What “blogging” means to me?! When I took this new class, the word “blogging” was just an unknown word, a word that made me think about many web writings with no meaning or purpose. To be honest, I must admit that this new thing I was going to experience, frightened me a little bit at the beginning, because this was my first experience of the kind.
Soon I found myself writing my first blog, trying to do the best that I could to make a very good one out of it. Then it came my second and my third…...and now..... my last one. Although it seemed hard at first, I realized that the more I was writing, the more I felt I wanted to write, as more ideas were crossing my mind.
Isn’t is strange the way things happen sometimes? From a moment when I was not aware of the purpose of blogging, when I considered it just simple thoughts, with no importance for anybody, I came to understand that blogging was in fact a great learning experience. I learnt to search and discover, I learnt how to write things, how to present facts in order to be helpful for the others. More than that, I learnt to analyze what my other colleagues wrote, to share my point of view and to interact with them.
I understood from my experience how important it is to say: “I have to use this assignment to improve my writing skills and to learn new things” instead of just doing it for a good grade. Writing blogs also gave me an impulse to keep trying to produce better-written pieces and not just limit myself to the average. Now, after I finished writing my blogs I must say that I really enjoyed blogging and more than that, I felt satisfaction, the satisfaction that I could share my opinions and my life experience with other people.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Cultural Identity
The term of identity is very much present in the vocabulary of social sciences and also in the day by day language, without people being aware most of the times of its exact significance. Still, there are many approaches and definitions of identity. But despite that, authors representing different tendencies agree on certain ideas. First of all, they all conceive identity as being dynamic and not just something that remains forever unchanged. From this aspect results the great importance given to the interactions between the subject and the environment: an individual never builds his identity by himself. This process of identity building depends both on the others’ judgment and on his own orientations. According to E. Erikson there are two types of identity: personal identity - the feeling of an existential continuity in time which is admitted by the others and the identity of the ego – the feeling of being in a certain way, of being a certain person, of having a certain style of individuality.
Cultural identity refers to the identity of an individual as a result of his appurtenance to a group with specific cultural traits. Having a cultural identity means possessing characteristics similar to the society you come from, including behavior, language, customs, traditions, etc. An individual with a well-shaped cultural identity distinguishes from other individuals belonging to other cultural backgrounds although this person lives in the same cultural environment as them. Despite the possible influences exerted on him by the members of his new society, he will continue to keep his initial traits, even though changed in some aspects, he will keep what he has inherited from his originary culture.
For a better illustration of cultural identity, let us see some examples. For instance, let us take a closer look on the Hispanic population of the United States. Although they live in a totally different cultural environment, which sometimes tends to impose its traits on the newcomers, Hispanic-Americans are considered to be united by customs, language, religion, and values. More than that „One characteristic that is of paramount importance in most Hispanic cultures is family commitment, which involves loyalty, a strong support system, a belief that a child's behavior reflects on the honor of the family, a hierarchical order among siblings, and a duty to care for family members. This strong sense of other- directedness conflicts with the United States' mainstream emphasis on individualism”(Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn).
The examples can continue with many other people coming from all over the world, who have managed to distinguish themselves in many ways from the society they chose to live in, but I will stop here this time, hoping that someday I will have the opportunity to learn and write more about it.
Work cited:
Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn. “Cultural Values of Hispanic-Americans.” May 1996
<http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1996/griggs96.html>
Cultural identity refers to the identity of an individual as a result of his appurtenance to a group with specific cultural traits. Having a cultural identity means possessing characteristics similar to the society you come from, including behavior, language, customs, traditions, etc. An individual with a well-shaped cultural identity distinguishes from other individuals belonging to other cultural backgrounds although this person lives in the same cultural environment as them. Despite the possible influences exerted on him by the members of his new society, he will continue to keep his initial traits, even though changed in some aspects, he will keep what he has inherited from his originary culture.
For a better illustration of cultural identity, let us see some examples. For instance, let us take a closer look on the Hispanic population of the United States. Although they live in a totally different cultural environment, which sometimes tends to impose its traits on the newcomers, Hispanic-Americans are considered to be united by customs, language, religion, and values. More than that „One characteristic that is of paramount importance in most Hispanic cultures is family commitment, which involves loyalty, a strong support system, a belief that a child's behavior reflects on the honor of the family, a hierarchical order among siblings, and a duty to care for family members. This strong sense of other- directedness conflicts with the United States' mainstream emphasis on individualism”(Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn).
The examples can continue with many other people coming from all over the world, who have managed to distinguish themselves in many ways from the society they chose to live in, but I will stop here this time, hoping that someday I will have the opportunity to learn and write more about it.
Work cited:
Shirley Griggs and Rita Dunn. “Cultural Values of Hispanic-Americans.” May 1996
<http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1996/griggs96.html>
Globalization
Globalization is a complex and controversial process, caused by multiple factors and can be described as a series of events, which originally take place in a certain region of the globe and have wide consequences on the societies and problems from other parts of the world.
The examples of globalization can be seen everywhere in nowadays life: the existence of a world wide informational system, the global problems related to the natural environment, such as the global warming, the spreading of tourism, the development of a world military system, the fight against major health problems such as AIDS, the expansion of the concept of human rights, the adoption of cosmopolitan styles of life, etc.
Globalization supposes two contradictory processes: one of homogenization and the other of differentiation. These two opposite sides have determined people to have shared opinions. It is the reason why some agree that globalization tends to lead to the homogenization of cultures, while others believe that culture opposes resistance to globalization.
According to the former, it is not possible to speak about multiculturalism anymore without considering the fact that hundreds of TV programs present the same images and impose the same ideas and when we all watch the same performances or the same sports.
However, globalization affects us all and despite the fact that some sustain the homogenizing character of globalization at the cultural level, some reality facts prove that there is a cultural resistance to globalization that continues to persist. This resistance gives the possibility for the cultural diversity to exist, which, at its turn can promote the common interests of the society. By measuring, analyzing and comparing cultural values from different countries and geographic areas from all over the world, we can see that the cultural values do not tend towards convergence, although the development of economy pushes all countries to a common direction. Communication is globalized, but this does not mean that it implies a cultural globalization. The reinforcement of cultural identities is used many times as a mechanism to control the chaotic globalization. More than that, identity is a tool built on the premises of experience and generates a sense in the people’s life. This sense can be a religious, national, ethnic, or a territorial one, it is fundamental and characterizes the world at the same extent as globalization does. Communication has a major role in facilitating the movement from monologue to dialogue, from dialogue to cooperation, a cooperation which should not be based only on simple words but also on actions in the relation with different identities. Still, no matter if we are against globalization or not, there is one thing that is for sure: the tendency of globalization is greater and greater and there is no way we can deny that.
The examples of globalization can be seen everywhere in nowadays life: the existence of a world wide informational system, the global problems related to the natural environment, such as the global warming, the spreading of tourism, the development of a world military system, the fight against major health problems such as AIDS, the expansion of the concept of human rights, the adoption of cosmopolitan styles of life, etc.
Globalization supposes two contradictory processes: one of homogenization and the other of differentiation. These two opposite sides have determined people to have shared opinions. It is the reason why some agree that globalization tends to lead to the homogenization of cultures, while others believe that culture opposes resistance to globalization.
According to the former, it is not possible to speak about multiculturalism anymore without considering the fact that hundreds of TV programs present the same images and impose the same ideas and when we all watch the same performances or the same sports.
However, globalization affects us all and despite the fact that some sustain the homogenizing character of globalization at the cultural level, some reality facts prove that there is a cultural resistance to globalization that continues to persist. This resistance gives the possibility for the cultural diversity to exist, which, at its turn can promote the common interests of the society. By measuring, analyzing and comparing cultural values from different countries and geographic areas from all over the world, we can see that the cultural values do not tend towards convergence, although the development of economy pushes all countries to a common direction. Communication is globalized, but this does not mean that it implies a cultural globalization. The reinforcement of cultural identities is used many times as a mechanism to control the chaotic globalization. More than that, identity is a tool built on the premises of experience and generates a sense in the people’s life. This sense can be a religious, national, ethnic, or a territorial one, it is fundamental and characterizes the world at the same extent as globalization does. Communication has a major role in facilitating the movement from monologue to dialogue, from dialogue to cooperation, a cooperation which should not be based only on simple words but also on actions in the relation with different identities. Still, no matter if we are against globalization or not, there is one thing that is for sure: the tendency of globalization is greater and greater and there is no way we can deny that.
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