Alter Ego

Entry #2

The growth of technology has continually allowed people to connect with others more than ever. There is the increase of use of telephones of the 2000s to social media platforms where everyone is capable of sharing about anything from stories to art. This is well beyond the days of Web 1.0, where only professionals could post. We have entered a new era of Web 2.0, where anyone is capable of connecting with others through the internet. Aside from the online exchange, you could physically go to another country. Through these experiences, there is an exchange of ideas, products, beliefs. This is globalization (Hermans, 2015).

Globalization gives us a perspective on the world. It’s counterpart, localization, refers to what has already been there since childhood. However, with the mixing of different cultures and lifestyles, there may be the development of an identity crisis. Globalization is Janus-faced, wherein it could be both a bringer of innovation but also marginalization (Hermans, 2015).

If we are careful to balance our local and global identities, it is possible to fuse these two identities into a hybrid form. This hybrid form is not necessarily the same as the original two, and instead may take a new form, an “alter ego”.

Our presentation

On the first day of February, the class was given time to share their global, local, and hybrid identity. This was in lieu of what we had learned regarding globalization.

My group opted to use X-men as a metaphor for ourselves; each character has a unique set of powers. Global and local “powers” for many of us group members may intersect one way or another because of similar backgrounds.

For me, my global identity is someone who loves travel and exploration. On the other hand, my local identity lies in being respectful towards elders and being the “panganay” (first-born child). The panganay usually has the value of responsibility.

Shadow Cat is not a well known X-men member, but nonetheless is still doing her part. Her power is to phase through matter, and I used it as a pun in my presentation saying how differences don’t “phase” (faze) me and I am accepting and respectful of different beliefs, cultures and the like; particularly because I grew up Singapore. As from my presentation, I did say like globalization as a whole, it may be Janus-faced. I may be too accepting of differences that I forget what exactly is comfortable.

Globalization is something that we cannot stop against. For me, it great thing that can help the world progress forward. As an aspiring scientist, I believe globalization will aid greatly in the movement of science. Not only will the internet be able to share different researches, it is also a great medium to bring science to the common folk. But I am not denying that globalization has its own setbacks. There is the rise of racism and fake news online, poisoning international views. We should learn and teach others how to be careful so that the pros outweigh the cons.

Sources

Hermans, H. (2015). Human development in today’s globalizing world: Implications
for self and identity. In L. Jensen (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Human
Development and Culture: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Ch. 3, pp. 28-42). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.