learntoquestion ltq discussions

Identity is a tough term to define, and I feel as a generation we can't fully grasp the whole meaning. I think this is because the true definition of identity is subjective to the person. While looking through my peers' identity vessels, I noticed differences and similarities. The outside of most people's vessels were decorated with words like “funny” or “annoying”, or pictures that describe their style, appearance, and visible things they like. On the other hand, the inside of people's vessels were very different. Some people put words to describe themselves that they believed were true, others only put pictures of their friends and family, and some put music, sports teams, colors, and other things that they liked. This shows that identity is subjective to the person because everyone identifies differently. Before, what I learned about identity was that people want to identify themselves in a wider scope, or fit into a larger social group. Looking at my peers’ identity vessels, I did see people emphasizing their nationality or other bigger groups, but their personal statements weren't that of the big picture, they were more about each individual person. What this has shows me is that, yes people can identify with the us’ and the thems’, but at the end of the day everyone is so focused on themselves and how they are perceived or want to be perceived, that it's really about everyone's individual person or identity. In the end, I think people sum up their identity with what and who they love, as well as how they want the world to view them. I think that our identities play a big role in how we socialize and who we hang out with. If we want to be perceived a certain way, we will hang out with people we deem that way and try to do things in a specific way. For example, in someone's vessel, I saw they decorated the outside of their vessel according to their aesthetic, and they explained how this is very important to them. This person's friends also have the same sort of aesthetic that they have, and this isn't for any reason. Our choices on who we become close with come from who we are. You can't get along with everyone, but you usually become pretty close to the people with whom you have common interests, humor, personalities and fashion choices. I think this is how our personal identities impact our personal and social choices. I think our personal and social choices are connected very closely for most people. Our personal choices on how we want to be perceived can be reflected in the way we talk, whom we talk to, and our decisions. I think this phenomenon was shown in the identity vessels in how people described how they wanted to be perceived and why.

Identity is a concept that is very important to society because no two people share one. Even siblings’ identities are different when they grew up in the same household and surrounded by the same people. Thankfully, identity is not something that can be shared. The world would cease to be interesting without individuality.

What shapes a person’s view of themselves? According to “The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?” By Beverly Daniel Tatum, “The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflect back to us.” If someone is told from a young age how brilliant they are then they are more likely to view themselves as such. This is why positive reinforcement is so important because without it a person’s self confidence can diminish. Although one can not always depend on others to feel good about themselves, they have to be able to do it on their own.

One of the vessel’s I saw had pictures of Instagram comments of what their peers said they thought about the person. The creator of this pink vessel obviously valued what others thought of them. It can be dangerous to rely so heavily on other people’s opinions, but this person made it clear that they loved themselves for who they are. This was a common theme among the vessels. People are often very harsh towards themselves, but it was great to see all of the positivity. I am sad to say that this surprised me due to the fact that in this age of social media it is easy to feel as though one is not good enough. The social expectations of today’s society are hard to keep up with, and can stunt a person’s growth. It is hard to be yourself when you have the pressure to fit in.

Overall, I learned that no one should change their identity to follow social norms. No person’s vessel was the same in room 307, and they shouldn’t be. There were ballet shoes, baskets, jars, boxes, baseball gloves, and more. There was no judgment of what was inside these unique vessels. Everyone should be treated with respect no matter how they define themselves. Beverly Daniel Tatum states, “Our ongoing examination of who we are in our full humanity, embracing all of our identities, creates the possibility of building alliances that may ultimately free us all.”

After perusing the Identity Vessels, I have realized how much more complex our individual identities are. I realized that we are so much more than what we present on the outside. Seeing everyone’s common interests with mine, as well as how they differ from one person to the next, really made the difference as to how I viewed my classmates, helping me connect with them more than I did prior to seeing their Identity Vessels. One Identity Vessel stood out to me in relation to the idea of our outside self versus our inner self because it shared how the creator of the vessel struggled with finding things to put on the outside of the vessel, for they find it hard to understand how others view them. It made me think about how we are so used to being ourselves that we don’t think about how others perceive us until there is some sort of incident (good or bad such as when someone compliments us or makes fun of us).

I believe that our identities are malleable, especially as teenagers, for everyone can be easily influenced by the statements and actions of others. An example of this is how social media affects us through “influencers” and messages about how we “should'' act or what is “cool.” On the other hand, because of the influence of social media, I think society today does limit our ability to change and grow in our identities - many of us grow the way society says we should grow in our identities because when someone steps away from the social media “norm,” they can be looked at as different in a bad way. It can also be difficult to change because social media can limit us by never letting us forget who we used to be. In the article “How Social Media Shapes Our Identity” by Renner, the author cites research by Kate Eichhorn stating, “such media can prevent those who wish to break with their past from doing so cleanly.”

As I looked at the Identity Vessels, I saw Identity Vessels of my friends that lacked some of the traits that I know about them. Their perception of themselves was different from the perception I had of them. In the article, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, the author describes how personal identities are ever changing, and how they vary from time to time. The author states, “Integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self is a complex task that begins in adolescence and continues for a lifetime.... The salience of particular aspects of our identity varies at different moments in our lives. The process of integrating the component parts of our self-definition is indeed a lifelong journey.” As I think about Identity Vessels from people that I have known for a longer time than others, I think about how they have evolved as a person, still portraying traits from when I first met them, but gaining new ones over the course of time. Sometimes this helps them evolve into a better version of themselves, and sometimes not. If Tatum is correct, it makes me wonder what I will be like when I am 30, 40, 50, etc. How much of me will be the me I am now, and how will I be different?

Our identities impact our personal and social choices because we often make decisions based upon what we choose to align with in life. Each person has a version of themself that is the basis for the version of themselves that everyone knows. As you meet new people, who share common interests and introduce their own, sub versions are made to “fit in” with the group, or to make yourself seem more like someone else. Personal and social identities have common traits, but personal identities are the most authentic of all. Personal identities contain everything that an individual has considered interesting and liked, whereas social identities present what an individual thinks will earn them acceptance in the social world. Throughout the displaying of the Identity Vessels, people portrayed their social identities, even on the inside of their vessels, for people do not want to stand out too much in the social world. This made me think about how the “real” me is both parts of the social identity and the personal identity. It makes me wonder if the two types of identities ever come together so that what a person shows to the rest of the world is actually authentic.

By looking at all of the Identity Vessels on display, I learned so many new things about people who I have known for a while, as well as about people who I have known only for a few days now, since the beginning of the school year. I enjoyed learning new things about everyone, especially about people who I considered to know well. Identities evolve over time, and can be influenced by many things, which was displayed in everyone’s vessel. This project not only taught me so many new things about my classmates, but it also made me reflect on myself, and how I perceive myself, in relation to how others view me, as well. It will make me think more about people and not form an opinion based just on perception of who they are on the outside.

A major point of one the essays was how people in a dominant group (white male, straight, etc.) don’t consider that as part of their identity, because others don’t notice that about them. It’s not part of their identity because it’s not how others see them. People notice aspects of others that are different from themselves. I think they also notice what is different from the standard or the dominant idea: For example, as a POC, I would notice another POC if I was in a majority white room. I noticed that especially with LGBTQ identities in the identity boxes. The experience of being marginalized and having to navigate a world not catered to you and being comfortable with the identity that makes you marginalized also factors into that identity. As a woman of color, who is more comfortable with being a woman than being a person of color, my gender is a much stronger part of my identity than my race. Sarah Lyncee mentioned in her identity box how much she related to the music of Taylor Swift and I so agree. I think that Taylor Swift’s music represents girlhood so well, and my love for her is definitely related to my identity as female. Her music being classified as ‘girly’ definitely prevents some men from liking it. And of course this goes beyond Taylor Swift: The toxic masculinity perpetuated by society probably influences the identities of men. Going back to my previous point of being in two marginalized groups, I wonder how that would be if you were comfortable in both of your marginalized identities. Would you then more strongly identify as the thing that’s more noticed or makes you more marginalized? The article quoted Audrey Lorde, saying that oppression can’t be ranked, but I do think that, for example, Black people have had it worse than women in America. Additionally, people in dominant groups don’t want to be reminded of inequalities, because it upsets their justification of those inequalities. This reminded me of how when you experience dissonance related to an act, you justify it, and then end up committing the act more. People aren’t born racist, but our society and the way that we are wired as humans creates racists. The essay also mentioned how our identities are grounded in the society we grew up in, which immediately made me think of political identity. Most people probably stick with similar political identities of their parents. My family is liberal and being a liberal is part of my identity. While I hope that my values would be the same if I grew up in a Republican family in Texas, I wonder if they would be.

In many of my peers’ identity boxes, I noticed the significance of their names and how their names were connected to their family. Most people mentioned their family as being important, which makes sense to me, especially when I read in the essay that identity is based on childhood experiences. As a child, family is probably the most important thing, and even though that may change, (if you were raised in a good household) your family connection will remain strong because of their influence and impact on you from (usually) age 0.

When I observed the identity vessels of my peers, many people had defined themselves by the things they like, their loved ones, their grades, and labels other people had put on them. Several people held this common idea of duality in their identity, one describing it as being “two faced.” Obviously, there are two major sides of our identity- how others view us and how we view ourselves, but it was interesting to see how much the two sides overlapped with each other depending on the person. One statement stood out to me that said “people do not know the real me” and they have a “persona made for the other people around them.” It goes without saying that there are layers to our identity, and it is said in Beverly Daniel Tatum’s article “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” that “This ‘looking glass self’ is not a flat one-dimensional reflection, but multidimensional.” One way I interpret this quote is that what we see in the reflection depends on where we are viewing this “mirror” from, which is influenced by how we were raised, our preexisting biases, and what our background is. These manifest as multiple mirrors that reflect off of each other, slightly altering what we see each time another mirror is added. So, both the statement and this section of the article brought me to a big question: What is the real you? The answer to this question depends on the person, because identity isn't all black and white; there is a gray area, and our identities are constantly changing over the course of our lives, as each experience we have adds another layer of complexity to our understanding of ourselves. Many of us also have different “versions” of ourselves that we present to different groups of people, which is because we have a desire to fit in as best we can with each of these groups of people that we tie to different aspects of our identity. As coolcat16 said, “Our choices on who we become close with come from who we are.” In the end, it turns into a whole “us vs them,” which we have been learning about in class. People that are part of oppressed minorities tend to surround themselves with people like them because these people affirm their identity and existence even though society invalidates the oppressed person’s experiences and suffering. Even though we know the impermanence and constant mutation of everything in this world, especially our identities, we are still innately compelled to label everything to understand it. I find this to be a little ironic, because most (if not all) of us want to be free- free from expectations, rules, oppression, and judgment and freedom to be who we are. We as a society need to let ourselves live without defining ourselves by things like our grades, judgment from others, productivity levels, etc. Capitalism and Western society feeds us the idea that our purpose in life is to be useful to society, and to improve ourselves is to improve society as a whole, but I believe, alongside many indigenous/Eastern cultures, that our purpose for living is to simply exist and experience happiness.

Our individual identities are incredibly complex. How we see ourselves is influenced by our environment; that is, our peers, friends, families, and where we live or lived. For example, the neighborhoods in Boston are distinct in their racial, cultural, linguistic, and economic make-up, so the neighborhood you grew up in determines in part which groups you associate with. If you move to another neighborhood, you will likely encounter different groups. If you aren’t able to associate with any of these groups, you will feel like an outsider, which changes how you view yourself.

How others see us is based on what personality traits we show to the world, as well as characteristics we cannot change (for example: gender and race). In every relationship, we let different personality traits shine through, which means that each person we care about brings out something good and unique in us; how beautiful! This also means that there is always more to learn about someone, even if you have known them all their life.

On this subject, I learned from my peers’ identity vessels that the majority of them see their families as the, or one of the, most important shaping forces in their lives. This was at first surprising to me, because my peers and I don’t talk about our family relationships all the time; but, upon further reflection, this seems obvious: if we get into a longer conversation, my peers almost always bring up their families. Additionally, according to Erik Errikson and Beverly Daniel Tatum in “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” we form our identity based on how we see ourselves and how we think others see us, and this process of identity-shaping reflection is “commonly experienced in the United States and other Western societies in the period of adolescence (Tatum 1). Therefore, as our families are most often the group of people we’re around the most during adolescence, of course they play a huge part in how we see ourselves.

The vessel identity project revealed lots of information and context, along with the personalities of people taking Facing History. Everyone’s vessel was incredibly complex and all slightly different. I saw many different types of vessels that people used to express themselves, and each one had small, minute complexities, and some very big ones too. Many of our personal identities influence our social identities, for example if you do dance, your friends are most likely to be dancers too. However, when it comes to how you see yourself, your social identity would most likely differ because people don’t see you like that, and would not recognize that part of your identity. A lot of people had somewhat similar social identities, such as playing a sport or pets, but when it comes to personal identity, nearly everyone had different ideas of themselves. It makes sense that many people have different personal identities, as some people might try to have somewhat similar social identities because they might want to fit in. “There are moments, elevated not by the fact of being recorded but by the impossibility of being erased, that become traumatic.” (Renner 3) If we use this idea that Renner mentioned, many people would not want to be physically or socially remembered doing something that would be looked down upon by society. Another reason that people's social identities might be different is because of the idea of “Us vs them”. If you make yourself an “Us” to more people, you will most likely have more friends that are loyal to you. This could also contribute to the more rigid identities of today's society as many people could be shamed if they decide to become a “them” instead of an “us”.

Identity as a whole is something that people have been analyzing more and more as the concept of identity is studied. Each person has aspects that define them or aspects of themselves that merely are part of their whole. These aspects as an entirety create complex ways of viewing oneself. On one hand, pieces of someone's identity can be developed over time by their own experiences. Other pieces of one's identity can be shaped by outside pressures like family, friends, and general society. In physiologist Beverly Daniel Tatum’s paper, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who am I?’”, she explores these different factors that mold an individual's sense of self. She writes that a sense of self is something achieved throughout one's entire life by “integrating one’s past, present, and future into a cohesive, unified sense of self”. This proves the complexity of a person's identity– taking an entire lifetime to fully unlock. Throughout one’s lifetime though, they continue to hold identities to how they view themselves and how others view them. This concept of identity and how people view themselves was explored even further in the identity vessels of my peers. The vessels provoked a lot of thought in me. Not only because of how it forced me to analyze how I view my own identity but also seeing how other people view theirs. Some identity vessels I looked at were done by people I have known practically my whole life or people I consider my closest friends. While looking into their vessels and reading their writing, I discovered things about how they view themselves or have critical pieces to their identity that I would have never known. These things included passions and life aspirations. Seeing all sides of their vessels, gave me more complexity and more of an eye into how my peers view the world. I find that crucial to function in a class and in the world. I also found it interesting how everyone's vessel differed in its own way even though there were some constants throughout all boxes. For example, most people put their friends and loved ones on the outside of their boxes. On the insides of boxes, however, I did not notice a lot of static ideas being passed from box to box. This to me was very interesting because it showed even though most people can find those commonalities in identities, they still greatly vary from person to person. This connects back to what was being discussed at the beginning of this post in the sense that outside pressures and people can shape one's identity but there are still those pieces that remain fundamental to a person.

Identity is not something that can be defined by a sentence, not by a photo album, not even by a five paragraph essay. Identity is intangible, and something that only you can truly know, but also something that takes a while to figure out, especially as a child. We are born with no sense of self, we are built by our parents, our teachers, the people around us. The environment in which we are raised plays a factor, and so does the books we read or the shows we watch. Everything is constantly impacting us whether we realize it or not. As we grow up, we begin to form an identity or try to discover it. However, this is a process that cannot be fully completed, because it is always changing. Especially in our society today, the media pushes thoughts into our brains that we are prone to believe just because we see it with a fancy news logo underneath. This is why it is so important to be strong-minded, and be able to think for yourself in terms of deciding which ideas to believe. This is difficult though, because our decision on which idea to believe comes from the way we were raised and what we were told is right and wrong. Moreover, people tend to side with majorities in order to feel more comfortable, and not be othered. This is seen at schools, as well as most of the other topics we’ve discussed. School is supposed to be a space that fosters learning, but is often a space that supresses individualism and reinforces conformity. Many of my peers had adjectives on the outside of their vessels, while on the inside were pictures and concrete images. Often your inside identity is similar to your perceived appearance when looking at it from your friends’s or family’s point of views, but strangers who don’t know you inside can only judge you by a first impression. I also noticed that almost everyone had toys inside their vessel, and a lot of people had the word “childish” on the outside. I found that interesting, because even though we are still children, it is seen as immature to play with dolls or have stuffed animals, but it is something that almost everyone does and has. As highlighted in “How Social Media Shapes Identity,” we are able to create narratives for ourselves with social media, but that is not really who we are, and sometimes that can get confused with reality. The idea that it is not our childhood memories that we are preserving, but rather possibilites that we wish we could have experienced is one that resonates with me, because many people post what they want people to think of them on social media, when they are going through things that not everybody knows about. I don’t believe it’s the photos, but rather social media that is ruining our perceptions. I think it would be cool for everyone to use only a digital camera for a week, no chromebooks, phones, airpods, etc, and see what we could achieve and how our mental health improves.

Every single person in our class has a complex entity composed of a multitude of factors. Those that shape how others see us are race, gender, height, how we dress, and present ourselves in public. Yet how we see ourselves is based on life experience, interests/hobbies, and our values. Our identity is always changing and never constant because every time we experience a major life event the way we see the world around us shifts. Yet, society limits the amount of change that occurs at once, this is due to the relationships we make based on our identity. We have friends due to some similar interests and as our identity changes these friendships as we change our relationship with those around us change as well. As we lose interest in certain areas we will grow apart from some friends, and as we gain interest in some areas other friendships will grow stronger. Our personal identity and social identity are in constant flux as we interact with those around us, our goal in any social setting is for those around us to see us how we see ourselves. From the identity vessels of my peers, I learned how much family and friends not only impacts how others see us but also how we see ourselves. This is something that I saw in many different people’s vessels, either pictures or representations of family and friends on both the inside and outside of the vessels. This is something that I relate to as I see my experience with my family and friends shape who I am and how I view the world.

Identity is such a beautiful thing. You know your identity better than anyone, but there are still parts of you that seem to be reflected in your attitude, the way you talk, your behavior, etc. Even your best friend might not know everything that makes up your identity. For example, one of my close peers made a beautiful vessel that represented the things she loved. In her vessel, she put words and pictures that confused me until I read her identity essay. Someone who I thought I had known for a long time had parts of themselves that I had never known. And the most interesting part is that there are still things I don’t know. We are the true holders of our identity even if we’re still trying to figure it out.

As the holders of our identities, we must admit something: some of us like to fake our identity. I am personally guilty of such a thing. We post every time we go out to eat or every time we do something fun to make it seem like we’re living an effortlessly fun life. When we post our perfect lifestyle, each and every one of those views or likes that we love to keep track of has now been influenced. A picture from a cheesecake factory followed by a picture in Europe portrays a life that isn’t totally true. Some of your followers only see a snippet of your life. The other parts of your life are for them to imagine. It’s easy to let other people guess our identity with how “the smartphone—allows us to produce a narrative of our lives, to choose what to remember and what to contribute to our own mythos” (Nausicaa Renner). I can totally make my life look perfect all the time with a constant click of a button and you could never know who I am when the phone is off. The complex thing about identity is that we have now set each other up to be able to assume who we are.

Putting social media aside, some people try to identify you in a certain way based on who you are. One of the vessels explained that someone called them a “spicy Latina” because they disagreed with an idea. This reminded me how powerful stereotypes or perspectives can be within someone’s identity. Just because someone is affiliated with a certain group, doesn’t mean that they’re affiliated with those stereotypes. Just because a Latina disagrees with you doesn’t make them spicy. Just because a woman reacts to something doesn’t make them overdramatic. We’ve spent so much time labeling people based on how they look or who they spend their time with, that we forgot the importance of getting to know people.

The identity vessel was a beautiful reminder of how complex identity can be. We are more than the artists we listen to and we are more than the label given to us by our sixth period classmate. We are who we say we are and it will take more than a shoebox or a hollowed out book to truly show people who we are. Don’t let labels, social media, or stereotypes get in the way of knowing what our identity is.