Quest for self-identity

Description

Fuelled by the technology at hand and the post-modern culture of developed societies, people are relentlessly seeking means for self-realization, to make a difference and to communicate it; they want to make their own statement, to be heard, and each wants to matter. Our identities are not constructed and defined anymore by tradition, geography and economics. Nor is it a phenomenon exclusive in urban areas. It is especially evident among mobile phone users, and in countries which lead the drive in mobile technology, such as Finland, South Korea, Japan. Overall this has a significant impact on our perception of ourselves, also described as psychological-self determination, which is the ability to exert control over the most important aspects of one’s life.

Recent new technologies, such as computer based editing suites and high-performance digital cameras, have made enormous inroads in enabling individuals to both create and, at the same time, pervade their own media. In addition, advanced wireless networks, software and processing power mean that media can be accessed, altered and rebroadcast as easily on next-generation mobile phones as on the computers used to create them in the first place. Instant and constant flow of information makes people more perceptive of political, social and environmental changes. Mobile blogging is a logical continuation of blogging. Communication and sharing with family, friends or lovers is more frequent and immediate; and so is the emotional outcome.

Nevertheless, it has a toll on personal and interpersonal priorities. We run the risk of allowing the permanent wireless social clouds that surround us permeate our very nature, as social interactions become more mediated and derivative. At the same time people consider themselves active and communicable, they may become “atomised and individualised”: a new form of the proverbial lonely crowd. Mediated communication intervenes with co-present communication (such as a phone call during a face-to-face conversation). What's more, for some people it's unclear which comes first in order; the emotion for communication or communication in order to derive an emotion.

Web Resources

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