Are you the REAL you lately?

How decentralised digital medias could impact the lack of human identity?

A lifetime seeking to follow trends. Products acquired to look more like others. A person’s identity lost into someone else’s life.

Influence x Authenticity. Photo by José Silveira

How much does your authenticity cost? Are you really someone that you want to be?

“OH, MY GOOD! I just saw these BEAUTIFUL lips on TikTok. I will get mine the same!”.

“Instagram showed me this post of YOGA. It looks nice. That might be a sign to start”

“I didn’t know the existence of this cosmetic procedure but saw this post and it looks interesting”.

To be fair, it’s hard to know what came from the inner us or a stimulated desire from anything published online. In this case, the centralised system of digital medias operates as a major commander on whatever comes to define new habits, ideas and identity expression.

To think deeply in this topic, let’s dive into the opposite: the AT protocol, which is a decentralised and open source digital networks. Is there any impact on how we deal with self-expression?

Personal Data

According to AT Protocol webpage, users possess their own data, different from centralised social networks, which is in the domain of a company, that process your data the way they find relevant for business purposes. This means that users can’t control whatever had been done with their personal details. We actually know where this data go to.

Being the owner of our own data could lead us to believe that, at least, our ID is out of easily reach of organisations that want us to think, breath, buy and manage our life the way is more appropriate to them. This might turn us into more self-regulated.

Dog on a train. Photo by José Silveira

AT Protocol & Human Identity

Imagine you are a dog, with a collar and a muzzle. You feel free at home, because you were taught to like your house, but can never go out without orders. Many things you do was previously defined by your owner. They know what dogs would want to do, and this is acceptable to everyone.

At different levels, we are all manipulated by society, that extends its power on social media. Digital environments based on AT Protocol, however, appear to break the collars and muzzles.

We are still a dog, but freer.

Happy and cute dog. Photo by José Silveira

This innovative open system gives us more autonomy on how to organise and what to consume in our social spaces. We are able to define subjects we will relate to and even how the feed and algorithm work for us, without imposing content that sell a specific thinking or desire as “true” and “everyone else is doing”, that will shape your identity.

This can still happen in decentralised medias such as BlueSky, of course, but with less frequency, as there is no longer an intelligence operation aimed to keep you in their platform, behaving the way they want.

Authority of interests

When we discuss self-expression, we can’t forget to mention interests. The freedom we get to define whatever we will consume lead to a certain control of interests, as it is previously defined, not suggested.

Centralised protocol networks also provide opportunities to consume real interests, otherwise we wouldn’t be there. However, it strategically works with these interests to provoke others, repeatedly, until you get yourself immersed in content that is not originally part of who you are. In this case, we might think our authenticity is not exactly nice, considering what we have seen.

RESULT: Comparation. Depreciation. Lack of potential.

In conclusion, AT Protocol platforms are away to become a paradise, but might be closer to healthier digital experiences that highlights people’s authenticity. At least more than whichever digital environments we were used to.

It’s still important to be brave enought to express yourself and follow your essence.

What’s your level of “dogness”?

If you liked this article, I would love to discuss more with you in the comments below.

Leave your genuine opinion. Let’s exchange.