SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS

General Luna Road, Baguio City Philippines 2600

Telefax No.: (074) 442-3071 loc 274 Website: www.ubaguio.edu E-mail Address: [email protected]

THSELF1
Worksheet: Digital Self1
Concept:
II.F. THE DIGITAL SELF

SELF CONCEPT - refers to your awareness of yourself

ACTUAL SELF - The actual self is who we actually are. It is how we think, how we
feel, look, and act. The actual self is our self-image.
IDEAL SELF - The ideal self is how we want to be. It is an idealized image that we
have developed over time, based on what we have learned and experienced.

Digital age
 interactions involving technology—cellular phone, computers and other
gadgets

Digital self
- self that is constructed online; an extension of one’s self/identity.

Characteristics of digital self:

1. On-line identity and “Self’ in cyberspace- how do you present your on-line
identity?
 “online identity” vs. “offline identity”
 Online identity- sum of one’s 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. Some of those representations of
who you are can be true or untrue.
 Self-presentation- create virtual depictions of a person which can be
information and materials one choses to show on Facebook profile, twitter,
etc.
 There are fewer identity cues available on on-line than face-to-face
 Identity can also be expressed through interacting with others

2. Selective Self-presentation and impression management

 One’s self-presentation can be changed depending on who we are interacting
with or what personal information we need to provide to present oneself in an
acceptable way this is a way of creating the digital self.

3. Impact of On-line interactions on Self

 When interacting with other people on-line, one makes inferences about
them. One usually ponder what the other is thinking, what their facial
expressions mean, etc. This is because human interaction requires more
 SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS
General Luna Road, Baguio City Philippines 2600

Telefax No.: (074) 442-3071 loc 274 Website: www.ubaguio.edu E-mail Address: [email protected]

THSELF1
emotional involvement, cognitive effort which are absent when interacting
through a computer (Cohen, 2004, as cited by Villafuerte, 2018).
 One can have self-censor in online interactions but it can also lead to more
opportunities to misrepresent oneself.
Types of identity deception
2.1 Trolling: posing as a legitimate community member
2.2 Category deception: membership in a social group (male vs. female,
black vs. white, Berkeley vs. Stanford student)
2.3 Identity concealment: deception by omission or hiding of identity
information

4. Extended Self in a digital world – ( Russel W. Belk)

Belk presents some changes emerging from our current digital age as an
extended self.

1. Dematerializtion
 To a certain extent, information, communications, photos, videos, music,
calculations, messages, “written” words are now largely invisible and
immaterial, composed of electronic streams stored in digital storage devices
in locations one never knew.
 Belk proposes four functions of virtual consumption:

1. Stimulates consumer desire for both material and virtual goods

2. Actualizes possible daydreams such as those of wealth and status by
enacting them in video games
3. Actualizes impossible fantasies such as being a magician or space pirate with
magical objects
4. Facilitates experimentation such as being a criminal in a video game. Reports
show that virtual goods are now some of the most valued commodities for
cybercriminals who attempt to hack into games and steal virtual possessions
to resell. Suicide may also result to a stolen virtual or digital possession.

2. Reembodiment

 This is characterized as the “breakout of the visual” online, leading to new

“constructions” and definitions of the self in the virtual world where online
games, blogs, web pages, photo and video-sharing sites, internet dating sites
are possible: we are disembodied and re-embodied as avatars, sharing
identity with the chosen avatar virtually.
 Example: online, the plain represents themselves as glamorous, the old as
young, the young as older. Those of modest means wear elaborate jewelry, in
virtual space, the crippled walk without crutches, etc. One may employ
 SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS
General Luna Road, Baguio City Philippines 2600

Telefax No.: (074) 442-3071 loc 274 Website: www.ubaguio.edu E-mail Address: [email protected]

THSELF1
anonymous and pseudonymous identities online and enact wild fantasy
identities in online games and virtual worlds.
 In some cases, even virtual sex, marriage and divorce are made possible.
Virtual participants may also have multiple characters, increasing one’s
anonymity.

3. Sharing

 Uploading, downloading, sharing, etc provide free access of information

through web surfing. How does sharing of possessions online enhance our
individual and aggregate senses of self?
Example: In Facebook, social media friends know more than the immediate
families about our daily activities, connections and thoughts. Diaries that
were once private or shared only with close friends are now posted as blogs
for everyone to read. There is loss of control due to sharing – uncontrolled
sharing of information by online participants or friends; restrictions are not
observed.

4. Co-construction of Self
 Our digital involvement is social in nature. Our blogs invite comments, social
interaction which help in constructing our individual and joint extended sense
of self.
 Friends also help to construct and reaffirm each other’s sense of self through
their postings, tagging and comments.

5. BOUNDARIES OF THE ONLINE SELF: PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC

SETTING BOUNDARIES TO YOUR ONLINE SELF

1. Stick to safer sites.

2. Guard your passwords.
3. Be choosy about your online friends.
4. Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever,
even if you try to delete it.
5. Don’t be mean or embarrass other people online
6. Limit what you share.

 Adolescents’ online interactions are both a literal and a metaphoric screen for
representing major adolescent developmental issues, such as sexuality and
identity. Because of the public nature of internet chat rooms, they provide an
open window into the expression of adolescent concerns (Subrahmanyan,
Greenfield & Tynes, 2004, as cited by Villafuerte, 2018).
 SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS
General Luna Road, Baguio City Philippines 2600

Telefax No.: (074) 442-3071 loc 274 Website: www.ubaguio.edu E-mail Address: [email protected]

THSELF1
 Research states that there are more gender-related similarities in
establishing an online self and blog use (Huffaker, 2004) and that the online
self is a good venue for gender expression and sexuality. This is because in
one’s online identity, there is no physical embodiment of gender or other
physical markers of identity (Subrahmanyam et al., 2004) and the online
interactions serve as an agency for negotiating and expressing sexuality
(Boonmongkon, et al. 2013). Age and sex are the primary categories to which
people are assigned (Brewer & Lui, 1989) but in online identity, these are not
evident and non-explicit. Interactions online are important sources of sexual
information for teens (Borzekowski & Ricket, 2001; Ward, 2004). Yet extra
care with full sense of accountability must be observed in the use of
the social media to protect the self.
(Source: Salvacion villafuerte, 2018)
 SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS
General Luna Road, Baguio City Philippines 2600

Telefax No.: (074) 442-3071 loc 274 Website: www.ubaguio.edu E-mail Address: [email protected]

THSELF1
Name: Course:
Class Section: Schedule:
Activity:
1. From your own understanding of the concept, make a comparison
between your online self from your offline self. Write your reflection
below.

Online self

 Filters what I post online.

 Curate the things I show online
 Sometimes keeping up with the trend whether they’re material things
or trends like dancing or singing.
 When it comes to dating apps, I often undersell myself like for
example, I would say I’m 5’3 instead of 5’5” cases like that.
 I can also be provocative and quite naughty to online dating apps
depending who I talk and what we talk,
 Sometimes I post my political insights more in social media rather than
outside social media.


With the internet age came to our lives