TAKING CTRL:
The Physicality of Identity in the Digital Age
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Through the lens of physicality, our digital essay will explore the relationship between the digital and identity. Our focus is on where our physical identities overlap with the digitized landscape of the Internet. Beginning with a theoretical account of how one person can have both a physical and digital identity, the specific topics this digital essay will explore are how lived experience informs identity (digital or otherwise), the performativity of digital identity, and issues around the conception and visibility of digital identity.

To provide a framework for what the digital means for human identity it is fruitful to begin with existentialist phenomenology in the context of internet connectivity as a starting point, namely the work of Mariana Ortega and Simone de Beauvoir. In doing so, we see similarities in the topological structures of the internet itself, and the “nexus of relations”[1] that make up human beings. In the existentialist framework, self and other are equiprimordial. For Beauvoir, existence is ‘intersubjective’ meaning that the concept of self cannot exist without an opposing other; thus, other is implicit in self, and vice versa[2]. This introduces an ambiguity to defining oneself in which one must navigate the tension of intersubjectivity. Ortega’s notion of “multiplicitous selves” further develops this tension in her explication of “world-travelling”[3]. Wherein an individual finds themselves traveling between worlds with different norms, perspectives, and expectations. As such, “the multiplicitous self has multiple perspectives obtained from various worlds, multiple visions of how this self is seen in those worlds, as well as numerous self-understandings”[4]. It then becomes contradictory to understand the self as something static, a singularity in isolation. We are proposing here that in examining something that is part of a network we need to access its interconnectivity as part of itself—perhaps even as itself. Similarly, the internet organizes itself, and data, in a web of inextricably interconnected nodes[5]. In spatial terms, the intersection that a node occupies does not define that node beyond its location, to get at its identity, what it means, we must think of the node as being its many relationships. Under this framework we can postulate on the individual identity as multiplicitous, performative, intersecting, and possibly invisible; thus opening discussion on how one’s physical and digital selves inform each other, the significance of performativity in the interaction between those selves, and the implications of one’s digital identity being manifested in ways that it cannot physically.

Lived experience governed by an individual’s positionality, constructs a performance of self. The physical body as a vessel informs knowledge producing interactions. Hence, linked to the body are cognitive biases and social expectations which are inseparable from performance of self across spaces as these structures create the pillars that inform performance[6]. As text-based platforms, most digital spaces limit the full extent to which individuals can perform identity. Linguistic and cultural idiosyncrasies transcend into digital spaces, intelligibly producing the self online[7]. Even when the physical body is displaced, the lived experience remains. That knowledge, because created via the material self, is necessarily tied to the body regardless of location[8]. In online spaces, interactions are informed by lived experiences produced through the material body. These heterogeneous representations are all connected to the self, and together work in a continuous cycle of reciprocal, identity production and information. Lived experience is both brought into digital spaces and garnered from them[9]. The absent physical proximity and reduced visual output does not inhibit self production and performance. The physical and digital body work in tandem to produce an ever-evolving self.

The concept of performing is central to engaging with and understanding multiple identities as performed on different technologies. Typically performance, used in its conventional sense, involves a deliberate sense of actions. Erving Goffman, a crucial figure in performance studies, argues that we are always structuring our lives as performance in everyday life[10]. His concept of the “presentation of self” focuses on what he refers to as “impression management”, the active efforts people make to present a version of themselves that are typically creditable and attractive, and the “work” we do to accept and sustain our own and other’s presentations of the self. Goffman’s idea of performance roles in daily life and encounters is expanded by Abigail De Kosnik as she applies his theories to a social network setting, proposing that social media platforms operate as performance spaces; thus the metaphor of Twitter being a stage[11]. Everyone on social media is acting and spectating, whether consciously or unconsciously. Humans intrinsically are selfishly concerned with showing others our best possible “front” and make active efforts to present and sustain a version of ourselves, which is usually creditable and attractive[12]. On social media, this manifests with the use of filters and Facetune. While the “full” understanding of these topics is impossible to reach, performance remains significant to how one’s physical identity informs their corresponding digitized identity.

Conscious and tangible – physical – manifestations of identity, be it through known or unknown performativity, seems to end upon the death of an individual. However, data lives on, and so do the packets that form one’s online consumer identity. "…The invisible digital identity is made up of various virtual, non-virtual, human, and non-human cultural ecologies that exist in a matrix of various temporal, spatial, physical, emotional, political, social, financial, and legal dimensions. Both ideological concerns over potential discrimination and power as well as the materials used in the hardware of the Internet are of equal concern with the invisible digital identity”[13]. This “invisible” identity in the digital realm, which may be created with or without our knowledge gives way to the automity (and perhaps even the erosion of individuality) of identity in the perspective of “big data” (ex. of your identity created in the perceptions of others around you, not by your own volition). “The surveillance tactics by companies driven by profit harkens back to Michel Foucault’s (1977) notion of the panoptic eye and how it became the apparatus of social control, discipline, and a way to categorize and observe at singular levels”[14]. In the grander scheme of things, this helps those who hold the data grow in power and influence, but on a more personal level, this may threaten the separation of the identity from the individual, making it a mere slave to data analytics and being subject to the erosion of civil liberties.

Through these different modes of discourse coming together, one is able to observe the increasingly seamless distinction between the physical self and the digital self; it becomes imperative to take control (CTRL) by starting to equally distribute the onus of digital literacy and social change between the physical world and the space of the internet. The continuous dialogue surrounding how physicality informs our digital identities and how, in turn, our digital identities contribute to the digital ecosystem and the physical world beyond it, as well as the order of the internet is crucial. In order to form more nuanced understandings of the relationship between the digital and the identity we must consciously remain critical of it.
Reese Berlin Bromstein, Ahsif Khair, Maahi Patel, and Avery Vojvodin
1. Mariana Ortega, “World-Traveling, Double-Consciousness, and Resistance” in In-Between: Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self. (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2016), 126.
2. Simone de Beauvoir. The Ethics of Ambiguity, trans. Bernard Frechtman. (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2018), 156.
3. Ortega, 119-124.
4. Ibid., 126.
5. Yihua He, Georgos Siganos, and Michalis Faloutsos, “Internet Topology,” in Computational Complexity, (2012): 1663–80. Link.
6. Erica Neely, “Intertwining Identities: Why There is No Escaping Physical Identity in the Virtual World,” in The International Association for Computing and Philosophy’s Annual Meeting. Research Gate, 2013. Link.
7. Margaret Chon, “Erasing Race? A Critical Race Feminist View of Internet Identity Shifting,” in The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, 3 (2000): 439-473. Link.
8. Neely.
9. Jessie Daniels, "Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment," in Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 37 no. 1 (2009): 101-124. Link.
10. Erving Goffman, “Performances: Belief in the Part One Is Playing,” in The Performance Studies Reader, ed. Henry Bial and Sara Brady (New York: Psychology Press, 2004), 59-63.
11. Abigail de Kosnik, “Is Twitter a Stage? Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces,” in #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, ed. Keith P Feldman (University of Michigan Press, 2019), 20-34.
12. Ibid., 63.
13. Estee Beck, “The Invisible Digital Identity: Assemblages in Digital Networks,” in Computers and Composition 35, (2015): 125–140. Link.
Bibliography:

Beck, Estee. “The Invisible Digital Identity: Assemblages in Digital Networks.” Computers and Composition 35, 125–140, 2015. Link.

Chon, Margaret. “Erasing Race? A Critical Race Feminist View of Internet Identity Shifting.” The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice 3, 439-473, 2000. Link.

Daniels, Jessie. "Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment." WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 37 no. 1, 101-124, 2009. Link.

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Ethics of Ambiguity. Translated by Bernard Frechtman. New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2018.

De Kosnik, Abigail. “Is Twitter a Stage? Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces.” In #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, edited by Keith P. Feldman, 20–34. University of Michigan Press, 2019.

Goffman, Erving. “Performances: Belief in the Part One Is Playing.” The Performance Studies Reader, edited by Henry Bial and Sara Brady, 59-63. New York: Psychology Press, 2004.

Hamilton, Isobel Asher. “Edward Snowden Says COVID-19 Could Give Governments Invasive New Data-Collection Powers That Could Last Long after the Pandemic.” Business Insider, March 27, 2020. Link.

Hernandez, Nicole. "The Failure of Addressing Intersectionality in the Heineken Commercial." Medium. May 6th 2017. Link.

He, Yihua, Georgos Siganos, and Michalis Faloutsos. “Internet Topology.” Computational Complexity, 1663–80, 2012. Link.

Neely, Erica. “Intertwining Identities: Why There is No Escaping Physical Identity in the Virtual World.” The International Association for Computing and Philosophy’s Annual Meeting. Research Gate, 2013. Link.

Ortega, Mariana. “World-Traveling, Double-Consciousness, and Resistance” In-Between: Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2016.
Postscript

Creatively speaking, our group had a lot of ideas to contribute to the project, which made collaborating on the project a fun activity, but when the ideas and concepts got overwhelming because of their dense nature, we had multiple brainstorm sessions to lay out our ideas visually - be it on a whiteboard in class or on a shared document. We did make a strict schedule to adhere to for the purposes of avoiding last-minute stress, but we had to make changes because of the university closure and other uncertainties, especially toward the last two weeks of the course. As is the case with any group project during an important part of the academic term, there were scheduling conflicts, and due to new household commitments and responsibilities - and even anxiety in general - in light of this global pandemic, these timing conflicts were increased. However, we managed to schedule in video calls on Facebook Messenger every few days that the majority of the group could attend and made detailed notes and documented the expectations set in the meeting for group members that could not actively attend. During these meetings, we adjusted our deadlines in accordance to the new April third deadline, shared and discussed ideas, and broke down the project into smaller and more manageable pieces. Specifically, we collectively wrote the essay in a shared google doc, created a consistent style and theme for the presentation to make it cohesive throughout, and assigned two minutes of the presentation to each group member.
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14. Ibid.