Rex Woodbury: Evolution of Digital Identity

08/25/21 • 40 min

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Digital identities have far evolved beyond a simple username and emoticon or a profile photo and personal page. It’s become a way that people can express themselves in a wide spectrum of ways and find meaning in new online communities.

In this episode, we explore how Gen Z has different trends in how they display their identities online compared to Millennials. Whereas Millennials approached online identity in a more curated and performative manner, Gen Z shows a strong desire for authenticity and embracing imperfection. Moreover, identity and status is more rooted in context to a community rather than purely through broadcasting on social feeds.

Beyond that, people have started to tap into experimentation with new forms of identity, such as through the use of synthetic media and transhumanism. An example of synthetic media is CodeMiko, which is an avatar mapped to the person’s real life actions and expressions. Transhumanism pushes the boundaries further through creations of purely virtual identities and personalities such as Lil Miquela who has amassed 3M followers on Instagram and has done multiple collabs with brands and celebrities despite being a purely digital creation.

Finally, we explore the proteus effect (how online personas affect real world identity and perceptions) and the new roles and use cases to be expected for people to take on online. Rex predicts that the metaverse will help democratize access to goods and experiences in a way that the offline no longer can and enable people with more agency and autonomy to pursue their true interests.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Rex is a Principal at Index Ventures, a global venture capital firm, where he invests in consumer internet and consumer software businesses. He’s particularly interested in how people and tech intersect, including online communication, creators, and digital economies. He shares his thoughts on his blog, Digital Native. Before Index, Rex worked on go-to-market at Airtable, impact investing at TPG’s Rise Fund, and was a Knight-Hennessey Scholar at Stanford.

TIMESTAMPS

[1:30] Online identity for Millennials vs GenZ

[6:20] Experimenting with new identities through synthetic media

[9:10] Reasons for wanting to be fully anonymous online

[11:20] Reality privilege and proteus effect

[14:40] Transhumanism

[20:30] Decade of status to decade of community

[21:20] New roles and responsibilities in the metaverse

[31:35] Challenges to watch out for as we embark on creating the metaverse

ABOUT THE GUEST

TIMESTAMPS

[1:30] Online identity for Millennials vs GenZ

[6:20] Experimenting with new identities through synthetic media

[9:10] Reasons for wanting to be fully anonymous online

[11:20] Reality privilege and proteus effect

[14:40] Transhumanism

[20:30] Decade of status to decade of community

[21:20] New roles and responsibilities in the metaverse

[31:35] Challenges to watch out for as we embark on creating the metaverse

Previous Episode

Say hello to the Metaverse!

Our lives are becoming more and more digitally native. As we have fewer physical barriers to socialize, work, learn, entertain, express ourselves and create, growing aspects of our lives will become untethered from the physical world.

This reality might excite you or it may induce fear and anxiety. Either way, I believe we shouldn’t just wait and watch for this mysterious future to unfold. Rather, we should seek to explore how to positively define and shape the future we want to create on the internet, together.

Each week, episodes will help demystify what the Metaverse is or could be and explore its implications on our culture and society.

Next Episode

Philip Rosedale: How Cultures and Societies Emerge Online

While most of us are active participants of social networks where we share ample detail about our personal lives, much fewer of us lead active lives in persistent virtual worlds where that life is completely deviated from the one in the real world.
Second Life, created by Philip Rosedale, was an online virtual world platform that took the world by storm in the 2000s. Astoundingly enough, the platform still maintains about one million regular users who, for a lack of a better way to put it, live a second life there. Different from other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), Second Life never set out to be a game, but rather an organic world where any set of possibilities can happen. As a result, true life, culture and societies started to form.
In this episode, I explore with Philip what were the elements and factors that enabled such a unique occurrence to happen. Moreover, why other major social consumer products that also birthed from that era, the likes of Myspace, FB, Instagram, never took the trajectory that Second Life did.
We discover the importance of enabling people with capabilities that make them feel truly human. Things like photorealistic avatars, having last names, and the ability to build beautiful and useful everyday objects. We learn that culture emerges once there’s curiosity between people and what each other are doing. Philip cites that when people started to build architectural structures like homes in Second Life, they grew invested in their lives in the virtual world and the idea of having neighbors and a community. Finally, contrary to popular belief, it’s quite difficult to maintain multiple lives in the online world, and that many of those who became dedicated to their lives on Second Life felt it hard to balance with their real lives.
Finally, Philip provides an overview of his thoughts on the various mediums and technologies that are powering virtual experiences. A shrewd insight on why VR adoption has not taken off is that it’s impossible to wear it for long enough to truly establish a connection with someone new. He’s excited about spatial audio as a communication medium that promotes more empathy, and he believes AI will play a crucial role in world development in the metaverse, although they won’t and should not replace the role of humans.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Philip Rosedale is the founder of Linden Labs which created Second Life. He is currently the co-founder of High Fidelity, which is focused on designing rich 3D audio spaces that mimic real life experiences, but more broadly aims to build technology that helps people be together online in the most natural way possible. He is a serial entrepreneur, having previously built and sold FreeVue and was a Time 100 recipient. He holds a physics degree from University of California, San Diego.