Image and identity in the virtual dimension of the world: a postphenomenological approach.

Abstract

In this paper, we will start from the question about how human identity processes occur to photographic images shared in the virtual environment, specifically on social networks. Our approach will be postphenomenological. Our proposals are: (i) the photographic images shared on social networks are one of the links that intertwine the Virtual Dimension of the World (VDW) with the Earthly Dimension of the World (EDW); (ii) for the same reason, human existence is not restricted to one or the other, but both of them are in the plurality and multiplicity of existing and being alive; (iii) the photographic images shared in virtuality are part of an identity process, destined to be shown to others; (iv) VDW has, as one of its fundamental characteristics, the constant possibility of experiencing existence from an accelerated, aesthetic and poeticized perception. We will also point out, along with these proposals, how this phenomenon modifies the ways in which we perceive, know and understand the world of life. In conclusion, we propose to understand the DVM and the DTM not as two realities that exclude each other, thinking the other as false, but as two dimensions of the same world; each with its own characteristics, but always part of the same world. Technology, and what it provides, is an extension of human capacity that broadens understanding and analysis of the world's material.