Social Selves by
Ian Burkitt was a really helpful book that really helped me gain a better
understanding of the self and helped me learn to answer the question "Who
am I?" What I realized from reading
the book was "that it is possible to be both a social being and an
individual self" (p. 192). An
individual is able to grow from the his/her inner self, but surroundings and
social worlds also have a big part in shaping an individual. Another important quote from Chapter 8 that
reflects this idea is when the author states, "to have a self is to be
able to orient oneself in the social world; to be recognized by others and to
be called to account for your actions, having the capacity to reciprocate"
(p. 193). Our self helps reflect who we
are as individuals in the social world and how we interact with one
another. Reading this book has helped me
understand many different theories and concepts about the self. This book was relevant to this class because
with social media, it is now more important than ever to have a true
understanding of what the self really is.
Hi SCBaseball,
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion about what is possible as a social being and an individual self. I like too how you have connected this part to the net where you reference the ideas about orienting the self. I feel like this is easy for me to say because I can look back on a life of 54 years. For a younger person, perhaps you, that's not such a long stretch. What will be interesting to know is when you are say 60 or 70 or 80, will you ponder this at all? I certainly hope I do. I have less time to know that than you do... ;) Nice write up.