The Drifted Self: Definition and Concept Paper

This paper defines the Drifted Self as the condition in which identity, authenticity, and temporal continuity lose coherence within accelerated, mediated, and optimized environments.It examines how external systems increasingly update faster than the self can integrate experience, producing identity drift, performative adaptation, authenticity loss, and temporal instability. Under these conditions, identity remains socially functional while becoming progressively less grounded, continuous, and internally coherent.The paper outlines the primary internal dynamics of this condition, including Identity Drift, Authenticity Drift, Performativity Drift, and Temporal Drift. It frames identity instability as a structural response to environmental acceleration rather than an isolated personal failure and provides a general basis for understanding how systemic drift becomes internalized through personal experience.