Comparison, Competetition and Categorization

I'm an only child.

I don't have siblings to be compared against- therefore, I am simultaneously the best and worst at all I do.

My accomplishments and failures are often augmented/ blown out of proportion, but never used to determine my value or as a tool to compare me to others.

I became independent at a young age. 

in·de·pend·ent

ˌindəˈpendənt/

adjective

1. 1.

   free from outside control; not depending on another's authority.

I respected my parents' decisions, but I was empowered to make my own choices whenever possible.

I wish to magnify my experience of being an autonomous individual to everyone. My parents realize that there is only Kalen Russell. That of Earth's 7.8 billion people, I am unique. I process information differently, I have a distinct sense of humor, passions and needs that are mine alone.

Though equal, I am incomparable to anyone else.

Each person on Earth is the result of their personal experience and characteristic disposition. There are no means to ever compare two people- nor is there a need to.

Far too often one person is used to represent the ideologies, beliefs and mannerisms of a group. This mindset is often referred to as stereotyping.

stereotype 

A generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.

Stereotypes rob individuals of their uniqueness, value and sometimes their potential. Stereotypes derive from laziness, as our brain evaluates an entire community based on one individual.

Stereotypes are frequently placed upon minorities, because they are they have a smaller presence in a population in comparison their majority counterparts.

A few populations frequently stereotyped in the United States include:

• Muslims
• African-Americans
• Hispanics
• Disabled persons
• Veterans
• Immigrants

Stereotypes are detrimental to our humanity, reducing beautifully complex individuals to a generic assumptions. 

Removing stereotypes from our ways of thinking is difficult, but definitely possible and absolutely necessary.

In addition to being stereotyped by others, minorities may also suffer from stereotype threat.

Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group    

Stereotypes are harmful, to both the person stereotyping and the one being stereotyped. Getting to know someone as an individual requires effort, but the rewards are tremendous, and odds are you will learn something new and maybe make a friend.

I try to limit the extent that I allow societal stereotypes to influence how I view myself and what I assume about others, and you know what they say about assuming..... Don't do it!

What are some days to challenge stereotypes in our daily lives? Comment below.

Eeriness of Echo Chambers in Blogging

La Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Social media prompts users to live within echo chambers. Echo chambers are created by individuals with similar ideologies, reinforcing ideas and inhibiting diversity of thought.

            Within the many social media platforms, blogs are the most user specific. For every hobby, religion, food preference and random thought there is blog, which allows an individual to feel as though they belong. This belonging prioritizes group identity, restricting diversity of thought and preventing personal development. “Highly cohesive groups intensely reject deviant individuals,” or ideas that threaten the group’s values (Gilbert, et al).

            Humans naturally oversimplify complex ideas to make them easier to understand (Baranuik). Social media encourages and accelerates the simplification process encouraging: “tribalism, insulation” through a diverse selection of news sources (Baranuik). individuals can “cherry-pick” the information that they are exposed to (Baranuik). Interestingly, the increase is the diversity of media outlets has decreased diversity of thought because many social media users are not exposed to information that conflicts with their beliefs.

            The University of Illinois conducted a study over 1,000 comments placed on the top 33 blogs (Gilbert, et al.). The semantics of each comment were evaluated using a standardized assessment. Of the comments studied 49.4% of comments are neutral, 39.2% agreed with the author and 11.1% disagreed author (Gilbert et. Al).  The low controversy in blog comments shows that blog users rarely follow blogs that they disagree with.

With my study tour group in Cordoba, Spain

            Social theorist and utilitarian John Stuart Mill strongly believed diversity of thought to be “invaluable” to personal development. In an age of convenience, it is more necessary than ever to do what is challenging. To create a more equitable and inclusive society, social media users must step away from comfortable URLS and explore new ideas and ways of thinking.

With classmates in historic gypsy caves Granada, Spain

Sources:

Blogs Are Echo Chambers: Blogs Are Echo Chambers

Social media loves echo chambers, but the human brain helps create them

Give Me Gemeinschaft, or Give Me Greatness

gemeinschaft

[German guh-mahyn-shahf-tuh n] 

Sociology. a society or group characterized chiefly by a strong sense of common identity, close personal relationships, and an attachment to traditional and sentimental concerns.

We know the dangers of groupthink, the atrocities that occur, the prejudices it produces, the wars it wages and the inclusion it inhibits. 

Groupthink can be comfortable, it's familiar and builds a sense of community at the expense of the exclusion of diversity.

"Diversity, the act of thinking independently together." 

                                   Malcolm X

Diversity enables societal progression,  through accepting various realms of thoughts that contribute to a common goal. It is the nucleus of technological advancements, innovation, empowerment and word change.

Diversity makes greatness possible. Every new ideas inspires the improvement of past ideas, each suggestion adds allows us to become better individually and as a nation.

Nonetheless, we frequently accept and expect conformity. Citizens have grown so accustomed to remaining among like-minded individuals that conflicting views brings contempt, ridicule and even dehumanization of those who appear or think differently. 

The term gemeinschaft appeared in last Friday's issue of the New York Times, in the article The Internal Invasion by David Brooks.

Brooks describes President Donald Trump as, "the ultimate gemeinschaft man. He is all gut instinct, all blood and soil, all about loyalty over detached reason."

As President Trump assembles a cabinet composed of similarly interested and invested individuals, and advocates for a United States citizenship that agrees with him, dismissing and limiting the availability of opposing views

he prevents America from becoming great. 

A conformist mentality, especially by those in power, inhibits progression.

I would love to the American people become great, empowered to become the best version of themselves, each person acting, thinking and working independently towards a common goal.

The greatness I long for will never come from a place of silence and adherence to discrimination. Greatness cannot coexist with gemeinschaft, conformity, fear. 

Our differences can propel our nation into greatness or drag it into a homogeneous pit of fear.

How our differences will affect us depends on how we will choose to view them, as something to be celebrated or something to be condemned.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/the-internal-invasion.html?_r=0