The stereotypical list of social identifiers often goes as religion, age, sexual orientation, gender, nationality, etc. Because expressing the depth of ourselves is incredibly difficult, we substitute descriptions of our upbringing, psychology and other complex parts of ourselves with basic facts. Instead of explaining what makes us tick, we share zodiac signs, favorite musicians and who our favorite Avenger is (Iron Man, obviously). All are indicative of our identities and culture, just not in a way we are taught to think of it. Culture is what surrounds us, what encourages us to grow and change.
While we associate culture with religion and ethnic qualities, culture really reaches most, if not all aspects of our lives. From the food we eat for breakfast to the Spongebob meme we laugh at instead of working during math class, our verbal tics, and pronunciations of water (cough cough, New Jersey). Culture influences everything.
I drink from my Nalgene water bottle because it’s followed me through a hundred miles on the Appalachian Trail and I’m sentimental like that. I’m listening to Rainbow Kitten Surprise as I write this because I’ve been raised listening to music with guitars, so even in softer music I appreciate clever guitar riffs. I take off my shoes as soon as I get home because that’s a social cue from my Asian ethnicity, and my family has passed down that expectation to now be something I expect of myself and others. My culture has shown me what I like, what I don’t like, which parent I’m most like. It’s come to dictate almost everything in my life, actively or through experiences that have shaped me. It’s hard to give credit to one’s person(ality) or culture when the culture itself is hard to express. It’s so much easier to say, “Hi, I’m ____ and I’m __ years old, I live in ___ and my favorite color is __.” We’ve come to make hard judgements off of those small four facts. In such an age sensitive world, learning that someone is older than you might make you insecure, or if they are younger you might think them immature and annoying.
Culture may not design our identities, but it damn well gives us things to characterize ourselves by. We all have our own strong opinions and likes and dislikes. Some of those we may characterize ourselves by, and those I guarantee are influenced by culture. My pickiness about how I make chai is something I characterize myself by, even if it’s not something I broadcast a lot. The same is the knot I use on my shoes. Another popular one (brace yourselves), putting milk in before the cereal? I don’t endorse it, but it is a prime example of an integral trait that culture influenced a large number of people to hate. Same thing with the Coke versus Pepsi debate, if it were no big deal why would Michael Jackson and David Beckham promoted it? DC or Marvel anyone? This is why the Bachelor is so popular, everyone has their opinion and wants to be right about it because that would be validating to their choice and by extension their life experiences and culture that brought them to that decision. I think I’ve overanalyzed commonplace things enough for one week. Let us know what your quirks are in the comments! But please be nice; people who put the milk in first are still functional people!
I agree, cereal before milk. Always and forever.
love this!