Definition
Identity has two faces, the identity you refer to as ‘myself’ and the identity that people refer to as ‘you’. Obviously, this is the definition of identity that each person applies to themselves. This remains true online, the only difference is that it’s possible to maintain identities that can’t be connected to the physical ‘you’. It’s apt that it’s applied to any given thing, not just people.
Elaboration
That is to say, online you can have an identity completely disconnected from the physical you. You may be able to act or behave in ways that are more natural to your identity. This is simply the nature of the digital medium. Save your energy, assume people are going to act exactly as they please.
Just because it’s possible to maintain an identity that’s completely personal to you, doesn’t mean it’s the case. It is in the best interest of digital companies to centralize your identity and tie it to the physical you. If this wasn’t the case, our problems with “technology” (conflated to mean the digital realm specifically) wouldn’t be with targeted advertising, algorithms controlling what we see, and addictive feedback loops.
Do your own calulus
A bit confusingly, but it’s by definition to the same to say: The only difference is that it’s now possible to maintain identities at different imagined locations. Imagine a space where every thought, desire, or atom of energy was mapped out and organized. Each single point in this space is a possible identity. By definition, this is the space of possibility within identity.
You can now notice that in both of the definitions the same thing is being described in its respective analogy. The first describes identity intrinsically and extrinsically, the second describes the difference between physical and digital identity. Now, with a description of digital identification and physical identification, you can extrapolate what’s implied: Identity is a reference point agnostic of medium (domain). Applying this for a sanity check: In the medium of physical reality, any reference point I choose can be an identity, any reference point I choose can be an identity. This checks out because at that location there can be only one physical thing. That thing can also have multiple identities, just as it can be a particle and a wave.
In the medium of digital reality, any information point I choose can be an identity. Say I was to post the same exact thing on social media site X and Y. While it’s the content itself is the exact same, it is not the same information point. There is a context that surrounds the content on each site that is not the exact same. Therefore, this can’t be the same information point.
While it’s logical to think of these as identities, it’s more grammatically sound to think of information points as identifiers to some physical identity. This is because nothing is ‘real’ online even though it has real impacts on our physical world. We can’t live our lives completely online, so for anyone to make money they will tie it back to reality.
Just as we can imagine a space of any digital identity, we can use that imagined space where identity is instead a source of connection AND NOT a source of money. You must imagine some part of that identity space you may have never felt before. Imagine a space where communications can arrive to you via any source. A space where you can block out noise, but never fear censorship. This is real and exists, these are the principles of the Fediverse. The only thing stopping you from switching is the censorship of constantly centralizing platforms and convincing your friends to move to a safer space.
TAKE ACTION!
Learn how digital fascism centralizes control of your identity away from you