Digital ID Coach

Finding Yourself

July 15th, 2009

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This is Michael Wesch’s keynote talk from the second day of Personal Democracy Forum 2009. Wesch is a professor of anthropology at Kansas State University, and was the author of “The Machine is Us(ing) Us,” a video about how the internet is changing society.

Wesch talks about “a core ethic of our society: a search for identity and recognition; in a society that does not automatically give identity and recognition. You have to create your own.” Wesch points out that we face two threats: 1) self-centered modes of self-fulfillment, which leads to civic and social disengagement, and 2) negation of all horizons of significance, which leads to divergent views, fragmentation, and “special interest sound bite politics.” He continues with why this matters, and why it matters deeply.

It’s an interesting talk. Wesch raises important questions.

Coaching moment: There are really two parts to your identity: 1) who you think you are and who you want to be, and 2) all of the external parts of your identity. The two parts reflect how you want to appear and interact with the world (inside looking out), and how you’re seen by the world (outside looking at you). You have more control over who you want to be.

Sometimes we feel a disconnect when we learn that our external artifacts paint a picture of who we are that’s very different from how we see ourselves. The evidence is there. Is it being misinterpreted, or does it reveal something about us that makes us uncomfortable? Often we find that it’s a little of both. What if you could change that, even just a little?

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