The Afterlife of the Selfie: AI, Datafication, and the Future of Identity

The Afterlife of the Selfie: AI, Datafication, and the Future of Identity

In the finale of Self(ie) Reflections, Chhavi Sachdev joins Sai Amulya Komarraju, Avishek Ray, Neha Gupta, and Usha Raman to discuss the "afterlife" of the selfie.   They examine how selfies have evolved into digital infrastructure and tools for governance plus and the tension between using selfies to subvert norms and feeding a "network capitalism" that harvests data for surveillance. As our faces become data, who truly owns our digital existence?

Beyond the Selfie: Identity and the Performing Object on Instagram

In Episode 3, researchers Usha Raman and Anuja Premika examine digital self-presentation beyond the "selfie." Through the stories of #Bookstagrammer Kajree Gautam and illustrator Delwyn, the duo explores the "performing object." From curated book aesthetics to illustrations of parenting, they show how objects and art function as powerful tools for identity performance and personal branding within social media subcultures. If our objects speak for us, who are we really projecting?

The Digital Double: Performance, Technology, and the Selfie Subtitle:

In Episode 2, Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan and Pravanesh Subramanian explore the "digital double"—the algorithmic persona shaped by our online life. Using Goffman’s "staged performativity," they analyze how platform architecture dictates our self-presentation to both humans and AI. Selfies are now data points in an "image ecology" used for machine learning & surveillance. As generative AI untethers the self from reality, who truly controls our identities in this automated age?

The Malleable Self: Molding Identity in Digital Spaces

In this episode Neha Gupta, Mom Mitra, and Ankita Das discuss the nature of online personas and the deliberate labor of digital self-fashioning. They trace the evolution of self-presentation from the era of formal, film-based documentation to the age of the instant selfie and the transition of the photograph from a private family memory to a public performative act - but at what cost?

Introducing Self(ie) Reflections

Self(ie) Reflections is a four-part podcast series produced as a companion to the book Digital Expressions of the Self(ie): The Social Life of Selfies in India. How did the selfie transform from a simple self-portrait into a complex, performative digital practice deeply embedded in India's social, spatial, and infrastructural landscapes?