Who are we now? Identity and belonging in the modern world

Yasmin Azad draws on her experience treating clients with Borderline Personality Disorder to explore how Western individualism may contribute to mental health struggles. As a therapist from a South Asian Muslim background, she initially struggled to understand self-harm until reconnecting with her community-oriented cultural roots helped her recognise that destructive behaviours often stem from profound loneliness rather than attention-seeking.

Róisín Lanigan explores how social media has complicated the fundamental question of identity, particularly for millennials whose adolescence and early adulthood are permanently archived online. Through personal anecdotes about encountering her past selves through old posts and photos, she examines the disorienting experience of competing with previous versions of herself rather than strangers, and how her curated online persona sometimes conflicts with her authentic offline identity.

Kate Devlin celebrates the internet as her true home, tracing her digital journey from sending her first email as a teenager in 1990s Northern Ireland to building meaningful friendships across online communities. Through personal stories, she argues that digital connections can be as authentic and vital as physical ones, offering belonging and understanding that transcends geographical boundaries.