learntoquestion ltq discussions

Questions to Consider:

Please use the following questions as a guide for your post. You can choose to focus on one of the question sets, or to incorporate pieces from several of them into your response. Please note that you must include some reflection on the identity vessels of your peers and a reference to one of the readings or poems linked below in your response to earn full credit for this assignment.

1. What shapes how we see ourselves, how others see us and how we see others? How do our individual identities impact our personal and social choices? How are personal and social identities connected and how are they different?

2. Is our identity really malleable? How much does society today limit our ability to change and grow throughout our lives? How do social psychological theories impact humans' willingness to view and accept the identities or the growth of others?

3. What did you learn about your peers from their identity vessels? Were you surprised by some of the vessels? How do these vessels relate to what you have learned about the concept of identity, either in the readings or in class?

Word Count Requirement: 250-500 words

Readings to Reference:

Please refer to the ideas, either using a quote or paraphrasing, from at least one of the readings or poems in your response.

“The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?” By Beverly Daniel Tatum

“How Social Media Shapes Identity” By Nausicaa Renner

Collection of Identity Poems

Rubrics to Review:

Identity Vessel Rubric

LTQ Rubric

Humans are greatly shaped by the world around them, picking up different parts of identity from different people and experiences. Depending on who a person surrounds themselves with really affects their identity. Identity is constantly changing and adapting and growing with you because humans constantly face new challenges and enter new environments. Social media has become a huge factor into who someone is, adding new pressure to fit in but also stand out. Nausicaa Renner points out that social media has also added a type of immortality to identity because of constant recording. One identity vessel I saw the person described attempting to get away from the identity they had in sixie year and finding it difficult. I think your identity is malleable and able to change but only to certain extents because people will always have their own perception of you. You can be an entirely different person but the friends you had since you were little are always gonna know you for how you acted with them. Many identity boxes also had more negative ideas on the outside but positive ones on the inside. I think people were harsh on themselves because of insecurities in their identity relating to cognitive dissonance by justifying insecurities because it's something they believed others saw and not their own feelings. It's very interesting to see how people view themselves because it's very hard to isolate your identity from the perception of your identity. I think people are always going to be influenced by how others perceive them and it's very hard to be completely self aware and be able to separate true identity from reputation.

It was fascinating how several of the personal statements revealed that the way people see them is intentional. They behave and do certain things to generate a certain perception from others around them. This is likely the case for most, if not all, individuals. In accordance with social psychology, people care strongly about what others think of them and these social influences can even shape an individual. The Self-Concept Theory, from Carl Rogers, states that a third of our identity is made up of how others perceive us. In fact, one of the ways we shape the perception of others is through social media. Social media is used for a number of reasons, from sharing and holding memories, to spreading awareness and inciting political/social action. However, it is also used to shape perception. From “How Social Media Shapes Our Identity” by Nausicaa Renner, posted photos aren’t typically documentary. Instagram stories and Snapchats (disappearing photos) show how social media is largely about sharing experiences rather than saving memories. It displays an idea of a person, but little about the inside. During the Identity Vessel Project display, I’ve realized how misled my perception of other people was, as the inside of the vessels were strikingly different from my first impressions of them. Social media, specifically Instagram, has played a large role in this fallacy and tucks away the true individual. The Identity Vessel Project reinforces the idea that we cannot categorize people based on how we see them. Assumptions about the traits of a person based on how they present themselves is not an accurate reflection of who they are on the inside.

Cultural norms and societal expectations influence how people are perceived and how they project onto others. Stereotypes, generalizations, and “tip of the iceberg” personality give strangers an idea in their head, sometimes a completely false one. We see others in a similar light, frequently assigning them to the most obvious personality traits. The way that we perceive ourselves, however, is a combination of these two aspects. Our identity may affect the choices we make in life, relating to dissonance and measure of character. Frequently we see individuals who are “good people,” on a straight path, having an honest and hardworking life. These people may fall into a bad group, be negatively influenced by how they want to be perceived by others. Through social affiliations, we make a statement about who we are, or who we are not. These social identities are ever changing; sports teams, school clubs, friend groups. Personal identities however are deep rooted in your morals and upbringing, the essence of who you are. Sometimes, people may want to change but society judges or shames them into staying who they are. It's “not cool” to do certain activities or hang out with certain people, so we don’t. Nausicaa Renner suggests “now that the Internet is more permanent, and more pervasive, it’s hard to avoid the relics of past identities.” With a constant reminder of who we used to be, that same personality is tethered to us. It can be difficult for us to grow, and difficult for us to allow others to grow.

Experiencing the outer and inner aspects of my classmates, it allowed me to see a part of people that I forgot existed. It is easy to pretend people are just random vessels. You don't have to connect to them or learn about who they are. However, I was surprised by the projects I saw because it showed how complicated and intricate humans can be. We’ve learned in class that some people attempt to hide or change their identity in order to fit in. They alienate and imply stereotypes to marginalize others. My takeaway from this project is that people come from all walks of life. They deal with drastically different things and you never know what they may be going through. You will never know how someone identifies on the inside. It is important to learn from others, respect them, and connect.

Upon observing all of the identity vessels, my key takeaway was the fact that no two projects were the same, and while some may have appearances that resemble one another, they all contain parts of entirely different people. The process of this project as a whole forced each and every one of us to reflect on ourselves, in one way or another; we are all individual humans with individual lives, and the display of these boxes reflects the power of humanization. On the topic of the “Us v. Them” mindset, which we covered in class, we are each both an “Us” and a “Them,” meaning that while we may create an “Us” through similar interests, hobbies, personalities, etc, we will also always be part of the “Them” group to somebody else. This concept emphasizes the importance of not holding assumptions too dear to our minds; while assumptions are natural and human to make, they often lead to the formation of biases and this project is an example of how we don’t actually truly know anybody. Our identities are always changing as we develop and experience a variety of life’s aspects, so it’s important to cherish our identities and realize the impermanence of unknowing that may accompany identity.

Khalil Gibran’s poem, titled “Fear” and written in 1923, emphasizes the importance of accepting the change and growth of others and ourselves. I believe that this project forced each and every one of us to reflect on our own identities with what we know about ourselves, what others know, and more specifically what we don’t know. There is currently a lot of pressure in our society and culture to figure the whole of our identities out, and know everything about each other and ourselves right away. However, Gibran’s poem, titled “Fear” emphasizes the importance of change, and more importantly, accepting that change. We are all constantly changing, and learning more about ourselves and others, so it is important to continue to experience that growth and not hold our identities to restricting societal expectations.

While I was walking around admiring the creativity and vulnerability of my classmates I first looked at ones that caught my eye based on their outward appearance. This was incredibly interesting because some of the names I had never heard of yet I was drawn to their expression of their identity and might be good friends with. Then I looked at the names, I was searching for two types of people, my friends that I was hoping to see if there was anything that I could find out that I didn’t already know, and secondly people that I knew vaguely. Multiple of my friend’s projects that I consider myself really close to shared things that I didn’t know about, or dove deeper into things I knew about but didn’t know how greatly it affected them. While I was looking at and reading the statements of the people I know vaguely it was incredibly interesting. I learned about the complexities of someone that I had talked to about twice in eight grade and made a judgment that I didn’t like them or want to be their friend, I realized that the generalizations I had made about someone that is a friend of a friend were facets of his outward personality and how he wants to be seen as more than that. This made me sad. I understand that it is psychology which is driving these generalizations and the “us” v.s “them” mentality in my brain but it is still depressing to realize that I might have missed great friendships or underestimated people because of it.

One’s identity is arguably the most important thing about a person. It encompasses how they live their lives, why they live their lives, and what is important in their lives. Through this project, I feel as though I have gathered a lot about identity. Beverly Daniel Tatum perfectly summed up my feeling throughout this project when he said “the looking glass self is not a flat one-dimensional reflection, but multidimensional.” As I viewed my peers' projects, I saw this firsthand. I noticed that other people’s projects represented a lot of their identities that I had not considered before. For example, people who I thought of as jocks included books they enjoyed reading, or people who I thought were quiet and studious were big music fans and had gone to concerts. I thought it was very interesting and informative to see this side of people, and made me question why I had held these preconceived beliefs about people without ever even talking to them. Therefore, I think a first impression, and lack of interest in really getting to know someone is what leads to these ill-informed preconceptions. For example, if I walk into class and I see someone who is at the back, rarely talks, and keeps their head down, I will immediately think they are quiet. I would be correct, but only in that one setting, and not in every setting. I tried to represent myself the same way. In school, many people know me because I play soccer, write for the Argo, or am in a certain class of theirs. However, there is a lot more to me, and I hope that through this project people were able to broaden their lens and better understand me, as I have understood them.

I believe that what shapes how we see ourselves and how people see us are experiences. We interpret our experiences in many ways, be they mistakes or successes, and we shape ourselves through these experiences. We learn from mistakes and celebrate triumphs, and we learn more about ourselves in the process because it shows us who we want to be and what we want to do. We learn to avoid “bad” experiences and repeat “good” experiences. In Fear by Khalil Gibran, a river is reluctant to enter the ocean, but it learns that, “...it's not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.” The ocean avoided going into the ocean because it believed it was a “bad” experience, but it learned that it was a “good” experience.

Most identity vessels included a hobby, and many people see that hobby as a part of their identity because they cherish their experiences with that hobby. On the other hand, I only saw a few vessels that mentioned a bad experience. This shows how much we choose to push back our bad experiences because it helps us learn to have good experiences. The most significant experiences are those we have with others and those that others have with us. I saw many identity vessels that mentioned friends and family, who are people who shape our identity the most. Friends and family members shape how they see us by their experiences with us, we shape how we see them by our experiences with them, and they shape how we see ourselves by their experiences. One person’s vessel said that how he saw himself is a reflection of how the people around him see him, which shows how the people around us affect us.

1. Our identities impact our personal and social decisions through cognitive dissonance. As we talked about in class, when we do something that is against our identity or moral code, we know it was a wrong decision through the sense of dissonance that we feel. The worse the action, the greater the dissonance. People who are more confident in their identities will make decisions that are more in line with who they are.

2. Our identities are malleable because of psychological theories like the “Us vs Them” mindset. By being put in certain groups that we want to fit in with, we change certain things about ourselves in order to be included. This mindset limits people’s ability to grow in their life because they are confined to this group and don’t want to branch out in fear of becoming part of the “Them” group and being ostracized. By automatically judging those in the “Them” group, we are unable to accept people’s full identities and instead choose to focus on the parts that we don’t like or disagree with. This leads people to be narrow minded and makes it harder to accept change in others.

3. I learned that lots of people also struggled with how other people perceive them. Many people had to ask their friends or people online to see what others thought of them. I also learned that some people were much more open about their inside identities than other people, choosing more personal items and going more in depth in their descriptions.

What shapes how we see ourselves are the resources available to us. These resources can be seen in many different forms, but what I noticed most about peoples boxes are their reliance on their friends for an accurate description of themselves. Those who used inspiration from their friends probably have known these people for a long time. I think this impacts our willingness to accept if our identities are stunted or can continue to adapt to what we experience. Friends will tell each other what they want to hear, that a person is kind, thoughtful, or wise. But only the truest people who think that lying to their friends will cause them dissonance will be straight up and point out the flaws of another. We are inclined to believe what our friends say because disagreeing will make it seem as though someone is unable to face the reality that they aren’t a perfect person. This makes me question who we can trust to give us an honest, outside viewpoint of ourselves. Would we rather play into what our friends think of us, even if it may not be true? I got the answer to that question after seeing the description of everyone’s vessels mention something along the lines of “how my friends described me”.

An unforgettable trend I saw among the projects were social media implications. Whether a meme relating to a niche concept or a social media icon just being on someone's vessel, I wasn’t surprised. Social media allows those who are easily influenced, like a growing adolescent brain of a BLS student, to partake in a world where we can create a different persona. This online presence may feel self-affirming because it has aspects of our identity embedded into the account, like making a fan page for a favorite artist, however social media is a major restriction to how society limits our growth. Access to social media creates an environment where a developing child can become fixated on what isn’t real and refuse to confront their real- life self. In the quote, “Now that the Internet is more permanent, and more pervasive, it’s hard to avoid the relics of past identities,” from ‘How Social Media Shapes are Identity”, it is demonstrated that by engaging in prolonged contact with social media, we hinder our growth and self acceptance of what makes us stand out. We tend to go online and search for content relatable to use to self affirm ourselves that we aren’t different from everyone else, but the truth is being unique is far from a bad thing. By putting relics of social media on a vessel, it is like admitting that a person is constraining themselves to what they see others doing online.

Identity is such a fluid thing that is influenced by so many different factors. For many people, these factors have something to do with certain events in their lives, their culture, and how they are perceived by others (rather, how they think others perceive them). Similarly, based on these same factors, we impose identities on other people that are not always true. These assumed identities are sometimes very harmful, which is why it’s important to understand ourselves before making assumptions about others. Imposed identities can influence the way we see ourselves, thus changing the way we interact with the world around us. Certain parts of our identity manifest when we are put into social situations that are not akin to how we interact with people in our inner circle, possibly prompting an identity crisis and things of that nature. So, it is crucial to study ourselves so we can be secure in our identities.

To expand, identity is malleable, simply because we are constantly exposed to new experiences that affect the way we navigate the world. This malleability is often met with social pressures, which often forces a rigidity onto one’s identity The idea that we should conform to the statuts, the fear that we will be seen as “the other,” and the thought of being rejected by the majority are all things that drive how we allow others to see us, further affecting our self-esteem and how we see ourselves. A large factor in how we see ourselves, how we allow ourselves to change, or how force ourselves into an identity box, is driven by social media as well as our experiences, which now have a tendency to meld with one another. However, with social media, we don’t necessarily allow ourselves to truly reflect on these things which make us who we are. As Nausicaa Renner implies in "How Social Media Shapes Our Identity," because certain things are not digitized, we don’t allow ourselves to become fully immersed into the emotions that we feel in regards to certain situations, which affects our opinions, our decision-making abilities, and eventually, our identity as a whole.

After looking at everyone’s identity vessels, I was able to better understand self-perception and how it is shaped by different experiences, cultures, and a multitude of other factors. Seeing everybody’s identity vessel allowed me to reflect on how my views on them may differ from how they view themselves, even some of my closest friends. Understanding this now positively affects the way I interact with other people because I now understand them on a deeper level that I otherwise would’ve ignored.