The Saturated Self

Friday, May 3, 2024

There are many factors that shape identity, and they can be shaped through both external and internal factors. Society, family, friends, ethnicity, culture, location, media, interests, self-expression, and life experiences are all common factors that shape identity. Psychologist Kenneth Gergen detailed his description of the ‘saturated self’ to describe being overwhelmed by potentials.

Social saturation interferes with time to self-reflect and causes greater perceived stress. So intense is our social saturation, argues Kenneth Gergen, that we lose our secure sense of identity. And we take on the personas and values of the people with whom we communicate. “The result is an erosion of our sense of objective truth, a multifaceted assault on our notions of the ‘true and knowable,’ the unified moral core.” The cause and driver of this state include our flood of technologies that have swamped us this past century. Echoing media prophet Marshall McLuhan this reality has utterly disturbed the entire globe. And it is only intensifying and further penetrating our lives and relationships. 

Thanks to advances in technology, we can speak to a business associate on our car phone while driving to meet someone we found appealing on a videotape sent to us by a dating service. That completed, we can listen on the car stereo to audiotaped advice on how to be more personable, to interpret nonverbal communication or to use role playing as a means of dealing with “difficult people.”

The number and variety of our relationships, the frequency of contact, and the  intensity of our relationships along with the increasing, distracting stimulation we cannot possibly diffuse it all. As all this increases and becomes, more extreme “we reach a state of social saturation.”