HH Trends // THE DIGITAL ID ISSUE vol. 6

THE DIGITAL ISSUEMay | 2013

v.6

Digital Id, Ego Superego

Id: The disorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human’s basic, instinctual drives

Ego: That part of the Id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world

Superego: That which incorporates the values and morals of society and controls the Id’s impulses

CONTENT______________________________________________________________________

1. LET’S TALK ABOUT OURSELVES

2. IF YOU “LIKE” MY PHOTO, THEN YOU MUST “LIKE” ME

3. THE NEW NEO-LUDDITE

4. SHIFTING RELATIONSHIPS

5. OFFLINE VS. ONLINE SELVES

6. MULTIPLE SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER

7. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT & SHARE

8. INDELIBLE DIGITAL RECORDS

9. A DIGITAL AFTERLIFE

LETS TALK ABOUT OURSELVES

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SITUATIONWe are all aware of the ubiquity of technology and social media. We consume status updates for breakfast and compulsively check our smartphones to snack on social updates throughout the day. According to Cisco’s global technology survey, 87% of those surveyed had a Facebook account, 20% admitted to texting while driving, 80% used smartphones in bed, more than a third used them in the bathroom, and two thirds reported spending as much or more time online with family and friends as they do in person. However, while we accept the pervasiveness of social networking, we fail to adequately consider the motives that lie beneath this ubiquity. What is the underlying psychology of our ‘digisocial’ presence?

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGToday, we live in a society that has bred the online narcissist. The Internet is more I-centric than ever before, and social media outlets perpetuate the ease and accessibility of cultivating a self-absorbed culture. In 2011, Elias Aboujaoude, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, noted that our ability to tailor the Internet experience to our every need is making us more narcissistic. Some statistics re!ect this as well, with 80% of social media posts today about the poster, 250 million daily photo uploads, and 35% of users tagging themselves in their own photos.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGAnd, with the support of a steadily growing industry providing advice on how to build fan bases on Facebook and cultivate a Twitter following, many are getting sucked into the popularity contest. While people with high levels of narcissism or low levels of self-esteem spend more than an hour a day on Facebook, the race to win more likes or retweets is pulling everyone in and causing them to feel they must compete. In fact, 40% of people surveyed reported that they would “feel anxious, like part of [them] was missing” if they couldn’t constantly check their smartphones and engage in the digital realm #FOMO.

IMPLICATIONSWe have created a world where talking about ourselves and sharing our experiences have become a form of badging for the sake of badging. Talking about ourselves activates the same regions of the brain associated with the sense of satisfaction from food, money or sex. But what kind of atmosphere are we perpetuating? Are we obsessed with social media or are we obsessed with ourselves? And, with brands competing to create customizable experiences catering to our desire, how are they abetting the narcissistic world we live in today?

IF YOU “LIKE” MY PHOTO, THEN YOU MUST “LIKE” ME

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SITUATIONIn 1993—during a vacation, your daughter’s "fth birthday, or your annual family holiday photo—you were careful about what you captured to make the most of the 24 chances at photo perfection. Let’s face it: you were fronting the cash for 35mm "lm, as well as the expense at the supermarket to develop it. The memories caught on "lm were shared among close family and friends and then stored in an album or shoebox—available for personal enjoyment and re!ection years later when you stumble upon them in an attic or under your bed. Flash forward 20 years. With 129.4 million people using a smartphone, it has never been easier (or cheaper) to point, click, and post anything you deem worthy of remembering. Smartphone apps paired with social networking sites have given us opportunities to share our photo memories beyond our immediate circles. Why we photo-share and the e#ects it has on our collective in!uence our self-esteem in ways it hasn’t been able to before.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGPhoto-sharing has become a natural part of our daily lives. We take the opportunity to snap and share anything—from a sunset on our walk home from work, to a humorous license plate, to a dessert at a local eatery. Beyond just a way of connecting with others, validating these moments via social sites has turned us into what The New York Times calls ‘aesthetic producers.’

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGOur photos have become content for our own pro"les, blogs, and feeds. Facebook users are sharing 7.5 billion photos per month, and for some, pushing the “post” button is rooted in self-interest. The reason behind snapping a “sel"e” encourages social comparison from our family and friends, which can a#ect our self-esteem if we seek approval of others.

IMPLICATIONSWith photo-sharing on the rise, every day there are more companies and products created to help us capture and share moments with the world. iPhone app Throwback goes against the instantaneous grain of Instagram, allowing you to snap a photo and randomly await its arrival anywhere between one to "ve years from that time. Spread lets iPhone carriers categorize their selections and connect with others who have similar passions. There’s no end in sight for the photo-share market, and how brands decide to insert themselves into the photo roll will continue to help de"ne consumers’ engagement and relationships with the commercial world.

THE NEW NEO-LUDDITE

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SITUATIONFast-food culture spawned the slow-food movement, celebrating regional cuisine and leisurely meals with friends and family. And big business begat the small-business movement, promoted in part by Amex’s small-business Saturdays. So it is no surprise that the proliferation of social media has produced its own evil anti-technology twin. Fueled by a nostalgia for deep connections and spontaneous o$ine interactions, some people have unplugged and “checked out.” “Checking out” of online social networks, these critics argue, actually increases connectivity by fostering deeper and more meaningful exchanges.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGWe’ve probably all heard one of our friends give a discourse on the stupidity of social media as they assert their superiority for not participating. In addition to these daily musings, some prominent advocates have written on the topic. William Powers’ book Hamlet’s Blackberry draws on historical "gures like Thoureau to suggest the importance of solitude in an era when there are seemingly endless ways to connect. Alone Together by Sherry Turkle explores the e#ect that technology has on relationships. At the start of 2013, Forbes’s “3 Reasons You should Quit Social Media in 2013” included self esteem, aggravation, and the importance of o$ine experiences.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGInspired by the slow-food movement, the Sabbath Manifesto organization promotes the observance of a day of rest, much like the traditional Sabbath, where people unplug and signo#. Beyond these social reasons, some have argued that there are greater consequences to living online. The Shallows by Nicholas Carre suggests that the Internet is limiting our intellectual ability. Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation goes so far as to suggest that young Americans are stupid because of their ubiquitous use of the Internet.

IMPLICATIONSThis craving for deeper, more traditional connections is one that brands can ful"ll by creating new ways of communicating. As people become more resistant to words and messages, brands will have to do more to prove their worth. Every single point of interaction will have to be utilized to build a strong connection, which means a company’s products will be just as important in communicating the brand as the ads. Consumer experiences will become increasingly important. Furthermore, advertisers should be compelled to come up with creative ways to produce seamless online-o$ine engagements with consumers, making online interactions seem more “real.”

SHIFTING RELATIONSHIPS

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SITUATIONInitially created for those with college email addresses, today anyone can open a Facebook account. As the audience for this and every other social site has broadened to anyone and everyone, the amount of information friends and family know about each other is broadening as well. Now, if parents’ social paths cross in any way with those of their children, they are able to "nd out exactly where their children are, who they are with, and what they are doing. Due to social sites, today’s parent-child relationship dynamics have changed and are continuing to change.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING• More and more parents are joining social networking sites. Among

all parents with a child between 12 and 17 years old, 66% use a social networking site—up from 58% in 2011. This could be due to the increasing amount of younger children on Facebook, as 7.5 million children under age 13 now have a Facebook presence. Of the parents who use social sites, 92% are “friends” with their kids, often causing some level of embarrassment with personal posts and resulting in 30% of teens wishing they could “unfriend” their parents.

• Roughly half of parents on social sites are checking their child’s pro"le daily, and 31% check four or "ve times a week. Status updates are of paramount interest, with 41% of parents visiting the latest updates and 39% wanting to read what other people are posting on their kid’s wall.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING• Although some relationships can weaken due to the in!ux of

information absorbed via social pro"les, some relationships will strengthen. 22% of college students use Facebook to stay in touch with their parents, as they are often far away from home or too busy with school to communicate more frequently.

IMPLICATIONSBrands are tapping into eagle-eyed parents and creating sites to help them monitor their children’s activities. SocialScout is an online parental-intelligence system that helps monitor and analyze a child’s social-networking and mobile phone activity. By providing daily activity reports online and via email, parents are able to react immediately without having to spend hours investigating their children’s web history, social-media site visits, and phone records. Are companies such as this going too far, are we heading in this direction or are we already there?

OFFLINE VS. ONLINE SELVES

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SITUATIONThere is tension between our online and o$ine presences. The average number of friends people report in real life is 150, while the average number of friends on Facebook is 245. When people were surveyed about their behavior, fewer than half said their online and o$ine identities are the same. In today’s world, where transparency is increasingly valued, why is it that we see a chasm between our online and o$ine selves?

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGWith 81% of people believing that we have di#erent online and o$ine identities, we are witnessing a debate around whether the notion of an o$ine and online congruence is an important one.

• The Case for Online Authenticity: Facebook and Google believe in the unity of public identities. They seek congruence in people’s pasts, presents, and futures by aggregating them. Any pro"le on either platform that does not appear to be tied to an o$ine name is removed, and nicknames and pseudonyms are now considered breaches of terms of service. On Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, Richard Allan, Facebook’s Director of Policy in Europe, remarked that “Pictures speak a thousand words… [Even] Immigation o%cials will ask to see a photo album to see if a relationship is genuine. It’s a very instinctive and powerful way to con"rm authentic identity.”

WHAT WE’RE SEEING• The Case for Online Anonymity: Christopher Poole, the 24-year-

old creator of 4Chan, argues that “Individuals are multifaceted. Identity is prismatic, and communities like 4Chan exist as a holdover from the interest-driven web.” He thinks that implying that having multiple identities is lacking in integrity “is nuts.”Andrew Lewman, executive director of Tor, also hopes to reanonymize the web. A free software and open network, Tor allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. He argues that “The ability to be anonymous is increasingly important because it gives people control, it lets them be creative, it lets them "gure out their identity and explore what they want to do, or to research topics that aren't necessarily “them” and may not want tied to their real name for perpetuity.”

IMPLICATIONSBrands too are realizing the impact that our o$ine and online distinctions can carry. And, they are tackling this in very real ways. Airbnb, which was founded on peer-to-peer trust for their business, recently introduced Veri"ed Identi"cation, which connects users’ online and o$ine identities. While the company sought authentication by screening members’ Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, it is now seeking more, linking users’ online identities to their real o$ine identities through photo ID, passport scans, passports, or credit check questions. Will more brands seek congruence on the web, or will they "ght to keep it a nonbinding space?

MULTIPLE SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER

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SITUATION

WHAT WE’RE SEEING• The average American Facebook user has 245 Facebook friends. The

average Twitter user has 208 Twitter followers. However, social media sites have stretched the de"nition of “friends” and “followers.” We’re never 100% certain we even truly know who’s hiding behind these online pro"les. Is your friend Tom the same person in real life as his status updates reveal? Would he normally post crazy party pictures if his mother were “friends” with him on Facebook? Clearly he wasn’t sick enough to work from home if he checked in at the nearest golf course on Foursquare. While one can fragment themselves into sublets of networks online, it can be di%cult to portray their true self o$ine.

Facebook pro"le? Check. Twitter account? Yup. LinkedIn? Of course. Pinterest? Got that, too. As our online personalities continue to grow, somehow, we’ve merged our online personalities. Somehow we’ve managed to build our online presence while often tailoring each network to a di#erent audience—Facebook for family and friends, Twitter for brand interaction, LinkedIn for professional networking, etc. But when do these lines converge? And what happens when they do? Are we giving ourselves multiple social personality disorder?

WHAT WE’RE SEEING• The line between professional and personal lives is starting to blur,

especially among the younger generation. The majority of people try to keep their professional and personal pro"les separate, as only 36% of online pro"les list a job entry; however, 80% are comfortable sharing school information. While people try to keep their personal and professional lives separate, they’re still blending them by connecting to colleagues. As the younger generations enter into the workforce, they are even more inclined to break this divide. With an average of 696 friends, Gen-Y users have an average of 16 “work friends” with nearly 40% of those being connected to at least 10 other coworkers.

• Although one may think they’re hiding their personal lives behind their online pro"les, companies are tapping into these channels for recruitment and screening purposes. 37% of employers use social networks to screen potential job candidates, and 34% of them have found content causing them to refrain from hiring a candidate. Posts with inappropriate pictures and information represent half the reason for a candidate not getting a position.

IMPLICATIONSAs we attempt to jump between several di#erent online personalities, some brands are doing the same, especially those with large, multiregional divisions—even creating multiple personalities on the same social channel. Epson, the printer manufacturer has at least six di#erent twitter handles: @Epson, @EpsonAmerica, @Epson_America, @Epson_Store, @EpsonEducation, @EpsonProImaging. While some may believe several accounts could increase e%ciency and create a more personal and local touch to customer service, having multiple accounts can also produce negative e#ects and severe confusion.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT & SHARE

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SITUATIONWhat don’t we share these days? People check in, update their status, tweet, and post pictures—sometimes dozens of times a day. Let’s think about a typical “day in the (social) life:” You might instagram a photo of your morning latte, share a photo on Facebook of the beautiful sunrise you saw on your run, tweet something funny your coworker said in a meeting, retweet an interesting article you found online, instagram a photo of your lunch from the burrito truck, post a funny photo on your friend’s facebook wall, instagram a photo of the delicious martini you enjoyed after work. And then (oh!), tru$e tater tots? Don’t see those often… You simply must Instagram that, too. What do half of these social media activities have in common? You guessed it – food.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGWe all know that Millennials have been credited with bringing this level of social media activity into the mainstream. They are the "rst generation to use social media to craft the identities they want to have – whether it’s through posting the cool new bands they listen to on Spotify, or retweeting the hippest new celebrity’s TED talk. And now, food is increasingly being used to round out their ideal identities. How did food make its way into the mix? That topic alone could be explored in an entire thesis, but in short, Millennials have been called “the most food-aware generation in history,” have never known a world without Food TV, and have fundamentally changed the way everyone in this country eats through the proliferation of things like small plates, the mainstreaming of food trucks, and the increasing importance of fresh and whole (just to name a few).

IMPLICATIONS“If you didn’t gram it, it didn’t happen.”Now, the topic of conversation after a weekend away at the ski slopes (for example) is less about the great powder on the mountains and more about the great meal they ate at the farm-to-table restaurant in town. Parties are less about the music or games, and more about sushi-making, craft beers, and that signature cocktail. It will be important to see how these social “food” identities evolve and last into the future.

INDELIBLE DIGITAL RECORDS

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SITUATIONOur lives are always “on the record.” With tweets, posts, emails, and even snapchats published and saved, it is becoming increasingly di%cult to maintain a sense of consistency online. The context with which we originally said something is lost in the open stream of our thoughts and other users’ comments amongst social media platforms.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGTweet Pairing is a tumblr that juxtaposes contradictory tweets from the same user. When taken out of context, these are equally hilarious and horrifying. Yet, what is interesting about this exposition is how it folds time to reveal a stark disparity between two authentic posts which, at the time they were posted, probably seemed completely "tting and appropriate to their audience. Without the linearity of these online environments, we probably all look like ignorant fools. Tweet Pairing captures this paradox well, and while we use and think of it as a constant, !eeting, temporary stream of information that we read and contribute to, we all permanently expose our mood swings, contradictions, and changes of opinion.

IMPLICATIONSIt is important to note that words and social outputs can be taken out of context in unimaginable ways. Brands should bear this in mind when engaging in the social space. Additionally, if brands are to learn from our customers based on what they are saying, they could use this context to their advantage. If an irate customer is complaining to a brand on Twitter and this brand were to check the customer's twitter account to "nd that he had also just complained to another major brand, it can be extrapolated that that individual may just be having a bad day. Brands should use this context to give more informed social care and to communicate in a humanlike way.

What we share can so easily be taken out of context. It is this type of sharing that can become obfuscated and get us into trouble.

A DIGITAL AFTERLIFE____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SITUATIONAs of 2012, 30 million people who had maintained a Facebook account have died. And we all have probably experienced the death of at least one acquaintance and the subsequent memorialization of him or her via Facebook. But in today’s digitized world, what does death mean? With tweets, posts, photos, and emails living on, does digital death exist? In a facetiously morbid but very real way, people and companies have begun to address these concerns.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGToday, ‘death apps’ are becoming more and more mainstream:

• If I Die: If I Die is a Facebook app that allows you to record a message that will only be published after you die. Spouting the messaging “Don’t wait until it’s too late—leave your message today,” it asks what you will leave behind when you die.

• 1,000 Memories: Coined ‘The New Shoebox For Your Old Photos,’ 1,000 Memories lets you create an online tribute to your loved ones, complete with photos, videos, and stories they can post after you die.

With online assets gaining more clout, estate-planning measures are being taken with digital information. Much like bequeathing assets, digital property is becoming transferrable upon death:

• Legacy Locker: Legacy Locker takes charge of your digital assets and social media accounts and transfers them to the person you have speci"ed.

• Deathswitch: Deathswitch calls itself a provider of information insurance, insuring critical information such as computer passwords, bank account numbers, "nal wishes, and more will survive if you die unexpectedly.

WHAT WE’RE SEEINGTo take it one step further, it may even become possible to continue our digital personas and keep them ‘alive’ long after we are gone:

• That Can Be My Next Tweet: That Can Be My Next Tweet analyzes your entire Twitter stream—everything you’ve posted onto Twitter—to make predictions as to what you might say next. We may move on, but our voice and speech may not.

• Baxter: Baxter is an 8-foot-tall robot, incredibly smart and programmed for pretty much anything. Baxter can be ‘taught’ to replicate actions by literally holding his hand through it. Baxter symbolizes what’s possible today, but in addition, it makes one wonder what more he or she could be capable of doing. If we could program this robot to replicate our movements, actions, and habits, would we be leaving behind a replica of ourselves once we pass?

IMPLICATIONSWe "nd ourselves in a unique time and place, as we are able to de"ne life and everything that comes after it. In this relatively new realm, brands may be able to jump in and shape how people will be able to interact with the inevitable future and shape the legacies that they leave behind in a very real and tangible way. As a relatively new front, people may start looking to brands—health-care, insurance, and beyond—to cope with loss and set a precedent in this new age of grieving.