Technology, Humanity, and Identity: A Philosophical Essay

This essay delves into the philosophical implications of technology on human identity, exploring how technological advancements, particularly in social media and artificial intelligence, are reshaping our sense of self. It discusses the ease of creating fake identities online, the potential for technology to control our identities, and the ethical concerns surrounding government surveillance and data collection. The essay also examines the impact of technology on our daily lives, noting our increasing reliance on it and the possibility of a future where humans merge with technology. Ultimately, it argues for the importance of maintaining self-identity in the face of rapid technological progress and the need to control technology rather than be controlled by it, offering a critical reflection on the evolving relationship between technology and humanity.

Technology and People: Are We Slowly Forgetting Our
Identity?

Who Are We? What Does Identity Mean To Us?
We are human beings – the most advanced and intelligent organism on
Earth. We have control over almost the planet and other organisms and we
can do what we want. What makes us different from other animals living on
Earth? A sense of identity. We belong to one species but each individual is
different from everybody through identity. Any human on this earth can be
identified through his identity. Of course identity does not only include the
“name” of the person as two or more persons can have the same name and
the same surname. Identity covers much more than that – an identity
includes some unique attributes that can be used to differentiate one
particular person from anybody else. An identity may include a number (or
ID, as in Voter ID), personal characteristics, looks, any physical deformities (if
any) or any other characteristic attribute.
How Has Technology Affected Our Identity?
From learning to light fire by the forced friction of stones, technology has
come a long way through the centuries of human history. In addition to
making our lives easier, technology has also made a lot of impact on our
lives including our identity. Now, we can be identified and spotted from
anywhere on earth through a simple identity number and GPS navigation
system. In social media, most of us have our own accounts where we talk,
share media, interact with known and unknown people – all in one virtual

platform where nobody can see the other people. We are simply represented
by our “profile picture” or “dp” and some information about us written by us
on the “About” section. Are all the profiles in the social media real? The
answer is No. There are millions of fake accounts reported in Facebook itself.
Fake account means some is using the platform with a profile that is not
him / her; he / she uses some random and abstract or someone else’s
pictures and some fake information about him / her written on the profile.
Here, the user hides behind the fake identity and acts as a different person
completely in the fake profile. Often it is a part of a prank for a friend or a
sibling but in most of the cases, it is much more serious. Many people use
fake accounts to stalk other people, fight with known and unknown people in
the social media, steal and use someone else’s pictures to mimic him / her in
the social media and many others.

Not only social media, identity faking can also be done in other things as well
– development of counterfeit certificates, licenses, cards and others are also
deliberately done to steal someone else’s identity. With the aid of
technology, very high quality counterfeits like fake passports, visa, driver
license, credit cards and others that can be easily misused by some
unethical person trying to get into a country illegally or steal money from
someone else’s account. Again, there are many entities in the internet that
trick users by attracting them with offers to click on a particular link and then
ask for personal information. When the user enters his information, they are
immediately stolen and misused for unethical purposes.

What Role Does Technology Play In Stealing Identity?
Technology is the biggest weapon for stealing or faking identity. Creating
fake IDs, counterfeits, fake documents and others would not have been
possible if not for the stellar growth of technology. Technology allows us to
create high quality fake documents and other stuffs that is almost
undistinguishable from the real document or thing. Keeping aside the fake
and unethical stuff, let us look into social media and our identity in social
media. Our social media accounts are only representations of a small part of
us – a social media profile does not define a person or his / her actual
characteristics and attributes in real life. Since it is a virtual platform, it is
easy to hide ourselves from others – a very kind and gentle boy in real life
can act as a hostile and toxic person in the social media and a very toxic boy
in real life can act as a very good, gentle and caring person in social media.
Unless anyone knows him personally, nobody is going to know how that
person is in real life. In other words, it is very easy to create a fake image of
oneself in social media even if that person is using some real information and
self photos. But what does it mean for us? Are we losing our identities? The
answer is more or less, yes. We are constantly in the process of trying to be
someone that we are not, we like to act like a different person in front of
others and technology is just aiding us. A recent web series by Netflix named
“Black Mirror” depicted this problem quite well in its episodes. One of its
episodes show that with advanced technology, one person is able to “block”
another person in real life that is only possible in social media right now. In

another episode, it shows that a person is judged and recruited in a job
based on the “social media rating” the person has and in order to increase
rating, the person is constantly faking her identity in the media. While these
types of technology is not available it, it is well into possibility that they will
come soon and once these technologies arrive, that would signify complete
loss of identity of a person.
A Moment from Black Mirror where the Person is Checking Her Social Media Rating
What Next From Here?
The pace at which technology is evolving, it will not be possible for us to
maintain our own identities anymore. Social media takeover will happen
soon – already social media has taken over a major part of our lives and
soon, we will all be completely “eaten” by social media. Futuristic authors

have suggested that soon we will have technology by which we will be able
to “upload” ourselves in the internet i.e. our consciousness will stay on even
if that person is dead in real life. But the main concern is, is there someone
who can control our identities? Already in the current technology, we have
some identifications like fingerprints, eye retina scans, ID number and some
other details that are stored in the government databases. In other words,
the governments can anytime anywhere track us including our movements,
actions and others. Conspiracy theorists have voiced several times that
these identification IDs and cards are tools governments use to spy on
common people. While governments claim that this is essential for the
convenience of the citizens, the spy theory cannot be completely ignored as
well. This raises a lot of ethical and privacy issues and control of identity is
only one of them. This does not stop here. Sci-Fi movies have shown us how
citizen database can be misused by advanced drone technology to
immediately execute suspects without even checking whether that suspect
is actually the criminal or not. Of course we do not have such advanced
technology just yet but they will come soon – drone technology is already
well developed and citizen database is already created and made possible by
cloud computing. Who are at the receiving ends of these? Of course the
citizens and the common people. The rapid pace at which technology is
evolving and how the identities of people are being faked and controlled, it
sounds ominous for the common people considering the technological
progress in the next 15-20 years.

Is Technology Controlling Us?
Technology has not taken full control over us, but it has got a lot of control
on us. In today’s setup, we are handicapped without technology. In
households, offices, schools, transport, restaurants and everywhere,
technology is the first necessity. Technology is inevitable. We can no longer
ignore the importance of technology in our lives. Not only that, we can no
longer stop the progress of technology. We are at a stage of civilisation
where technological progress just cannot stop. At the same time, we are
close to being overtaken by technology – we have already created robots
and artificial intelligence and that day is not far when the robots paired with
artificial intelligence control us, control our identities and control our daily
lives. Some have suggested that one day, we will merge with technology so
much that a new “cyborg” species will be created. While this is not what we
want or need right now, such type of development will be inevitable in some
time. Our planet is continuously degrading and becoming a less habitable
place to live and after a few decades, maybe becoming half-machine half-
human cyborg might be our only chance at survival in this planet. However,
whatever happens in the far future, we need to concentrate first on the
current situation, we need to control technology, not otherwise and
maintaining self-identity is necessary for everyone.

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