Carefree Wandering
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2021–2022
26:05 · 219K views · Feb 24, 2021
A philosophy lecture by Professor Moeller on the philosophy of identity. It builds on a discussion of Abigail Thorn's video and covers authenticity, sincerity and how online profiles reshape identity.
Cited in threads on social media and online identity as a framework of sincerity, authenticity and profilicity.
3 comments from Hacker News
Professor Hans Georg-Moeller of the University of Macau I think has some really good observations and a systematization of what he calls the "profilicity mode of identity production", as contrasted to "authenticity" and "sincerity". He frequently comments on how social media causes people to view their actions not directly, but on a "second order", through the eyes of the "general peer" as personified by the quantified likes and comments posts get on social media. I haven't done a great job summarizing here but he has a youtube channel with some good videos on the topics: this video [LINK] I think his framework helps a lot in making sense of the way people act online and offline in our current age, and the implications for "identity production" are quite interesting.
This reminds me of this video[0] of a philosophy teacher who argues that we've entered a new era of "identity" where identities are based on curated profiles vs. what it used to be, around so-called "authenticity." One of the aspects of that is our identities are curated now to appeal to the "average online follower" (he calls it the "general peer") which is an abstraction of the "typical" person we cater to to get engagement (likes, follows, etc). [0] Forgot video: this video Timestamp when he talks about the general peer this video
For starters, re: first story ("subject: Exoskeletal unease"), it is interesting to see some meta perspective on identity creation [0] as it shifts from sincerity, through authenticity, to profilicity. Let us just not forget that we can still take a walk and look real person into the eye. [0]. "The Philosophy Of Identity" - this video