How many Identities do you live?
Give someone a Label and you’ll prevent Him to be Someone else
Some days ago an Ingress group planned to fly to a place and collect some artifacts to be transferred elsewhere.
Nothing new for a power Ingress player…until you think that the place is in one of the most dangerous warzone: Dagestank, in the Caspian Sea (Respubliki Prokuratura).
The USA and UK Governments claim that Dagestan remains the most violent region in North Caucasus, with more than 60 percent of all accidents in the region.
What happened then?
What made some players to take a so high risk?
The question is very complex (as Human Beings are…), so in this post I’ll discuss about Identity.
While Identity development starts from the fetus with the genes and the first interaction with the surroundings, the process becomes more and more complex as the person grows up, adding another important element.
The Interpersonal Identity
It develops by the interaction with the environment and with social interactions: it has a boost while socialization becomes a more and more important part of our Lives.
We are who we feel we are (Self Consciousness)…plus we are who we believe people think we are(Social Approval).
That’s why labels are so influential in our Lives: tell a child he’s a thief, and he will move to confirm it, tell a child he’s a good person, and he will act in order to confirm it.
Though these are not the only factors of a behavior, they are very influential.
Then the Web led us to another Identity layer…
The Virtual Identity
This is a projection of our mind attitudes, desires, self awareness.
It’s not our full Real Identity for it’s mediated by our goals, our expectations, the platforms design, etc…
It’s a representation, an image of a part of ourselves…plus something more…
As you can see it’s easy to influence this Identity by labels and roles.
As we play this Virtual Identity, it interacts with the Real Identity, entering a circular process where one influences the other, and vice versa.
The more they interact, the more their boundaries blur and dissolve, until a new Identity raise: the Hybrid Identity.
That said, the Identity of an Ingress player starts from the beginning by choosing the faction, but think what happens when he becomes a power players!
How about you?
How many Indentities do you live?
Share your experience in the comments and tell me your opinion.
