Today is the era of internet and social media dominance. Constructing personal identities in the digital world is more complex and changeable.
The online persona identities we create are often different from our real-world self-understanding, and we achieve what we want to be by constantly planning information and retouching pictures to achieve what we want to be like ourselves, which is largely an idealized self-created world, and we just want others to see what we want them to see.
A large part of the drivers that make up a digital identity are: likes, comments, followers, friends. These can strengthen our identity in the digital world, too much or too little recognition will affect our judgment of ourselves and our self-worth, conforming to this digital identity may lead to the dilution of our unique identity in reality, and it is easy to lose accurate judgment of real life.
In addition, the digital world will also lead to the separation of people’s self-perception from real life, resulting in inferiority complex or conceited harmful psychology, so mental health is particularly important in today’s online life is closely related to us. Not only are more and more teenagers becoming addicted to the internet, but many are even putting themselves in danger of death because of the wrong values given to them by the internet, so it’s important to identify whether a website is healthy or not, and it’s also important for parents to educate their children about internet safety, and the government needs to carry out rigorous internet monitoring, not only to avoid countless cybercrimes, but to try to safeguard the healthy development of each family as much as possible.
conclusion The digital world is a temptation for everyone, and people can use all the opaque social networks on the Internet to package themselves in order to achieve things that would otherwise be difficult to achieve, and of course, to avoid immersing themselves in them, which can lead to losing themselves. The digital world is a double-edged sword, and we must be able to master the network in the shortest possible time. Individuals must have a clear understanding of the authenticity of their digital selves and be critical of the shaping of their online identity at all times. In this way, we can be both true to ourselves and adapt well to the changing identities in the digital world.
Reference:
1，WhoWStaS (2022) Largest internet using countries (1990-2023), YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/a-8RomHlX-Y?si=nvM545B1Z74e_uZI (2022).
2，我想找那张…一只猫水下倒影是一只老虎的图片，请问谁有啊？ (2015) 知乎. Available at: https://www.zhihu.com/question/37444445?_t_t_t=0.43485390883870423 (自在独行, 2015).
4，IndiaNews, D. (2017) Blue Whale Suicide Game Survivor: I was given 4 options to kill myself, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVg_hI5IxsY (IndiaNews, 2017).
Firstly I would like to say that your cover image is great! Building self-identity in the digital world is truly an increasingly younger issue, with more young children becoming capable of doing so as technology advances. Therefore the point you mentioned that parents should teach their children to understand and use the internet properly is an important one, until children are discerning enough their parents should help to protect their mental health status and establish the right value system.