Metareflection :Identity + Resilience
I will be looking at the topic of resiliency and identity because I think they are very closely connected. A teen’s identity is in a very vulnerable and fragile state because it is the first time in their lives that they are spreading their wings, becoming more independent and self-autonomous
Thus, their self-identity is slowly beginning to unravel. In our class, we talked about how teen’s identity is very much based on the way that they portray themselves online. And in fact, the splitting off of identity into two or more different kinds is called digiphrenia.
Digiphrenia is resulting from an online persona that a teen creates for them on a social media site such as Facebook. In order to foster a positive self-esteem, which will affect the teen’s identity, is founded within a strong sense of resilience. If a teen doesn’t have a strong sense of resilience, he or she will always be looking for ways to alter and change their identity, dependent upon what is popular at the time. They won’t have a strong sense of their self worth and will always be appealing to other people to make themselves feel better. This can result in things such as multiple identities and can even lead to cyber bullying.
If a adolescent isn’t happy with themselves, they will create a new version of themselves online. This can be dangerous because then a disconnect from reality starts to happen. In order to not have an adolescent develop an alter-identity, a strong sense of resilience needs to be fostered in the adolescent.
As a teacher, my number one duty is to increase my student’s self esteem. I can do this by giving a lot of positive encouragement and praise, and not based on marks but based on the effort that I see the student put into their work. I will try to foster a positive relationship between a child and their self-esteem.
I think once a positive relationship with oneself starts to develop, then there won’t be a need to reach out online and use technology to make oneself feel better or more connected with others. There won’t be a need to post 100 selfies and pray for “likes” because self-worth won’t come from the external world: it will be found from within. As a teacher, it will be my job to encourage this self-growth which will in turn, create a positive identity in the adolescent.
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