What is identity? Before exploring how our identities have evolved with the digital age, we first need to define what identity actually means. But a fundamental issue is present here – identity is hard to define, and many people have differing ideas about what constructs who they are. The Oxford English Dictionary defines identity as “the sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances; the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else; individuality, personality.” So it’s defined as a kind of uniqueness, based off certain traits and experiences that make you, you. But there has to be more to it than that, it can’t just be about being unique, it’s about the many other factors that collaborate to form your sense of self. My reasoning for this is to highlight that, my definition of identity is probably different to yours and that difference is interesting to analyse in the digital age, where the way we construct and exhibit our identities are constantly shifting.
The way we go about creating and expressing our identities has changed dramatically over time. Before digital mediums were as popular as they are now, people shaped their identity off of a few key ideas, those being: family, culture, religion, community and their interactions. Back then, who you were was completely based off of physical relationships in the real world. Thanks to the creation of the internet and the explosive rise of social media, that whole idea has completely changed and the digital world has created new platforms, providing the opportunity to experiment with how we present ourselves. We’ve been given the tools to edit and even reinvent aspects of our identity, showing that they’re not fixed, but rather flexible and fluid, shaped by concepts such as algorithms. The constant connection and visibility provided by digital mediums have all but removed the boundaries between our identities in the real world and online, turning our identity into something we are constantly building on.
Building off of this idea, we can apply the ideas of sociologist Erving Goffman, who suggests that we perform different versions of our identities, depending on the social setting we’re in. He compares everyday life to a ‘stage’ where people act out ‘roles’ in front of an audience, linking back to this idea of editing and reinventing their identities to fit their social situation. This concept is even more applicable in the digital world, where the ‘stages’ are social media platforms, and our ‘performances’ on said stages are the posts we make and the interactions we have with other users. Each digital platform may require a different version of our identity. For example, what we post on LinkedIn is reflective of our professional self, whereas a social media platform such as Instagram may exhibit a more social and creative aspect of your identity. Goffman’s ideas present identity in the digital age as something that is not stable, but something that changes, being constructed and reinvented as we navigate different digital platforms.
