Freedom and Constraint in Digital Environments: Implications for the Self

Abstract

We evaluate how features of the digital environment free or constrain the self. Based on the current empirical literature, we argue that modern technological features, such as predictive algorithms and tracking tools, pose four potential obstacles to the freedom of the self: lack of privacy and anonymity, (dis)embodiment and entrenchment of social hierarchy, changes to memory and cognition, and behavioral reinforcement coupled with reduced randomness. Comparing these constraints on the self to the freedom promised by earlier digital environments suggests that digital reality can be designed in more freeing ways. We describe how people reassert personal agency in the face of the digital environment’s constraints and provide avenues for future research regarding technology’s influence on the self.

More than a barrier: Nostalgia inhibits, but also promotes, favorable responses to innovative technology.

“…Despite its diverse exemplars, the key characteristics of AI are inventiveness and future direction. These characteristics constitute a double-edged sword: The concern that the development of disruptive technology will surpass uncontrollably the human mind or reach can lead to repudiation of AI products (Dang & Liu, 2022a; Morewedge, 2022; Solberg et al, 2020), whereas the allure of novel technology can spark endorsement of AI products (Magni et al, 2010; Talaifar & Lowery, 2022; Yohanan & MacLean, 2012).…”

Identity development in the digital context

“…In recent years, some identity researchers have called for more thorough conceptualizations of digital media as a contextual factor for identity development (e.g., online context, virtual microsystem, digital environment, hybrid reality; Granic et al., 2020; Navarro & Tudge, 2022; Talaifar & Lowery, 2023; Wängqvist & Frisén, 2016). Yet, a consistent conceptualization of the digital context and framework for studying relations between identity and the digital environment remains missing.…”

“…Yet, a consistent conceptualization of the digital context and framework for studying relations between identity and the digital environment remains missing. Such a conceptualization would allow researchers to draw useful theoretical and empirical connections to the way physical and natural environments are studied in research on person‐environment relations (from social and personality psychology and environmental psychology; e.g., Buss, 1987; Graham et al., 2011; Misra & Stokols, 2012; Talaifar & Lowery, 2023) and to research on everyday media practices (from communication; Steele & Brown, 1995; Brown, 2006). Considering digital media as a contextual factor thus allows us to propose a framework for studying the digital environments that young people inhabit and engage with, and which may in turn be influencing the development of their identities.…”

“…For example, social media platforms (i.e., characterized by profiles, networks, streams, and messages; Bayer et al., 2020) like Instagram offer the affordance of editability, which enables people to edit their photos as means of exploring different versions of themselves (Moreno & Uhls, 2019). Affordances like persistence (e.g., extent to which content is viewable upon posting) and anonymity (e.g., ability to omit identifiable information online) can also enable and/or restrict one's ability to freely express and explore oneself online (Bayer et al., 2020; Talaifar & Lowery, 2023).…”

The Experimental Hand: How Platform-based Experimentation Reconfigures Worker Autonomy

“…Recent work suggests that we require a new understanding of the organizational management of experimentation that grapples with digitization and its associated technological infrastructures, which afford real-time experimentation on live subjects (Marres & Stark, 2020;Talaifar & Lowery, 2022;Van de Poel et al, 2017). That is, data analytics allow organizations to capture, measure, and analyze almost any behavior, making it relatively easy and inexpensive to optimize organizational processes through experimentation (Bond et al, 2012;Zuboff, 2019).…”