Aaron Balick

Being Human: The Psychology of Your Online Self

Who am I?

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Who am I?

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Who am I?

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Who am I?

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Who am I?

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Who am I?

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Reflect for a moment:

•  How do I see myself?

•  How do I want to be seen by others? •  How do I see others?

•  How do others want me to see them?

•  How do we go about it?

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DANGER

Do not begin this exercise until you have read and understood

each of the five steps!

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Step One

Have your smartphone, tablet,

or computer in your hands

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Step Two

Ensure that your device is unlocked

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Step Three

Hand your device to the person sitting to your left

If you are sitting at the end of a row, simply

switch with the person in front or behind you

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Step Four

SNOOP ,

Use the next 3 minutes to snoop around your neighbour’s phone at will

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Step Five

Ignore the previous four steps!

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Step Five

Take a Breath. Relax.

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Step Five

What just happened?

Take a minute to tell someone beside you how that just felt

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The nature of recognition is complex:

We like to be recognised in different ways by different people.

We are not unitary in our psychological makeup.

This is the psychological nature of privacy.

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We are all in conflict!

The ego and its relation to the id is like that of a rider to a horse. The horse supplies the energy while the rider guides this energy to a specific goal . . .

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We are all in conflict!

Sometimes the rider is able to guide the horse – other times, the rider is obliged to go where the horse wants to take her.

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SUPER  EGO   EGO   ID  

SUPER  EGO   EGO   ID  

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“Technology proposes itself as as the architect of our intimacies”

- Sherry Turkle

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Self  Self  

Technology  

                       Self                          Self  

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Self  Self                          Self                          Self  

Ego   Ego  

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Self  Self                          Self  

Ego  

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Self  Self                          Self  

Ego  

Super  Ego  

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Self  Self                          Self                          Self  

id   id  

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Psychologically, we discover ourselves between ourselves and others.

Today, we use technology to do a lot of that discovering.

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Unconscious  Drives  

               Other(s)                          Self  

Tech  

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The Low Bar

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         Other(s)                            Self  

Tech  

       Other(s)  

       Other(s)  

       Other(s)          Other(s)  

       Other(s)  

(isation)

           Object                              Self  

Tech  

           Object  

         Object  

         Object              Object  

         Object  

(isation)

To conclude:

•  We extend our psychological selves by way of technology.

•  One of our main psychological motivation is the recognition of others.

•  We need to be recognised by different people, in different contexts in a variety of different ways.

•  Technology mediates these drives by way of particular architectures.

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Find out more

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Q & A

Thanks!

Harness persuasive technology for good