Personal Identity

Our social ties and networks affect our personal identity, whether or not we choose to recognize or acknowledge it. A key part of understanding unit two is knowing that the relationship between personal identity and networks is cyclical in that, personal identity also reflects the networks that a person is part of. As people move through stages of life and move geographically, the networks they encounter change pieces of their identity. In my life I have identified in many different ways: daughter, teenager, mother, wife, college student, widow and soon to be an empty nester. Each time my identity changed a majority of my social ties; therefore, my social networks did as well.

People who share common interests and identify in a similar matter

It was during this period where I was maturing that I began to connect to networks specifically looking for support. Giuffre (2013) mentions five different forms of social support discussed by Wellman and Wortley: emotional aid, small services, large services, financial aid, and companionship (p. 55). The relationship between the social actors is what determines the type of social support someone either gives or receives from another. As a young mother, I sought both companionship and emotional aid from other young women in a similar position to me because they understood how I felt at that time and could share how they were coping with motherhood at such a young age. I also sought support from outside my peer group, from older women who had successfully raised children. Within both groups of women, I formed relationships with both strong and weak ties; these ties gave me access to other, more essential social support such financial aid and small services that enabled me to become a successful mother and

In class, we watched a portion of the movie People Like Us: Social Class in America where a woman from rural Kentucky moved to Washington D.C., this move resulted in her behaviors and class identification changing so that she had a hard time identifying with the community she grew up in. Watching this particular video struck me in that I will be moving to Kentucky next fall and I can see myself having similar issues. When I visit Kentucky, I am seen as somewhat of an oddity because I am from New York, which to southerners means New York City. In addition, there is an assumption that I have money and am of a higher class due to my city and state of origin. I am sure that as I assimilate into the culture, I will retain many of my ‘New York ways’ so ultimately; I will no longer fit within either group comfortably. However, I will bring the culture that I have learned in New York to Kentucky and vice versa. This sharing of culture between geographical locations is somewhat similar to the exchange of culture that Levitt describes in the excerpts of the article The Transnational Villagers in that there is an exchange of cultural norms and