One's social identity is extremely important when you are trying to identify who you are and where you come from. Although people never really think of their own social identity, it is an extremely important topic that people should consider. While completing the social identity wheel, the question that I found to be most striking was when I was asked, "what identities do you think about least often?" I thought that this was a very alluring question because it allowed myself to reflect. The identities that I think about least often is my sexual orientation and my race. This is because I am a heterosexual white male. However, everyone has a different answer - not one human is the same. If someone was bisexual or was questioning their gender, they would probably write these two categories in the question that states what identities you think about most often.
Your own social identity influences how you see yourself and how others see you. However, you should not allow these characteristics to limit who you are and what you are capable of.
I really like the closing lines of this reflection on the social identity wheel activity. There is a lot to think about when it comes to social identity; how it impacts our daily lives, how our differences impact our relationships with other people, and how we can develop a regular awareness of the identities that may not impact us personally, but impact others daily. As we talked in class about how our social identities impact socialization as a child, it's important to remember how shaping these factors of our lives can be. When we were asked to put down three adjectives about ourselves almost no one put their gender, ethnicity or religion, yet all of these amongst many other things helped make us who we are today. It's interesting to think about if/how I would be different if I was of a different gender, race or sexual orientation.
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