Consumers have known for some time that our identity has been reduced to a series of numbers in somebody’s computer bank. For decades now, our banks, credit card companies, insurance agencies, utility companies, and pretty much any other business identifies us with an account number… Or in some cases by our driver’s license number, social security number, etc. This is something we’ve gotten accustomed to, and personal service tends to be something that’s widely discussed, but rarely seen. Generation X, and our kids, have pretty much accepted it and moved on. Besides, most of us already realize that our bank account and credit cards do not define us. Who we are is more a product of what we do and what we think and believe, and has very little to do with what we buy or spend our money on. This dissociation of self from commerce may have a lot to do the current Occupy Wall Street movement, and similar Occupy protests across the country than recently made headlines.
Allison Cerra and Christina James contend that something is moving in to fill the void – technology. These two marketing gurus have applied their considerable experience and insight to the question of how we define ourselves in their new book, Identity Shift. The book is the result extensive research study commissioned by global communications leader Alcatel-Lucent. Cerra and James are quite aware that we are not defined by technology anymore than we are defined by the numbers our banks and government know us by, but have uncovered startling insights into how technology is changing our own self-perceptions.
They also illustrate how difficult it is becoming to keep our professional self separate from our personal life, and vice versa. They point to studies that show potential employers look at social media sites to “get a feel” for a prospective job candidate. They note that many employers admit they have disqualified applicants based on what they found, but some studies also say many employers have chosen to hire the applicant for the same reason. And while awkward moments in a professional environment can eventually be lived down in real life, the Internet can enshrine a poor choice or mistake for the rest of our natural lives, and beyond. Even someone else’s opinion of us gains new credibility through the virtual anonymity provided by The Web. And since we have no control over what other people say of us out there in the digital frontier, public perception of who we are has less and less to do with the reality of who we are.
It is your Guide’s opinion that eventually this will level out to a new norm. A few rational people will begin to recognize that there are very few controls over what is said by whom in cyberspace. Weighing the credibility of a particular site, a particular source, and a particular comment will become more and more cumbersome as time goes on and the Internet sprawls ever further. Likewise, there will always be rumor mills and gossip mongers who thrive on every word that is written about specific individuals, driving their petty dramas to ever increasing heights. This drives the popularity of publications like People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the National Enquirer, which are rarely seen in a professional environment. With the changing of the generational guard in the workplace, it is easy to imagine that employers and co-workers will be less interested in what may be out there on the Web than in job performance.
Notwithstanding, Identity Shift is a great book that paints a broad-stroke landscape of some of the social challenges presented by our new digital age. Without relying too heavily on psychobabble or mind-numbing technical jargon, Cerra and James have presented solid information that will be valuable to the development of social media and (more than likely) the psychological field for the next decade.
In the interest of full disclosure, your Guide feels it is prudent to note that a copy of Identity Shift was provided free-of-charge for the purposes of this review. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, your Guide has elected to forego any compensation on sales this book review may generate.
