Explain what Find Your Tribe implies about the cocept of identity in todays world.

Explain what Find your tribe implies about the concept of identity in today’s world. In your essay you should;

• Refer to find your tribe essays(use quotes/comment on what you read)

• Refer to the ideas of Michel Maffesoli

• Comment on how the idea of pick n mix identity is relevant here

• Discuss how this concept of identity differs from the modernist concept of identity

• Use some of the worlds below; Stable/fixed, shifting, fragmented; pick n mix, subject, tribes, urban tribes, and ideological influences/structures/apparatus

Plan for essay.

What is the concept of identity?

• Religion

• Social Groups

• Location

• School

• Education

• Class

• Ethnicity

• Urban/Country/Town

• Family

1). Pick n Mix identity; on find your tribe you select various sections which represent you, this relates to how your identity is shaped because part of it comes from your family and the other part of your identity is formed by you as an individual, because you chose your social groups, fashion you follow, music you like etc, therefore it is like find your tribe because you are choosing various small sectors that complete your whole identity some self inflicted and some given to you by the family you were born into.

2). Michel Maffesoli;

- “The time of tribes”; various social groups are expanding and evolving into sub groups, influences from film, music and fashion.

- “Mass culture has disintegrated”; one large group has separated into smaller sub-categories.

- Social groups; smaller sub-categories because, fashion, music, language, catchphrases. Identity politics; certain rules within a group, what we should wear people we should socialize with.

- As your identity changes, your social group changes with it.

- Proliferation of lifestyle cultures; expanding, more groups appear; sub-genres, have the same interests as one another.

- Urban tribes; metropolitan areas, location/area you live in has an effect on your identity.

3). Modernist concept of identity; how your parents bring you up, therefore shaping part of your identity, for example the beliefs they pass on to you, the location they bring you up in.

Essay

Find Your Tribe implies that an individual’s identity is shaped by how it’s always shifting around, it also refers to the ` pick n mix` identity, because of the way you select certain elements to reveal your identity on Find Your Tribe, this is very similar to way that we shape our own identity, in way that we choose our social groups, the fashions we follow, the people we socialize with, the music we listen to.

Michel Maffesoli`s ideas of identity, represent those of Find Your Tribe, because of his book “The time of tribes”, which connotes the expanding and evolving sub groups, as opposed to one large social group, these sub-groups are influenced by fashion, music and film. “The time of tribes” relates to find your tribe, because find your tribe works out people social group by asking them questions involving the types of music they listen to, TV they watch, websites they visit the most. The word Tribe means a group of people who all have to same sort of interests, therefore connoting social groups and groups of people brought together by the same interests and aspirations. Maffesoli`s quote of “mass culture has disintegrated”, is evident in Find Your Tribe, because the social groups they name at the end of the quiz, are not just indie for example, they are sub-groups. The proliferation of lifestyle of cultures, has led to the expansion of sub-genres in the modern era, this is due to people having the same interests, and also people having a larger variety of interests, therefore the individual is not `fitting`, to be in a particular group, because certain aspects of their lives are different from the stereotype, this is why sub-groups have made a vast increase. He also talks about `Urban tribes`; social groups within cities, and how they differentiate from social groups within rural areas, the area you live in or were brought up in, has an effect on your identity, this part of your identity is from your parents, as they decide where you are brought up.

The modernistic concept of identity, is the part of your identity whereby your parents choose where you will be brought up, where you will go to school; therefore to some extent choosing the type of people and social group you will socialise with and your beliefs. The modernistic concept of identity, differs from the identity that Find Your Tribe shapes for you, as this is the part that you shape yourself, through a medium of fashion, music, film and the people you socialise with.