Visionary Voices
Volume 2: Spring 2009
How You and Me Came to Be: A Breif Explanation of Identity Many of the great philosophers and teachers of the past have brought up the same question sometime during their lifetimes: Who am I? Whether or not you are a philosopher or a teacher, this question continues to haunt the general public. Identity is not a clear subject and there continues to be debates as to how human identity should be perceived. What is known about the subject is that we all go through life on a quest for our own personal identity. It is a never ending struggle to define ourselves starting from when we first become self-aware and from then on, shifting from identity to identity to find the most suitable. Throughout a lifetime, an average person will encounter people and things that influence their identity for better or for worse. The identities of individuals are the product of numerous sources and are hard to trace back to their original influences. The whole world starting from parents all the way to the media and beyond have a hand in shaping identity. Identity is an ever-changing process that begins as soon as we are born. Erik H Erikson stated in his book Identity and the life cycle that “social life begins with each individual's beginnings” (Erikson 20) When we are first born, we enter the world with statuses already attached to us and are clearly defined by gender and race. As we grow older the decisions we make, the people we keep close to us, and the way we spend our time decides how we will be judged. Around adolescence, we develop an identity by trying to associate ourselves with different social groups. Erikson writes about the adolescent “They are sometimes morbidly, often curiously, preoccupied with what they appear to be in the eyes of others as compared with what they feel they are…” (Erikson 94) Adolescents' self-consciousness will allow them to take on several identities, but they do it to be popular with certain social groups instead of trying to find an identity that is most suited for them. Adolescence eventually comes to an end though the experimentation with different identities never stops. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states: “ you might have had a different identity from the one you in fact have—and one that you might have for a while and then lose: you could acquire a new individual identity, or perhaps even get by without one” ( Sharon ). People are constantly playing around with new and different public identities. Some celebrities do it for a new public image or a promotional technique like Beyonce Knowles taking the name Sasha Fierce, The Beatles calling themselves Sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band, or Puff Daddy referring to himself as P. Diddy. Adults are constantly changing hairstyles and wardrobe in order to change their identities when they have outgrown their previous one. I am guilty of this shift in identity; I have let my hair grow and I'm buying clothing different from what I used to wear. There is nothing wrong with changing your appearance once in a while, but does changing one's physical appearance or name really change identity? If so, the transition would not happen overnight. These minor changes that people do are just a step forward in creating a new identity. When these musicians did it, it was because they want their image, careers, and artistic vision to go in a different direction and many other people do it for the same reasons or they want to reassess the kind of person they want to be. These changes can seem spontaneous but there is often a reason for it Change can elevate status in society and to some, being viewed in a different and better light is a great incentive to change identities. Identity is the product of many different things. How you see yourself reflects years of parenting, religion (if any), school, and so forth. The most popular method of influence among all these sources would be expectation. Parents, religion, and school expect a person to behave in a certain manner. Sometimes people rise to meet these expectations, embrace the kind of lifestyle glamorized by these influences, and lead happy lives thanks to these influences. Other times people do not meet these expectations and fall into low self-esteem because they feel they could not live up to the standards of what a “model person” should be according to these influences. A common situation among youths and present in adult life is the influence of the media and peer pressure. People want to be like the images they see in the media and sometimes loose themselves in a fantasy and change into an identity that does not suit them. The same can be said for trying to fit in with a group though it can work one of two ways depending on who the individual is trying to fit in with. Some peers can have a positive effect on people and others can have a negative effect, though it all depends on what they are like and how they spend their time. Adults are as immune to bad company as youths are. There are cases where people develop a poor identity and fall into destructive behavior such as drugs and association with gangs. When it comes to who's to blame for such behavior, there are many possible answers ranging from the influences I mentioned previously to just poor decisions made by the person in question. Just as there is good parenting, a good way of interpreting religion and media outlets, and good company there are also bad sorts of influences. If a person is surrounded by hard-to-please or abusive parents, pushy religious values, negative images in the media, or peers with destructive tendencies then there should be no surprise if the person has poor self image and seeks out harsh behavior for solace. There are several cases like this, though people handle these situations differently. Choice perhaps plays the biggest role in deciding ones identity. Someone could be abused by their parents, picked on by their peers, exposed to violent music, and associate themselves with questionable friends but there comes a point in one's life when it becomes the personal responsibility of the person to either crumble at the weight of their unfortunate lives and become a miserable person and a social pariah or they could rise above such adversity as so many have done in the past and become something better than what they once were. Human beings are capable of making decisions, but whether or not someone can make choices free from other larger outside influences depends on their strength of agency. Agency is the ability to make choices, believe in those choices, and impose them on a day to day basis. There are plenty of influences in the world ready to persuade the general public to live a certain way. Many lifestyles are based around these promoted ways of living though when we begin to follow blindly we are giving up our agency and denying ourselves an authentic version of identity. Changes or attempted changes should only be for one's own benefit and giving up our agency to influences and institutions will only lead to feelings of regret and the neglect of who we are. There are many people who are comfortable following a trend or customs and there is nothing wrong with that, but there has to be set limits to how far something should be followed before it takes over individuality. Choices made should correspond with a personal belief of what feels right, if the choice feels right then it will be easier to believe in and practice every day. Believing in one's own choices is the best way to protect agency. Without agency people would become hollow shells, unable to think for themselves without being ordered by a controlling force. People with such oppressed backgrounds have become artists, writers, musicians, and even successful politicians. Barack Obama's parents got divorced when he was very young and dabbled in drug use in his older years, but the United States doesn't see him as a drug fiend from a broken home because he took the responsibility to build himself into the kind of person he wanted to be. In contrast to that persona, girls from the show “My Super Sweet 16” come from a privileged family and live in privileged neighborhoods only to let themselves become ungrateful, spoiled, selfish snobs. My point ultimately is that the world is filled with positive and negative influences. Some influences can be chosen and others are forced upon us, but either way the development of our own personal identities fall with our choices and who or what we decide to listen to.
Works Cited Erikson, Erik H., Identity and the life cycle. W.W. Norton & Company Inc. 1980 Chapter 1 p. 20, Chapter 2 p. 94
|