It started with intra company media, stuff you post on the intranet, send in company-wide emails, the front you put up in front of bosses. There is the self that we bring to work daily, it is part of professionalism but as we make our identities increasingly an external rather than internal thing, we begin to lose ourselves more.
Then comes social media and you even have to manage the perceptions around private life. Not that private isn’t private anymore but it has become ways to humbly or not-so-humbly brag. And so there is pressure to present a self you want everyone to see. Genuine private life became even more private and perhaps darker in nature. Again, ourselves are somewhat lost.
Authenticity as a movement came out against this. All these perception management. Yet it can get abused and people acting unprofessional and giving in to their lack of discipline try to make themselves feel better by peddling around authenticity. I think the key compass here is your internal sense of identity. Where does it come from? Where and what is your anchor?