Thursday, September 29, 2016

September post - Constantly Changing Identity

 By Emma Hyyppä

“Our selves, our identities, are always in process of becoming. Who we are is never fixed or static but always in motion.” (Warren, Fassett, 2011, p. 74). I think that this statement is very important, because it encourages the reader to not forcefully change who they are. The change will come over time, but nobody stays exactly the same for their whole life. First I thought this statement was strange: I thought that one’s identity is a pretty stable thing that doesn’t really change at all. I was very interested to find more information about the continuity of one’s identity.
Even though this sentence from our textbook surprised me a little bit, I totally agree with it. Personally, I have noticed that my identity and self-concept have changed over time, especially these past two years that I have been a student at Boise State University. I think that my self-concept depends a lot on the context, location and the people I spend time with. Identity is closely connected to one’s ethnicity and culture. My identity defines how I communicate verbally and nonverbally. Warren and Fassett discuss how power and culture affect on the formation of one’s identity. I identify as white, but as I’m not an United States citizen, and therefore don’t fall into the stereotypical perceptions of my race. By power, Warren and Fassett mean white male power that controls our culture. Textbook mentions a term ”two axes of power”, which means race and gender (p. 72).

An external link that I want to share with everyone is the Personal Identity episode of Crash Course series on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqDnLNRuSc). I enjoy watching this and other videos from this channel, because they make learning easier. In this video, I like a statement ”The thing that makes you you is the non-physical stuff – your consciousness”. However, we don’t maintain the same consciousness everyday in our lives. The video doesn’t dive into the cultural aspect of identity, but it has a good main point that identity is formed by several different factors and created in one’s head – and is going to change constantly.

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