Metaphors of identity: from the "inner world" to virtual identities

Abstract

The concept of identity is a multiform notion. Many authors have addressed it from Psychology to Sociology, Anthropology and Cultural Studies. Historically we find first an identification with the gods, the earth and blood. In Modernity, the individual is separated from its community and its original circumstances, developing a higher degree of individual autonomy. In our present mediatized societies, reality is not only mediated by information and communication technologies, but also recreated through virtual technologies and thus deductible to equations, data and information. This process is reshaping our identities, which have suffered transformations imposed by the shock and the juxtaposition between the process of globalization and local cultures, distorting mechanisms of cultural identification, models, values and styles. As a conclusion, we present three 'dimensions' in which identity processes are built: referential, inter-referential and selfreferential. Finally, we ask ourselves what Nietzsche did 100 years ago: “is that which I am, that, for you, I am no longer? Is that what 'I am', that, for you, I am not? Is it that I have become another? Am I a stranger to myself?