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Tyler Michael
RWW 9
Mrs. Bartz
April 18th, 2016
The Effect of Everyday Experience
Identity is someone's personal features like personality or interests. Many things can
shape the way someone is, but one main thing really stands out as to who a person becomes.
Identity is relevant because a lot of times people may see themselves different from others based
off things like where a persons from, social class and someone's family. Some people think that
family has the biggest role in shaping an identity, but that isn't correct. A person's family gives
someone the basic principles of an identity, like religion and neighborhood lived in, but they do
not determine how a person's act or what things they like. The biggest factor to creating an
identity is the influence of the things experienced everyday.
Close friends have one of the biggest effects on someone's identity. One main way
someone has their friends is through common interests, like sports. Since so much time with
them, especially if they go to the same school, then that can really affect an identity. According
to researchers at the University of Oregon, more than 1,200 middle school students were asked
to identify their three best friends. They found that students whose friends were prone to
misbehave didn't do as well in school as kids whose friends were socially active in positive ways,
such as participating in sports at school or completing their homework on time. The kids that
complete their homework on time can effect their friends and encourage them to do the same.
But the opposite view, it can be dreadful if someones friends dont care about their school work,
and focus on other things that can be troublesome. For example, if every one of someones

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friends likes a particular sports team, then that person might feel left out and start to like that
team also. The time that this takes place is consistent among young teenagers. Being essentially a
follower to someone create someone's own identity. According to Dr. Valerie Ulene, Kids are
most vulnerable to their friends influence during middle school, around the age of 13 or 14 so in
7th or 8th grade. By high school, there's a dramatic shift in the way their brains are working, and
the idea that other kids hold over them isn't nearly as strong. This can majorly change their
interests at a young age that can have a permanent effect on what they do the rest of their life.
Kids who hang out with athletes may do something with sports, while it could be the same thing
but with people who are interested in music. It builds identity because someone might start to act
like their friend if their with them consistently, and start to develop their friends habits.
Everyday media plays a huge role to creating someone's identity. The media has a huge
affect on someone because based off how many things people see, people will start to believe
and agree with lots of it. It can completely change someone's viewpoint on the way they live.
The media will show them how a normal person lives, and those people will think that since
they don't live like that, then they aren't as important as the normal or famous person. It can
really change how someone acts and feels about themselves and changes their viewpoint about
things which affects their own personal identity. According to York University, people with
lower self-esteem spent more time online and posted more "self-promotional" content to sites
like Facebook. These people may not express themselves the same on media that they would in
person. They are talking to a much different and a bigger variety of an audience. Their online
identity and real world identity could be very different. Media could create a different identity
for someone, or even create two identities for someone. According to Chandra Johnson, a 2010
survey from the Girl Scout Research Institute, 74 percent of girls said they felt their peers used

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social media to make themselves look cooler than they are, and 41 percent said that also
describes them. Media can really change who a person is, and who someone wants to be, so it
would also shape who someone becomes. Since it is experienced everyday, it's the reason for it
having such a huge effect on an identity. Nowadays, social media is so popular and can often
change how people act.
An argument that some people have is that family is the biggest factor to creating an
identity. Someone's parents from a very young age determine the things their child does. They
also teach basically everything someone knows when their young like how to walk or even talk.
Because of this, it can change an identity varying on what the parents teach or show their child.
A person's brother or sister also can change it because if they like something, it will be seen
often, and see them doing it gives someone a better chance to like it themselves.. But the
problem with this claim is that a kid might not always want to become their parents, and actually
try to not be like them.
Influence of someone's everyday experiences have the biggest effect on creating their
identity. Friends that are encountered everyday really change what a person is like, and what they
like. The media also changes how other people are viewed, and how someone sees their current
situation. If people understand how much influence affects someone's identity, then they could
then understand their situation better, and have more self-esteem because of how they view
themselves.

Works Cited
Johnson, Chandra. "Growing up Digital: How the Internet Affects Teen Identity."

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Growing up Digital: How the Internet Affects Teen Identity. Deseret News
National, 28 May 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
Ulene, Valerie. "A Teen's Friends Are a Powerful Influence." Los Angeles Times. Los
Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.