it is” either as vague or cowardly. In contrast, members of Asian cultures place more value on silence, believing that one who understands need not speak. From the Asian standpoint, a person who states the obvious is a show-off. When we fail to realize that we have not all absorbed the same cultural lessons, cultural nearsightedness—the failure to understand that not all of us attribute the same meanings to behavioral cues—can cause us to misread signs and miss opportunities to use the differences between us to perceive one another more clearly.
Notions of the Self are Culturally Based
Like perception, identity does not develop identically in every society. At least in part, who we are, or our whole notion of self, emerges from participation in a culture. In North American and Western European cultures, the self is considered paramount. Members of these cultures tend to reflect the importance placed on individuals as they first set and then work toward personal goals. In comparison, people from Asia, Africa, and Central and South America (where collectivistic cultures are dominant) are more likely to downplay their own goals, emphasizing instead goals set or valued by the group as a whole.59 For example, Japanese parents typically do not lavish praise on their children out of concern that if they did the children would think too much of themselves and not enough about the group.60
Distinctness Stands Out
Your self-concept is influenced by unique personal experiences as well as by membership in one or more groups. Together with culture, these influences help you formulate your sense of self. According to distinctiveness theory, a person’s distinctive traits (e.g., red-headed, minority group member, or left-handed) are more salient to him or her than are more prevalent traits (e.g., brunette, Caucasian, or right-handed) possessed by other people in the immediate environment. For example, belonging to a group that is a numeric minority makes you more mindful of your ethnicity. For this reason, a White person is much less apt than a minority group member to mention his or her ethnicity when asked to define himself or herself, whereas an African American woman in a large group of Caucasian women will likely be more aware of her race. When the same woman is with a large group of African American men, she will be more conscious of her gender and less aware of her race.61
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Self-Concept, Perception, and Technology
Technology also influence our perceptions of experience—influencing our views of ourselves, others, and events.
Exploring Diversity
Assessing Your Preference for “I” Versus “We”
You can assess the extent to which you exhibit an individualistic or collectivistic orientation by evaluating the following statements. If the statement is very important to you, rate it 5; somewhat important, 4; neither important nor unimportant, 3; somewhat unimportant, 2, and very unimportant, 1.
I Matter
_____1. I desire to prove my personal competency.
_____2. I’ve got to be me.
_____3. I want others to perceive me as having stature.
_____4. I need to achieve personal fulfillment.
_____Total
We Matter
_____1. If I hurt you, I hurt myself.
_____2. I desire harmony at all costs in my relations with others.
_____3. My goal is to preserve the welfare of others even if it is at my expense.
_____4. I am loyal to tradition.
_____Total
To determine your score, total the numbers you entered for each category. Which of your scores is higher? A higher “I Matter” score indicates greater individualistic tendencies. A higher “We Matter” score indicates greater collectivistic tendencies. What do your results suggest about your concern for self and others?
Technology Influences Information Processing
Where does most of your news and information come from? For many of us, the answer is from the media, particularly social media. By age 18, 88% get their news from Facebook and other social media.62 Unfortunately, online it is easy to find support for any prejudices and false premises we may have. As stories (true and false) are circulated via Facebook, Google, and Twitter, it becomes easy to believe biased or inaccurate information and challenging to distinguish what is true from what is false.63
Pop culture also is a perceptual influencer. Many of the ads presented to us today, for example, contain images of multicultural socializing. The repetition of these ads is bound to have an impact on perceptions of multiculturalism. Although American pop culture may be depicted as increasingly transracial, the portrayals are not necessarily complimentary. When it comes to how Muslims are portrayed, for example, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is concerned that they have become the new media “bad guys,” because they often are shown as neighbors who are terrorists.64 If most of our knowledge about Muslims comes from the media, what messages do such portrayals send?
Unfortunately, the more television we view, the more accepting we become of social stereotypes, and the more likely we are to develop unrealistic and limited perceptions of those depicted. According to cultivation theory, because of the media’s ability to influence users’ attitudes and perceptions of reality, the more time we spend watching such offerings, the greater is our chance of developing perceptions that are inconsistent with facts. Heavy viewers are more likely to view the world as a mean and dangerous place and to develop fears that are out of proportion with actual dangers.65
Technology Influences Our Online Presence
According to a 2016 Nielsen report, Americans spend almost 11 hours a day in front of a screen—a PC, a tablet, a smartphone, a TV, or other.66 According to the Pew Research Center, 21% of us are online seemingly constantly.67 But what are we really learning? And how is all that time devoted to “screens” affecting how we look at ourselves? What kind of online presences are we building? After all, in many ways, building a social media presence is akin to building a brand.68 Focused on self-promotion, research reveals that we try to put our best digital foot forward when using social media.
For example, we use our Facebook and Instagram accounts to create and present others with the most positive version or persona of ourselves possible. Selfies, often digitally enhanced, help us accomplish this. Our posts imply that our lives are more fun-filled and exciting than they actually are. Whereas for some individuals this offers a psychological ego boost, for others it actually becomes anxiety producing. According to theorists, instead of allowing the self to develop internally, it is now being externally manufactured and virtually packaged in our effort to influence others’ views of us.
Effectively,
