Unpolished Gem - Society Constantly Tries to Change Your Sense of Self

Society constantly tries to change your sense of self
Our identity is a collective set of behavioural and personal characteristics that defines an individual as a whole. But where does our identity actually come from? Does it come from within that makes us who we are, or is it the environment and the people in it that ultimately mould our identity? In this speech, I will try to examine and explain how society affects our personal identity and constantly tries to change it.
But to first answer this question, we have figure out what the social norms of society actually are. Examples of social norms include being polite, treating people on a higher status with more respect, and even gift giving during Christmas is considered a social norm. On a subconscious level, society teaches us and has taught us what is right, how to dress, how to act, etc. which is all considered normal. And it is through these made up rules which influences us to change ourselves to better fit into society. But when an individual’s behaviour and actions deviates too far from what is generally considered normal in society, then questions are raised and that person is looked upon very differently.
There are many cases where Alice does not conform to the regulations of society and therefore is given odd looks by people around her. An example of this is when it was a History dress up day at her primary school, and as people would expect, she would wear a dress. But instead her mum dressed her up in a Chinese Traditional Mao suit as she did not own any dresses. This causes her class mates to make fun of her and her teacher to give her odd looks. This made Alice feel bad about herself, as she did not reach the expectations of society. So much so, that Alice tries to adapt and change her own identity so that she can conform to the Australian Society.
Media in society, especially in Western society, is one of the most powerful factors that influence an identity. Because people in society are constantly being surrounded by the media, we allow it to create stereotypes that change the way we think and act. Specific examples of how the mass media shapes the individual identity can be found in modern social movement such as cults, militia movements in the United States, Al Qaeda and more recently the uprising of the Kony campaigners. These movements were able to spread and attract followers, not because of the inherent message of the groups, but more importantly because of the message in the media and how it came to be accepted as a truth in that specific society. This aided in the formation of the different identity of the individuals.
This power of media in society is very influential in many ways, even to Alice. The media helped Alice in her teenage years understand the Australian Culture. Alice’s teenage years were a particularly major turning point in her life for her family, culture, and also her social life. For example, through her magazines, she became more accustomed to the interests of other girls her age and thus this helped her to make new friends with similar interests.
On a personal level, I firmly agree that society does have an impact on identity. My family and I are from Fiji, so coming to Australia we could see the noticeable differences between the two societies. Just like Alice and her family, it took us a while to get used to the many new and different things that this new society had to offer. I guess subconsciously through the people around us and the media, we slowly adapted to our new society. I believe that school and the new friends I made at that time played a significant part in changing me and my identity. We didn’t really feel how we had changed until we went back to Fiji for holidays. We had a good time there, but we didn’t get that “back home” feeling. This is because living in the Australian society for a while caused us to adapt and change our personal identities to become a part of the culture around us. I believe that my situation is parallel to Alice as her siblings, her dad and Alice herself had completely conformed to their new surroundings. This is a complete opposite to her mother who did not face much of her new society and mostly stayed home. She could not speak English and she could not understand why people were so different in the new society.
Society plays a huge role in the development of the self in the world of today. We are always exposed to many people, places, communities and various forms of media that causes us to bloom or, in some cases cause us to hide who we really are. The sense of self is yours and yours alone, but the combined powers of these outside sources are definitely shaping us to become something different from who we are.