IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 82

more active users, the more money is earned. The vast
number of tools available to alter the simple form of
expression of posting, allow for complete control over
how that post is seen by others.
Not only does the act of managing online identity
cause agents to feel more consciously willed, the addition of optional choices to aid in this management
increases this feeling. Regardless of whether an online
identity actually depicts the individual constructing it,
the number of decisions present in the system that can
define an identity causes actions made by users to feel
more consciously willed. Furthermore, these tools
aren't inherently necessary in order to exhibit one's personality [7]. When someone posts a photo to Instagram
or any other social media with image filtering and editing, as well as tagging, hashtagging, etc., they are forced
by the system to make decisions regarding how they
want to express that post to their Instagram community.
These users understand that others interacting with
their social media post are forming a subjective identity
of themselves. This subjective identity of the user is not
made up of all the data ever experienced by that user,
but only the data that their followers can see. While
their followers do not necessitate one's identity, the followers form an identity based on the limited data they
do experience, in this case, the edited photo or social
media post. This means that the original user is not only
tasked with trying to make a post conform to the representation of their own identity, and how they see their
own identity - but also with making the post appear in
a way that allows others, with limited data, form a more
exact subjective identity of the user. Though this logic
may seem to assume that a history is being kept on the
platform (and while on Instagram it is), the argument
also applies to cases where a history of actions might
not be kept.
Snapchat will be used to provide an example of
where a history is not kept, yet where there still exists
many non-natural tools to redirect expression. Snapchat
is a social media application that simply allows users to
send photos or videos to other users. The uniqueness
of Snapchat comes with the idea that, after the photo or
video has been opened, it is erased and cannot be seen
again. Furthermore, Snapchat provides its users with
many different image filters that can completely change
the way a photo is interpreted. These filters are similar,
yet still uniquely different than image manipulation filters provided by Instagram. For example, one user
might send a photo with the filter that adds dog ears
and a dog nose to their face, whereas another may send
one that warps their head shape similar to effects seen
in carnival mirrors. Snapchat also provides filters to
alter the sound of one's voice, ranging from making it
higher pitched and almost squeaky, to making it sound

like an alien. The conscious choice that one makes to
edit or not to edit their photo or video redirects natural
forms of expression into the many virtual choices
offered by the platform. Even though the photo or video
will be deleted after the receiver opens it, the sender
still needs to consciously alter the photo to form the
interpretation that they wish to send. It is that non-natural manipulation that increases the users feeling of their
actions being consciously willed.

Keeping a History of One's Communication
Secondly, features that exist on platforms that create a
history of a user's communication also lead to users
feeling their actions are more consciously willed. With
each interaction being saved and redisplayed, the limiting nature of human memory no longer restricts users
to what they can know about that conversation at any
instant. Before sending a message, one can simply
scroll through a conversation, avoiding any confusion or
forgetfulness, and recall the entire conversation. Furthermore, understanding that at a basic level how one
defines oneself is often directly related to conversations
and interactions. "In order to feel more, and to feel
more like ourselves, we connect." By erasing the ability
to forget, the way one defines oneself begins to change
[8]. When one does not have the ability to forget, expressions that may not follow directly from the nature of
their current identity can cause negative feeling of cognitive dissonance. This cognitive dissonance manifests
when the person subconsciously notices that pieces of
their forgotten, but saved, conversation depict an individual who is different than who they are now. To minimize these negative feelings created by identity conflict,
individuals become conditioned to avoid dissonance by
preprocessing their communication. This unnatural preprocessing causes individuals to feel a stronger sense of
conscious will when using these retentive platforms.
Individuals do not want to express themselves in a way
that they feel will affect their identity adversely, thus
they are more conscious of the things they send or post
on these platforms. The communication defining identity is no longer initiated with the subconscious assumption that it may be forgotten, but rather known that it
will have an impact on defining the inner self. "I share,
therefore I am" [9].
The most salient example of a modern company creating a feature to take advantage of its users' conscious
will, is the profile feature that depicts an individual Facebook user. In order to use Facebook, one must create
this profile; which contains everything that a user has
ever posted or even interacted with. For instance: a list
of their accepted friends, uploaded photos, and a list of
interests and likes, which can be seen by all. Facebook
forces the creation of this pseudo-identity from the

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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JUNE 2019

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019

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