Free agency.

Welcome back,

I got ahead of myself in my last blog. I forgot to introduce myself and give you insight as to why I am here writing every week.

My name is April, I am in an English class taught at CSUN, and it is part of our curriculum to explore  our readings, class discussions, and different media sources presented in class, on a blog. As it pertains to popular culture. If you stumble upon any of my writings feel free to leave  any helpful comments or questions.Since, most of the things I will be exploring are new ideas, I would love to hear your thoughts.


Today we our thinking through the 'concept of agency'.Here's the list that Chris Barker gives us from his book 'Culture studies': "The concept of agency has commonly been associated with notions of:"
-Freedom;
-free will;
-action;
-creativity;
-originality;
-the very possibility of change through the actions of free agents;


  I'm going to focus this blog on creativity and originality because I think that's what my generation is most plagued by. We all want to control our own image to show others we are original and special. We do this by spending our time on sites like facebook, myspace, and twitter. These popular websites give us the power to control how others view us,  with the pictures we post of us in Hawaii; perfectly tan and happy , and the comments we post. It has given my culture/ generation the illusion that we can create a unique self without the help of an outside Source.  But,can we? Do we have the power to step outside of our culture, our up-bringing,  and language to create ourselves?  I don't think we can.Most of the ideas we post on FB come from an outside source like our parents, friends, or teachers. Whatever cool thing we did this weekend already existed before we put it up on our page. Think about that. Any idea you have comes from somewhere else. 

Here are a few things that would have to happen, for me to be a free agency: 

-Never communicate;

-No media;

-No outside idea/ ideologies;

-No parenting;

-No friends;

-Be God; 

-Create myself;

Try it if you want. What ideas, thoughts, actions have you had/done today that are shaped by language, history, or others around you? I tried to come up with one original thought that came from scratch. 


I couldn't. Most of my thoughts about reality our shaped by my faith and up bringing. Mostly, my identity is shaped by Jesus's teachings.


However, I do think that each of us are unique because no two people have lived the same life.   Our readings this last week explain it perfectly (p.236 ) " That is, while we are subject to the 'impress of history', the particular form that we take , the specific arrangements of discursive elements, is unique to each individual. We have all had unique patterns of family relations, of friends, of work and of access to discursive resources." 


On that note I leave you to ponder these thoughts. I myself will continue to analyze this particular concept for years.