Young adults and their digitally extended selves: Assessing the impact of gender

• Published date: 01 August 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2064
• Date: 01 August 2020
• Author: Shweta Kushal,Lubna Nafees,Rajendra V. Nargundkar

ACADEMIC PAPER

Young adults and their digitally extended selves: Assessing

the impact of gender

Rajendra V. Nargundkar

1

| Lubna Nafees

2

| Shweta Kushal

3

1

Marketing, Indian Institute of Management

Indore, Indore, India

2

Marketing, Appalachian State University,

Boone, North Carolina

3

Communication, Indian Institute of

Management Indore, Indore, India

Correspondence

Shweta Kushal, Indian Institute of

Management Indore, India, Prabandh Shikhar,

Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore 453556, Madhya

Pradesh, India.

Email: shweta@iimidr.ac.in

This paper explored the concept of the extended self in the context of virtual realities

and spaces, and through the prism of gender. It demonstrated the manner in which

selves are constructed and presented on social media platforms. Through this

enquiry, the study showed that both genders engage in self-construction in diverse

ways, with different impacts in terms of the tools used for self-presentation. The

study can be useful in terms of assessing young adults' behaviors in the virtual arena

and analyzing the various ways of extending self.

1|INTRODUCTION

1.1 |The construction of self

Human beings engage in self-construction through various means such

as language, dress,and material possessions. Immanuel Kant delineates

self-consciousness into two parts: consciousness of oneself (empirical

self-consciousness) and the accompanying psychological states in the

inner sense (transcendental apperception), and their expression via per-

formed acts of apperception (Kant, 1798). This awareness pushesindi-

viduals to project selves in various aspects of life as self-constructions

are means to portray beliefs about self, including “attributes and who

and what the self is”(Baumeister, 1999) because consciousness of self

emerges from how one appears to self, as we “know even ourselves

only …as appearance”(Kant, 1781, p. 278). Psychologist Carl Rogers

(1959) proposedthree paradigms for self-conceptualization

1. Self-image: The view constructed for self.

2. Self-worth/self-esteem: The value placed on self.

3. Ideal self: The ideal state to be achieved.

These are inextricably linked as the degree of uniformity between

the first and last is directly proportional to the congruence that indi-

viduals experience. Self-description is done through four types of

statements: physical descriptions, social roles, statements of personal-

ity, and abstract existential statements (Kuhn, 1960).

Therefore, it can be argued that self-conceptualization is twofold.

Lewis (1990) distinguished between self through universal categories

such as gender, age, skill, and social roles (Categorical) and through

distinction (Existential), a sense of being “separate and distinct from

others and the awareness of the constancy of the self”(Bee, 1992).

Self-conceptualization has many factors shaping it, with four major

influencers: response received from others, especially individuals who

hold some significance; comparisons with others; social roles; and the

manner and degree of relating to others (Argyle, 2009). Moreover,

relation to objects and possessions that contribute to a sense of being

extends that being into these possessions, forming the Extended Self.

1.2 |Extended self

Russell Belk (1988) observed that the self is constituted of three states

of existence—having, doing, and being. The extended self is hierarchical

and is made of four layers—individual, family, community, and group.

James (1890) argues, “We feel and act about certain things that are ours

very much as we feel and act about ourselves”(p. 291). Therefore, the

individual becomes an ensemble of various objects and possessions,

which represent the diversity and incongruity of the total self (Belk,

1984; Solomon & Assael, 1988). However, the loss of any object/posses-

sion that makes up this ensemble results in immense grief and mourning,

akin to bemoaning the passing of a loved one (Rosenblatt, Walsh, & Jack-

son, 1976). This grief stems from the bereavement of the self invested in

these objects. In the digital world, the idea of identity constantly evolves

and is progressively impacted by the influence of the virtual. Selves are

constructed in more dynamic manners through expression in social and

public spaces, such that even this bereavement becomes nuanced.

Received: 10 September 2019 Accepted: 21 November 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2064

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2064. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of9

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2064