September Blog Post - Kevin Kelley

Kevin Kelley

Christina Ivey

Comm 160

9/28/2016

Identity and Perception

How we identify ourselves is a very important part of our lives. It's who we are on our deepest level and know ourselves to be. "Any identity is more than a collection of traits, more than skin or body parts; rather, identity is always a historical idea, a product of social norms and patterns of thinking that, solidified over time, have become normalized, taken for granted." (Warren 61). Many people look at others only at face value. Never seeing below the surface; making a static evaluation. A static evaluation is an unchanging view of a person. Not letting your interpretation of a person grow and adapt can sometimes lock them into a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's why this quote stood out to me, because it is hard to break someone down into just a collection of traits, because so much has shaped this person and turned them into who they are today. I believe the book Difficult Conversations put it well when they said  “We each know ourselves better than anyone else can” (Stone 33). We each know the constraints we are under and no one else does. We also have access to information about ourselves no one else has access to. It says to me that this can be a reason for displaying a different version of yourselves to others and keeping a protected front. No one else can know what exactly you are going through, and it could be hard for them to understand. How you perceive yourself could change daily even. Identity is ever-evolving, and it is important to let others and yourself grow and develop your identity as needed and be willing to accept change when needed to be able to keep your mental health up, as well as the mental health of those around you. Never let someone else control and shape your identity.

(I also believe that this is a great video about identity and you should watch it!)

Stone, Douglas, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What

Matters Most. 10th ed. New York, NY: Viking, 1999. Print.

Warren, J. T., & Fassett, D. L. (2011). Communication: A critical/cultural introduction.

Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.