EXODUS of the self to the digital person

From me to you to all and vv

"Grill a Christian" 

We travel around on Social Media for hours a day in these recent times, with internal apps like WhatsApp and Signal to communicate with our friends and family, or the more external Facebook and Bluesky to expand the contacts from friends to the public. And TikTok, for instance, to add pics, videos, music, metadata, and the like. All within minutes, all within the reach of a few clicks on a phone, tablet, laptop, or pc.

A few clicks, or longer if you are old-school like me. But youth nowadays are all computer and social media-savvy, so they are handling their accounts really quickly.

And all that time, we present ourselves as a digital persona, false or true, with relevant information to answer the question: Who are you?

People want to know, and you are willing to serve.

It provides context for what you publish on Social media. It is both a blessing and a hindrance.

A blessing because it can lead to meaningful conversations and an expansion of worldview and social groups; a hindrance because it is limited to the digital world, and in a worst-case scenario, has nothing to do with who you are in real life.

Interacting in the digital world can be very dangerous. Like me the other day, you can get hacked and lose a lot of money because you so naively think that the other person in front of you is legit, truthful, and honest. Being naïve in this regard is not always the best attitude, but losing your ability to believe is also not preferable.

There has to be a balance in acting as the exo-self and working within strong boundaries, so as not to lose yourself in the process.

The downside to all of this is our interdependence of the internet. The system has to work. When we, God forbid, lose connection or are not able to enter the web for whatever reason, we will act like junkies without our daily fix.

A lot of us exist because we can interact as our digital self. Say goodbye to that, and we are in distress. For a while, anyway, depending on our age, history, and capabilities to live a meaningful life outside the realm of the internet.

The exo-self is present and future, which means we have to be extremely careful without losing the embrace of the wonders of this new world.

We learn and adapt as we go. That makes us human. Hopefully, we will always possess that quality. If only as a trace of memory, how we traveled from our past via the present into an unknown future. May God guide us.

As a new believer in God and Jesus Christ, there are a few things I would like to add to the above story.

Those strong boundaries I mentioned as not to lose yourself in the digital world, for me, are my Christian, aka Roman Catholic origin.

My inner self and thus my digital persona have changed in the last 6 weeks since I took on the faith like a new skin. It's still the same but not the same. It transcended into a new reality for me. And my exo-self moved along with that.

What's the difference from the old situation?

My taste in apps has changed. I have now downloaded apps such as Christian humor, the Vatican app, and Dutch Duolingo to learn Chinese; social groups have expanded and now involve my church, my pastor, and my bishop. I pay the offertory online and via the app in church; the Trinity is working offline as well as online for me.

Because it's still early days in this process of Christian belief, I hop to and fro from old to new situations. Things are not yet totally in balance. How could it? It’s a miracle happening with all the insecurities and questions that go along with it. I make mistakes, I stumble, I take shortcuts, and perhaps I am not as clear as I like to be. But there are people in my family, in my church, and among friends who help me. And of course, there are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so I am embedded in my online and offline journey, here at WdC and elsewhere.

The only thing that gets in my way at the moment is that my offline persona suffers from severe back pain. I walk bent like a hoop.

As an offline person, I have to deal with that. As an exo-self, I don’t have a physical body.

An important difference.

What that means is yet to be discovered. Although, of course, I type with one physical finger. And I breathe through my nose to let the online persona live. So, in a way, the digital self stays connected with the offline self with a body in the real world.

I am very glad about that. It prevents me from floating around; it keeps me firm on this earth. Like it should be. Like it is.

WC: 837

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