The Growing Brain, the Shrinking Ego: Self and Identity Redefined in the New Media Age

Pg 376 – “We have no underlying “personality” behind these moods that come and go-we are movement…”

~ This is kind of the idea that no identity is static. But it takes the idea one step further to say that because nothing is static that there can be no underlying self. I do not completely agree with this. I think that there is a base self or base identity that one then shifts around. Kind of like the planets. The planets were formed a long time ago through different comets, asteroids, etc. colliding into each other and joining each other to make one solid planet. Now they have moons and other debris that orbit them, and an occasional comet might hit the surface and leave an imprint, or add to the mass of the planet. Our identity is like the planet in the way that as we grow we have various people bring their cultures upon us to form a base identity made up of many cultures. Then, once we have that base formed we gradually incorporate in other identities and cultures that orbit us like the moons. Occasionally one of these identities or cultures will strike us and leave an imprint, or even become incorporated into our overall self. This goes back to the idea of narratives helping to understand a concept.

Pg 378 – “In a recent article, he mentions an American study which found that the risk of loneliness and depression is increased if one surfs on the Net for even one hour per day.”

~ So our identity can be shaped by inanimate objects, as well as humans.

Wennberg, T. (1999). The growing brain, the shrinking ego. Leonardo, 32(5). Retrieved November 9, 2008 from JSTOR database