The Search Engine By Sherman Alexie

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

College gives students endless opportunities. During this time, students are able to grow and develop academically and individually. It also provides students with

Sergey Brin noted, “Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines, unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.” Nicholas Carr’s essay challenges this assertion. Nicholas Carr believes even though there are multiple search engines, “the faster we surf across the Web-the more links we click and pages we view-the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.” This topic elicits such strong responses because technology is a part of our everyday lives. Technology is only becoming more advanced and will continue to be a source of debate for all who use it.

Growing up in a generation with high expectations of identity that are constantly altering whether it’s the latest trends, styles and even mind-set principles, can be over whelming. When asked to describe one-self, we often are stuck thinking of what particular word could fully describe who we are as a person. We have such a hard time of coming with just one word because there is no form of describing one’s self. How we see ourselves, we may not want to be that the next day. “Looks can be deceiving” or “the first impressions are the most important” is commonly instilled in our mindset which it is true to some extent. Our work

     Identity is one of the main questions throughout all of our readings, because it is hard for people to accept who they are in society. Accepting their identity as a minority with little if any freedoms

Towards the beginning of Carr’s essay he contradicted himself by saying, “Research that one required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes.” (371) Within the next paragraph Carr states, “The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many.” It is not Google alone, nor just the Internet that we need to worry about, it’s the technological advancement overall. Throughout history people have criticized technological advancements, but look past the endless possibilities it created. Now we are only one click away from information that we need, instead of looking at the information that we use to carry inside our heads. Frederick Taylor created a system that created the best outcome for factories but the Internet is a machine designed for the best outcome, “the perfect algorithm, to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as knowledge work.” (375)

Identity, the fact of being who or what a person is, shapes a large part

When the world we live in is viewed from an anonymous, unbiased standpoint the individuality of ‘I’ has a tendency to diminish away and be replaced by a society of eyes. Who view one’s identity differently then what the individual can see. Life moves on whether we like it or not and how individuals view themselves verses how others perceive them can leave a lasting impression. Everyone has a unique identity and perspective of the world they live in. The way individuals see themselves may appear to be different than what others see in them because of different values, morals and characteristics that shape’s ones identity.

Going to college is also about the experience. When most young adults enter college, they will be experiencing living apart from their loved one’s for the first time. This occurrence, while frightening helps to bring a new level of freedom and responsibility to an individual’s life that they may have never experienced. College is a great environment to help develop a sense of self and a new passion about one’s life and future. It will also help develop great time management skills that one will need to be a fully functioning member of society.

Over all when a person thinks about college and the extra time they are gonna spend in higher education, it does seem like à long time. While college is à very expensive and time consuming ordeal, some people even go all the way to say it isn't even worth it, it is worth every minute and penny. Many parents just expect their children to go to college. Some students don’t even want to go to college despite their parent’s wishes. Many parents want their children to go to college, but do the children really want that for themselves?

College is a place many things can happen. Some people say that college is a place where you find who you are and that it is also where you get to experience the real world and you get to meet new people and become an adult. On the other hand, people say college is a stressed filled place where students get four hours of sleep a night and you become in debt with college fees. And then there’s the few people that say it’s all about partying and just having fun. What is true about college is that it’s a place where students continue their education for hopefully a future career and you meet new people and experience new things too.

Since the pursuit of authentic identity relates heavily with society itself, one can argue that identity exists to the extent of

The public self is often times not the true self. This indication of a difference between the public and true self leads to the idea that the self and identity of an individual are different concepts. The self, is a person’s essential being that makes each individual unique compared to others; whereas the identity, is a person’s character that is essentially created to help the individual fit into society. These two concepts begin to form early in life through influences from society, family, and culture. However, as the individual beings to assimilate the world around them, their sense of identity transforms in order to adapt to the new environment, while their sense of self remains the same.

Defining identity can be complex and therefore we have to investigate the factors involved that make us who we are and how we are seen by others, collectively or individually. Social scientists have to consider the key elements which shape identity, the importance of social structures and agency involved. The differences and/or similarities between us are the focus that categorise and label us in society. Knowing who we are is important for many reasons including, social rights, obtaining a passport, housing, health, employment, marriage, and over all, being able to ascertain who we are, and belong.

Our identity can sometimes be shaped by the way others see us. As we have seen, the way in which others view us can have some sort of impact on how we see ourselves. There are also other contributing factors such as our years of adolescence, the basic human need of wanting to belong and maturing; all play an equally important part in the forming of our character and who we are. On balance it appears that there is not only one influence in the shaping of our identity, but there are many.