MODULE 5: MATERIAL AND DIGITAL SELF

1. Material Self
Have your parents, at one point, ever bought something, say a designer
center table, from your local shopping mall and returned home only to realize
how all the furniture in the living room look so old and dusty in comparison?
Did they immediately go back to the mall to buy a new rug and an ornate
vase, maybe also a couple of upholstered pillows thrown in for good
measure, to complement the newly purchased item? If you answer to both is
yes, then the so-called "Diderot Effect," one of the most commonly-
experienced phenomena of consumption out there, has already taken hold
of them.
Originally articulated through an essay entitled "Regrets on Parting with My
Old Dressing Gown" by 18th century French philosopher Denis Diderot, this
phenomenon suggests that one innocent purchase can unexpectedly spiral
into an endless cycle of complementary consumption: the kind which preys
on one's yearning for a cohesive identity.
The think piece, which also doubles as a short story, tells of Diderot's
fictitious account of being gifted by a friend with beautiful dressing gown.
Elated at first about the new item, he later on realized that he has developed
a nagging urge to replace all his material possessions back home, as they
suddenly begin to look and feel inferior to the gown in question.
Such is the sway of consumption in shaping an individual's desire to
streamline the material self. It does not stop with a new pair of shoes, for it
also extends to a need for a new shirt, and maybe a watch, to "tie it all
together". Take it from the uber-cynical character Tyler Durden from the
novel "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk: "The things you own end up owning
you."
William James
In his The Principles of Psychology in 1980, he claimed that understanding
the self can be examined through its different components: its constituents,
the feeling and emotions they arouse – self-feelings, and the actions to which
they prompt – self-seeking and self-preservation.
The constituents of the self are composed of the material self, the social self,
and the spiritual self and the pure ego. The material self is primarily about
our bodies, clothes, immediate family, and home. We are deeply affected
by these things because we have put much investment in ourselves.
a. The Body
The innermost part of our material self. Intentionally, we are investing in our
bodies. We are directly attached to this commodity that we cannot live
without. We strive hard to make sure that this body functions well. Any
ailment or disorder directly affects us. We do have certain preferential
attachment or intimate closeness to certain body parts because of its value
to us. There were people who got their certain body parts insured.
Celebrities, like Mariah Carey who was reported to have placed a huge
amount for the insurance of her vocal cords and legs.
b. The Clothes
Influenced by the “Philosophy of Dress” by Herman Lotze, James believed
that clothing is an essential part of the material self. Lotze in his
book, Microcosmus, stipulates that “any time we bring an object into the
surface of our body, we invest that object into the consciousness of our
personal existence taking in its contours to be our own and making it part of
the self.” The fabric and style of the clothes we wear bring sensations to the
body to which directly affect our attitudes and behavior. Thus, clothes are
placed in the second hierarchy of material self. Clothing is a form of self-
expression. We choose and wear clothes that reflect our self.
c. The Immediate Family
Our parents and siblings hold another great important part of ourselves.
What they do or become affects us. When an immediate family member dies,
part of our self dies too. When their lives are in success, we feel their victories
as if we are the one holding the trophy. In their failures, we are put to shame
or guilt. When they are in a disadvantaged situation, there is an urgent urge
to help like a voluntary instinct of saving one’s self from danger. We place
huge investment in our immediate family when we see them as the nearest
replica of ourselves.
d. The Home
Home is where the heart is. It is the earliest nest of our selfhood. Our
experiences inside the home were recorded and marked on particular parts
and things in our home. There was an old cliché about rooms: “if only walls
can speak.” This is an extension of self, because in it, we can directly connect
ourselves.
Having investment of self to things, made us attached to those things. The
more investment of self-given to the particular thing, the more we identify
ourselves to it. We also tend to collect and possess properties. The collection
of different degrees of investment of self, becomes part of the self. As James
described himself: “a man’s self is the sum total of all what he CAN call his.”
Possessions become a part or an extension of the self.
We Are What We Have
Russel Belk posits that “… we regard our possessions as part of ourselves.
We are what we have and what we possess.” The identification of the self to
things started in our infancy stage when we make a distinction among self
and environment and others who may desire our possessions. As we grow
older, putting importance to material possessions decreases. However,
material possessions gain higher value in our lifetime if we use material
possession to find happiness, associate these things with significant events,
accomplishments, and people in our lives. There were even times, when
material possession of a person that is closely identified to the person, gains
acknowledgement with high regard even if the person already passed away.
Examples of these are the chair in the dining room on which the person is
always seated, the chair will be the constant reminder of the person seated
there; a well-loved and kept vehicle of the person, which some of the
bereaved family members have a difficulty to sell or to let go of because that
vehicle is very much identified with the owner who passed away; the favorite
pet or book, among others that the owner placed a high value, these favorite
things are symbols of the owner.
2. Digital Self
The number of people who are becoming more active online continues to
increase worldwide. More than half of the population worldwide now uses the
Internet. It has only been 25 years since Tim Berners-Lee made the World
Wide Web available to the public, but in that time, the Internet has already
become an integral part of everyday life for most of the world’s population.
The Philippines is among one of the countries with the most active Internet
users.
The Internet in the World
Almost two-thirds of the world’s population has a mobile phone. More than
half of the world’s web traffic now comes from mobile phones. More than half
of all mobile connections around the world are now “broadband.” More than
one in five of the world’s population shopped online in the past 30 days.
Media users in the Philippines grew by 12 million or 25% while the number
of mobile social users increased by 13 million or 32%. Those growth figures
are still higher compared to the previous year. More than half the world now
uses smartphone. In the Philippines, adolescents are among the most avid
users of the Internet.
Selective Self-presentation and Impression Management
According to Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995), self-presentation is the
“process of controlling how one is perceived by other people” and is the key
to relationship inception and development. To construct positive images,
individuals selectively provide information about them and carefully cater this
information in response to other’s feedback. Belk (2013) explained that
sharing our selves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon as
human beings were formed. Digital devices help us share information
broadly, more than ever before. For those who are avid users of Facebook,
it is possible that their social media friends are more updated about their daily
activities, connections, and thoughts than their immediate families. Diaries
that were once private or shared only with close friends are now posted as
blogs which can be viewed by anyone. Facebook and other social media
applications are now a key part of self-presentation for one sixth of humanity.
“Fear of missing out”
Because of the conversion of private diaries into public revelations of inner
secrets, the lack of privacy in many aspects of social media make the users
more vulnerable, leading to compulsively checking newsfeed and continually
adding tweets and postings in order to appear active and interesting.
People would like to remain updated and they keep on sharing themselves
online because it adds a sense of confidence at their end especially if others
like and share their posts.
“Disinhibition effect”
One of the reasons for so much sharing and self-disclosure online is the so-
called “disinhibition effect.” The lack of face-to-face gaze meeting, together
with feelings of anonymity and invisibility, gives people the freedom for self-
disclosure but can also “flame” others and may cause conflict
sometimes. The resulting disinhibition causes people to believe that they
are able to express their ”true self” better online than they ever could in face-
to-face contexts.
However, it does not mean that there is a fixed “true self.” The self is still at
work and we keep on improving and developing ourselves every single day.
Why Confess to Unseen and Anonymous Others Online?
In Foucault’s view, confessing our secret truths feels freeing, even as it binds
us in a guilt-motivated self-governance born of a long history of Christian and
pre-Christian philosophies and power structures. According to Foucault,
confession, along with contemplation, self-examination, learning reading,
and writing self-critical letters to friends, are a part of the ”technologies of the
self” through which we seek to purge and cleanse ourselves. Despite the veil
of invisibility, writers on the Internet write for an unseen audience. Both the
number and feedback of readers provide self-validation for the writer and a
certain celebrity.
Confessional blogs may also be therapeutic for the audience to read,
allowing both sincere empathy and the voyeuristic appeal of witnessing a
public confession (Kitzmann 2003). Consequently, we should have a filtering
system to whatever information we share online, as well as to what
information we believe in, which are being shared or posted by others online.
We should look at online information carefully whether they are valid and true
before believing and promoting them.
In the same way, we should also think well before we post or share anything
online in order to prevent conflict, arguments, and cyberbullying, and to
preserve our relationships with others.
Setting Boundaries to Your Online Self: Smart Sharing
The following guidelines will help you share information online in a smart way
that will protect yourself and not harm others. Before posting or sharing
anything online, consider the following:
Is this post/story necessary?
Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable – or
am I just making noise online without purpose?
Have we (as a family or parent/child) resolved this issue? An issue that is
still being worked out at home, or one that is either vulnerable or highly
emotional, should not be made public.
Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?
Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? Or is this post better suited for
sharing with a small group of family members? Or maybe not at all?