During this past week I finished reading Lee Humphreys’s, The Qualified Self. I actually found this book quite interesting. It was pretty easy to understand because of how recent it had been published. I believe the book provided a new look on how everyone: kids, adults, students, elders, all provide a different “self-portrait” of themselves on social media. Humphreys provides very specific examples of how technology has hurt us or increased our social abilities.
In one of my Vrooman Facebook discussions that happened last week was focused around the holiday posts people share on certain holidays. I feel that a lot of people commonly just post these certain "holiday" snapshots because they are just trying to find different ways to "fit in". Some people might just post these birthday posts or other certain holiday post not just to celebrate the holiday but maybe to just share that picture because its a picture they are really fond of. Below are some examples of birthdays post I have posted this past year:
One of the chapters in Humphreys’s, The Qualified Self, that I found most interesting and was probably my favorite would have to be Chapter 3: Performing Identity Work. Humphrey discusses how a very important part of our communication with our peers is in performing our many social roles. For example, I am a student, a daughter, a teammate, a sister, a friend, a girlfriend and how I act will vary depending on which people I am with at the moment. Something big I learned while reading this chapter is that the way we act/perform change depending on both the role we are playing and who we are talking to/the audience.
The subchapters within chapter 3 were quite entertaining. One that specifically caught my eye was Identity Work on Pinterest. Probably since around middle school I have always used Pinterest; I use Pinterest for various reasons. Some of the reasons being: to find good and helpful workout plans, help plan a appropriate nice outfit for school or a outing, good ideas for all sorts of gifts, college hacks that help me save lots and lots of money, and much much more! I am not really one to post my own stuff on Pinterest but I love posting about/sharing (Pinning) other people’s great ideas. This would be a really good example of how I think social media has a lot of positives! I do not believe that It isn’t just your inner circle of close friends and even closer family members that social networking sites allow you to communicate very comfortably and effortlessly. Social networks has the power to open the world up to you. Pinterest is not really about you connecting with your friends. Pinterest allows you to open up your creative side and truly express your interests. I believe that Humphreys decided to include this part of the chapter to connect with people who are not really all about social media but they do, in fact use Pinterest; connecting really with most of her older readers. If someone were to look at my pinterest I feel they would definitely get a good positive taste of who I truly am. I believe that my pinterest portrays me to be a very active, thoughtful and caring person who cares about how I look (Physically) to others. Humphrey kind of describes what people “pin” not really describing who they are but what kind of background/ story do they have to with their fellow "pinners". Overall I think that Pinterest might be one of the best ways to find your social identity. I encourage everyone to join Pinterest if you have not already.
No comments:
Post a Comment