The Google self as digital human twin: implications for agency, memory, and identity

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the emergence of the "Google Self" as a platformized digital human twin constituted through data traces and algorithmic mediation within Google's ecosystem of personalized services. Using netnographic analysis of 525 user reviews collected from technology blogs and forums (2016–2020), this study employs actor-network theory to examine how users experience and negotiate their relationship with their algorithmically constructed digital twin. The findings reveal that the Google Self transcends conventional notions of digital representation, functioning as an active mediator that reconfigures fundamental aspects of human experience through three primary mechanisms. First, algorithmic mediation of agency manifests through the delegation of cognitive processes to Google's services, creating hybrid forms of intentionality that emerge through human–algorithm interaction. Second, the externalization of memory to Google's infrastructure initiates a shift from individual to connective memory processes, wherein algorithms increasingly organize personal narratives through computational rather than experiential logic. Third, algorithmic mediation of identity formation through processes of algorithmic emplotment, monolithic identity consolidation, and distributed narrative agency. Additionally, analysis of disconnection narratives, where users lose access to their Google accounts, reveals the infrastructural nature of these digital twins and their deep integration into cognitive and social processes. These findings call for reconceptualizing human-centered AI frameworks to engage more deeply with the constitutive role of algorithms in contemporary self-formation. This study contributes to the understanding of digital human twins as active participants in human individuation processes, with significant implications for privacy, autonomy, and ethical AI development in the platform age.

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