Identity and Selfies

     After reading the articles, I did not imagine how much people put of themselves into their selfies, whether they realize it or not. Our identities are entrenched within our portraits. Pictures have become or have always been a visual representation of ourselves, as they say, "a picture tells a thousands words." Many times we do not need to speak a word but just take a picture and the look of the picture expresses all the emotion we are feeling. To think that people give themselves in selfies all the time and I just thought it was a sense of egotism and arrogance. People acting as if their own image and lives are so important that they need to be recorded in a picture every few hours of everyday.

     Especially, since I work in a high school with high school students everyday. I see them taking selfies everyday in class when their supposed to be paying attention to me. They would rather take a picture than to listen to what I have to say, damn kids! But that's not the point, now I'm wondering if every time they take a picture. They are actually searching for their elusive self-identity. Because I know in high school, kids are still trying to find themselves and represent themselves as who they believe themselves to be. But could it be that with every picture they take of themselves that they are trying to find one that reflects their personality at that point in time? And is that the reason they continually take selfies because in fact, not one picture that they have taken has fully or can fully encompass who they are or want to be?

     And that, I believe is hard if not nearly impossible for them because they are still trying to find themselves. And if they don't know themselves well enough yet. How can they accurately take a picture or Selfie that represents the best of them or their identity? With this information, I can begin to understand little by little this aspect of self-identity in selfies.

Is there really a good or bad? Or is it perspective?

     After reading the Ferguson article. I have started to realize how multiple perspectives can affect the situation. It makes me think a lot harder about the community and groups that I keep around me or with which I join. I never stopped to think that people actually stick to the groups with which they are comfortable. Being Puerto Rican, I always grew up with other Puerto Rican people my entire life and never sought out other groups of people. Not because I've never cared about other groups or that I am not interested in them. But it just never seemed important to me to congregate with others unlike myself.

     But after reading the article. I started to realize just how much this type of separation affects my point of view. Especially, how my point of view is affected when it comes to issues involving other cultures. When I first read about this case, I never thought twice about putting myself in the victims point of view. Truthfully, I would not know how to view the incident from that perspective nor can I say with certainty that I would do so.

     However, I can understand how differing perspectives affect underlying issues of racism that have been fueling for years. Additionally, how social media assists in the spreading of information and the spread of a racial fire. But this not exactly help in the resolution of the issue. Because people tend to view things in their own perspectives, especially a video, and draw their own conclusions and run to action before they view all the perspectives and have all the correct details. People with the Ferguson case started to act and draw conclusions before they attained a lot of the information regarding the case. But that does not mean that the underlying racial issues were not appropriate.

     Technology helped to bring to light with this Ferguson case the racism that has been brewing in that place for so long. Technology brought this to light and showed people including me that we have to look outside of ourselves and our close communities to understand the perspective of others and how they are affected. We can't just expect the world to treat others as it has treated us. It is only now that I am starting to comprehend what it is like to think that other people view and react to life in completely different ways than myself. I always thought that looking at the world through a different lens was by trying to think and see from a female's perspective. But after reading Ferguson, I can see that it is a good approach but a limited one if I don't put myself in others views without simply considering gender.

Omar Martinez Selfie-Culture Post

     I found Selfie Pedagogy to be interesting. I had no idea the creation or the emergence of the discourse which emerged from the Selfie culture. The changes that the Selfie culture has brought about not just in the scholarly field but in the media field. The way selfie's can be used in a multimodal way to add meaning to written text. And the manner in which people utilize selfie's as a medium for self-expression. Selfie culture has given people a way to articulate themselves through the use of images which was not thought possible.

     Not to mention, the scholarly avenues which have arisen from this Selfie culture. The articles and Facebook groups dedicated to explaining and supporting the Selfie culture. But what I have also viewed is the spread of safety and caution promoted by the scholarly towards the Selfie culture. The researches call for caution when posting information online and asking people who do selfies to be aware of the consequences of their visual post before they make them available to the general public. Considering the role of safety and security in regards to selfies. Especially, since the Selfie culture also draws on the negativity of others. For example, in "Selfie Pedagogy lll: Network Spaces, Slut Shaming, and Putting Selfies in Dialogue Theory." I found the term "slut shaming" to be interesting. I had no idea they referred to women who posted pictures and videos of themselves online in this manner. But as the author pointed out, these women were using the video's as self-promotion and not as a way to dehumanize themselves. But the media culture can be a brutal one which leaves a person or persons open to judgment of people, especially when the person freely places themselves in that position. But what struck me the most is the case of Amanda Todd. And that the Selfie culture and social media allow society is great but it can also turn against people quickly if they don't understand the consequences of their actions.

     Selfie culture has allowed for so many avenues to analyze the was people use images and text and how that correlates to identity. Using these images to provide insight into who they are and what they are trying to get across to people. Additionally, the way these people immersed in the self culture use selfies as a method to alleviate stress and express themselves. Because many times people don't have an outlet and using Selfie expression permits them to release pent up emotions through a popular medium which can be a gateway to the assistance of others in similar situations or carrying similar feelings. In my opinion, selfies are developing as discourse, well even more than they already are and as modes of self-expression