Last week in American Studies, we discussed the thematic question "How does our environment impact the way we act?" when talking about certain characters in Reservation Blues. This question is extremely applicable, and everyone can relate to it.
It's not at all a bad thing to "change" your personality/appearance when you're around different people -- it can actually be pretty wise. For instance, if you are in a college interview, you probably don't want to act like you would around your friends. And you would probably talk to your school principal differently than you would to your parents. Essentially, you act differently around different people because some people are more formal than others and you don't feel as comfortable around certain people as you do, say, your best friend.
Some people, though, see this change in behavior as superficial and fake. Is it possible that they're right? Should we always act the same way and never "disguise" our true behavior? Let's say you have a job interview, and the interviewer doesn't appreciate your "casual" behavior. You don't act too smart; you just act like you normally do around your friends. However, had you changed your behavior and sucked up a little, the interviewer would have loved you and given you the job.
Now, this leads us to the important question: Is it morally right to alter the way you act around different people? Personally, I think it is. Not only will it help you (like in a job interview), but I also believe that it is a good human quality, and your instincts tell you to do so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
One thing that discussion made me wonder about was people with identity crises. I agree with you that having different masks is healthy, because it's normal, but (from my limited understanding or altogether misunderstanding of identity crises) there are some people who have no explanations for the difference between the way they truly believe they are and the way they act to others. Some people feel like they put up automatically a mask to others that they don't want or like or believe is accurate to them at all, and then they have massive problems because they have no idea who they are. I'm not sure if it's the fact that they're not realizing they're supposed to have multiple masks, or that they only truly have a couple masks they use, or if there's just some sort of social dysfunction that causes this confusion. That's not the most relevant thought, but it's just something I kept on thinking about during the discussion.
ReplyDelete