Online identity design limits how users can present themselves by directing them to act in certain ways through standardized forms and templates. When people contribute large amounts of personal data to databases to become "quantified selves", their humanity gets reduced to simple bits of information that machines can process, losing part of themselves. Users also open themselves up to identity theft and manipulation by sharing personal content online according to social norms, with their data made easily searchable.

1. LIMITATIONS OF
ONLINE IDENTITY

2. DESIGN ‘AFFORDANCES’
 They “direct us to act in certain ways and even be a
certain type of person” (Poletti and Rak 2013)
 We are limited by the standardised forms and templates
that are present on websites and social media platforms
(Smith and Watson 2013)
 The way we act and present ourselves is dictated heavily
by these designs and their limitations (Smith and Watson
2013).

3. THE ‘QUANTIFIED SELF’
 “The capacity of people to become contributors to Big Data;
they can increasingly contribute their personal data to large
databases” (Smith and Watson 2013).
 Digital systems reduce everything to simple bits of
information to be processed. When we reduce our
humanity to fit in with the requirements of a machine (or a
database, or a piece of software), we lose something of
ourselves (Gauntlett 2011).

4. OPEN TO MANIPULATION
 Users situate themselves discursively in relation to
context-specific social norms which determine and
constitute identities as subject position.
 They are implicated in sharing their content online,
opening themselves up to identity theft and having their
personal data easily searchable and manipulated.
(Smith and Watson 2013)