Authentic Character Construction: Buya Hamka’s Critique of Self-Commodification in Digital Personal Branding

Abstract

The digital era has encouraged young generations to construct identity through personal branding on social media, often leading to self-commodification and a crisis of authenticity. This study aims to critically analyze self-commodification in modern personal branding and to explore Buya Hamka’s ethical educational concept of personal as its antithesis. Employing a qualitative library research method with content analysis, the study draws upon primary sources from Hamka’s works on moral education and secondary literature on personal branding, commodification, and dramaturgical theory. Data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s interactive model comprising reduction, display, and verification combined with thematic coding to identify key categories such as authenticity, commodification, and moral integrity. Triangulation of sources and techniques was applied to strengthen validity. The findings reveal that personal branding commodifies identity as symbolic capital, contrasting with Hamka’s paradigm of inner integrity, spiritual freedom, and moral harmony. Synthesizing Hamka’s philosophy, Goffman’s dramaturgical theory, and the discourse of self-commodification, this research proposes a theoretical construct of “authentic character” as a pedagogical model for contemporary Islamic education. This construct emphasizes moral integrity and identity unity, offering a relevant response to the challenges of digital culture.