September Post

The concept that I will be talking about this week is Goffman's impression management. Goffman's impression management is when when we try to create a face and image for ourselves in an attempt to convince others and ourselves that that is who we really are. I think this concept is really important to talk about because a lot of people can relate to this and are affected by this. So many people are feeling insecure these days and are trying to prove to others that they are someone that they aren’t in order to fit in.

Relating this back to the real world, a great example of Goffman's impression management is when you compare your online self to your real self. Online people always make themselves seem more put together and they upload all of their best pictures of themselves. Some users even admit to committing impression management when they post “insta vs. real life photos” on their accounts. For example, the first photo (insta) would be a picture of them smiling on the beach but the second photo (real life) would be a picture of them getting hit by a wave. The first photo shows the public who they want to be while the second is a more realistic representation of who they are.

In my opinion, the only reason that people try to use impression management online is to fit these social norms we have set for ourselves and stereotypes. People are so focused on fitting in and getting people to like them that they lose sight of who they really are. They care more about if other people like them rather than caring about if they still like who they are. We try so hard to fit these molds and compare ourselves to others that we are slowly losing the person that we used to be. This does not happen with all people, but with so many people using social media, many are affected by social norms and trying to fit in.     

September Blog Post (Double Spaced)

Stereotype by definition is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.  There are both advantages and disadvantages to stereotypes, although on the flip side it does create misconceived ideas about groups of people before even interacting and making personal judgements yourself.  It also eliminates us to see differences between individuals and make generalized opinions, some that most likely are not true.  Although one advantage to stereotypes is it allows us to make decisions rapidly in situations because there's a chance we can relate to the situation.  Stereotypes lead to social categorization, eventually leading to judging those who are "in" your group versus those who are "out."  It is important to not view those who are not like you as less than but as unique to yourself.  For instance those with disabilities should never be seen as less intelligent just because people stereotype them as "not capable."  Overall stereotypes may or may not accurately reflect reality.     

In class we discussed two readings: Man Up and Sister Citizen both addressing stereotypes from different viewpoints.  For example Man Up was more from a personal experience where he expressed his life and how he had a preconceived idea about how he could not be afraid as a boy.  It was his job to "man up" and be strong when it came to things he was afraid of.  There is a stereotype that men are strong and not sensitive which impacts how young boys grow up hiding those emotions.  Whereas in Sister Citizen it is more universal and broad in how the reading talks about groups of people and how they "adjust" to images in this crooked room based on where they come from.  Not everyone has the same opportunities to education for example, and there is a stereotype about low income students not being as intelligent as those who come from higher income families.  This has to due with the accessibilities that some students have other another because of where they grew up.  

Although the term stereotype has a common universal meaning, I think it is still interpreted in a variety of different ways.  One key example of stereotypes is in the movie "Mean Girls" with Lindsey Lohan, where she is homeschooled her entire life leading up to high school.  She moves from Africa to attend a public school for the first time, and there are immediate responses and judgements made about her because of where she is from and that she was homeschooled.  Stereotypes are made about groups of people based on looks, what their interests are, and ultimately how they present themselves.  For example in the movie there is a map made of where everyone sits at lunch, again categorizing people. 

September Blog Post

Fallon Falore

Christina Ivey

COMM 160

1 October 2018

“The Most Important Sentence”

The most meaningful sentence that I want to focus on for my blog post this month is the idea of identity and perception. In class, Professor Ivey pointed out the valid point that it “is easy to miss something you’re not looking for.” Everyday there are certain things that we miss because our perception doesn’t focus on those specific ideas. In order to grow your perception —how a person sees the world, as influenced by social, political, and cultural experiences that shape who they are— you have to be open to new perspectives, cultures and ideas of those around you. A lot of times we miss opportunities to learn something new because of the fear that we have within us. There can be numerous other reasons why we missed that certain thing but if we are too afraid to approach situations due to the fear associated with it then we are more likely miss something that we are not looking for. However, after reading chapter 2 of Andreas Gomez’s book, Fear: Beneath the Facade, and connecting it to some of my other classes I began to realize a lot about life. There is no time for being afraid, it really just stops us from finding those little things that can turn out to be what we are most passionate about. People perceive fear with a negative connotation and a lot of times that is what makes people step away from things connected to it. However, if we use fear in a way that emphasizes transforming uncertainty to become something great then we most likely wouldn’t be missing those little instances that make life so great. Fear is a powerful primary emotion that drives people to do nasty things, but if we use it like Gomez and challenge fear to overcome our biggest obstacles, we could be doing the extraordinary.

In my life I believe that fear is the reason I am missing something that I am not looking for. Fear stops me from going out and meeting new people. It also stops me from being myself in social settings because I am scared of what people might think. In those moments of fear, I am only thinking about myself, which doesn’t allow me to see the world through others perspectives. My perception alone can be the reason that I miss the small things because you need various perspectives to be able to understand new ones. Although this has been hard for me to change, I believe that anyone can do it with the right amount of motivation to change. Change alone can be fearful to many, but it is important to change because using that fear to make the change could bring so many positive outcomes to the world. At the end of Gomez’s chapter he writes, “Fear, ultimately, is the reason I survived,” and that alone shows that it is possible to change our perspective in order to live a better life and be able to see the world in a new way due to new experiences that we might have missed before.

September Blog:

September Blog:

In this months lesson we have learned a lot about ones self. A particular term that stood out to me was

Performance. The definition of that term is who we are is the result of our repeated, patterned human

actions. Basically, how we present our selves to the world. It is the version of yourself that you want

people to think when they see you. There might be things where you particularly don't want a lot of

people to know and you keep it to the backstage. Or you have this quality that you think is amazing

so, you bring that performance to the front stage and let everyone see it.

When this lesson was first brought about, I thought the idea was crazy that we somehow perform who

we want to be seen as. But, thinking over it more I did this a lot when I was younger. Obviously, I

still do now because everyone does but, in high school I definitely preformed a different person than I

truly was. To an extent that is fine because are things depending on the social setting where you

should act a way you might not normally but, in high school I wasn't even acting myself at all. It is

good to realize if your performance is still staying true to who you are. This term is important to

know because you may want to consider the kind of person you want to show to the people around

you. Also, what kind of performance you should be playing based off the social setting.


A thing is about a person's performance is that it can change. In "Man Up: Cracking the Code of 

Modern Manhood" by Carlos Andres Gomez, he lived in fear for the longest time until one day he 

decided to change and face his fears. A side of him wanted to change his performance because he 

knew it was time and would hopefully benefit him in the end. He realized that he didn't want to live 

his life in fear and to do so he had to change. 

Blog Post #2

Chase Cord

Professor Ivey

COMM 160

                                                            Blog Post #2: Polysemy and family

     The topic of conversation I will be expanding on comes from my personal experiences with polysemy. This word means that something could have multiple meanings. To me, it could mean one thing and to you it could mean something else, both being valid. My outside example pertains to family and how your tribe can vary. Some people look at their family as just those who they are blood related to while others see their family as really close friends or significant others. Polysemy within families occurs from both the inside and the outside point of view. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20170502.02.html   

      I see my family as those I am blood related to, through marriage and my teammates. I have been playing sports since I was six years old so I have always been around a unit that depends on each other. I have been playing football for thirteen years now and have always been the type of person to look at my teammates as brothers and consider them family. We need upmost trust and dedication to the team in order to achieve something truly amazing. Some people who have never played sports before or someone who has never been a part of a team before might not understand a situation like that. An individual who has not had to depend on anyone but their intermediate family might only consider those closest to them their "family". Also, I have a roommate that is from Kahuku, Hawaii and he refers to all adults as his "aunty" or "uncle" because in their culture it is seen as a form of respect. He always calls a lot of other Hawaiian or Samoan friends "uncle" or "uce" which is slang for "brother" or "friend". This is exactly where polysemy comes in. There is definitely a diversity in meanings when it comes to different perspectives and point of views. 

     This concept is important to understand because the different types of connections that could be made. Diversity within the view of family could begin with sporting teams, blood relation, even cultural experience. Someone from Arizona might have different cultural experiences than someone from Hawaii, for example. The culture as a whole is more unified and looked at as one big family. Polysemy and Family relations connect in different ways and could been seen in more ways than one. 

September Blog Post

The reading I am choosing to discuss is the Man Up by Carlos Andres Gomez was very interesting to me. This is because he chooses to target a stigma that I feel as if is never targeted, or given a chance to be heard. One of the things we talked about in class is Perception, and this article gives you a whole new look on it. There are many different ways to look at being a man. But what many people probably agree on is the stereotype of having no fear, being strong in all ways, providing for the family, and that kind of thing. I loved how this article challenged that stigma by showing that its simply not reasonable for every man to be like that. How we look at being a man, our perception of it, was drastically changed as we went through the authors life and learned about fear. 

Something that is seen in the outside world that is helping to challenge this is the job roles being changed. In older years, it would be very unusual to see a man as a nurse or a flight steward. Likewise many women are finding jobs in a "Mans Field" like mechanics or doctors. Societies perceptions are constantly changing, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better, and with those changing perceptions comes the change in our culture. So as our perception of a man being able to be afraid was challenged in this article, it opens up a lot of perceptions and stigmas that bear looking at. It also opens up ways to change those perceptions. 

The concept of perception is very important in how we shape our culture. The way we view how other people look and act is how we view our society and how we treat others. If we have a negative perception of something or someone, then its hard to treat them differently as an individual. For instance, if we had the perception that a doctor was the least desirable job in the country, then nobody would want to do that and or help with that. If nobody wanted to be a doctor, then our society would be vastly different. Our focus on health care and that kind of thing would be drastically lower. That is a good example of what can happen with negative perceptions or ideas, but we also have good perceptions. This keeps our culture and our society healthy. 

September blog

As humans, we often feel the need to put up a front or facade for those that we do not know or that we are not close to. It is human nature to want to impress someone or make them believe that we are composed and have our life together. Selectiveness plays a big role in this act, we select those that we believe will not judge us for having issues or problems and essentially, being human. We create this concept of “frontstage”, meaning that we delegate certain things to the “front” or outer shell of our lives that we know people will see. We keep our dirty laundry and problems in the back of the stage so that no one can see that our lives are not perfect.

In a recent reading by, Carlos Andres Gomez titled, Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood, he discusses a frontstage vs. backstage example in his life which I think is also very relatable in many other people's lives. He exclaims that his parents put on this role for him and his sister, this role included that everything be fine and perfect and that they were in the perfect relationship. There is no such thing as a perfect relationship, everyone has issues that they face. Gomez describes a day where he walked downstairs and heard his parents fighting, previous to this day, he had no idea that they had ever had a disagreement and to hear them in an argument crushed him. His parents hid things from the “frontstage” of their relationship so that their children would believe that nothing was ever wrong.

This entire concept of feeling the need to hide imperfections and problems from not just society, but from the people that you love has a really negative effect on society today. More often than not, we care more about concealing our issues and making the “frontstage” of our lives this pretty and perfect image. When we let the “frontstage” of our lives take precedence over working on our own trials and problems, we leave room for things such as mental health issues. Model Alexis Ren, faced this issue directly, Ren is known for her Sports Illustrated body and rising social media following. While posting pictures of what seemed to be a perfect life traveling from country to country with her model boyfriend, and keeping her fans well educated on the status of her body with bikini photo after bikini photo, we all had no idea that Ren was actually struggling with an eating disorder. She spent all of her time perfecting the “frontstage” of her life and making this image the most perfect that it could have ever been, when in reality, what was happening behind doors, or in the “backstage”, was actually slowly killing her.

To this day, we are taught to conceal our problems from the world and to deal with them in a private matter. Although dealing with things in a private matter can be beneficial, we should never feel like we have to put a front up to make our lives seem “perfect”. The reality of life is that nothing is perfect, this is what makes us human. So why do we continuously feel like we have to make our “frontstage” something that we are not?

https://blackboard.boisestate.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-5788082-dt-content-rid-28683846_1/courses/1189-72857COMM160001/1183-13914COMM160001_ImportedContent_20180108011344/Andres%20Gomez%20Fear.pdf