Catching up....

I was reviewing some of my class notes from about a month ago (yes, that's about how long it's been since I've posted...oops!), and there were some things I thought were worthy of mentioning on here:

Language and Self:
We talked about how psychological anthropology looks at person and self across cultures, and we investigate how the self varies across different cultures. In western society, it does seem that the self is viewed as an autonomous, independent entity--we focus primarily on individualism, with full agency and a full autonomy. In many other cultures, a person's "selfhood" is viewed in relation to other people; there's a sense of a collective identity. Where does the person fit in with the rest of society? Another important question to think about is, particularly for us, where and how do we find a sense of independence? When do we lose that sense of dependency on people like our caregivers, and assert that we are fully independent?

We also talked about whether or not we are "separate" selves, or present different personas at different times in life. I think we are, in a way, multi-faceted individuals. In some ways, I feel like we're like chameleons, who are able to change "personality traits" and blend in with our social environment. But of course, this begs the question, "Who are we really?" Stripped down to our core, without pretenses and different personas, who are we really? What is our true color? I've found that over the years, my groups of friends have changed, especially in terms of what they're like, personality traits, habits, attitudes, and the like. I've thought about my friends back in grade school, and the friends I have now. And personally I wonder, am I like all of them? Have I adopted their behaviors and made them my own? Am I a combination of my grade school friends' personalities and my college friends' personalities? Sometimes it's hard to figure out, and there are many times when I'm with my college friends and find myself acting the way I did with my grade school friends. This distinction is hard to make, I feel.

This little dilemma I found myself in is also touched upon by Goffman. What's essentially universal about "self" is that it's conveyed as a performance. So there's a performance aspect in self-presentation, and this obviously varies depending on who we're with. But this also brings up another very important question, "is that front necessarily false?" This ties in, once again, to "who is the real you?" If, according to Goffman, you perform for everyone, even yourself at times, then how do you fundamentally define yourself?

In Turkle's article, we talked about the evolution of humankind as "logical animals" to "feeling machines." I think it's absolutely true how, in this age of technology, computers have changed the image of self. When we talked about this, I thought immediately of a good friend of mine. Her computer, for example, has become an "extension" of herself practically. It seems like she has dumped her entire life into her laptop--all her music (which she is completely passionate about), her treasured photos (basically ALL her memories), diary entries, papers, all that good stuff. One time last year, her computer almost crashed, and I swear it was as if her entire world was about to come crashing down on her. She ALMOST broke down in tears. That's how much her computer meant to her. Who knew a laptop could have such sentimental value to someone?

I guess for the general population (who use computers), computers give us the best of both worlds--we gain both isolation and intimacy through computer use. It's interesting that, by nature, people are afraid of solitude and intimacy. Computers, I suppose, are that happy medium, the perfect compromise between both extremes.