Coolest ideas for digital marketing. Use the power of true Virtual Identity. 

I would like to set the foundation of this post right away with this brilliant observation conceived by Nietzsche about hundred years ago. The reason I believe this as solid foundation for our subject i.e. Digital Identity in 2022, is simply because the observation, very aptly, summarises the history of human evolution with respect to its identity, without missing out on the value system that most of us grew up with. 

The exemplary human being... 

I've always seen myself drawn towards linking knots between the Indian and Western civilisations. I feel a lot more connected to my journey of growth when I see, read and take cues form the rich ancient Indian texts while deriving my observations and sharing those under the umbrellas of western philosophy. 

Now coming back to the exemplary human being - If the blue planet, Earth with a billion years of birthday celebrations behind us and about 20,000 years of recorded human history, one take aways is clear, world has moved ahead faster and in a comprehensive manner, since the Ice age or since the time when our ancestors started thinking. Travelling, struggling, perishing through the test of time, modern man has come a long way. But what was that one need or that one urgent desire which forced the modern man to strive with hard struggle and fight? Let's see if answer to that question appears in the rest of this post.

Representation...

Accomplished human beings require to be represented. Their representation can be a set of symbols or undersigned paintings or even credits to a song, in digital age we denote the ownership of the representation through copyrights. In all scenarios, the exemplary human being does not wish to be il/mis-represented, in fact on the contrary, he/she tries hard and harder to be known, perceived as close as possible to their desired identity - their true identity or the fake identity. However the case may be, weather a true self or a fake self, does not matter (at least for now) we need convincing ideas of representation. Now hang on with me it gets interesting here, in order to represent myself (8000 year old man) I'm happy to carve a few sharp stones into sharper tools and show off to my peers how cool my new stoney knife is. But if i have to represent myself (35 years old man) today in 2022, what'll make me happy is an image. An image that represents my true or truest false identity, I need not get in front of everybody to show off my new symbol, I can just buy a space and place it there. Let's welcome Brand Identity. 

Now the question for you is which identity to market? The true one or the fake one? Choice will be yours, it does not matter, we live in a grey world, every time you take a step you're killing at least a hundred tiny cells if not less. but what matters is how truthfully can you represent your desired identity. So if you're still with me let's dive in a bit deeper and observe that - the exemplary human being (that surely he/she was with all those years of evolutionary practice behind them) when came of age thought to himself "Ooh la la I need to represent myself and even better, if I can be friends with creativity. It was a new dawn in the history of human kind - Creativity - was not a child anymore. Creativity stood up and asked while claiming her spot; What comes first, need to represent or the need to communicate? This can be a nice blog post in itself, but I think they both are sisters, communicate the elder sister - calm, & calculative, represent the younger one - also calm but within the boundary & calculative but to its own benefit first. But the good and the bad part is that they both can't travel or be seen without each other, they have to stick together otherwise they loose their significance. This dependency is what I like to name "The quarrelsome sisters Code". So correct me if I'm incorrect to say that; the more factual & honest communicate and represent will remain to each other the lesser will they be quarrelsome; the lesser they be quarrelsome, the higher ground will be that of Creativity. So correct me again if I'm incorrect again to say that; Will a higher level of creativity lead to a larger impact of the Representation? In short folks, just be factual, honest & close to the identity for better representation. 

Must craft his/her own identity...

By the time the humankind figured out creativity in representation is a deal breaker it was widely adopted by the masses, creativity was having a gala time, this continued for a good part of the 19th century. Identity so far was sitting quietly and watching & observing all the changes going around, she did not want to be a part of this rat race and was happy in her own calm. But the dark clouds were hanging just around the horizon and voila we have a global disease making it's entry into the the whole tomato puree which was cooking so far in the backyard of the humankind- lock, stock & barrelled. Identity was forced woken up jolted up out of its comfy chair (thanks to calculated efforts of represent and communicate it wasn't snoozing). 

Representation of identity was never such an urgent need as it is today post the global disease hit us all. We'll not go in the detail of why. But let's venture into the how. How do I represent my identity in 2022? All the brands are asking in unison. By learning to craft. One of the Google meanings of Craft is "the skill used to deceive others". Lets hold on to that for a bit and move ahead to the medium to be used according to Nietzsche.

Through self realisation... 

In the beginning of this blog we had a glimpse to my fascination with identity as a synchrony among the West and the Indian school of thought. And this is where our man Nietzsche nails it for me. The exemplary human being must craft his/her own identity through self realisation. Now spare me with the part of Self realisation, let us leave it for another time, maybe for a blog post on Digital Spirituality. 

All self realisations begin with questions on oneself, but for once let's get back to the hero of our post, Mr Nietzsche, made this claim in the late 18th century, when a large chunk of the world population was dying either because of disease or hunger. He comes out in his essay and says, stop crying and complaining for those gone, but start making your efforts count, not for yourself but for the humanity, for those who come after you (this is my personal interpretation btw). 

When a man or a woman realise something on their own is self realisation. Simple! But there is more to it, a character, a main role, our protagonist's only friend, a charged body of mass, meet Mr Experience. Mr Experience is a talk, dark and needless to say a handsome man, he is neither too rich nor too poor, he has a legacy of its own and is not weighed with the material possessions but his insightful speeches. When he speaks, he does it with all heart and soul, he remains true to his core character that of an "experienced man" and fulfils his duties while telling the truth. But experience has not been lucky always, he has seen betrayals, rejections, chilling encounters & what not but the silver lining is, Mr Experience cherishes life that as is. 

Physical identity speaks of the appearance, while digital identity speaks of the values. Physical identity refers to attributes, while digital identity refers to credentials. You see it all is part of one yogic activity of evolutions. New schemes will keep accommodating themselves in place of the old ones and the cycle will continue. Self realisation is inevitable if not in this life then the next one, elevating on the scale of self realisation is the entire summary of evolution, weather you take part in it or not, you 'are' a part of it. 

So the exemplary human being must craft his/her own identity through self-realisation. And after doing so, the 'very' exemplary human being must then lend this new found identity to their brand, a product, a service or even a personal brand. 

So the flowchart so far goes like this

• Exemplary man- Starts thinking and represents himself apart from others for a unique distinct identity. 
• Crafts his/her identity- The unique identity ceases to be unique if theres help from others or help from someone else's life. True identity is crafted by one's own accord. Always!
• Through self-realisation- The life and its lessons are unique to each one of us and its all the more relevant for a true digital identity. I & only I'm the authority over my identity. It's my own journey and nobody can explain better to me than myself. Even the most established brands come of age and change through self-realisation.

And do so without relying on anything that transcends that life... (like God or a soul)...

Now this is the interesting part. When we cannot rely on anything that is beyond this life and its various schemes, then what is it that we can rely on? In my limited understanding, the only aspect we can then rely on is something which is non transcending this life, it begins with this life and ends with it, but just like all other conscious and non-conscious efforts, the impact remains, because for even action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You see now? It's the 'human action' which is the most non-transcending determinant yet the most underrated. Human action is the basis of the journey of the exemplary man, human action is the foundation for crafting ones own identity, human action is the source of all self-realisations, human action is the spot light for all that is non-transcending, action are factual and have their energy source derived from ones intellect.

Hence before any digital identity exercise or ideation just...

The 'act' will teach you, well in time.