Digital Mirage: Unraveling Online Identity
Bhupas Gautam
Denmark
The digital world has a profound influence on the identity of 21st-century individuals. The internet functions like a prism, allowing an online user’s identity to be fragmented into various versions of themselves, adding complexity to the concept of self-identity. This plurality illuminates the distinctions and similarities between digital and real-world identities.
How does the imagined online self differ from the real one? Firstly, the username grants us the autonomy to choose names that align with our personality or sense of self, in contrast to the names given at birth. It provides users with the freedom to play with words and select names that resonate with them. Additionally, the profile picture or online avatar can range from a user’s photograph to images of things they like, fictional characters, or anything they desire.
The virtual world opens doors to numerous representations of the self, including the anonymous online self. This digital realm serves as a platform to express opinions without revealing one’s true identity. It offers users a sense of liberty shielded from the scrutiny and criticisms they might face in real-life interactions. Browsing this anonymous world can be akin to exploring an alternative universe with different ethical and moral values. Consequently, basic norms may appear to fade or vanish, politeness may erode, and hate speech may surge, with what would be considered hateful in the real world becoming a casual act of trolling. This phenomenon largely arises due to internet users’ anonymity, which safeguards them not only from prosecution and retribution but also contributes to the observed changes in behavior.
However, this online disinhibition effect, driven by dissociative anonymity, can make actions seem less morally repulsive online than they would be in the context of our “real-world” egos. Such anonymity allows individuals to disassociate their online actions from their integrated identities, potentially blending online and offline identities.
The capitalist system tends to commodify things, distancing them from people’s control. While humans are inherently bound to work, its imposition upon them with no alternative but death has become unnatural, a phenomenon philosopher Guy Debord referred to as “The Spectacle.” This Spectacle has alienated people from their own existence. In the realm of capitalist society, social media stands out as the most ‘Spectacular’ creation.
The advent of social media has profoundly transformed human existence, turning it into a commodified externality intertwined with the ego. This estrangement is visually evident through our online identities, underscoring the significant impact of the digital age on our self-perception and interactions with the world.