In order to graduate I have to write a senior thesis. Twenty pages about whatever brings my heart content. I wanted to find a way to bring the many facets of my life together in this paper so I decided to focus on social media. How social media is effecting humanity. How social media is effecting our identity.

But here is the tricky part.

When you sit down to write twenty pages about anything you end up asking yourself a lot of questions. Going down many different paths and ending up at some sorted conclusions.

So I am trying to get a sense of what an identity is. What your identity is. What my identity is. Is it something that just exists or something that we create? It is something inside of us or something that we foster inside of us.

Most people acknowledge two parts of themselves. The body and the soul. Let me clarify, I know that not everyone believes that they have  a soul. But even if you don’t have a soul and it is simply your brain creating reactions and actions and emotions and personhood that creates the illusion of a soul. Or the illusion of something that is not purely physical. (like your body) So therefore, everyone has a body and a soul (or the illusion of a soul).

So what is your identity?

What is it that makes you who you are? This brings me to the idea that your identity only exists within a society. Your identity is how other people identify yourself and how you identify yourself to other people.

Which would mean that your identity is something that humans created to make sense of the world in a social context. We need things to fit into categories. We need to place ideas and terms and people into a place in our minds that makes sense. (Kant: Categorial Imperative) The problem is that people are complex. You can’t actually fit a person into a category and organize them by type to make it all straight and narrow. However, you can do this with their identity. This is who they identify themselves as. This is how they identify themselves so they fit in this category of my mind.

I have spent the past few months contemplating personal branding. Mostly because I am twenty three and not completely sure that I want a personal brand. A label. An outline of the person that I am. I want the freedom to be risky or conservative. I want the ability to change my views as I see fit. I want to dress according to how I feel that day and not in a way that matches the brand I represent. I want to be an ever changing, growing, loving, human.

Personal branding is a very hot topic right now. I think it will continue to grow.

I don’t think that this is a bad thing. Simply an evolution into the way that we deal with identity. In ancient times your identity was simply your family name and class. In modern times it was your job, your wife, your role. In post modern times it was something that you found by following your own path and seeing what came to be.

But what is it now?

This identity that we seek. Find. Create.

This post was inspired by my senior thesis and this amazing post by Her Bad Mother.

I would love your thoughts and feedback.