As individuals, we are influenced by social factors around us. What influences us then creates our character and also our identity. Not only having an identity as a person, but also to let others see who we are and to a certain extent, of what is our worth to the society.
I would say that creating an identity is a deliberate process and is unconsciously moulded into us. From young, every minute detail is important – our social status, our parents, our family, our friends, our religion, our society, our government… there are so many countless more and they all played a part in creating our identity. Your name alone is a form of identity!
One of the most influential components of what moulded our identity would be our family and friends. With family comes religion and social status. With religion comes morals, values, beliefs and ritual practices. With social status comes power, wealth, and respectability. All these would sub-consciously tell or expect you to behave in a certain manner. And these would create you as an individual and your identity. From these expectations, we will then create our ‘norms’ for these groups of certain individuals. The rich will be more refined and more respected in the society because to be able to be rich, you had to be hardworking and smart to earn the money. However, overtime, the hardworking-and-smart component lies at the back of our mind. Instead, we will just feel and focus on the social power that the rich people have. Compare it to the poor, who are deemed lazy, useless and a social problem. They will become the misfits, and it is an irony that they might be working harder than a rich man but earn much less.
Religion, for most people, is introduced to a person at birth. Muslims, for example, are born into the religion. You can convert into a Muslim, but you cannot convert from a Muslim into another. For Christianity, you are baptised at birth but you can choose to follow God or not when you finish Sunday School. However, we rarely see these people converting to another religion. For one, it might because it runs in the family. Beliefs and values of religions differ, and at times, they contradict. Seldom (or never) do we see Christians marrying Muslims, or vice versa, at their own free will. I say this because in the past we do see the Malay Muslims marrying Chinese Christians, which in turn created the Babas, who mostly are Christians but follow much of their Muslim culture like cooking. But in modern Muslim context, when a non-Muslim marries a Muslim, he or she must first convert into a Muslim as well. Marriage is a union where, if you want it to work, both parties must have the same ideals and beliefs. Where religion playing a major role in shaping an individuals identity, behaviour and beliefs, we would want to marry someone who shares the same ideals as us. If we have children, we would also expect our child to follow our ideals and beliefs.
Our government would also have played a role in influencing one’s identity. Firstly, they mandated the law, which would be the guidelines to the countrymen of what was right and wrong in the society. One of the most important things the government tries to do to its people is to make the citizens feel that their country is their ‘home’ country, where they must always be loyal to. Singapore is one of them, and so we have our National Day, our Shared Values, our National Anthem, and our National Pledge. All these will in some ways remind us that we are Singaporeans, whether or not we like our government. Even if we migrate to another country or such, if we are asked who we are, our first answer will be “Singaporean”. It is a label, and it is our identity. By saying a word “Singaporean” alone, it holds the meaning of our culture, our society, and of our Singaporean beliefs like racial harmony. Of course, we must take note that religion also probably played a part in creating the legislation of the laws as well. People convicted of honour-killings in Egypt have a smaller prison sentence compared to if it was carried our in Singapore, where our laws order him to be either sentenced to life imprisonment or death penalty. It is because Egypt is a Muslim country, and generally, family honour is deemed important in their society.
As we grow, we absorb all these factors and they become our markers to what is right or wrong. This will then mould our character, our behaviour, and in which will create our identity. We have different identities in a sense that we have to play different roles – a sister, a daughter, a friend – but these identities are because of our social interaction with other people. Without social interaction, our identities cannot be formed. And with an identity, almost everything will be explained to the other person about who we are – what kind of beliefs we have, what kind of culture we have… and to the other person, it will create some sort of expectation of behaviour of us. Identity is complicated, but it is necessary, for it is what makes us social beings.
Tags: identity
