The Steemian identity crisis - what a picture of you holding up a card really means...
Source:https://icons8.com/icon/48349/anonymous-mask
A couple of recent conversations and observations lead me to ponder the issue of identity in the digital world, especially since there are some serious implications that come with the establishment and loss/theft of identity online.
I remember talking to a friend one time and joking that if I woke up one day having lost my memory (both short and long term), I would have a hard time figuring out who I am by trying to piece together where I am, what I was doing and the different bits and pieces of information contained in my wallet.
As a result of having kept a journal for the last four and half years, I also realize that our memory is often not the most accurate record of our thoughts and history because we have this interesting way of processing and retrieving information from the past when it gets filtered by our own cognitive biases. It is only when we have to compare between similar experience in the past do we recognize how the way we experience events is relative to time (i.e. our recent recollection of similar or familiar occurrence) and not logical by a more objective comparison of equal events from the past.
Even if we looked at things like photographs it is easy to see that while pictures may not lie, we often try to capture things as we would like to remember them and not as how they are actually (anyone look as glamorous and happy as they are in their wedding photos everyday?). Sadly the way social media has influenced us to reflect and record our lives tends to paint one in which ordinary events become embellished and embellished events become the norm.
Most conversations and discussions around identity probably involve at least one of three things:
- Physical identity - the tangible aspects of a person that allows them to be distinguished from other people, such as information that have biometric value (e.g. retina patterns, fingerprints or DNA).
- Digital identity - the intangible aspects of a person that allows them to be verified because the information or activity can be verified as being indirectly (or directly) linked to that person (e.g. digital signature and private key used in encryption).
- Consensus identity - the collective and external information that you produce which is agreed by other people to be part of a person's identity (e.g. a Wikipedia entry about someone that has been verified by multiple sources).
I think most people will identify with 1 & 2 as being the most important, and perhaps why a picture of you holding up a card as part of the #introduceyourself post is seen as an important part of the initiation process into the steemian community. But as we have seen time and again, fake profiles are rife in social media platforms (dating websites being particularly notorious for this) so what does a picture really mean when you can't verify it by meeting a person face-to-face? Also, we have seen enough sci-fi movies of hands being cut off or eyeballs extracted to try and beat biometric security systems to at least acknowledge that those systems are not perfect either.
Then there's the curious concept of a consensus identity, one which is not created or established by the individual but by those around them. You may have heard of facts or quotes from famous people in history that were the result of people who were close to those individuals having kept a record of the events (e.g. disciples or friends & family), but not actually by the person who may or may not have said or done those things. Socrates and Confucius were good examples where their disciplines recorded conversations or lessons passed on verbally, and we have only the words of people who witnessed these activities and those that made a record of the said activities to go by.
In this curious world of the blockchain, we seem to rely on the first two more heavily on the latter when it comes to identity verification, and there are probably a number of reasons why this is the case. First and foremost is probably our reliance and habit of trusting the physical means of identification over the digital forms of identification, and also because these days with the internet providing so much access to information it is hard to determine if there is a single source of truth in a digital platform. I would argue that the amount of attention that has been given to online identity fraud has not help create more trust around digital identity.
But let's go back to that scenario I mentioned in the beginning about losing your short and long term memory. According to the books and documentaries I have read, these people that suffer various degrees and forms of memory loss try to recover or piece together their identity by interacting with people who know them, and to look through artefacts that link them to identifying information (e.g. a photograph of a wedding, or a driver's licence). This brings up an interesting point about whether an identity is something that you own (because you shouldn't actually lose it if you suddenly lost your memory) or something that is a footprint you leave in the sands of time (or more like a naughty child's shoe print that was left in a once wet concrete path).
If you ask me, I don't dare to trust the profile photo of that sweet innocent looking girl or the handsome young man. And I can only put as much trust in the photo of a smiling adult holding up a sign written in pen as the technical limitations of Photoshop image manipulation. But the interactions of that person on Steemit with all the other steemians is something that I haven't seen in even the most sophisticated of chatbots, because there is always something about it that would feel too consistent and rational compared to a human being. Not only that, even the most clever human being can't pretend to be a person that they are not because it is almost impossible to act irrationally in the same way :D
This means that the most valuable commodity in this digital world might actually be the people and their identity. Something that if you simply conformed to the way society wants you to think and behave then you are eroding its value until your identity completely disappears. If as they say, everything on the blockchain stays on the blockchain forever, then the most valuable thing you own are what you give to the community. Your physical identity will cease to exist, as will your digital identity yet the community's consensus of who you are and what you did will be the legacy that you leave, and probably the only thing that matters when you cease to exist.
Think about this carefully the next time you decide to write a post, leave a comment, click on the upvote button or even check your wallet.
What is your identity and what do you value the most?
Wow, I did not expect the post to get that philosophical. The whole memory loss scenario is really interesting, especially thinking of how we spread around pieces of our identity all over the digital world. You make some really good points on the matter, I especially appreciated this passage:
I guess we tend to trust that photo because we intimately believe that most people wouldn't take the time and effort to create a false identity. Maybe, despite all that happens everyday, we still tend to trust people with our instincts. But, I wonder, isn't rationality and consistency something we try and strive to when we post online? Aren't we actively trying to look less like human beings and more like reliable, trustworthy personas when we write, we comment, we discuss on platforms like this? I guess the last paragraph of your post kind of answers my question. You gave me a lot to think on, even as a guy who tries to be himself every chance he gets!
I didn't expect this post to get so philosophical either :D I guess as I was writing it I kept asking myself whether this was just another post that is there to generate interest or to really try and make me think harder about what my message is (and therefore what the message for the audience is). Now I will be thinking about this question when I look at someone's profile and the posts that they write, starting with yours :)
Well I had the idea of taking my picture with a sign today, since I still have to write down my introduction post, but now I'm not sure it's worth it!
I think it is one part of establishing your identity, just that maybe it is not as important as you might think it is :) I have only asked the questions in the post but admittedly I don't have any of the answers. But you should definitely write that post one way or another :)
I actually didn't do that picture thing with my introdoceyourself post. Neither did Carrie. Maybe it's only because we didn't read the directions.
Like you, I'm inclined not to trust that a person is a real person just because they posted a pic with their name and the date. What I always trust, however, is real interaction. And I trust myself to know it when I see it. Absolutely the most valuable thing about this movement is the real people behind the computers.
As for identity...
You may have noticed that my profile description is tabula rasa, nothing more. This is Latin for Blank Slate. It's my mantra, my motto, my slogan, whatever. I have it tattooed on my back, and it's the only tattoo I'll ever get. I have always viewed identity as a sort of trap for the clever to avoid. I think it's important to experience everything as though for the first time. Living this way has made life a truly joyful experience for me, and it's only getting better.
I think identity is nothing more than the average of the way others see us. It shouldn't have to interfere with what we think of ourselves. Every day we can do anything or be anything we want. I'm fine with letting identity run its course; it can take care of itself.
Thanks for a great post, @plushzilla! Really got me thinking.
I didn't know there were instructions/directions, but then when I saw other introduceyourself posts I realized that there was a reason to this (which at least makes a difference to the number of upvotes and payout you get from the post).
If identity is the average of the way others see us, then for you it must be a fluid kind of thing, which means there are temporal aspects/quality to it, which makes sense because people can change. How this fits into a digital system where there must be rules to everything for things to work is interesting... I have to give this some more thought as well :)
Absolutely awesome post, my friend. Extremely thought provoking and wonderfully written. There is no point in trying to hide who you are from anyone, especially yourself. This only breeds negativity and distrust in the heart. There are so many beautiful men and women on steemit and some even do as best as they can to herd the sheep but it can be a thankless task at the best of times. :)
I wish you luck. :)
I think you are making some really great points! I remember feeling real resentment to the idea that you should take a photo of yourself with a piece of paper in order to start posting to steemit and be accepted in the community. You would still not find me sharing my face or name on the blockchain and I think it's a failure of imagination to really demand that from people. If you look at my profile, that should really be enough to start getting to know me and to get some idea about my identity (or the identity I want to present to the community). The piece of paper is easy to fake and is something I'm really not comfortable with, so I skipped it despite seeing a lot of people acting as if it was not just advisable but mandatory. It's not and it shouldn't be.
I might have nearly lost the point I was trying to make in the process of writing the post :D It seemed interesting to me that the photo with a piece of paper was so important, but it made me think about WHY it was important and in the end I think identity to you can't be established the same way as identity to someone else. It makes me question the value of photo id in governments and institutions as well, and why the blockchain offers a much better way to verify identity because it would be a collection of all the information that is associated with your existence rather than one piece of document.
On the other hand, I think it does serve a purpose as a starting point, yet I think it does favour people who happen to be more attractive (I will probably cop some heat for this) because that seems to be how dating websites prey on our insecurities and need to see beauty in a visually aesthetic sense. Probably another reason why we should come up with a better way, perhaps through face-to-face contact with more than one Steemians?
I think the main reason people are so worried about this is because they want to prevent abusers with bot armies or spammers from taking over. It's a way for them feel that they are verifying which account is a real person and which isn't.
But I actually really like your point. The way an account handles themselves on the blockchain is public information that can be viewed and analyzed and is organically vetted by the community. It's a better system than a piece of paper.
And the selfies absolutely favor attractive people, no doubt.
Since we are not immune from the irrational ways that people think and make decisions, the next best thing is to be cognisant of these cognitive biases and try to make our thoughts and actions more consistent.
These introduceyourself posts certainly haven't prevented abusers, and in fact I have seen some quite sophisticated posts disguised very well which makes people believe their authenticity. But bots can't interact and comment the same way that people can (although people can interact and comment the same way that bots do), so maybe that's our only defence against the bot armies for now...
Not going to touch the issue with selfies and attractive people - I think that's just human nature too and I am also guilty of looking at profile images as much as post content :p
Maybe to make it even more philosophical... is there such a thing as 'identity'? Perhaps the problem is not so much that it can be stolen, but that we rely on it so much in the first place.
Existentialism would say we recreate our self every moment of every day. Is it my identity that leads me to act in a certain way, or is my act what makes who I am? For centuries mankind thought the first, but I'm glad we live in an age where it is the second... Although there is not complete freedom to create whatever we want.
Not sure how we could conceive of a world that is not based on identity, a life not based on identity in the sense that you use the word. Something to think about (for me at least...)...
Yes, I think if we wanted to ask if it exists rather than what it is then discussions about existentialism certainly comes into play. We could also ask why it is that we rely on it so much in the first place as well!
If we want to be logical and practical, the view that we are all part of the identity of humanity (since we are all made up of the same particles that have been around since the birth of the universe, or part of the same algorithm in the simulation) is perhaps a more holistic perspective.
I feel like there should be another post to follow some of these interesting comments, but I feel inadequately equipped to deal with the philosophical line of reasoning used to question and understand these concepts :p Probably why I didn't end up writing an even longer post...
Shit! Thought-provoking and very nicely laid out thought process. Applies to any kind of social media or digital record I think, but certainly to the blockchain more than anything. Brilliant.
These are the types of problems we will continue to struggle with in the digital economy/society, and if I use the e-residency process in Estonia as an example, they require both physical and digital identity verification, and I presume that there is a robust process/framework for maintaining privacy and confidentiality in place. They are also considering issuing their own cryptocurrency in the future, so I would say that at least Europe is the place where many of the answers/solutions to these types of issues will be tested and explored.
I really enjoyed the comments and discussions from this post, which is something I haven't been able to achieve with most of my previous posts :) I will have to put some effort into the #polyglot tag as well!
The problem with 'who I am' or 'what my identity is' is the reason why I delayed 4 months in writing an introduceyourself post. I think the medium you're introducing yourself in will affect how you go about identifying yourself. You wouldn't use the same small talk sentence necessarily when you're at a bar meeting new people and when you're at a professional networking event. It's all so strange.
I also enjoyed your meditation on the lack of reliabilty of our own memories. This is why I'm constantly suspicious of myself even in the act of journaling. I can't seem to trust that I'm recording things fairly and accurately. Our minds are such tricksters, eh? But maybe we can trust that some of the time when our minds want to re-write an experience, it could be that it's working to protect us from something damaging...
I had similar thoughts about writing that introduceyourself post, but in the end I went for something that was uniquely me (the origami flower petal cranes) because I couldn't find anyone else in the world that produced something like it. But I know that there's something unique and individual about all of us that sometimes we do want to keep away from the rest of the world, and ironically it might be the only thing that you can safely hold onto and identify you from everyone else.
I had some interesting discussions with @edward.maesen on the subject of memories and how it can shift and change as our mind changes as well (and therefore not to be trusted blindly). Perhaps he will provide a comment or two here as well :)