Blog Posts-Digital subjectivities|Week 3

Week 3: Digital subjectivities

Digitally an aim to identify to specify who we are as people have been set clear as users in any platform has to first set self-conscious virtual depictions of who they are. Identity has played a major role in the subjectivity that is becoming obvious in almost every digital platform. Online identity has implied the fact that there exist two identities where there is the online out the view and the offline out the view (Marwick, 2013). These identities complicate self-presentation as people can involve themselves in a different platform but present themselves differently based on the audience the platform provides. Someone in tinder is more likely to present their best or quality information to attract a partner than a video game user who will use an aggressive name to show their prowess.

Figure 2: Online identity

Online identity has instantly given people a chance to present themselves in a way that may enhance them or appeal to others in social media. For instance, to appear cool people may alter some information that will affect their “coolness” by placing popular cool things to associate themselves with. Sites like youtube and facebook where videos and pictures are used have led to people sieving through information in order to portray authentic and real personal information that is safe to their career in the face of their fans. This has subjected them to basing their act against what has been decided to be real and authentic enough. This is why in most cases vloggers often look for a specified location to shoot their videos so that they will not have a background that may not be used by people to judge them or incriminate the information they are portraying.

It is no wonder that cyberbullying has raised with the cyberspaces that have been created. The point where the targeted group that faces the wrath of cyberbullying has been noted to be girls and boys who are considered less masculine has greatly proved that everyone is not equal online (Reed, 2014). This subjectivity of women can be traced back to soft wares being developed with degrading presentation of women. Often times cases of cyberstalking that has led to women being sexually harassed have been reported where the objectification of famous, or beautiful or even fat women is often reported. People of color get roped into these harassments too as most platforms do not have a filtering feature on what should be allowed.

References

Marwick, A. E. (2013). Online identity. A companion to new media dynamics, 355-364.

Reed, T. V. (2014). Digitized lives: culture, power, and social change in the internet era. Routledge.