Entry 10: Electronic Identities

What's the statistic of relationships starting online again? One in five?

I think that's what e-harmony's commercial said. It's really cool to think

50, or even 20, years ago electronic identities were not even a part of

identities. 

In the presentation Ashley did, I thought it was really interesting

how certain people seemed to try to define their likes based on what

they thought their likes should be for their gender or race. The

NASCAR example really got me; there's no way

white women are really that concerned/interested with racing

cars. Unless they are the wives in Talladega Nights. 

"You sick, sons of bitches. I mean you walk in that door, on your two legs... all fat and cocky

 and lookin at me in my chair. And you tell me its all in my head? I hope that both

 of you have sons... Handsome, beautiful, articulate sons, who are talented

 and star athletes and they have their legs taken away. I mean

 I pray you know that pain and that hurt."

After thinking about what we discussed in class, I thought about

my own experience with online identities. I know when I change my

Facebook picture, it is half-based on perception management and 

how I want others to see me. If I look back, I can tell right when I got my Facebook

I would just do very generic pictures. Then, junior year I have a 

line of pictures of me doing something I deemed funny at 

the time, such as me dressed as a nerd. Senior year I really try to include all my best 

friends in my pictures. From then on, I kind of use pictures fitting for the

time of year (ex. Christmas time= tree lighting picture or if a 

friend is coming to visit= a picture of me and them).

Even writing on someone's wall I have to consider how other

people will perceive me. Also, I form my own

identity by never capitalizing proper nouns, beginning of sentences,

etc. It's funny to go back and read my wall-to-wall's

and see how my electronic self has emerged.

http://www.xanga.com/

Remember xanga? I never had a myspace, but I loved this. 

I'll be curious to see what new identities develop with the 

changes in technology. 

Entry 9: Identity

From the identity stuff we've learned, the most interesting

aspect for me was the idea of the "I" and the "me". It's weird to think 

about, but when you said, "I think about how you see me" helped me understand

better. The idea of the self as a social structure also rang a bell with me.

If I think about it, when people tell me I have a certain personality

trait or I do something, I, sometimes automatically,

adopt it as a fact. But with certain characteristics, I would never

associate them or disassociate them with myself had it not

been for someone telling me so. People constantly enforce my personal 

identity, but sometimes people will say things to me that I brush off.

Like you said in class with the hipster example, I get that too...

just from my friends, though. I think what it is is I'm more 

hipster than they are (but by no means a hipster...the label

has honestly loss whatever meaning it had).

I wonder how hipsters enforce rules...surely not the same

as gang members.

In the gang-related gun violence article, I thought it was interesting

how aware everyone interviewed was of their actions and motivations.

No one really said their behavior was unavoidable or not 

their fault. Even though they were all pretty much on the same page, 

they had different reasoning. Also, they articulated it differently: their speech,

their level of remorse, etc. 

Entry 8: Salvation on Sand Mountain

My own religious experiences are nowhere near as exciting as 

Salvation on Sand Mountain. Until I was 12, I only went to church one time, 

besides visiting churches with friends or other family,

at my dad's childhood church. In fact, I was more Catholic

than Episcopalian; speaking of which, when I asked my mom what 

denomination I was and she told me, I thought she said we

were paleontologists...which is something completely different. 

Paleontology made me think of Ross from FRIENDS.

But I digress. My neighbors growing up were Catholic, and I was really

jealous they went to Sunday school and celebrated St. Nicholas Day (first

 Sunday in December, I think, when you leave your shoes out at night and 

get presents in them in the morning). We still celebrated Christmas and Easter,

but just didn't go to church. During sixth grade, though, I started going and 

going to Sunday School. I did a two year confirmation program and got 

confirmed, but I honestly took more out of watching the movie "Year One"

than I did in those two years, education-wise. One cool thing we did

in confirmation was service project. For one project, we went to a

different church, a Baptist church for my group. 

It was SO different from my church...we never clap, dance, say "Amen"

(unless instructed), or smile. Just kidding. Kind of. 

For me, on a much smaller scale, this new church was similar to 

Covington's experience. 

My church!

The collective behavior he observed was, to me, irrational. But, 

I'm sure to plenty of religions look at Christianity as irrational,

or at least certain parts of it. Once something is adopted as a group

norm, it is hard to remove. I was thinking about this at a concert last night, 

actually: grinding is probably the weirdest thing ever.

It's really primitive. The Cha-cha slide is weird too.

We must look like insects doing some weird group dance. 

Portugal. The Man! I thought of the how weird people look 

when they dance because I was on the upper level, and I was watching people

head bob and dance.

Entry 7: Mass/collective behavior

Lifton's piece "Nazi Doctors at Auschwitz" was really

interesting, particularly when discussing "doubling". I think

it's a really hard concept to try to imagine oneself in; I sit here and assure

myself I would never submit to such an act under any amount of 

pressure...but, for lack of a better saying, easier said than done.

Not only was there an immense amount of pressure put on doctors,

indirect as well as direct, but there were years of culminating 

beliefs and ideologies prior to the treatment. So, as much as I convince

myself I'd behave differently, I cannot be sure I would.

The concept of doubling and having two distinct personalities

is very explainable to me. I feel like that is a natural response, and

it is applicable in some lesser-scale instances of everyday life. Most 

people would classify very different personalities at their home life and work life,

particularly individuals with professions like police officers. Or mob members.

I always think it's funny how mobsters are portrayed in movies as

some of the meanest people, but the most loving, family-oriented

people, too. 

Even after beating and murdering, the mobsters still interact with family in

"regular" ways.

Entry 6: Social Group Dynamics, Obedience, and Conformity

After class on Wednesday, I was walking down

9th Street by the library. I noticed I started running my hand along 

the bushes I was walking next to. So I stopped, and was kind of trying to 

figure out why I started doing that in the first place. Then, I saw the person in 

front of me doing it. He stopped a few seconds later, but I saw the

guy in front of him was doing it too. I don't know if this

was exactly conformity, but it was funny to observe. 

I honestly find myself doing things like that all the time, though.

For instance, right when I met my best friend's roommate, Rachel,  I really

like her bangs. After Rachel left, I told my friend, Sasha, I liked

Rachel's bangs. Sasha told me she knew, because I was playing with my hair

the entire time. I'm not sure how exactly to define conformity, but for me,

I usually do things I know someone else can relate to on some level. 

Those are the bangs.

Even though I had already read the Milgram experiment, it was 

interesting to restudy it. I honestly don't know what I would do

in that situation. I think everyone would hope to be able to stand up,

and stop delivering the shocks, but easier said than done. I'm very easily 

persuaded, and if someone can verbally defend a point, they pretty 

much have won me over. This is good because I'm open-minded,

but horrible because literally every position can be argued.