Chapter 3: Authenticity vs. Performance Self

When I'm with different people, I have different sides of me that appear. I'm very conservative with my parents because that is how they would want me to be. With my teachers, I wouldn't reveal too much of my life but I would be as courteous as possible. With people I know somewhat, I make jokes and laugh. But with my best friends, I'm a total dork. In the end however, I can say that I am Joyanna Lin; I am my authentic self.

Susan Blum in her book, My Word!, describes a performance self as, "...focus on knowing what the expectations are in particular cntexts and are adept at meeting those expectactions."(64) I think this is a pretty accurate description except I agree more with Edward and Monica who were interviewed that comfortability can easily be mistaken as performance. There are times when I,myself, am more quiet than usual because I don't feel comfortable enough to be outgoing or maybe I'm just tired. There are also random times, where I feel perfectly comfortable with my friends so I feel like I can say my opinions or be completely dorky. I think that everyone changes their personality when they're in a different environment such as the classroom. With a teacher present in a classroom, students may feel more contained because a teacher has their own rules and they may not feel comfortable enough to relate to the teacher at a personal level.

Authenticity as Blum says," celebrates uniqueness, individual contribution, essence, fixity, and authorship. It is inner directed. Its words are its own, and are always meant and sincerely believed." (61) This I think is true, but I question how Blum does tell performance from authenticity and in what context. Being unique is derived from somebody's experiences such as going to camp at a certain age, having to take care of siblings, or being pampered by parents. So in a sense, being authentic is still coming from many different sources. In writing, it is more apparent to sense when a student is putting on a performance but only if they admit they are. Within technology, authenticity is also harder to tell because someone can simply publish or show what they want and it's up to the interpretation of viewers whether the user is being authentic or not.

I feel that authenticity and performance do intertwine in different aspects of life. But as long as one knows who they are, that's the most important part.