Smart Sharing

Before posting or sharing anything online, consider the following:
 Is this post/story necessary?
 Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable—or am I just making
noise online without purpose?
 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.
 Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?
 Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? 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.
 Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever, even if you try
to delete it.
 Do not be mean to or embarrass other people online.
 Always tell if you see strange or bad behavior online.
 Be choosy about your online friends.
 Be patient.