Shaping My Identity: A Community Analysis

When I was asked to create a “Social Identity Wheel” during last week’s common hour, I expected the wheel to be just another icebreaker game. We’d each create a different social identity wheel; choosing not only which identities we resonate with, but then to measure the impact each identity has on what we think of ourselves. However, by the end of common hour I had realized that a social identity wheel is more of a personal project. Its purpose was not to teach myself about the identities of my peers, but to critically think of my own identities in relation to some core concepts about social identity.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

“Dale, dale, dale, No pierdas el tino; Porque si lo pierdes, Pierdes el camino”. The classic piñata song that is sung at parties. It translates to “Go, go, go, don't lose your aim; because if you lose it, you will lose your path.” The phrase ties in with my identity because of my cultural background and experiences at parties. Who am I? What is my cultural identity? The questions that have me trying my best not to have an existential crisis. I am a Mexican American, my parents were born in Jalisco and I was born in California. As for my cultural identity, I am a NSHS student that has been shaped by music, technology, and sports.

An individual possessing unique attributes and characteristics is what makes up that person's identity. In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, citizens of a seemingly utopian society lack both an identity and individuality. Every person in this society was stripped of their individuality, in order to maintain and preserve the ideal community. Huxley’s novel emphasizes the importance or groups and communities as oppose to embracing the differences of what it means to be an individual.

My social identity plays a huge part in shaping and defining my role as a leader. The way I view myself combined with the way that others view me frames the narrative of my opportunities to be a leader in many ways. Of my various social identity characteristics, the two that play the largest part in my life are my gender and appearance as a woman and my economic standing as lower middle class.

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

1. Any theory of personal identity should be able to solve two problems: first, the problem of individuation; second, the problem of continuity or persistence. How would you in your own words characterize these problems? Also, do these problems matter at all? Are they actually important? Why or why not?

Brave new world presents a handful amount of conflicts: lack of power, underappreciation, but the one which impacts the most is that of John the Savage and the societal norms of the World State.

In preparation for doing ethnographic research, it is crucial that one understands not only what ethnography is and how it relates to its audience, but also how one’s own identities influence the research taking place. For these reasons, this Digital Culture Project will focus on, among other things, what ethnography is and its relationship to various media as well as self-ethnography and realizing its importance when conducting ethnographic research. Additionally, my personal social identity will be examined and reflected upon.

A central theme in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is personal identity in a society where a social "caste" structure separates the citizens into five groups, the result being that any given individual is a little more than a faceless, color-coded member of a larger group. As a result of his appearance, values, and deviant thoughts, John is separated mentally, emotionally, and physically in both the Savage Culture and the World State Culture. Although torn between keeping true to his virtues and conforming to society, John is able to form and verbalize his own complex emotions and beliefs.

My family shaped my personal and social identity at a micro level by being the first set of influencers the moment I was born. My personal identity is significantly influenced by my family through the approach that my parents have taken to raise and nurture me. The results of my parents raising me is shown through the behaviour and beliefs that I embody. For example, because of my family I have always been aware that there is a God. In consequence, my compliant behaviour towards religion has already been constructed at a young age. Moreover, my social identity’s structure was shaped by my family through they way they have socially interacted with me. My micro level interactions with my family throughout time has created a deeply rooted influence within me. The influence that my family has had on my social identity is demonstrated in the way that I respond in certain social situations. For example, through behavioural observation as a child I have learned not to speak back to my parents when they are lecturing me.

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.

I wouldn’t really say my community as a whole has an impact on me as a person but people in around me have had a huge impact on me for who I am today. The people who have the biggest impact on me is defiantly my family and friends, I have done so many things with them that made me the person who I am today.

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members” (Coretta Scott King). A community consists of many individuals and how those individuals act, either alone or together, will determine whether the community will foster or die. Consequently, in order to be an effective individual in my own communities, I believe that being true to myself and really immersing myself is a powerful way to impact any community. For the most part, two of my communities are Providence College and Pasa Esek Hopkins. Reading about great leaders like MLK and Mother Teresa, who advocate for such strong love of neighbor and standing up for beliefs in the face of adversity, is at the focal point of my inspiration. I believe that believing in one’s self is how an individual can shine in their own community.