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

blog post #2

I want to address perception and social construction in this month’s blog post. Perception is a key factor of our daily life; cultural and socio-economic context shapes the way we see and perceive the world. Social construction, or norms variate accordingly with culture, and are those un written rules that shape a society. We had a very interesting discussion about school dress code during our last class and I wanted to reflect on that particular topic.

I went into a private catholic high school, and the only catholic thing about it was the name, the choral and the small church inside. Looking back today it blows my mind to realized how much clothing meant so much there, I knew exactly what I would wear, every single day of the week probably a week in advance. There were a lot of “must have” items, like bags. The last time I used a backpack to go the school (before college) I was probably about 12 years old. In my high school having a designer bag was pretty much an obligation, I don’t remember of any girls having backpacks, which is really stupid because to be honest we weren’t fitting much in our “cute” bags, and totally destroyed my back over the years. It seems totally stupid to me now: what would I use a bag that barely fit two notebooks and a book and hurt to carry instead of simple backpack? The answer is because it wasn’t a trend, different of type of bas were, having a designer bag (or even a fake one) meant belonging to the fashion and trendy society.

I can’t help but think about the story of one of the girl I know that really made me realized how stupid it sounds, and how none of us had no clues of priorities in life. I don’t remember that girl name so we will give her a very common french name like Marie. Marie was part of my high school but wasn’t really in my group of friends as she was a year older. One of her best friends, that we can call Julien, was known to be really wealthy, he had a huge house, always wear designer clothing, had vacation house, he was always hosting cool parties, so he was just really popular. As she was always hanging out with him and seemed to dress the same way, post the same way on social media and so on, everyone kind of assumed she was really wealthy as well. Imagine my surprise when I heard she was actually not, she was raised by her mom only and lived in a public housing in a tiny apartment in a low income area of my city. She was working a lot to be able to afford, the last phone, and jewelry, and all the designer clothes she had were either fake, or from thrift shops. Her situation really confused me, I remember thinking why trying so hard to look wealthy? It wasn’t just fashion at that point, you can totally get really cute and fashion clothes for fairly cheap if you know where to look and just buy smart. Why spending 60$ in a bag that looks like one that actually 850$ but has the quality of a 10$ one? It didn’t make sense to me, I thought she could’ve just go shopping in less expensive stores and instead of having one plain shirt from a brand like Gucci, have ten different ones for probably cheaper.

As I was wondering all of that, I also tried to look at it from her point of view, why would she did that? I realized that first when it’s your own money that you’ve earned through your hard work you get to spend it whatever you like and no one can say anything about it. Second, she probably felt the need to do all of that because she saw how on the high school scale, clothing could help her feel more accepted and “cooler”. I think her story really was a turning point for me when I really started to notice how stupid that mentality was. She perceives that she needed to have all those items to be accepted, and it really makes me realized what some people go through because they care too much about how everyone else perceive them, and forget about how they actually want and what actually make them happy. Maybe Marie found pleasure in spending her money in expansives clothes, and appearances, and grabbing drinks or go to fancy restaurant to show off, and maybe she would have put her money somewhere else with a different environment.

Blog Post #2: Perception 

One thing that stuck out to me the most was the phrase, “It’s easy to miss something you are not looking for” What that phrase means to me in terms of identity is that it is something that is very individual and different to each and every one of us. We talked about a few ideas about perception in class and specifically the perception we have of ourselves which is determined by two things: idiosyncrasy and the social self. Idiosyncrasy meaning what you came into this world with and what that makes you, when I think about what defines me, I start with the obvious, I am a female of white nationality and come from a well off family giving me access to things others normally would not have such as the fact I grew up owning horses and having lots of land, I went to a private school and am fortunate enough to attend college. The other side of that is socially what I define myself as, I work a full time job at a car dealership so I consider myself responsible, I go to school and pursue a degree in communications which adds another layer to myself that being a student and going through the trials and tribulations of school, I avidly attend and train at a gym which shapes my mind making me very determined and persistent in my goals. While factoring all this in it also made me think about the stage metaphor we discussed in class and how we have this front stage self and your backstage self. Nowadays this is such a common thing because of the growing use of social media, if I was asked to assign one platform of social media to this idea it would have to be Instagram. We’re all so busy making sure everything looks perfect, we eat perfect food, we have perfect makeup, our bodies are perfect, our bedrooms/houses are perfect, etc etc etc. Our “front stage self”. It is honestly to the point of so much madness and fabrication of our lives that I truly believe we lose ourselves in it. I think with this day and age social media is something we let define our lives way more than we should. I know people that have panic attacks over what to post and not post, how to post it, I have literally heard the phrase, “I am so embarrassed to have to post this about my life”. Excuse me? To HAVE to post something. No thanks. I told that person, “you realize you have the choice to not post anything, to not disclose anything to hundreds of random strangers that don’t have any direct impact on your life?” I feel like as if we are losing more and more of our genuine selves to our “social media” selves. We are so busy making sure our front stage self never falters and always looks perfect that we neglect our backstage self which needs the most attention and is the missing thing we are not looking for. No one looks for things like your mental health, your emotional well-being, your morals, your character, or even if you’re kind to others which is what really matters, not your trip to Cancun or your “beach bod”. 

September Blog Post

A key to communication is the process of identifying and using perception to view what is around us. The chapter discusses how any identity can be a product of social norms that have happened over time and construct what we believe is normal. If you think about it identifying things and perceiving them tends to be easy, at least for humans. You must remember the difference between the two terms. To identify is to look at who someone is, and perception is how you are viewed through points of views. The book looks at how we identify and how we are perceived can sculpt who we are or who we think we want to be perceived as. The process of communication can be quite difficult when it comes to this relationship. This helps to frame our social construction and how our actions are influenced by our reality and the rules we are told to live by. 

A fitting example of this is how people portray themselves on social media showing the highlight reel of their life and not what they are doing, binge watching Netflix and vegging out on junk food. We live in a socially constructed society that emphasizes being healthy, working out, and living this perfect lifestyle that everyone wants to fit into. Everyone shouldn’t have to squeeze in a one size fits all scenario, we can be identified and perceived differently if that’s our wish. In this study, a doctor examines how news media can be a cultural resource that people reside on. Here is the link https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3308244/

For this post the concept that really caught my eye was perception. Perception to me is how people view the world and how they interpret things. With this I believe that almost no ones perception is the same. Yes I do believe that some people have the same perception on things but not everything. The thing that really intrigues me about this is that no matter how you see something it cant really be wrong. How someone sees something cant be wrong since it is what they see, you don't have to see the same things as them. How I can connect this to something outside of class is with art. I think with this it can really prove how people perceive things. With art, a lot of the time two people are not going to see the same thing. Now yes a lot of art that is more specific such as Starry Night or a self portrait of a person is not really what I am talking about. What I mean is that when someone has a painting and you cant really tell what it is, and you have to analyze it. It is up for you to perceive what you see. A lot of the time two people wont see the same thing. And what is really cool about this is that neither of them are wrong. One may look and a blob of different colors and see a boat sailing in the wind, the other person standing next to them may see a rocket ship ready to blast off into space. Another way I can connect this to outside of class is with how people perceive other people. Take a man walking down the street, he comes up and talks to you and your friend whom you are walking with, afterwards one of you thinks he was nice and wanted someone to talk or a friend and the other thinks he just wanted attention or wanted something from you. Why I think this is important is because people need to see how others view things. We need to try and look at things from another persons perceptive and try to understand why they think or see it that way. It is important to be more open minded. It would be too boring if everyone saw the world ad everything in it the same way.

Blog Post 2

        One topic that stood out to me was the ideas of perception and identity, because it is incredible how much we can each be influenced by society and our environment. In my eyes, perception is how differently we evaluate things in life, due to how we were raised, society, and different environmental factors.
        In class, an example that raised my interest on this topic, was the idea of social construction, among the colors of things that are supposedly feminine and masculine. Regarding the colors of infant clothing growing up, we are taught to believe that pink represents female and blue represents male, even though colors don't determine anything. I now believe that anyone should be free to dress in any color, regardless of gender.
        In the outside world, an example of the use of perception that I see a lot in current day society, is that in order to be successful inner world, we must get a college education in order to have a successful life past high school. Growing up, there were so many pressures to be at the top in school and to plan very far ahead, to pave the way to college, to ensure a stable job and life in the future. I do not agree with this completely, because while a college degree is very beneficial to have and can open up many opportunities for you, it is not the only way to lead you to living a successful life in the future. For example, someone who is very talented and motivated in the arts, might not rely on a degree to bring them success and stability, rather using their talents to purse content creating, or selling their artwork, without the need for college.
        Another example of perception prevalent in society today, is on social media. Society has this perception that we need to fake who we are, on social media. By posting our life online, there is this perception that we have to attain to a certain look and hold this image, as someone that we aren't, in order to reach popularity and to showcase ourselves to society. This standard that has been implemented in our minds is just a learned behavior that we use as a competition against one another. Personally, I think that you should be uniquely you regardless of what society says, yet I understand how difficult it is to not fall into that pool of ideas society brings.
        Conclusively, we all view the world in a different life, and are influenced by many different factors. I hope that in the future we can learn to use these perceptions in a positive light, instead of negatively.

September Blog

The topic I decided to discuss is Identity.  This is something that stood out to me because I find it fascinating that each and every individual has many different identities.  We all have different perceptions of the world, which can influence our identities.  We may be afraid to be different than others or do something we love because we do not want to be judged.  Many people hide their identity in order to “fit in” and be “normal.”  I think of this concept as putting a mask on.  When you are alone or with close friends and able to be yourself, you do not hold yourself back.  However, when you are around acquaintances or strangers, you tend to put on this “mask” and hide your true identity.  It is upsetting that we cannot show our true selves without feeling insecure.  Every individual has different components of their lives that make up identity.  I am a sister, a student, a girlfriend, and a daughter.  These different identities are always in flux, which means changing.  All four of those identities are important to me, but some are always more important than the others, due to saliency.  For example, when I am in class or studying, my student identity is most important because I am passionate about it at that time.  However, when I am spending time with my boyfriend or my family, my other identities would be more salient.  This reminds me of the show “The Bachelor.”  Every contestant on the show is set on one thing and one thing only: finding love.  Although these women have many different identities, the only one that is present is their eagerness to find love.  The women rarely talk about their jobs, family, or other aspects of their lives.  Since they are on a show that is solely about finding a partner, they forget all other things and the identity of love becomes salient.  Since this identity is the most important at the time, it almost takes over all of their thoughts and feelings.  It is interesting to me that when we are under certain circumstances, some of our identities basically go away.  Identity is such a huge part of who we are, so it is crazy to think that they are forgotten about so often.