Identities With(out) the Flesh: How does Psychology define identities in culture?

We live in a time where identity is a highly?valued phenomenon. We live in a culture that?has transformed identity into a set of boundaries that others should have to follow. Whether we identify as a member of the LGBTQ community to how we identify as a member of a?certain race -- we carry with these identities concepts that guide how we interact with?the world. From where we shop to our favorite football team, we all adhere to rules that are guided by our engagement with these ideas or objects.

How we identify ourselves in the world has a multitude of repercussions across society.?

From how we interact with symbols to where we end up working--all of these contribute to the microscopic minutia of our everyday lives. Making decisions then is a phenomenon we all have to do every day. However, direct influences emerge from our environment and intrinsic sense of self -- which is equally comprised of a myriad of interlocuters; if we are to?navigate the worlds we inhabit, we have to be fully aware of how our identity is produced in an ever-changing context.??

Everything from religion to philosophy has attempted to offer what it means to have an identity. Most of our experience of who we are in the world is limited by past experiences, current interactions, and anxiety toward the future. Each object?and moment we encounter (and how we respond) are representative of beliefs in who we are and what we are capable of doing.

According to research,"...we use objects to express ?and relate to our self, others, and the larger world around us. Through the use of objects, we attempt to both differentiate and integrate ourselves; objects help distinguish us from others and also help us connect with the larger society." Every time we pick up a phone we make the claim that we want to connect with someone in some vocal (or visual) way.

We choose this action because it is part of our identity.

But, remember identity is also influenced by our society. To understand the depth of how we interact with things in our world, we have to turn to semiotics.?

SEMIOTICS; SYMBOLS, EVERYWHERE.

Semiotics is a field of study that deconstructs symbols across society. However, there also is a bourgeoning?subfield that explores the importance of how symbols function in how we develop our identity. Take for example,?how we all interact with a stop sign or stop light -- we all have to stop when approaching a red?light.

Why? Because it represents the law; also, notice that they are all the signs and lights are physical 'above' us - the law is above us.?This scientific engagement with objects and what they mean can help us determine how we all relate to things in our lives?and how they shape the contours of our sense of self.?

The way we communicate has a direct impact on how we interact with our sense of self. From texting to an email we no longer need?to be fully aware of how we feel because emojis?do the feeling for us. Our real emotions are then suppressed in the name of experiencing the fullness of what we are feeling in the moment.

When someone uses 'LOL' - a stand-in for laughing out loud, in today's vernacular, there is no need to literally laugh out loud.

The absence of real emotion is absorbed by the emoji.

Seeing the emoji as a semiotic intrusion to shaping the?internal architecture of how we define our identity assists us in the reality that emotions have lost their importance and emojis have superseded their pop culture influence beyond the surface-level functionality their role once held.?

Now that we have come to understand how we relate to objects in our world, how does the brain react to the world we live in??"From an evolutionary perspective , our recognition abilities are not surprising -- our daily activities (e.g. finding food, social interaction, selecting tools, reading, etc.), and thus our survival, depends on our accurate and rapid extraction of object identity from the patterns of photons on our retinae."

Basically, we interact with things in the environment one of two ways: (1) We reject them because we perceive them as a threat, so we deny their importance to us or we (2) We accept them and normalize them into how we identify our values, beliefs and sense of identity. We might get up early, work out, and grab a coffee because we have determined this is who we are. So, we choose to interact with these objects because we accept that is who we are. But, these objects are not separate from us, because they directly impact how we define our values and the image of ourselves.

It is in today's tense culture where lines of identity-based demarcation must be understood in relation to the objects that defend the ways we define who we are. Identity itself is an object. What this means is that we all make presumptions about what it means to have a certain identity. A simple example would be someone who identifies as a member of a specific community and depends upon connected ideas to reinforce a sense of confidence around the identity they have chosen.

Group Membership; Identity are Symbols, and Symbols are Identity

Let's take a member of the LGBTQ community who utilizes the rainbow as a symbol to identify membership in this community. The rainbow without this connection is a phenomenon that occurs in nature; but, when allocated to a specific context it takes on new meaning appropriated by the users. Over time, a?simple image is now a symbol for identity depending upon the society within which it is normalized. This is a great example of how symbols take on identities and how identities are appropriated which then become inseparable.?

The point here is that identities never happen in a vacuum - and they are never perpetuated without interaction. They rely on people who identify with the semiotic objects which in turn become part of the very boundaries of respect that people value in choosing to take on an identity. No longer do you just respect the person, but also the object itself which is now linked with the identity of the person. To fully grasp this in today's culturally sensitive landscape, we have to see that there are intricate details to what an identity is and how we can better value those intricacies along the way.?

CALL TO ACTION; Share other examples where this might be true below.