The Most Important Sentence

Lauren Schoeneshoefer 

January Blog 

The sentence that I chose to do for my first blog is “Reflexivity involves situating ourselves as part of the phenomenon or problem we are working to describe.”

I should start off by explaining what reflexivity means. Paulo Freire describes reflexivity as a type of reflection and insight that helps each of us understand how we participate, consciously and unconsciously, in social systems that both help and harm us. Freire explains that this term is talking about our reflexes in social situations. Instead of using the word reflection, which people often use as memory or recalling, reflexivity is more of a back-and-forth process of thinking about how we act, why we act, what that action means, who it enables, and who it hurts. Reflexivity is a huge part of communication. If you can’t think about more than yourself than there is a huge possibility that you are a bad communicator. Getting your own point across is important, but being able to comprehend what someone else is saying, or why they feel that is just equally important.

I chose this sentence as my important sentence for the readings this month because to me, it is a huge point that people need to understand. In the society we live in today, many people blame their problems or the problems of the world on other people. No one takes accountability for their own actions, the first idea that comes in to people’s minds is to find someone to blame it on. Trump is a huge example of this. In an interview with the press he says. “We’re not getting the job done” but quickly turned around and said “And I’m not going to blame myself. I’ll be honest: They are not getting the job done” referring to Congress. This is a prime example of not reflexivity. If Trump would have used this, he would be putting himself in the situation that is going wrong. He would be understanding that he can do more to help, and where he is lacking in areas.

This sentence highlighted why I am a Communications major. I would like to help people understand that in order to make change in the world. We need to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, and understand their problems like they are our own.

Blake, Aaron. “Analysis | Trump's hypocritical quote on taking blame just about says it all.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Oct. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/16/trumps-quote-about-shifting-blame-just-about-says-it-all/?utm_term=.835dd8c0ea03.