A person’s identity indicates something about them. As a set of social classifications, identity is created by viewing two or more people or groups in relation to one another (oneself is included). Identity is a paradox in two ways.
First, it is constantly in flux, but at the same time, suggests an ever-developing constant within a person. How someone chooses to identify his/herself (or someone else) can change over time; there can be momentary or long-term changes. For example:
Momentary: Role as friend takes precedence over role as student if a friend is in a car accident.
Long-Term: Gender or sexuality can fluctuate over time.
Second, a person’s understanding of their own identity affects the lens through which they view his/herself and others.
For #CDT450 I tweeted this article about Martese Johnson – he was brutally beaten up by police in front of a bar near the campus of the University of Virginia, where he is an honor student.
Part of the title to the article in the Daily Beast asks: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? The article addresses issues of prejudice, racism, and the unproportionately high levels of violence that are unleashed on African Americans by police officers. Hopefully, we are becomeing more aware of this systemic injustice thanks to people using social media to get the word out and create an infuriated buzz about it.
What does this have to do with how Twitter can shape my identity? The first thing that comes to mind is that my choice of tweets says something about who I am. Why do I want people to know this story? Why is it important to me? I tweeted this article after reading Cole’s post about how UVA students reacted to this act of brutality, and it reminded me that we need more dialogue about race relations on college campuses in America. We have an excellent opportunity at Stony Brook to open up discussions about race because we have such a diverse community here. Hopefully Twitter, FB, Yammer, blogs, and other social media tools can be useful to help start conversations and to create opportunities for people from different ethnicities and backgrounds to get together and get to know each other and improve race relations through social interaction – online and face to face. #Integreat
Using the iPad to create this was an over all positive experience. I shot the footage using the native photo app as well as iMovie and a short segment using the “stop motion” app. I made slides using the Phoster app and compiled it in iMovie and added some of the stock music as well as voice recording done in the app. As someone who works with video editing and animation frequently I found several pros and con
pros-
-basic video capture and organization of the iMovie is good for general use. Cutting video was simple. When I think back to classes I’ve taken, I could see this being used to support assignments in most subjects.
-easy to import video and photos from other apps
-sound is decient and easy to record. I liked that I could have several tracks and though it took me a moment, they were simple to move around.
– being able to crop the image and videos
-uploading I will put under pros but at first it was not so simple. In order to up load to YouTube I had to Chang my settings in my YouTube account to allow interaction with “less secure” apps. Though this took some time to figure out and get past it constantly asking me to sign in I know I will not have this issue again and things will go smoothly.
cons
– as someone who works with video editing I wish there were more features such as better filters and lighting adjustments to make it look more professional. I would have liked more control over the text and title features since there was no ability to move them on the screen and change other aspects including the timing and duration of their appearance So I could have had a text overlay/captions. I would have liked more control over the transitions and audio transitions. I also wish it was possible to change how much a video is cropped over time- zoom in and out.
Over all though I think it’s a great app and it can be limited only by a lack of creativity however I would be even happier if those ther features existed.
Early on Wenger mentioned “We define who we are by the ways we experience ourselves through participation as well as by the ways we and others reify ourselves.” Far too often people say nobody affects who they are as a person. To which we would argue is not true. The way we define our identity has a lot to do with the world around us and how we react and respond to other people asserting their identity.
In the Wenger reading I got caught up in the way trajectory was defined. The world is more networked than it has ever been before, so it makes sense how we, as people identify become networked as well. Wenger suggests trajectory in not a fixed path nor is it a fixed destination but continuous motion. The former definition of trajectory falls more in line with past definitions of identity, static and rigid. Thinking about how you can have “multiple” identities thanks to the power of anonymity on the Internet a more fluid definition of identity works. A definition where you are not only identify with your physical characteristics, but also your interest, your thoughts, and the content you create.
An interesting part of Youth, Identity, and Digital Culture was the dichotomy between Giddens’s and Foucault’s views. The true nature of identity probably lies somewhere in between these two opposing philosophies. The individual is shaped by societal norms and constricted by society’s expectations, which can be both good and bad. Society deems what is acceptable behavior, which can act as a chilling effect on undesirable behavior but also any behavior at all that deviates from the norm. The Internet just accelerates this process by providing a more effective feedback loop.
A pop up WordPress site from students at UVA in the wake of the Martese Johnson incident. That’s a terrible word, incident, to describe what happened to this young man. Even in the absence of an appropriate word I felt it was an important site to share for lots of reasons. Through the lens of both community and identity I feel there is much to discuss. What in these words can you relate with?
In class on 3/19/2015, our class discussion touched on the lack of support students feel from faculty in the aftermath of the brutalization of Martese Johnson and at other times of crisis here at UVA, especially when those crises center around race. We took the last ten minutes of class and wrote out what we wanted to tell our faculty. These comments are excerpted from those 27 students’ in-class responses. Who are we? We are women and men. We are Asian, black, Latino, white and multiracial. We are from a variety of cultural, national, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender and sexual identities and backgrounds.
I understand last week was a very positive experience … I’m thrilled about that and I look forward to hearing more next week when we get together. I am not going to assign anything new this week, but I will remind you to wrap up the assignments by the posted due dates.
Out of Class — All Due 3/24/2015 by 5 PM
Weekly iPad Reflection — what did you learn from the Apple visit and what did you create? Did what you learn alter your appreciation for the iPad?
Weekly Create — Time to Tweet! Everyone needs to Tweet something interesting about this class using the hashtag #CDT450. I’d then like you to post about what Twitter can mean to shaping your identity and embed your tweet in the post.
I was inspired by the RadioLab Podcast “Voices in your head.” I used Ableton Live software to create music accompanied by several Apple voices (and my own), reciting the closing section of Wenger’s chapter 6 on identity, from Communities of Practice.
Twitter will affect one’s identity as it will be a different means of communication … with … the world! People will read and observe your style, not knowing how you look, how you talk, they will base their opinion, and as a consequence, create a perceived identity for you, your online identity.
Many times I have sent emails to colleagues where, because of the dryness that a written message can carry, specially when poorly written, because one could be in a rush, or not up to the task at the moment, the message did not convey the full meaning, or it was interpreted differently.
This week, Apple came to visit. They showed us some advance features of the iPad as well as a couple of productivity apps. I was most amazed by the capabilities of GarageBand and KeyNote. We also reviewed iMovie, which I have used in the past and love it.
GarageBand was amazing, you could produce a real music piece on an iPad, with all sorts of instruments, tempo, partitures, etc.
KeyNote is a very powerful presentation tool. As far as features go, certainly beyond Google Presentations, and easier to use than PowerPoint. Very impressive.
I enjoyed seeing how far they’ve come with their collaborative suite, similar to Google Docs. Editing documents and creating drawings, with multiple people at a time, on an iPad, worked great.
