modern tech + the self

those late-night doom scrolls into the interface abyss. that "needing to record everything" feeling. posting that one picture, not the other one. all of these acts and feelings a common in the digital world-affecting-the-real-world phenomenon that a lot of us, if we have the privilege to have access to mobile technology, have experienced at one point or another. we design ourselves on our phones through profile pictures, comments, statuses, stories. some of which can seem permanent. where do they go if we delete them? the cloud? what even is the cloud? why do we feel such a sense of urgency and automacy when unlocking our phones? we are living our lives ourselves, but are we? some of us have digitalized everything about our lives to the point of it affecting our psychological health and wellbeing. the world has become to live in extremes. in a time without social media (which is hard or even impossible to remember for some of us) or when technology was scarce, actual social engagement when we were growing up is what helped us form our self-identities: friendships, opportunities like getting good grades, what we do for fun, the communities we're apart of. media is everywhere now and especially for our younger generations (Gen Z, anyone?). these are constant, overwhelming outside influences on our 'internal' sense of self. we Google one word and get billions of results in seconds. checking our email spam folder is just exhausting. there's not one way of cooking that recipe, there's 240,000. and let's be real, we don't want to sit there and comb through all of the information because it's information overload, so we use strategies and ways of finding the fastest results that are the most convenient to us, like our good ol' friend Siri. it seems as though media used to be more human-

"media used to reflect us." -centered. it is clear that in many parts of the world especially here in the U.S., media used to reflect us. now, media paints pictures of who we should be. scratch that — of who it thinks we should be. what's accepted, what's attractive, what's popular, what we should buy into either figuratively or literally. the social media and other digital algorithms (more on page #) are a huge factor in telling us who we ought to be. the advertisements we receive, the recommendations on where to go, what to buy to make ourselves look a certain way, the concepts of pop culture that we should be so connected to each and every day. in other words, our sense of self used to be ours, but now, it might even be a reflection of who the world thinks we are. if you have a social media profile, there are many things to think about as we've mentioned before: cover photo, things you re-share with your network, the apps you choose to edit with. our self-concepts have developed more into the culmination of how we want to present ourselves based on how others are, social status, cultural or social group etiquette, norms, beauty standards, wanting to look a certain way, which most of the time is wanting to appear in a positive light. it has taken the idea of identity management and impression management to a whole new level. we have become to brand ourselves, or form and show our personal brand (also another term for social identity). has that replaced our self-identity? it's no wonder we often feel we need a digital detox from these hypothetical and hyper-personalized (or so these digital systems think) worlds, also known as our "highlight reels." have you seen little kids with iPads? that is the norm now. social media exists without regard to time and space, which can be extremely powerful but it can also be harmful. we'll get into that on the next few pages. in digital spaces, most commonly social networks like

Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube, WhatsApp, we build digital identities along with the apps and sites themselves constructing their own version of who they think we are. we constantly are exposed to intimate looks into higher-status people, "influencers," creators, and celebrities. we have the constant opportunities to re-examine our close friends, long-distance ones, acquaintances, family members. these can refer to close or loose social ties. we also have a peek into how we appear in what we do for our communities and the rest of the world, or our social roles: jobs, volunteer, standing up for social justice movements, our political stances.

when it comes to self-esteem, since we are exposed to so many peoples' lives, looks, and apparent thoughts, social media and tech opportunities are breeding grounds for social comparison. this opens the door to seeing ourselves in a worse light than others, a.k.a. upward social comparison.