Re: how people are acquired by values

Rebecca Scheckler (rebecca who-is-at vt.edu)
Sat, 2 Jan 1999 19:26:26 -0500

>Bourdieu sees part of the picture: to some degree a lot of us do wind up
>with values which are relatively typical for our gender, class, epoch, age
>group, life trajectory, etc. and we certainly acquire these from features
>of the social environment shared with many other people. But there _is_
>more that matters. To some degree most of us also wind up with values
>shared with people of OTHER genders, groups, etc. ... sometimes several
>others, sometimes just one other, and sometimes, because of heteropraxia,
>with their typical values that conflict with those of most people of our
>OWN gender, class, etc. And in addition, most of us have in some sense
>developed highly individual values, or versions of values, or something
>like a value but more specific, that is importantly different from the
>values of others of ANY gender, class, age group, etc.
>
This conversation reminds me of some thougts I have been having about
support groups (chat rooms, listserves, usenet groups, MUDS,etc.)and the
Internet.

I wonder how the various kinds of support groups on the Internet affect the
social identities and values that people end up with? It seems that the
great expanse of the Internet allows some otherwise very separated folks to
have a meeting of minds along etremely specialized interests. In a
Darwinian sense this might allow the isolation of values groupings to occur
in cyberspace so that they become congealed identity groups. Otherwise
these same folks might be pressured to succumb to geographically available
alternatives. In a Bakhtinian sense, heteroglossic language would arise in
part from specialized conversation groups among people that sought each
other out over the Internet ( good search engines help here). Will this
lead to more mixing (gene flow) as these folks mix back into their
gegrophical communities for some activities or will it lead to very
hardened and solidified values, identities, ideals? There is the possibilty
of an interesting paradox here where exposure to the big mental expanse of
cyberspace might lead to a narrowing of interests and viewpoints.
Rebecca

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Rebecca Scheckler rebecca who-is-at vt.edu
Virginia Tech, Teaching and Learning (540)231-5587(work)
220 War Memorial Hall (540)951-0172(home)

Blacksburg, VA 24061-0313