The Culture of Digital Identity

Since the early successes of Hotmail and MSN Messenger, Microsoft had fallen behind the internet wave and only made a successful comeback with MySpace, making social networking a household name and a teenage obsession. With the freedom to paint their personal space with as many garish pixels as they fancy, MySpace became the perfect foil for the identity crisis that is the mixed blessing of adolescence.

However, while it may be teenagers who are largely powering MySpace, Facebook and other social networks where users chat with at least 5 ‘friends’ at any given moment, the apparent need for a digital resume has infected us all. Once upon a time you were nobody if you didn’t have a cell phone and a business card, now you’re scarcely taken seriously if you can’t point towards an example of your work online, if not an actual website.

Frank Schilling, a top internet analyst and virtual real estate baron, recently said in his blog that if he had to start all over again he’d get into the business of helping people cater their digital footprint. Apply for a job these days or go on a blind date and it’s odds on that your employer or nervous potential partner will Google your name just to see what comes up.

In years to come we’ll hear lots more about this. In a world that revolves around by ego – at least, when love is taking a break – who you are online will be an automatic character reference and you’d better hope that it’s good. If not, there will surely be professionals who can help you smooth out your digital image for a price.

But one’s digital resume will probably take all kinds of other forms, too, away from the online world, if there will be such an escape in the future. With the next generation of phones/mini pc’s taking leaps forward each year, I don’t doubt that we’ll soon be carrying out digital identity with us at all times. Police will be able to check out legal status by giving us a quick scan as they go past and store video screens will greet us back as returning customers. There are micro chips embedded already within clothes that do this.

But the image that comes to my mind is of singles bars. Love of technology making us ever more reserved, as we spend more time talking to people through devices than in the flesh, we’ll eventually become as shy as the Japanese. Instead of approaching someone in a bar to ask what they do and where they’re from, we’ll simply scan their identity with our handheld devices, check their MySpace account and see if we have anything in common. People will set their marital status, income – who knows, maybe even sexual preferences – and we’ll all be saved a good deal of wasted small talk and rejection. Digital invites will replace lingering eye contact and inviting smiles.

Go ahead, laugh. My Google footprint is spotless. I’m ready for the age to come.