What happens if selfies turn into online Doppelgängers? Professor Amanda du Preez recently asked this question in a paper presented at SACOMM conference 28-30 September 2015.

At the 2015 annual South African Communication Association conference, hosted by AFDA, Cape Town, Prof Amanda du Preez presented a paper on the intersection between selfies and Doppelgängers. Meeting the Doppelgänger (double) is described in literature as a premonition of one’s imminent demise – it is the kiss of death. The ominous figure of the Doppelgänger is captured as literary motif and the shadowy double has also appeared in numerous films. On social networks the selfie (self-induced double) - mediated by the accessibility of mobile and handheld technologies - proliferates as virtual stand-in or Doppelgänger for the self. Selfies are online persona that can constantly and instantly be updated and uploaded to be viewed and evaluated by others. They create a tele-presence to facilitate continuous accessibility and a sense of omnipotence. As selfies become ubiquitous other impostors such as the Data Doppelgänger (the digital data trail one leaves consciously or unconsciously), threaten online selves like a repressed shadow. But perhaps the spectre of the Doppelgänger is most forebodingly figured by programmed digital personae such as Virtual Eternity and Project Lifelike that simulates presence by interacting and responding to others as the person would. Thus the online persona not only looks like the person but also now acts as the person. In this sense the online persona no longer re-presents but rather presents the self.