Identity and Social Networks - Essay Example

IDENTITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS Identity and Social Networks Identity may be defined as a person’s expression of the collective set of characteristics that express his own self or a group that he belongs to. It is a very broad concept of sociology that can be approached from many different perspectives. In a general sense, identity can be describe as a person’s understanding of who they are and where they belong in the society. The understanding of identity is attributed to certain things that hold meaning to the person. Several sources of identity include sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, social class and gender (Abrams & Hogg, 1990). To be able to relate society and identity you have to assume that there is a reciprocal relationship between the two. The self influences the society through formation of groups and organisations, while the society will influence the self through shared language, beliefs and meaning of societal concepts and culture. Therefore, identity emerges from the society and thus, the individual is a reflection of the society and world around them. The nature of identity of a person has a high dependency on the individual’s society. From sociology, there are two different types of identity, social identity and self-identity, which are closely related but distinct. Social identity is the attributes and characteristics that others identify in the individual and they include being identified as a mother, father, doctor and so forth. Many people have different social-identity that reflect the different dimensions of life. They show how an individual is similar to others and these shared identities are based on common goals, beliefs and values are important bases for social movements (Burke, 2001). Self-identity can be referred to the process through which an individual formulates a unique sense of who they are and how you relate to the world and society surrounding the individual. It is the unique values, beliefs and philosophy that one has towards his own self. Self-identity is an important building block to who a person is their self-esteem and social self. One’s self-identity include aspects of the past, present and their future. The person that an individual desires to be in the future will be one of the defining factors of who they are (Cast, 2001). Self-identity is built through interaction with the world around and the society an individual lives in. The constant interaction within society helps one to understand their own selves and build an identity of who they are. It builds a link between the personal self and the society that help to build the understanding on one’s self. The link between self-identity and society helps an individual assess who they are. The comparison theory argues that people need to know precisely who they are leads them to comparison so they can exactly describe themselves. Sociologists have seen society as always being interpreted and defined by the individuals with it. The people within the society will identify those aspects of the society they feel are not in line and they will try to fix them. Hence, the individuals will always try to define society and this makes it to be in a constant state of change. The individual will thus define the society that will in turn develop their self and social identity. In identifying who a person’s real self is, they will act in a manner that can be able to be identified with them. As society helps to tell who we are, the individual’s actions will be focused in strengthening the society perception towards them so they can gain their self-identity. These individual patterns of behaviour will influence the societal perspective of how people with a certain type of social identity should behave. Hence, what you give to the society will be reciprocated back. Interactionism perspective has a view that an individual self-identity emerges from the mind and the mind develops out of interaction with the society. The mind converts action into meaning and symbols from what an individual experience in the society they are able to interpret this through language. These symbols are integrated to once self and they are able to reflect on who they are by interpreting them. From this, an individual will be able to evaluate and take an account of them and be able to plan their future based on their understanding of themselves. The understanding of the self and one’s identity come from the point of view others that the individual interacts with in the society. By identifying oneself from the perception of other, makes our response to be like theirs. This will have the effect of the individuals sharing a common mean of themselves. Hence, as the individual identifies himself as a distinct being, he has a merged perspective with the others and they share a common belief or goal. Through symbols and interpretation of their meaning using language, the individual becomes a distinct self who identifies with a society who they share the language and beliefs. Over time, people develop a sense of self-concept then they understand who they are. Self-concept is a set of meaning that an individual will attach to himself. It is based on the evaluation of oneself through observation and inference about one’s self. It is also based on what our wishes and desires are, how other act towards us, and how we view ourselves. It encompasses the idea of self-image and self-view that we import into a situation we subject to constant change and influence the situation. The self-image guides an individual in his day-to-day interactions in the society, how we perceive different situation in society. For example, the Arab uprising can be considered a case of social identity that are shared and these common goals and beliefs led to the growth of the revolution that spread through several countries. The people, who had similar social beliefs and values, gained a shared identity and they developed a new identity from the social issues affecting them. Other people who did not identify with any group may have been forced by the social pressure to join a certain faction. This led to the rise of two factions, which had similar goals and objectives. Social media and other forms of media played a very important role in the development of this movement, as they were the medium through which the objectives and goals were spread. People identified with the message being spread and they joined efforts in forming a movement. Some of the people may have been pushed by the social media messages to join a group they previously did not have any affiliation to. The interaction between people in a society can be discussed from two perspectives: agency and social structure. The social structure focus on the individuals’ action within the society and the roles they take and play. It is relatively fixed as individuals are identified with the roles the play within the society. The differences exhibited by people considered of the same identity are relatively small. The other is agency where the individuals create their own roles by making behavioural decisions. This enables the individual to develop a number of different identities over time as he interacts with people from different societies (Deaux & Martin, 2001). For an individual to successfully fit into a role within the society there is a negotiation with other aspects of society. Enacting a role identity is done in relation a corresponding relations another counter role identity. Each individual will try to enact a role that will integrate with the others or it has a relation with their identity. This therefore implies that individuals must compromise to be able to fit in a role that reflects their identity and the influence of the society. This is evident especially where the roles are positional or they have power attached to it. Stets & Burke (2000) argues that the many role identities an individual has are organised in a salience hierarchy. It focuses on how an individual will behave when present with a certain situation. It argues that the values of the individual may not relate to how the he will behave in a situation. However, there is a relationship between the values of an individual and their reaction to a situation. In addition, different individuals will attach different meanings to the same role. Therefore, the meanings an individual attaches to an identity will influence their behaviour. Since the identity is a set of meaning attached to self, a person’s behaviour is a reflection of the society perception (Kiecolt, 2000). What will influence the behaviour is the degree of commitment the individual has to the identity. The greater the number of people a person is connected to through identity will influence their commitment to the identity. People live within societal relationships and hence this explains their commitment to an identity and their behaviour in a certain situation. Therefore, society will influence a person’s identity even without the confines of the social circles. Individuals are always acting within complex social structures that led to the emergence of multiple identities in a person. These identities may be good in the development of the self as it enables him to adopt to different aspects of the society. Smith-Lovin (2001) argues that the more complex the society is, the more likely an individual living in the society will develop multiple identities. In the society, there are social structure, beliefs and norms, which are a guideline to how people relate and live together. The society has a great influence on the behaviour of the people and their identity in the society and beyond. The society that an individual is living in will have an impact on who they believe they are and which position they hold within the society. The society may influence the self-identity of an individual and their perception towards other aspects of life. In conclusion, identity and society are interrelated and an individual’s identity is a product of the self-belief which is influenced by the society. The society therefore has a big influence on a person’s behaviour and their personality. References Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1990). Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances. London: Harvester-Wheat sheaf. Burke, P. J. (2001). Relationships among multiple identities. Bloomington, IN: The Future of Identity Theory and Research: A Guide for a New Century Conference. Cast, A. D. (2001). Identities and behaviour. Bloomington, IN: The Future of Identity Theory and Research: A Guide for a New Century Conference. Deaux, K., & Martin, D. (2001). Which context? Specifying levels of context in identity processes. Bloomington, IN: The Future of Identity Theory and Research: A Guide for a New Century Conference. Kiecolt, K. J. (2000). Self-change in social movements. In S. Stryker, T. Owens, & R. White (Eds.), Identity, self, and social movements (pp. 110-131). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Smith-Lovin, L. (2001). Self, identity and interaction in an ecology of identities. Bloomington, IN: The Future of Identity Theory and Research: A Guide for a New Century Conference. Stets, J. E., & Burke, P. J. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 224-237. Read More