Psst...Your Opinion Doesn't Matter

Context is a space. It’s an environment. It’s something that gives meaning to whatever is being spoken of or encountered.

It’s not necessarily a space you can physically see, although it has the potential to impact you physically, depending on how you interpret it. But, there is something else at work here that must be understood — context attaches itself to your identity. Like tentacles. Like the matrix. You become so unaware of its influences and yet you act within it, sometimes without thinking about it.

Let’s flesh this out.

Let’s take McDonald’s’ (A fast-food restaurant, I don’t care for!). When you step into their restaurant a host of things are happening within micro-seconds: before are enter the space you have assumed many other identities — mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and sister, to name a few. Now, you are those identities along with being a consumer who wants to get some food. You don’t enter McDonald’s to buy dress shoes - but, why?

Because that is not the role of that context; those are not the expectations within that space. You perform behaviors that fit that context based on how you identify yourself. Space directly influences who you think you are and how you think you should act.?Research?shows again and again that we will gladly give up a part of ourselves if it fits in with the group we identify with.

This is crucial to understanding why we will share our unedited opinions in a context like social media — because, like any habit, over time, we begin to think that is who we are. The context doesn’t judge whether you are right or wrong, it simply amplifies your values and beliefs that emerge out of your current sense of identity. (CONTINUED)....

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