6 Picturing Ourselves

We continually rework the way we present ourselves as we grapple with new roles and ideals. Choices about which images and words we use to put ourselves forward are part of how we explore these role shifts. And it is through these expanded roles and perspectives that growth can occur, throughout life. As Kenneth Gergen argues in The Saturated Self, the pursuit of a “true” or “core” self is misguided.
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We have not one self but many. In Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle advanced this idea, defining the self as a distributed system, simultaneously playing many roles.
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