EP 967 Who Are You in this Digital World?

Much has been written about the ill effects of our over-reliance on our on-life life with endless content, algorithm-driven polarization and pressure to publicly present oneself.  In this podcast, our guest, Patricia Martin, author of “Will the Future Like You: Reflections on the Age of Hyper-Reinvention,” argues that the damage goes even deeper.  It is eroding the ability to form and sustain one’s identity.  Are we hyper-focused on presenting a version of ourselves that will get likes and friends in a virtual world or have we done the hard work to figure out who we are at our core?  What makes all this more difficult is the fact that many of the institutions designed to help us foster that growth and understanding of our identity are crumbling.  We’re reminded that identity is formed in three ways–how we see ourselves, how others see us, and our will to shape ourselves.  The balance in this triad is now skewed and leading to a host of issues for the generations growing up in a digital world.

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