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Alejandro Gomez

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

English 115 Fr. 2:00-3:45

24 October 2017

Identity Of People

From the moment when a baby takes its first breath in this world, everything in their life

will be affected by their surrounding environment. This influence can affect the person with a

positive or negative outcome; regardless, the outcome will then go into shaping their identity.

The act of being influenced by the surrounding environment contributes to shaping one's person-

ality, or in other words, forming their identity. Furthermore, a person's upbringing can also con-

tribute to shaping them as an individual dramatically. This "space" is important, because if one

has a bad upbringing it may not be beneficial in shaping their identity. Many people's identities

come from their living situation all the way to adapting to society Peer Pressure". The "space"

around a person varies from place to place, every place has their own hobbies or religion, result-

ing in shaping them into who they are, this including parental upbringing, as well as teens being

pressured to fit in, which can be the ultimate factor in shaping one's identity.

The general question is "Who am I?" But first, one must be aware of their surroundings,

hence, being able to answer the question: "Where am I from?" - every place in the world "geog-

raphy" plays a roll in a persons identity, thus relating back to the environment, and its roll in

shaping people into who they are. For instance, this website source about religion and identity

states that "All religions including their rituals, scriptures, and sacred days and gathering places,
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each religion gives its followers instructions for how human beings should act toward one anoth-

er" (Religion and Identity). This quote states that every place has its own religion; nevertheless

every religion has their own beliefs that have their followers imitate. Since every religion is dif-

ferent in all parts of the world it can distinguish that religion plays a major role in creating some-

one's identity. If one is not satisfied by who they are due to their religion they can easily change

their practice or form a new religion. This helps prove that identity can be influenced based on

religion by the area you live in geographically.

Besides different parts of the world having different religions, hobbies you take in help

shape who you are as a person. An excerpt from the article How Sports Help in Growing your

Personality? claims that, "Sports do not build character. They reveal it (Gopinath). Relating to

the topic this quote helps elaborate on how hobbies such as sports can play a significant role in

shaping your personality. Someone's personality is a huge player in their identity. Sports can

teach you things other influential subjects can not. This hobby opens ups new portals for your

identity to grasp for some characteristics to help shape it. Playing sports helps you see things in

another perspective of being under pressure. It shows your identity leadership and teamwork. It

does this by helping you build character for your identity when one takes control of themselves

and their team to be successful on the field. In the long run, this identity skills can help a person

be successful. This ability to play sports is another major role player in shaping someone's identi-

ty.

Significantly important as hobbies, being under the act of adapting to society or getting

peer pressured leads to form one's identity. For example, identity-shaping can be seen in the

teenage stage of someone's life. The teenage years are the most important and confusing years
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for one's identity. During the teenage years, they face factors such as peer pressure, the media,

and the urge to fit in. The article of psychologist taking about peer pressure and how teens are

always in it, many psychologist tell what their thesis have proven. Child Psychologist Allen

Kanner, Ph.D., says, "Teens want to identify with their peer group and in a certain sense, that is a

vulnerability ("Driving teen ego - - and buying - - through branding.). Kanner is implying

that teens are liable for their peers' approval, thus changing themselves to fit in. Teenage years

are years of insecurity in which it makes them want to imitate one another to be considered cool.

Following the crowd leads teens to either making the right decisions for associating with the

good kinds of people, or them going the other direction that influences them to make wrong de-

cisions. Being a teenager reflects on situations from being peer pressured to fit in as well as the

household they are being raised in.

Moreover, peoples identities start from when they are young and are greatly impacted

while they are growing up. In many cases like the website eschooltoday.com shows, "Bad up-

bringing at home can make people insensitive to other people's feelings and emotions. They are

happy to see their classmate depressed, sad and hurt (Your Basic Facts). This helps prove

that the upbringing of someone can greatly impact their identity. Namely, this can be seen in cas-

es in which when a child is growing up in a household that is full of negativity. Growing up in a

bad parental upbringing can really shape a person to being disturbed and the only cure for them

is to be a menace to others. Another example of how an upbringing has a great impact on identity

is showed in the video of Liliesarelike. This video says that "They feel so bad that they want oth-

er people to feel bad too (Liliesarelike). This praise from the video states that upbringing affects

one's identity. In this example, the upbringing is coming from a bad household, which means that
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bully or a kid that comes from a home where they are possibly mistreated tends to make the bully

or kid mistreat other in relief for their grieving at home. Therefore, these examples help illustrate

that the raising of someone can dramatically influence their identity into some bad if they are

coming from a bad household.

In conclusion, the space around a person varies from location to location. Every place has

their own hobbies or religion, resulting in shaping them into who they are, this including parental

upbringing as teens and them being pressured to fit in, which can be the ultimate factor in shap-

ing one's identity. Being induced by the religion you practice based on the region you live in

plays a major role, because it shows how you live your life off the belief of the religion. Religion

shapes your identity into you having a way of treating others out of the respect of your practice.

Significantly as important, hobbies, as well, play a major role. These hobbies can consist of

sports. Sports help teach our identity things other influential subjects cannot or at least nothing

compared to sports. Sports open up another portal to someone's identity, and thats is a way that

their identity can be shaped. Also, the teenage years of an adolescent is a critical time for every-

one because that is the time in which they are confused on who they are and they are trying so

hard to fit in with the crowd. Being as critical as the teenage years but parental upbringing is also

another major factor in how one shapes their identity. Identity starts at home on how the way you

are raised. Being raised in a good manner leads you to become a good person. However, if one

grows up with a bad upbringing, then they are likely to have a negative attitude towards life to

please their distress. Overall, these are major role players in peoples everyday lives that space

had taken to create an identity for each and every person. This uniqueness is due to ones ability

to have hobbies or similarities based on religion and trying fitting in.

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Work Cited

"Driving teen ego - - and buying - - through branding'." American Psychological Association,

Vol 35, No. 6, June 2004, pp. 60, http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/driving.aspx

Gopinath, Govind. "How Sports Help in Growing your Personality?." BeAnInspirer, 22 Mar.

2017, https://www.beaninspirer.com/how-sports-help-in-growing-your-personality/

"Religion and Identity." Facing History and Ourselves,

https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-1/religion-and-

identity

Your basic facts & tips in bullying. Eschooltoday,

http://eschooltoday.com/bullying/tips-for-parents-on-bullying.html

"Why do people Bully?." Liliesarelike, 16 Nov. 2014, Youtube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz2Itp29PMI