Who are you?

In “Be Who You Want To Be,” Katie Ellis explains that the philosopher George Mead argues that what people do makes them who they are.

He said, “the self appears through social behavior, or that social identity affects the formation of personal identity.” I argue against his theory with the idea that who you are shapes what you do, not the other way around. Ellis also explains that Mead believes; “we are only able to conceive of ourselves in relation to other people.” To me this means that without the interaction with other people, we will never find ourselves or figure out who we are. I find this really interesting because I always thought that the best way to find who you are is independently, without the distraction of others. I do agree with the fact that we learn about ourselves through others, but we don’t rely on others to find ourselves.

One of the most interesting statements Ellis wrote is that identity is a choice on Facebook, and we choose how we want ourselves perceived to others and to our self. Another thing I found interesting was that the picture you choose gives people an idea of who you are, like with the wedding picture photo people would see the user as a wife or “beautiful bride”. This article made me think about Facebook and how people use it, in a different way. For example, how Facebook friends are put into categories such as; single female or married couple with kids. The biggest thing I agreed with from this article is that the constant updates of what people are doing are ruining our ability to determine what is important. People posting about going to the mall or giving their dog a bath are not exactly newsworthy topics. Overall, this article was insightful and interesting to read, and made me think twice about how I am using Facebook.