“DIGITAL SELF”

WHAT IS THE SELF?

• Psychologically…
Collection of cognitively-held beliefs that an individual
posse/think about themselves.
• However the “self” seems to extend beyond the physical self.
The digital self is the persona you use when you’re online.
Some people maintain one or more online identifies that are
distinct from their “real world” selves; others have a single
online self that’s more or less the same as the one they inhabit
in the real world
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF
D I G I TA L S E L F
The idea of the digital self developed from
the original phenomenon of the ‘extended
self’, pioneered by Russell Belk in 1988. He
believed our possessions are a major
contributor to and reflection of our
identities. Back in the day, it was external
objects, such as clothes, jewelry and cars etc.
that he believed we used and considered as
part of ourselves. Nowadays however, it isn’t
merely tangible belongings that researchers
consider as part of our extended self. Our
digital possessions such as photos, videos,
statuses, texts, and emails are now seen to
be significantly important to shaping our
digital self.
WHY IS DIGITAL SELF SO IMPORTANT
IN YOUR CAREER?
The simple reason is that once you go online as your real self, using your own name or
appearance, you have an online presence that can be traced back to you in the real world.Your
online presence is hard to hide, difficult to control, and easy for recruiters and hiring managers to
find. Because of this, it’s important to manage your online identity carefully, to ensure that your
public image your brand is presented in the best possible light.
WHY DO WE HAVE A DIGITAL SELF?

The idea of the Digital Self is an interesting and relatively new topic discussed in consumer
behavior research. Researchers, such as Stone (1996) and Hemetsburger (2005) claim that the
digital web allows us to try out different personas that differ from our real life identities. But why
would we want to even do this? We were especially interested in looking at why we express
ourselves online the way we do and we wanted to share the most common reasons:
• To feel a sense of belonging: Some of us want to fit in with the crowd and
upload things that are ‘down with the trend’ - for instance, who notices the
amount of people posting pictures of their food increasing? It didn’t come
from nowhere.
• Bigger sense of freedom: Unlike real life, digital platforms allow us to
express ourselves in any way we want to without anyone there to physically
judge us

• Striving to be our ideal selves: Digital Apps, such as Facetune, that allow us
to improve our appearances on photos (through teeth whitening, skin
smoothing and body shape editing) helps consumers to express as their
‘ideal’ self online and inevitably feel better about themselves
• Self-concept is generally thought of as our
individual perceptions of our behavior, abilities, and
unique characteristics. It is essentially a mental
picture of who you are as a person. .
• The inner self
– Also called psychological self, is made up of the feelings and thoughts
that a person has deep inside them.
• The physical self
– Who you are physically is important to many people.
• The social self
– how a person relates to others.
• The competence self
– is the ability of a person to provide for their basic needs.
DEVELOPING YOUR IDENTITY WITH
ONLINE CONTENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA
• online behavior makes a huge impact on how you present your
digital self, it’s important to always use social media with care
and consistency always aware of how your personal brand can
be affected by what you say and do. Always assume that
potential employers will perform an online search, so make
sure that everything they find is positive and professional.