Crowdsourcing identities: On identity as an existential practice mediated by contemporary digital technology

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to outline crowdsourcing identities as one way to think about humans’ making of identity when practiced in conditions mediated by contemporary digital technologies. It brings together human practices, theory and technology and draws on perspectives of existentialism, social onstructivism, technology and ideas about crowdsourcing. Humans’ making of identity is considered a practice that concerns continuous requests and answers about existential matters of being, becoming and belonging: Who am I? How do I appear to others? Who can I be and become? Where do I belong? In that sense, it is a relational and social practice that is essential to exist as someone — rather than as no one. However, contemporary digital technologies such as social media are not considered essential to this practice. Technologies are thought of as mediating conditions where, for instance, social interactions about existential matters, such as the making of identity, can be practiced in ways that extend on what were possible in predigital times. In multimodal, multidirectional, collaborative and networked ways humans can represent, communicate, gather information and also engage online crowds of others in continuous requests and answers about being, becoming and belonging; Who am I? How do I appear to others? Who can I be and become? And, where do I belong? To illustrate this, two brief narratives of Mary and Steve introduce the article. The making of identity, the duality of Self and Other, the gaze as a panopticon of others, identity and technology and ideas about crowdsourcing are presented and outlined, converging into the interpretive lens of crowdsourcing identities — one way to think about the making of identity when practiced in conditions mediated by contemporary digital technology.

Young people's identities in digital worlds

“…Being young has always been a particularly critical period of intense identity work, while reflecting on emerging selves, values, ideals, norms and future aspirations, often happening when interacting with others (Erikson, 1968; Buckingham, 2008). These interactions, mediated by digital technologies or experienced face-to-face, can bring approval and confirmation, intersecting identity dimensions, but also involve discriminatory discourses, such as sexism and racism and affect young people's being, becoming and belonging so that identities are made in normative ways (Butler, 1990; Crenshaw, 1991; Goffman, 1959; Hällgren, 2019a, May, 1999).…”

“…Contemporary digital technologies are not essential to identity – but bring extended contexts for young peoples' identity practices (Buckingham, 2008, Boyd, 2014, Hällgren, 2019a) Young people may use them to engage in multimodal, multidirectional, collaborative and networked ways to represent, communicate, gather information and also engage online crowds of others in continuous requests and answers about identity – in multiple contexts. Moreover, digital technologies and conceptions of them, can be theorized as temporally and spatially sensitive, dependent on understandings, practices and materialities specific to particular moments in time (Papacharissi, 2015).…”

“…Other examples of theorizing identity and technology are the Persona (Marshall, 2015a, b; Nguyen and Barbour, 2017), Facebook Identities (Loveless and Williamson (2013), Open-sourced, networked identity (Larsen, 2016), the Self as networked (Papacharissi, 2011) and as online identity, virtual identity, digital identity and such. These conceptualizations mostly concern ready-made, fixed representations of identities and digital technology is viewed to provide spaces for representing and expressing identities rather than mediating identity as an existential practice (Hällgren, 2019a).…”

Employer reviews may say as much about the employee as they do the employer: online disclosures, organizational attachments, and unethical behavior

“…Whereas back stage represents where an individual prepares roles and "drop[s] his [or her] front" (Goffman, 1959, p. 70), front stage performances are curated identity constructions which one uses to adapt to a given audience, like one's social media friends. In this view, webpages serve as a venue for constructing and performing front stage identities (Hällgren, 2019). Online, individuals gain "access to a variety of multimedia tools that enable the possibility for more controlled and more imaginative performances of identity…" (Papacharissi, 2011, p. 307).…”

“…Online identity performances even allow for feedback, or crowdsourcing, of identity portrayals (Hällgren, 2019). For instance, when announcing a new job via LinkedIn, one might receive paralinguistic "Likes," linguistic comments, and other feedback to validate (or challenge) one's identity claim.…”