Changing my mind can be difficult, especially when I see it as betraying my identity versus the notion of leveling up.  As I continue investigating how technology frequently disconnects us from our human experience, I ponder how to maintain my personal identity.  How to see the significant impact digitization is truly making on our social identity.  More to come on that later, but what comes to mind now is when a computer slows down, we update it.  There has never been a time; I choose to ignore the opportunity to speed up my computer’s efficiency or fix the bugs to increase performance.

Optimizing my processor or myself to make it even better, more sustainable, and proficient should never be a sign of weakness or imprudence, rather the opposite.  I am learning the less I understand about myself, the less I trust myself and look to others for answers.  Being an independent thinker affords me options to level up without other mindsets or authority figures telling me what or how to think.  I want to maintain my insane level of conviction and agency for all the right and wrong reasons. They define my identity. 

As I continue to plod forward in both my physical and digital communities, I learn to interact with people and things that think and behave differently.  Some like-minded, some I cannot identify with, but I continue to level up even when conversing with someone who does not stand for the same things I do.  With digital algorithms mimicking human biases, it is crucial to maintain my individuality.  As the content, both online and off, increases, so does my exposure. I must keep being prudent to my values and not allow these stimuli to change the way I think of myself or others.  It’s part of the game. We call life and living.