I've been fascinated with this phenomenon as it pertains to our conception of our selves, and the role the Internet and social media have played in mediating th

I've been fascinated with this phenomenon as it pertains to our conception of our selves, and the role the Internet and social media have played in mediating this. In particular - how much of our identity is tied to, or even dependent on, our digital footprint? To what extent do we judge someone based on their Twitter bio, and whatever carefully curated selection of photos they have decided to expose to the public? ...and what of those who have dutifully abstained from social media all this time, sounding the alarm bell _almost a decade in advance_ of Cambridge Analytica and 2016? Are these people now without identities, personas - digital vampires without a reflection in the black mirror? How accurate is the reflection, anyway? Online personas, identities, are a construction; I would even go further to call them participants of Baudrillard's "order of sorcery" - mere brushstrokes, assemblages of pixels suggesting an actual person behind them, but on one extreme are faithful representations up to the fidelity of the medium (e.g. candid photos), and on another are pure personas, people acting out a role (e.g. an actor on screen). VTubers [1] are one particularly salient illustration of this logic taken several steps further. From the article: > Narratives shape our perceptions, which form our realities and influence our choices. Is it possible to seize hold of one's personal narrative, and thereby reinvent the self? > You can be whoever you want to be. You can completely redefine yourself if you want. You don't have to worry about the slots other people put you in as much. They don't look at your body and make assumptions. They don't hear your accent and make assumptions. All they see are your words. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog#Implications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_...