Technology-mediated Identities

Overall, I found this article very interesting and insanely relevant today. The increasing rate of internet communications and internet relationships forming makes this a hot topic. A quote that resonates with me in when Cocking (2008) states, “For many, opportunities to express and form relationships have been enormously increased by computer communication technology. But what sorts of identities and relationships are really possible online? How might our pursuit of values that constitute and regulate our ideals of personal identity and various significant relationships be sensitive to such communication environments?” This is true and I connect with this statement on many levels.

The idea of plural selves has me intrigued because we choose what we post and publish on online platforms. I think most of us would say that we tend to only post the good things going on. We live in a world where we don’t want people to know that we may be hurting or we may be sad. Instead, we would rather them think we live in a perfect world and our always happy.

This article also sparked my interest regarding online dating apps and privacy. I have tried the typically dating apps like bumble and hinged but there is always the uncertainty. How do you really know the person is who they say they are? With technology being such a powerful tool you never know who that person might be. The idea of hacking and even cat fishing makes online dating and relationships disingenuous. As mentioned above, you decide what you post and what you share and the thought of privacy dissipates. Although your account may be private or you think it is, it is online and it will always be online. This article really opened my eyes to the concept of tech-mediated identities and the effects it has on relationships and social media.

*Credit to wordcloud generator*