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Saturated Identity

In the last half of the 20th century, people's daily experiences began to be transformed through technological change. Saturated identity (also referred to as saturated self ) refers to the idea that self is increasingly saturated or filled to overflowing by the unceasing stimuli available via technological advancements. Social psychologist Kenneth Gergen coined the term saturated self to address the relationship between the individual and his or her social environment, which is technologically dynamic. Identity scholars are interested in the saturated self because this idea points to the multiple possibilities that exist as an individual continuously emerges and reforms one's identity in relationship with others. Although social and informational technologies assault the self through massive stimulation, they also hold the possibility for advancing community over individualism and promoting more meaningful relationships.

Identity: A Normative Product

In shaping one's identity, what a person is really like is a product of the ideological, intellectual, political, economic, and literary forces that construct culture, as well as the historical moment of which one is a partone's cultural inheritance. At various points in time, different views of the self have dominated social thought. The romanticist conception of self gave rise to a vocabulary of moral feeling, loyalty, and inner joy. The modernist view of personality held the reason and observation manifest in science, government, and business as central to human functioning. Historically, identities were seen as more stable and reliable, created through face-to-face interaction, which enabled a firm sense of self. There was strong agreement on patterns of right and wrong, and one could simply be.

As the modern self began to be pulled in different directions through technology, people experienced an enhanced sense of playing a role and acting a part to achieve various goals. With the emergence of postmodern pluralism came an increasing sensitivity to the social construction of reality. No self exists independently of the relationships and context in which one finds oneself. There is no individual essence(s) to which a person remains true or committedalthough one may adhere to romanticist and modern views of the self that are also available as a possibility within postmodernity. Identity is continuously emerging and reformed through relationships with others made possible by cell phones, the Internet, and other emerging technologies. Lived experiences are saturated with textuality and discourse. Popular culture barrages people with images and aspects of potential identities that can be purchased or developed.

Identity: Multiplicity and Fragmentation

A person shapes one's identity by populating the self or infusing multiple partial identities. Multiphrenia refers to the fragmenting or splitting of the individual into multiple areas of self-investment. Each area of self-investment informs aspects in the creation of selfwhether to invest (or not) in athletic, culinary, musical, intellectual, and other pursuits as a means to define oneself. One may experience vertigo thinking about the unlimited possibilities for creating one's identity. A pastiche personality emerges because it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish a core essence(s) to which one will remain true. Compared with a modern sense of self, in postmodernity authenticity becomes frayed and a perception of superficiality emerges. As social saturation occurs, people imitate selected patterns of being that are introduced by others. Each “truth” about one's identity is constructed in a particular moment and true for a specific time within certain relationships. At different times, people foreground selected aspect(s) of their identity, which is at the same time influenced by fragments of other identity practices.

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