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Study Guide in GE1: Understanding the Self Module No. 11

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. _11_

CHAPTER II: UNPACKING THE SELF

A. THE DIGITAL SELF
MODULE OVERVIEW

To be able to access Instagram Twitter of Facebook, the user must create an account which contains
personal information to be supplied by the user. The account made and information given may be
true, partially true, fictitious or a combination of all. Hence, an identity that we create online is purely
based on what the user would want to present about himself or herself to those who are connected
to the internet.
This module presents the online identity of internet users, how the self is presented online and the
impact created by these online interactions to the digital self.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Assess the digital self through online identity

2. Explore how one presents his or her self online
3. Evaluate the role of social media in our life
4. Reflect on how to properly make use of social media sites as an extension of the self.

LEARNING CONTENTS

From before you even wake up in the morning, your day is being encoded into digital data. Your
phone understands when you are active versus when you are asleep. Social media sites know
when you’ll make your first post and which triggers they can plant in your inbox to ensure you do.
Soon, several device makers know you are listening to the morning news, as you do every
weekday. Your search engine and many other services know that you are trying to make the perfect
pancake for your kids. A number of databases are recording the fact that you are at home later than
usual today and not requesting a ride anyplace.

Those are just some of the most vivid examples of the personal data that continuously builds the
digital representation of you. Inside your technology, applications work with the digital you to do
other work on your behalf, optimize or manipulate the real-world you, or probably most frequently,
sell you products and other things. While you may know that these digital representations are
nothing like you, your opinion doesn’t really matter to those technologies that interact with your
digital self.

The whole process of creating the digital self has mostly crept up on society without any widespread
planning. Only a few decades ago, the digital self wasn’t much more than your email handle and the
contents of your inbox. Today, your digital self spans everything from your text messages to your
sexual preferences, your brand loyalties, your family’s pregnancy statuses, your point-to-point trips,
your recent and upcoming job status, and many other significant and insignificant points in between.

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Study Guide in GE1: Understanding the Self Module No. 11

I, ME , MYSELF AND MY USER ID ONLINE

Identity has many definitions, but without getting too metaphysical, we can sum it up in a few words:
you are who you are and what you do. Simply put, your identity is the sum of your characteristics,
including your birthplace and birthday, the schools you attended, your shoe size, and so on. Some of
those characteristics never change, such as your birthday, and some change over time, such as your
hair color. Similarly, when you are using the Internet, your online identity is the sum of your
characteristics and interactions. Because you interact differently with each website you visit, each of
those websites will have a different picture of who you are and what you do. Sometimes the different
representations of you are referred to as partial identities, because none of them has the full and true
picture of who you are. Your online identity is not the same as your real-world identity because the
characteristics you represent online differ from the characteristics you represent in the physical world.

Every website you interact with has its own idea of your identity because each one you visit sees you
and your characteristics differently. For example, Amazon has established a partial identity for you
based on the products you buy, whether it’s you at the keyboard or someone else using your account.
Yahoo! Finance has established a partial identity for you based on the stocks you are following,
whether you actually own those stocks or not. Neither one has your full identity, even if they were to
put together your partial identities. The result is that you have one true identity and many partial
identities. Some of the information associated with a partial identity is under your control; other
information may be out of your control or even completely invisible to you. Regardless of what you
can and cannot control, they all contribute to “who you are and what you do.”

SELECTIVE SELF-PRESENTATION AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Social media and online community attendance have increasingly become a significant part of our
social lives (Burkell et al. 2014). Managing self-presentation in online communities is an integral part
of private and professional life (Rui and Stafanone 2013). When people become members of a
community, they must select the relevant and appropriate pieces of information for their self-
presentation to be consistent with the profile of the group. According to Schwämmlein and Wodzicki
(2012) the willingness to provide personal information in member profile is high because members
gain acceptance through extensive self-presentation that facilitates the establishment of relationships
with other network members.Self-presentation is defined as behaviors used for creating, modifying,
and maintaining other people's impression about oneself.

Nowadays, people do not only seek to manage their impression face-to-face but also in computer-
mediated environments especially in social media. Impression management can be defined as a
study of how people attempt to manage or control the perceptions which others form of them. The
main aim of impression management is to steer others’ impression with the use of controlling
information, photos, and videos and present them in a proper way in social media. In real life, the
impression management takes place through both verbal and nonverbal communication, including
body language, posture, speech and rank. Both in real life and online, self-representation connects
the idea of who we are to the outside world.

In social media, people “operate” their personal home page, photo albums, status and logs through
text, images, audios, videos and other means, in which people interact with each other, this forms a
new social interaction. Such text oriented and symbolic ways are becoming the most important ways
of self presentation in social media.

In order to achieve credibility and advantage, people adopt different strategies to carry out certain
impression management.

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Overall, there are three kinds of self-presentation strategies: positive impression presentation,
revision impression control, and vague impression formation of fuzzy control (Fiske, 1991). Proactive
strategy refers that people value other people’s perception of self image in social media, and are
willing to show the positive side, willing to upload photos to show personal image. Fuzzy
generalization strategy refers that in order to avoid others to produce stereotyped images on oneself
in social media, individuals tend to express their inner thoughts and feelings vaguely. Passive strategy
refers to control the negative emotions and negative attitudes in social media.

The study on 425 undergraduates from many Utah State Universities by Chou Hui-Tzu & Nicholas
Edge (2012) shows that those who spend more time on Facebook are more likely to think that
Facebook’s “friends” live a better life”; this indicates from the side view that people present a better
side on the Facebook. In other words, people choose to present themselves in social media: They
present more positive emotions rather than negative emotions in social media (pic 2), and compared
to the self-presentation in reality, people are more willing to show a better side in social media (Lin
Qiu, 2012).

Why People Engage in Self Presentation

1. Facilitate Social Interaction The most basic function of self-presentation is to define the
nature of a social situation (Goffman, 1959). Most social interactions are very role governed.
Each person has a role to play, and the interaction proceeds smoothly when these roles are
enacted effectively. For example, airline pilots are expected to be poised and dignified. As
long as they convince their passengers that they possess these qualities, their passengers
remain calm and behave in an orderly fashion.
2. Gain Material and Social Rewards People also strive to create impressions of themselves
in the minds of others in order to gain material and social rewards (or avoid material and social
punishments). Social rewards also depend on our ability to convince others that we possess
particular qualities. Being liked entails convincing others that we are likable; being a leader
involves convincing others that we are capable of leading.
3. Self-Construction Another reason we try to create impressions of ourselves in the minds of
others is to construct a particular identity for ourselves This type of self-presentational
behavior serves a more private, personal function. Convincing others that we possess some
quality or attribute is a means of convincing ourselves.

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Study Guide in GE1: Understanding the Self Module No. 11

IMPACT OF ONLINE INTERACTIONS ON THE SELF

BOUNDARIES OF SELF ONLINE

We know that the internet can have myriad negative effects on our lives. Between the damage it
can do to one's mental health and its erosion of our capacity for face-to-face communication, our
time online is quickly making our generation impatient, antisocial, and unhealthy. It can also be
addictive, but we can't avoid it: Being online Is absolutely necessary for living, working, and
communicating with others.

We are drawn to living out part of our lives online because it seems like a limitless space where our
minds exist and our bodies do not, where our voices can be heard far and wide as we physically
remain in one place. While on the one hand, this can be wonderful, it's harder for us to create the
necessary boundaries that make using the internet safe, fulfilling, and healthy.

Why are boundaries online necessary?

It's important to create limits in regards to who we follow, what sort of content we consume, and how
much time we spend on the internet. First and foremost, they’re necessary for our safety. As dangers
like hacking and catfishing loom, it’s imperative to set up barriers to protect our personal data and
identity from strangers online, such as increasing our privacy settings or limiting the amount of
personal information available on the internet.

Aside from safety, boundaries are necessary for maintaining good mental health. Research has
indicated that spending too much time on the internet can be linked to heightened anxiety, and that
excessive social media usage could be linked with depression. A look into the science behind the
manufacturing of our technology provides some insight into why this might be.

Research has found the blue light on our cell phones and computers can stimulate our brain to create
more dopamine, a chemical that is associated with motivation and feelings of happiness. This means
that checking our phones more often or spending more time online makes us feel happier, while taking
time away from technology can cause withdrawal symptoms and actually make us depressed. What’s
more, the notifications we receive on our home screen from apps like Twitter or Instagram can cause
us stress or distract us until we check them.

How can we create boundaries online?

First we have to decide what sort of boundaries we are willing and able to create. This process is
different for everyone. When approaching social media, for example, you should ask yourself: What
am I looking for from this platform? Do I want to make friends, make professional connections, or find
entertaining content? These questions can help you decide what sort of boundaries you need to
create, and later, how you can create them.

The most common boundary people are looking to create is a limit to how much of our personal
information other people can access. Unsurprisingly, the best way to create these sorts of barriers
would be through increasing your privacy settings. Keeping your Twitter and Instagram on private,
changing your Facebook privacy settings to ensure strangers cannot contact you, and creating
separate emails or social media accounts for work versus your social life are all good ways to create
these barriers.

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But privacy settings can’t help create the emotional boundaries many people find are necessary, like
the need we all feel to respond to messages right away or to check a notification as soon as it appears
on our screens. Many experts say that removing push notifications from your home screen or deleting
social media from your phone for certain periods of time can not only lessen feelings of dependency
when it comes to the internet but can also improve sleep, reduce anxiety, and help people reprioritize
in-person interactions.

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

Every day, whether we want to or not, most of us contribute to a growing

portrait of who we are online; a portrait that is probably more public than
we assume.

A Digital Footprint is the record of your interaction with the digital world.

You leave a trail of your digital footprints whenever you use technology
online. This includes digital cameras, smart phones, iPods, tablets, laptops
and computers.

Your footprints contains bits of information about you. They could include
your name, nickname or other personal information like your date of birth
or address. They could let people know about what you like, are interested
in and the things you like to do. Some of this information we leave out there
knowingly, other things we may not even realize we have left.

A Digital Footprint is like an invisible report card that accumulates over the
years and is a general reflection of our online activity.

In order to create a positive Digital Footprint, it is critical that we understand the permanency and
implications, both positive and negative, of our online actions on our online identity.

While it might seem that these footprints are harmless, they do not disappear when you close a
website or logoff your account and they have the potential to be good or bad for you now and in the
future. Your Digital Footprint should be considered as permanent as a tattoo; in fact, some people
call them digital tattoos.

Digital Footprints are used in lots of different ways. Some people use them to work out what you might
like and try to sell you things. A health service might store your information to help you if you are
unwell. Someone might look at your footprint to work out whether they want to give you a job. In the
future some universities, colleges and schools might use your footprint to decide if they will let you
enroll with them. Some are already doing this. So it is important to make sure the footprints you leave
behind will help you now and in the future.

Remember!

* Everyone has a Digital Footprint or digital tattoo.

* Once something is online, it could be there forever.
* Digital Footprints, or digital tattoos, can be used for both good things and bad.

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Creating and Managing your Personal Brand Online

Creating Positive Digital Footprint

1. Post only positive and interesting aspects of yourself to give others a good impression of
your personal brand.
2. Find ways to ensure your brand reflects who you are, what you stand for, your passions and
beliefs.
3. Avoid oversharing.
4. Start a blog, a Facebook Group, create videos or podcasts. These can be about a hobby,
sport, personal interest or civic activity.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

Digital citizenship can be defined as engaging in appropriate and responsible behavior when using
technology.

It encompasses digital literacy, ethics, etiquette, online safety, norms, rights, culture and more.

A digital citizen is one who knows what is right and wrong, exhibits intelligent technology behavior,
and makes good choices when using technology.

Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps us understand what all technology users should know to
use technology appropriately and responsibly.

Today, billions of people all over the planet interact using various technologies. This interaction has
created a digital society that affords its citizens opportunities for education, employment,
entertainment, and social interaction.

Why You Should Care About Your Digital Footprint: https://youtu.be/Ro_LlRg8rGg

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Study Guide in GE1: Understanding the Self Module No. 11

As in any society, it is expected that digital citizens act in a certain way according to accepted
norms, rules, and laws. Most of today's students are entirely comfortable with technology, but are
they using it appropriately? Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?

https://www.slideshare.net/MsCCostello/digital-citizenship-37029998

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SOCIAL MEDIA BY THE NUMBER

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

.Boundaries of the Online Self

a. Conduct a survey to your classmates and ask them about things they think we can disclose and those
that we should not share online. Fill in the table below by writing down their answers:

What to Post What not to Post

b. What can you say about the result of the survey? Did you find similar or contradicting answers?

c. What realizations did you have based on the result of the survey?

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Study Guide in GE1: Understanding the Self Module No. 11

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

Click and Post

Clip your picture here which you have posted in any of your social media account.

Why have you chosen to post this picture?

PICTURE

What caption was written when you posted this picture?

Did you use any filter for this picture? Why? Why not?

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SUMMARY

The Digital Self allows us to examine how we extend ourselves to the various social media sites and
any other online platforms. Today’s technology driven generation makes the use of social media sites
part of our daily lives. These sites are used not just to make tasks more convenient for us but also to
have a tool for self-expression. Studies have suggested equally positive and negative effects of social
media use. One of which is how social media impact our self-concept and self-esteem. The risks
posed by social; media use caution us to be careful of how we use these sites as a way of expressing
and presenting ourselves to the public, there as boundaries that we have to consider to make our
personal or private platforms a safe and healthy place for self-expression starts with a responsible
and accountable user.

REFERENCES

Corpuz,R., Estoque R. Tabotabo, C. Understanding the Self. C & E Publishing, 2019.

Monilla, MJ. Ramirez, N. Understanding the Self. C&E Publishing Inc. 2018.
Otig, V., Gallinero, W., Bataga, N., Salado, F., Visande, J., Understanding the Self, 2018.
https://youtu.be/Ro_LlRg8rGg
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-
statistics#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Social%20Media%20Statistics,-
Here's%20a%20summary&text=3.5%20billion%20social%20media%20users%20worldwide.,on%20
social%20networks%20and%20messaging.
https://www.virtuallibrary.info/digital-citizenship.html
https://www.slideshare.net/MsCCostello/digital-citizenship-37029998

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