“Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm it or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to do homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology” (Heidegger 1954, p. 13).
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, argues in The Politics, “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to and therefore does not partake of society is either a beast or a god.” (Keen, 2012). At the dawn of the Digital Age, Internet revolutionized human’s perception of the world, and the plethora of information and communication processes have become the driving force of social evolution. Nowadays, the world has mutated to a well-wired field, where information is transmitted in milliseconds. Social Networking Sites (SNS) gave a great impetus towards this direction since we are talking about a constructive and instant reality, where a combination of technological artifacts, digital media, and social media representations are integrated. But, what is the impact of networking websites, concerning the individual and social factor, that make them so popular and influential in our lives? Undoubtedly, SNS1 hold a significant part in the formation of social and individual identity. In the next paragraphs, SNS’1 contribution in the composition of digital identity and social self will be thoroughly examined, in terms of social media culture and philosophy, technology and digital media and advertisement.
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde
To begin with, the first factor that supports the aforementioned hypothesis is the philosophy and culture of social networking technologies. Heidegger sharply mentions in his essay about “The question concerning Technology”, that the fundamental issue to consider, is the essence and the meaning of technology. In his following statement, “the essence of technology is nothing technological, essential reflection upon technology and decisive confrontation with it must happen in a realm that is, on the one hand, akin to the essence of technology and, on the other, fundamentally different from it. Such a realm is art.”, he emphasizes the importance to consider firstly technology in an abstract way. (Heidegger, 1977). It is obvious to admit here, that the Internet definitely has changed the world. Moreover, the implementation of social networking technologies, allow now individuals to choose and transform the world and societies themselves. (Lovink, 2011). The axiom of Marshall McLuhan, that “the medium is the message”, is now reborn in the new media context. For example, the notion of performance in social networking sites is an extraction of language used, photos posted, and web page construction in the context of forming user identity. (Denninger, 2011). Technology and social media have totally permeated our lives since we live in a constantly constructed environment. At this point, the question that arises concerns, the component that triggers individuals’ need to define themselves as social digital personas. It is widely known, according to Christine Rosen, that “for centuries, the rich and the powerful documented their existence and their status through painted portraits. A marker of wealth and a bid for immortality, portraits offer intriguing hints about the daily life of their subjects—professions, ambitions, attitudes and most importantly, social standing”. Moreover, Herbert Mead, 20th-century sociologist and philosopher, argues that the social identity affects the formation of social identity. Individuals as a product of society, establish the self through communication because we are only able to conceive ourselves in relation to other people. Humans create their own likeness through the image of other, a fact that was considered vital, since “the whole society is prior to the part, not part of the whole”. (Denninger, 2011). So, what is the relation between the social identity and the one that we choose to present on social networking sites? Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook, demonstrates cleverly that, “You have one identity. Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”, changing that way the face of social communication on an interpersonal level. In addition, Lovink states “we are only allowed to own one certified ID on Facebook, because the system response cannot deal with ambivalence. Social media culture is based upon, the digital self-exposure, at least some aspects of our private lives, else we are robots and anonymous members of a vanishing 20th-century mass culture.”. (2011). Hence, in comparison to 1990s IRC and ICQ technologies, individuals choose to use their real names and personal information, attempting to represent who they really are. By filling a profile in Facebook we firstly become an object to others, and when we take the perspective of other people through language we become an object to ourselves. (Ellis, 2015). We are given the opportunity to create our self-substance by utilizing technological artifacts via social media platforms, projecting and confirming our ideal self.
Apart from the cultural and philosophical aspect in social media, profile pages interface in SNS1 are constructed in a way that fuels users’ desire to share their personal information. Technology forms the background, context, and medium for our lives, and it is hard to imagine what our lives would be like without complex technological systems. Kaplan argues, that the theory of technological neutrality defines technology in terms of its technical properties. Technology is an applied science and simply a tool. It can be used for a variety of human ends and it is neutral with respect to values and purposes. (2004). For instance, the process of setting up one’s identity in Facebook is relatively easy. Users are given a very simple login form to provide the fundamental information, such as the real name, e-mail and other piece of information. Hence, they are ready to construct their digital personas. (Rosen, 2007). The main idea in Facebook and most of the social media, like Linkedin, Google+, Myspace, etc., is to make the process so simple in order to include the primary information for each user in their databases. Afterwards, depending on the kind of service that is offered in each platform, companies maintain users’ data and collect more and more personal information about them. Considering Facebook, the thumbs-up ‘like’ button, activated with a click, is an effortless technique that creates an affective association between the rest digital identities. (Lovink, 2011). The key component in the existence of SNS1 is the data. Keen stylishly states in Digital Vertigo that, "personal data is the new oil of the Internet and the new currency of the digital world.”(2012). Our self-portraits are democratic and digital; they are crafted from pixels rather than paints. (Rosen, 2007). User digital identities consist of various kinds of digital media. For example, our modern digital personas feature background music; carefully manipulated photographs; frequently updated status, that include text and several animated emoticons that try to describe the emotional state for each individual. For that reason, users become more motivated to contribute and build their individual showcase. We invite viewers not merely to look at, but also to respond to, the life portrayed online. We find friends, love, and that ambiguous modern thing called connection. Like painters we constantly update and tweak our online self-portraits, but as digital objects, they are far more ephemeral than oil on canvas. Rosen explains, that “Vital statistics, glimpses of bare flesh, lists of favorite bands and favorite poems all clamor for our attention — and it is the timeless human desire for attention that emerges as the dominant theme of these vast virtual galleries”. (2007). But what type of behavior online social networking sites encourage? Martin Heidegger’s dictum, “We don’t call, we are being called” runs empty here. On the Internet, bots will contact you regardless, and the status updates of others, relevant or not, will pass before your eyes anyway. The software itself invites you to reply and any communication with the platforms is totally based on action and reaction. (Lovink, 2016). In a long-term, the content that we choose to display in our digital profiles could be clearly considered as a symbolic act of communication within a digitally constructed society, that reassures our uniquely perceived identity and social status. Last but not least, it is essential to think critically about the aggregation of personal data, rather than adopt the naïve assumption of digital narcissistic identities exposure in social media world.
The significance of personal data sharing as fundamental element in SNS1 was thoroughly elaborated in previous paragraphs. Furthermore, Time magazine described our over sharing culture as “a networked version of the Truman Show”, where each persona adopts its constructed digital identity and it is also approved by other social identities. Everything will be known about everyone and thus traditional social taboos as homosexuality for example, will supposedly be undermined. This publicity will have as a result a more tolerant society, which can be regarded as positive impact on the evolution of society. On the other hand, taking Facebook example into consideration, by knowing us intimately, we open the gates to our minds and Facebook will be in the position to answer our every desire. We willingly provide our personal information for the creation of our digital social identities and the establishment of illusionary connections. But, when Facebook owns our ‘precious’ data, can profit from that single identity and our nostalgic love-in with the imaginary past. Therefore, we are stepping into a world without either secrecy or privacy, where everything and everyone is transparent. Everyone owns a device that allows users to enter to their personal showcase, where they are instantly judged and rated. But, the problem is that nobody is forcing any of us to update our photos on Instagram, reveal our location on MeMap or broadcast what we've just eaten for lunch on My Fav Food.” (Keen, 2012). Mark Zuckerberg's Frictionless Sharing 2 with a lack of the curatorial element of human labor, makes us slaves of the machines. We are all aware of the algorithmic manipulations of Facebook’s news feed, the filter-bubble effect in apps, and the persuasive presence of personalized advertisement. (Lovink, 2016). Moving away from academic research, Facebook has generated much business and consumerist coverage because of its rapidly increasing user rate. More users will generate more communicative interaction and multiple identity handling, it is essential to update the state of Facebook in the media marketplace. Consumerism is just one of future appeals for Facebook. (Denninger, 2011). Social media aggregating algorithms collect the personal metadata digested willingly by millions of users. Consequently, the advertising industry has made huge strides in targeting each individual with interactive and personalized messages. Algorithms use the technique of deep learning, based on users’ preferences, to mimic neural networks’ capabilities and offer a million personalized versions of an advertisement, dynamically presented to a million different individuals. The Artificial Intelligent algorithms will be given all possible creative digital media for a campaign, such as logos, images, text, video and guidance on colors and language. Afterwards, algorithms will be fed data from every possible related campaign and use all the elements to flawlessly assemble the right creative for the right person at the right time, in real time, while they continue to optimize and improve the campaign performance. Machines are also learning pattern recognition for more abstract data, while they will be able to ingest a lot of data, in order to build a manifold profile for any individual and then execute on that person's interests based on their age, income, prior interactions, shopping patterns and other data points. (Gal, 2016).
As long as technology and services in social networking sites are keep improving, lots of efforts need to be put in approaching and analyzing the term of digital social self-identity and the implications that will be noticed in social structures. In the near future, people are going to have a device with them at all times that’s (automatically) sharing this cornucopia of personal information, providing the constant reassurance of their existence. (Keen, 2012). In the end, McLuhan's insight that any medium affects its society not by its editorial product content, but by the media forum itself, can be proved as correct.