ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that special providence must be given to digital technologies for understanding the constitution of self, identity and everyday life. Digital technologies involve, among other things, intimate communications, shared ideas and the making of identities. It is perhaps easy enough to see why technological innovation presents self-identity with a problem. If self-identity is partly built out of interaction with the wider world, technology might be said to go all the way down into the very fabric of lived experience and personal life. Whilst it is crucial to look at the consequences of digital technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence in terms of the global economy, employment and unemployment, it is also vital to look at its implication in terms of the self and social relations. In the twenty-first century, self-identity has come to mean, among other things, social networking, status updates, posts, blogs, virtual reality apps, artificial intelligence cognitive architectures, cloud computing, big data and digital media.
