https://towardsdatascience.com/our-identities-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence-9bd83e5f0bfa

Jun WuBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingApr 14@jens_johnsson unsplash.com‘In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind — in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self.’ — Eckhart-tolleOne of my favorite spiritual teachers, Eckhart-Tolle defines identity as the story of oneself. This story is told by your thoughts through memories and expectations. Each day, as we live, we are redefining ourselves in our thoughts and actions. When we think of our identities, we often focus on the “unique” part of ourselves: our stories. This is largely due to the fact that we live in a society where “individualism” is celebrated. We like to think of ourselves as the principle architects of our identities. Although we are aware that the environment influences our identities, we have the firm belief that we are intrinsic in helping to shape our own identities.

In Social Identity Theory, psychologists have long identified that social interactions are in fact at the heart of our own identity formation processes. Our roles in our families, schools, social network, our culture, and our society reflect back to us the person that we come to know as “ourselves”. Our thoughts process this reflection. We internalize and integrate this reflection into our own identities.