Saved by Garima Katiya and
The egostack
If digital media has proven itself to function as an existential photocopier – with each of us as the source material – the next generation of AI-enabled tools promises even more rapid and radical replications of selfhood.
Lore Oxford • The egostack
If our multiplying selves are not a compromise of our integrity, but an evolutionary necessity, could we reconcile our expanding egostack with the need for coherence? Seeing other versions of ourselves may not always feel good, but there's a quiet redemption in embracing our contradictions – not as failures of authenticity, but as evidence of our... See more
Lore Oxford • The egostack
responding to the undertones of chaos and incoherence today, we are rewriting the rules for selfhood - rejecting permanence and choosing fluidity
Today, identity expression isn’t just performed through the act of contributing to digital media, but consuming it, too. The algorithm has become so fundamental to identity formation that a recent qualitative study of 13- to 17-year-olds in the US found that participants felt their 'For You' page on TikTok wasn't just for them but about them – a... See more
Lore Oxford • The egostack
adding on the impact of consumption
» related to how do we distinguish what’s our own taste and what’s the taste we’ve merely consumed and adapted as our own?
In Glitch Feminism, Legacy Russell discusses the internet as a means of recreating yourself in your own image, rather than the image dictated by dominant forces:“We want a new framework and for this framework, we want new skin. The digital world provides a potential space where this can play out. Through the digital, we make new worlds and dare to... See more
Lore Oxford • The egostack
and now, we’re taking it into the real world — putting on second skins
not only are we playing an ever-expanding cast of characters, but we’re expected to commercialize them for public use, before facing their contradictions head on in the panopticon of our digital ecosystems.
Lore Oxford • The egostack
not just commercially, also culturally we are playing into different selves
On the surface, this is a comment on modern white collar labor, and a satire of the sanitized, media-trained iteration of ourselves reserved for professional contexts. But its premise serves as a useful vehicle for not only exploring the ways in which we contort ourselves for different contexts, but for unpacking what exactly it is that makes us... See more
Lore Oxford • The egostack
on severance
When we’re little, we’re fed the myth that as we get older, our sense of self will solidify. But it might be more accurate to say that getting older means getting comfortable with the contradictions of who you are, who you’ve been, and the many iterations you might become.
Lore Oxford • The egostack
The grammar of selfhood There’s a chance that this contradiction is felt more deeply in some cultures than others – a truism that’s reflected in the language of the self. In English, temporary states and permanent attributes are both addressed by the singular "I am," creating a static container for selfhood — one that perhaps makes our present day... See more