This is not really very related to the social sector, or maybe it is, but. Well, I have to say I'm fascinated with people's fascination with their own and others' identities--or the outward manifestations of it. We have the competing adages, "Don't judge a book by its cover" and "First impressions matter most" [or whatever it is, it is my less favored adage of the two ;)]. A lot of this comes down to outward adornment. And interestingly, as people study idenity and it's presence on-line, it is the outward adornment that is scrutinized (colors, pictures used, font style, music included). I guess for me, I just don't think of my outward adornment as shaping my identity. My face is an integral part of my identity, surely, and definitely. But my clothes? Not so much. Even my hair is not that integral to what I identfy myself as.
Truthfully, I'm not all together sure as to what shapes my presentation of myself to the public, but I find the obsession with the adornment as identity a little odd, for some reason. Perhaps it has some biological root--animals have outward adornment to identify and stay away from their enemies and to stick together for preservation purposes with their own kind. And in the identification of flora--how are we to know what is healthy or poisonous save the outward appearance?
But we're all humans, and no amount of changing the outward adornment of our species is going to change that. It seems that our clothes, and hair styles, and whatever else alienates us from fruitful relationships with those that we percieve to be so different from us. It's rather sad, really. And it's really interesting to notice how much of an obstacle outward adornment can be to a simple conversation.
Could an online community be a place to shed some of these obstacles since we cannot see each other and pass judgement on what the other is wearing? I'm not sure, because, as mentioned, the online communities push their own signifiers of identity. I've even started doing it with my color choice, the (all of two) music preferences that I've listed. I guess I am hoping that it can be a place, nonetheless, where a little of that may be shed, and we can start having conversations with one another and seeing where that could possibly lead us....
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