Presenting What We Want Perceived
When one thinks of the word ‘self’ they often think of their particular nature or character. Since everyone is just that, one, then it is logical to presume that we all only posses one ‘self’. This is peculiar, if we read into Gergen’s idea of multiphrenia, which basically states that a person’s nature and character is never the same and is a splitting of an individual (54). Whether people truly know someone in a traditional class versus an online blog class, like this one, is not dependent on location, primarily due to the fact that each place is just another local for a multiphrenia, another face for students to put on due to circumstance. Everyone is a stranger because the concept of self in the present day has nearly ceased to exist and it can be argued that it is obsolete, thus making everyone strangers, regardless of location. No person’s nature and character is the same throughout. Gergen argues that because of technological advances, self has ceased to exist due to things such as the internet and satellite. Furthering and expanding on his objective, it can also be added and argued that is has affected formal interaction as well. There is absolutely no concept of self in today’s society altogether.
Whether through a blog, or meeting someone in a class in person, one only presents what they want to about his or herself. Generally most people only say things to impress others, Goffman says “. . . the individual is likely to present himself in a light that is favorable to him” (45). People have the option to portray whatever they want about themselves to others, regardless of the validity of what they are saying. Many so called traditional classes are large lecture classes; often times, students do not even get the opportunity to meet and come to know other students due to the sizeable nature of the class. In an online class, it is virtually the same experience; one does not meet the other students. In this class with a blog, it is just like meeting anyone in person; one can present whatever they would like to the others. People sensor what they want others to know about them and thus it is not necessarily the truth in its entity. In an online blog class everyone puts on a so called “face” through their blog of what they want others to see them as, not necessarily of what they truly are, just like we are capable of doing with an in person interaction. The reason we are all strangers, regardless of location, is predominantly due to the mere fact that the concept of self in today’s society has ceased to exist unequivocally.
Gergen says “No longer can one securely determine what it is to be a specific kind of person . . . or even a person at all” (58). His argument says that due to the large concourses of faces and personalities each of us puts on with different people and different circumstances, we do not truly have one identity. He goes on to say that “selves become increasingly populated with the character of others . . . .” (54). Instead we are built upon a plethora of identities reliant on the situation, identities that are not truly our own. Then that poses the question, what separates us, from everyone else? If everyone has multiple “selves” how can we possess only one true identity? According to Gergen, we cannot. He says, “The concept of the individual self ceases to be intelligible…” (58). Whether in a traditional classroom setting or through an online class, we cannot come to know one another because there is no true definition of self. No one has a soul identity that they are associated.
When we come in contact with others, we create an allusion for them of what we want them to perceive us as. Because of the technological advances of society of today, the world is in a constant moving whirlwind, that we are caught up in. We mostly only meet people for a concise period of time and due to such fleeting interactions, we lose our sense of identity. We begin to become whatever the situation and others require us to be. Regardless of location, whether in person, or through technology, all we give of ourselves are presentations of what we want others to perceive us as. This presentation changes with every interaction we make, thus dissolving the entire definition of an invariable and constant self.
Works Cited
Gergen, Kenneth. “The Dissolution of Self.” Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed. Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 50-58.
Goffman, Erving. "The Presentation of Self." Academic Communities/Disciplinary Conventions. Ed. Bonnie Beedles and Michael Petracca. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 42-49.
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