Blog Post #2

Identity and Perception are two terms used hand in hand throughout this class that are very important to me. Identity in the book is defined by asking the question “who am I” and recognizing the who is always emerging from the cultures in which we belong. In the textbook perception is defined as how one tends to see the world and is framed after being influenced by social, cultural and political experiences. While these are just a few basic definitions, I found an interesting phrase in the textbook that really helped me grasp the difference between identity and perception. The book states 

“Any identity is more than a collection of traits, more than skin or physical features; rather, identity is always a historical idea, a product of social norms and patterns of thinking that, solidified over time, have become taken for granted and seemingly normal” (Warren & Fassett, 2015 p. 97.)

This phrase led me to what I believe the definition of Identity versus perception to be. Identity to me, is who you actually are as a person based on your beliefs, norms and history while perception is all based on others and how they think of you to be based on their impression management.

            One example of how these terms relate in the outside world is through social media. This to me, is one of the biggest problems our generation faces currently and is one of the greatest examples of perception versus identity or also known as reality. The effects of social media have changed our generations norms to believe that your social media standings and how you portray yourself, shouldn’t be based on your reality but should be based on the make belief person that will help you gain the most popularity and make others think higher of you. Over the past decade, this idea of having a fake reality with hundreds to thousands of people having different perceptions on you has become more and more assessable due to the rise in the number of users on social media sites but more importantly the tools that can help others to perceive you differently, photo editing apps. All of this can help others change their vision of you through impression management. 

            Impression management is another term that I found to be very important. It ties in with identity and perception because impression management expresses all of the theories that help create all of our different forms of perception within a human being. From dress, to gestures, to verbal and nonverbal communication cues, all of these affect how we think of someone. Although everyone always says “don’t judge a book by its cover,” that phrase will never go away, especially with how our social norms have changed over the recent years. So, think twice about what you are going to wear to your next job interview, be careful about the communication you portray whether it is in the tone or volume of your voice, and don’t be anyone but yourself. 

Below is a link to an article that talks about how our perception of social media has changed over time. 

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-our-perception-of-social-media-has-changed-our-lives