Professional Readings for Personal Identity Week

Woah! That was some intense reading and I feel a little bogged down with what I am supposed to do now when it comes to teens and identity and literacy. I thought that all of the writers brought up interesting points and seemed to be in love with “Gee” who I had to look up just because he was referenced so many times.  James Paul Gee seems to be the expert when it comes to identity and literacy spending the last decade writing and studying sociolinguistics and literacies. He is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and wrote Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul: Pleasure and Learning (a book I think I may have to pick up).

Overall, I felt the pieces brought up good points like self and identity being different. I agree that one’s sense of self is more stable and internal and one’s identity can change to fit the social setting or situation allowing someone to have multiple identities. I think that teens are still trying to figure out their sense of self through trying out different identities if that makes any sense. When you are in such an intense social setting such as high school, it is hard to figure out which will be the path of least resistance and how to hop on that path or if you want to be on that path. I think that this is a struggle that doesn’t really end with one’s teen years. I have a difficult time believing that people are always aware of what role (identity) that are projecting and that it changes with every new situation.

I was a little surprised to read that girls are not as computer literate as boys and that girls are still considered to be good at English and not as good at science and math. Are we still living a society where that stereotype really exists? I thought that was changing and getting better from the teens that I know and interact with, but they are a very small portion of the teen girls out there. I just thought that it was an old way of thinking. I can remember my mother reinforcing that belief when I was younger. And I’m glad I didn’t listen. I’m numbers and math person for the art team at the magazine. Figuring out the budget is one of the most satisfying parts of my job and I usually look forward to it with every issue.

I think it will probably take me a couple weeks to really process all of these readings, but I am glad to have some of these issues back out front. I think I had forgotten that they were still current and need to be addressed.