David Foster Wallace unedited interview (2003)

One day I want to expand on the idea that our digital avatars, our images and representations of ourselves, become an extension of our own self-concept, in the same way our keyboard becomes an extension of our hands and our body. Our social media profiles, our timelines, photos, and digital content, become part of our selves, and we begin to identify with these time capsules we've created of ourselves, to the point where we _are_ the person in the photo, we _are_ that person on Facebook. It's a fundamentally backwards-facing view of the self that relies on historical or past depictions of an individual in order to define their current self-concept. It implies an immutability, a static, unchanging quality to the person, since after all - there "you" are, or at least all your photos and your memorabilia, your self-depictions and simulacra, committed to and preserved in the permanent record of the cloud. It's also one that emphasizes the importance of external markers and signals of identity - only those that can be extraverted - to the detriment of the inner life of the psyche, the private life of the mind which is not so readily available for examination or expression. This way of looking of ourselves through a digital black mirror continues to uphold the illusion of permanence; our self is like a river, and we never step in the same one twice - unless we freeze the river (in time) and post it to Instagram. Not to mention all the vanity and superficiality of Photoshop, filters