“Every time we change environments, there’s a curious dynamic that comes into play: a transformation of behavior leading to changes in language, often coupled with a feeling of ‘Am I being myself?’ It can be overwhelming as we try to reconcile identities across home, the workplace, and other contexts — especially when there’s so much pressure to be your whole ‘authentic’ self. And now? There’s a new universe evolving, further multiplying the spaces in which we engage and the relationships in which we partake.”
— Our Decentralized Selves: Creating in a Post-Identity Future, ZORA Zine
Identity Crisis
When looking to what’s next, our first stop is often Gen Z: heralded as our most identity-fluid generation yet, defying convention in favor of exploration and experimentation. As our cultural center of gravity, Gen Z inspires us to see identity as more flexible and expressive than we previously imagined — and increasingly, we have the tools available to take identity experimentation from idea to prototype in our own personal, digital R&D labs. From avatars and anons to simply trying on different versions of ourselves, fluidity is freeing. But that release doesn’t come without cost: Being between identities can be a disorienting experience, and we’re still trying to find our footing.
The Space Between Stories
The polycrisis we’ve been living through for the past few years has accelerated our descent into this liminal space. As Zak Stein wrote for Emerge, "We’re in a major world-historical moment of transformation, in which the old world is passing away, and the new world hasn’t emerged yet.” In so many ways this is a good thing: Our old ‘normal’ benefited a mere few, and its trajectory wasn’t going to course-correct any time soon. But liminal space is uncomfortable — like, deeply uncomfortable.
We — the world, society, all of it — are wrapped up in what feels like a cocoon: homely caterpillars in their transition to majestic butterflies. We’re tempted to romanticize the cocoon as a cozy representation of change and renewal, but have you ever thought about what actually happens in there? Austin Kleon has, reminding us that to realize its more beautiful form the caterpillar is “basically digesting itself.”
That’s a pretty good capture of what’s up right now. Liminality has the potential to breed creativity, innovation, and new beginnings — but for now, it seems we’re stuck in its muck.
Choose Your Fighter
In investigating identity, we’re taken by the ideas of Persona’s Rick Song: No longer seeing identity as a transactional, singular expression standardized across circumstances, but a dynamic, contextual, relationship. As micro-communities sprout left and right, so too do the tailored, niche identities we take on in these different spaces. Our newfound freedom of expression again comes with consequences: While we find belonging and affirmation through role-playing and embracing different sides of ourselves, a lack of continuity has us code-switching more than ever. We know there’s a mental health toll exerted by the pressure to code-switch, but does that apply when it’s our choice? Can fragmentation and flourishing co-exist? For now, we’re feeling our way through it.
DIY Dogma
If organized religions have offered us anything, it’s been unifying stories — divisive in many ways, but meaningful sources of cohesion and comfort for their adherents. As religious practice declines, particularly among young people, we’re left seeking meaning to fill their vacuum. What does this search look like? We call it DIY dogma. Or as VICE put it, "taste-testing religions to chart our own paths to spirituality.” While anchoring one’s personal philosophy in a custom spiritual salve is a boon to the individual, it fails to create the community connection that shared faith has offered so many for so long.
