created 2025-05-04, & modified, =this.modified
rel: Love Letters - Saving Romance in the Digital Age by Michelle Janning Consuming Romantic Utopia - Eva Illouz
NOTE
Theory of Russell Belk.
Extended Self (1988)
Thought
Our possessions are a major contributor to and reflection of our Identities. A variety of evidence is presented supporting this simple and compelling premise. Related streams of research are identified and drawn upon in developing this concept and implications are derived for consumer behavior. Because the construct of extended self involves consumer behavior rather than buyer behavior, It appears to be a much richer construct than previous formulations positing a relationship between self-concept and consumer brand choice.
How does having more affect this extended self?
The concept is not new, William James (1890)
a man’s Self is the the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body and his psychic powers…
The extended self, is not me but mine.
Prelinger Study - Categorization of self - 3 (most) to 0 (least)
Niederland and Sholevar (1981) also suggest that for many young American males, the automobile is a part of their extended selves and their ego ideals.
Thought
Auto-mobile and mobile- phone
Auto (self), mobile (moving).
Objects can literally allow us greater access/or augmentation (a gun, stilts etc).
Objects are integral to our sense of the past, and confer our own mastery of the objects.
- furniture
- visual art (created by family or friends)
- photographs
Relationship to nostalgia.
Contamination - Walter Benjamin’s Aura
Modes of interpersonal contamination:
- violation of one’s personal space
- touching and bodily contact;
- glancing, looking or staring;
- noise pollution;
- Talking to/addressing one;
- Body excreta
Special Cases
- Money - is seen as profane and must be converted into more tangible goods. “In the fantasy, “this other ‘rich me’ would not merely have more money, but would be changed fundamentally, would be stronger, less fearful, more charming, wiser, less vulnerable, and so on. Money is endowed with magical powers” (Wiseman 1974, p. 10). Money is thought to bring love, fame, and respect. Money is commonly seen as a symbol of success and power.“
- Pets - “love me, love my dog”
- Other people
- Body Parts
- Vicarious Consumption - (mukbang?) Adorning with gifts - “If one’s spouse is seen as an extension of self, it would seem to follow that the success of a spouse should raise one’s self-esteem in much the same way as personal success.”
Digital Extended Self (2013)
All this content forms a rich collection that reflects who you are and what you think… . When others respond with a comment or retweet, they’re adding value to your collection. As more … photos, … movies, and e-mail messages are created, the entire collection becomes a fuller reflection of you. (Carroll and Romano 2011)
Five changes emerging
- Dematerialization
- Reembodiment
- Sharing
- Co-construction of self
- Distributed memory
| Digital Dimension | Self | Possessions |
|---|---|---|
| Dematerialization | - | Attachment to and singularization of virtual possessions are almost, but not quite the same |
| Reembodiment | Avatars affect online self; multiplicities of self | Attachment to avatars |
| Sharing | Self revelation; loss of control | Aggregate possessions; sense of shared place online |
| Co-construction of self | Affirmation of self; building aggregate extended self; “Attachment to virtual possesions” | - |
| Distributed Memory | Narratives of self | Digital clutter; digital cues of sense of the past |
Dematerialization
Things are disappearing before our eyes. The digital world can dematerialize our possessions. Rows of once CDs now reside inside our computers or distant servers.
There is evidence that consumers become attached to such virtual consumer goods, fear and mourn their loss, and singularize them. Just as Belk (1988) found that theft of possessions inflicts injury on the extended self, Martin (2008) notes a Second Life resident who lost her inventory of possessions due to a code bug. Even when the goods were restored, she wrote that “my inventory is back but I’m a shadow of my former self”
Reembodiment
We have lost the constraints of our former physical bodies.
Reembodiment in an avatar is characterized by Biocca (1997) as a progressive process. Together with designing our avatar, giving it a name, learning to operate it, and becoming comfortable with it, we gradually not only become reembodied but increasingly identify as our avatar.
People are attached to their avatars, particularly their “first born”.
Multiplicity - there are multiple personalities available, and characters.
Proteus effect
People change spending even small amounts of time wearing an avatar.
The Proteus effect describes a phenomenon in which the behavior of an individual, within virtual worlds, is changed by the characteristics of their avatar.
Visual characteristics and traits are associated with specific behavioral stereotypes, so when people inhabit an avatar they’ll work to fulfill these expectations.
Virtual world environments allow users to control many aspects of their appearance that they cannot easily change in the real world (e.g., height, weight, facial features).
People are reported to be more confident and extraverted when compared to their real world behavior, when inhabiting a more attractive avatar.
Sharing
Digital devices help us share more, as well as more broadly than ever before.
Co-construction of Self
For the most part our digital involvement is social in nature (blogs, comments, messages)
Distributed Memory
Outsourcing memory. There are digital technologies that allow recording and archival of memories.
- phone contact lists,
- calendars,
- files,
- calculators Digital Clutter. Without judicious planning, given the sheer abundance our digital traces, those left behind may well be left with an unfathomable surfeit of files, links, emails, and other digital flotsam and jetsam.
Giddens - our identity is to keep a particular narrative going.
Distributed digital memory also operates at the level of collective memory and aggregate extended self. The proliferation of our online photos, videos, posts, blogs, and timelines also provides cues that link us to memories constituting both individual and collective sense of past.