Social Experience and the Constructed Self Essay - 816 Words

Social Experience and the Constructed Self In the last few decades, our culture has adopted postmodernism as the predominant model of thought, as opposed to the modernist philosophy previously held. It is important that we understand both of these theories in order to fully understand the way that technology is shaping our thinking and our identities as individuals. Stephen Frosh, in his article â€Å"Social Experience and the Constructed Self,† explains each of these philosophies in terms of their definitions of individualism in â€Å"a world like this† (273). First Frosh uses Berman’s All that is Solid Melts into Air to explain modernist thinking. Essentially, according to Berman, modernism, which was born in the European Enlightenment,†¦show more content†¦If one intends to succeed, he can do so because his actions express that intention. However, the self is also an object of modernization, Berman asserts, in that it â€Å"develops in response to the economic and political contexts that surround it through a process of internalizing or appropriating the materials of culture and social relations in which the individual is embedded† (275). Nonetheless, modernism holds that an individual is by no means necessarily the same as the culture, that â€Å"in each person there is something that can resist, something that can create, something that can appropriate the public sphere and make it home† (276). Under the model of modernism, individuals are ultimately responsible for their successes and also their failu res because everyone has the power to resist their social and cultural influences and make their own way. Postmodernism has emerged recently as a critique of the modernist thinking. At its center, postmodernism calls into question the central tenet of modernist theory and asks: â€Å"what if there is no reason for endurance, no real meaning underlying the modern kaleidoscope to be recovered and preserved? What if the spectacular but empty surface is all that ‘really’ exists?† (277). Postmodernism holds that the surface is all that really exists, that there are no â€Å"differentiations between the self and its expression† (280). Frosh describes postmodernism using the metaphor of an image: â€Å"it is the image which isShow MoreRelatedThe Multiplicity Of The Postmodern Era1543 Words   |  7 Pagespaints, a person would paint the self in society as his/hers life’s work using language and words. Having more linguistic skills would resemble having more colors to paint the self with; hence the self would become more colorful and diverse in some way. 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