Digital Afterlives: Cyber Vulnerability and Social Belonging

Abstract

In contemporary digital societies, cybersecurity is generally grounded as a technical problem, so much so that breaches are measured in financial losses, identity theft is reduced to credit score damage, and phishing is treated as a failure of awareness or digital literacy. Yet for those who experience hacking, impersonation, data breaches, or sudden deplatforming, the entire experience does not end when passwords are reset or accounts are restored. Instead, it initiates what this paper calls as a digital afterlife which is a chronic socio-psychological condition in which identity, their sense of belonging, and trust are reshaped by conditions of cyber vulnerability. This study moves the focus away from technical fixes to people’s real-life experiences. It argues that cyber victimisation is not just about financial loss, but a deep disruption to a person’s social life and sense of stability. Using in-depth interviews with people who have gone through hacking, identity theft, phishing scams, or being removed from online platforms, this study places these experiences within wider sociological ideas such as stigma, trauma, social identity, and trust in institutions. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s idea of a “spoiled identity,” the paper shows th1at many victims begin to blame themselves after such incidents. They often feel ashamed and describe themselves as careless, naïve, or lacking digital skills. These experiences show that it is not just personal embarrassment at play, but also a broader cultural belief that online safety is primarily an individual’s responsibility. As a result, being a victim of cybercrime becomes a stigmatised condition, something people often keep hidden, rarely speak about openly, and one that is closely tied to judgments about a person’s competence in the digital age.
The paper also tries to understands cyber victimisation as a kind of identity trauma. Unlike ordinary property crimes, digital breaches unsettle the line between who a person is and how they appear online. When someone’s email is hacked, their social media is impersonated, or their account is suspended without any explanation. Their digital self, which in today’s world is very central to work, relationships, and public life, becomes fragile and exposed. Participants describe feeling detached from themselves and exposed, almost like as if they have lost control over their own story and identity. Especially in cases of suspension of profiles, people describe a feeling of being erased from public life. Losing access to a platform is seen as a social exclusion from spaces where their friendships, work opportunities, and political voice are rooted.
The study also looks into how cyber vulnerability changes people’s trust in institutions. Many victims describe a second layer of harm when they face unclear and unsupportive customer service systems, and a sense of bureaucratic indifference. Banks, online platforms, and government agencies often come across as distant, impersonal, and hard to deal with. As a result, people’s trust in these institutions is often shaken. The effects of a breach therefore go beyond personal anxiety, leading to a wider sense of doubt and mistrust toward the systems and institutions that govern digital life.
The study also reflects that the long-term effects of cyber incidents are not experienced equally. People with limited digital skills, insecure jobs and thus people who are marginalised socially often face stronger stigma and take much longer to recover. For instance, the freelance workers and content creators, when removed from a platform means endangering their livelihood. For women and people from marginalised gender identities, hacking and impersonation often bring extra reputational damage and moral scrutiny. Cyber vulnerability therefore works through the already existing social inequalities, making already precarious lives more unstable. Using ideas about social identity and trust in institutions, the paper argues that digital harm is deeply social and relational. By focusing on people’s life experiences, the study questions mainstream cybersecurity approaches that mainly gives more importance to prevention and financial damage, while overlooking the difficult social recovery individuals go through after a digital violation. In terms of method, the study uses narrative analysis to follow how people tell the story of a cyber incident over time, from the initial shock and confusion to the longer-term ways they cope, with it. The digital aftermath is marked by a sense of tension, people still have to rely on digital systems in everyday life, yet they trust them much less than before. In the end, the paper argues that as more of our social, economic, and civic lives move onto digital platforms, cyber vulnerability should be understood as a serious form of social harm, not just a technical risk.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199328631.2025.74-86