flâneur

From Shelf to Self: Identity Construction in the Digital World

blog.koodos.com · 1,152 words · saved by 1 readers

When we were thinking about ways to describe our flagship app, koodos — a media ‘wallet’, we often found ourselves using the analogy of things tacked up on bedroom walls. Or record collections. Or the books on one’s shelf. All of these represent a physical manifestation of who we are, what we are, and how we want those closest to us to perceive us.

When we were thinking about ways to incentivize people to re-aggregate all their data in one place, we often found ourselves returning to the metaphor of the shelf, to things tacked up on bedroom walls or record collections. All of these represent stores of our stuff and physical manifestations of who we are, what we are, or how we want those closest to us to perceive us. Using this framing, of the shelf as a proxy for the self, it’s an interesting coincidence that the words self and shelf are only one letter apart. Because to self-chronicle is to self-construct. The journey of identity…

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