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One's personality is both a composition and reflection, but if I have to choose one of them, I will choose reflection as the "self" is more important to me than "me". One's composition may change, walking across the cultural landscapes and climbing the social ladder but one's self is tied to one's reflections. The fun part is that reflections are not bound to "Time-Space" barriers ( it is not time-space) and respective mental constructs, which have grown so thick over ages, that they had reduced the image of humans to Sisyphus, rolling different sizes of boulders on hills of different heights.… As the name of this Blog indicates, knols are my perspectives on topics of interests, sweet/bitter experiences or just doodling :)

Monday, November 28, 2011

Paradigm shifts and self image

Introduction

One of the phenomenons of the globalization is paradigm shifts that have affected almost all of us. Advancements in telecommunication technologies and movements of people across national and cultural boundaries are two most influential factors of globalization. Rapid technological advancements made it possible that several technological generations live at the same time. It is interesting to know how technological advancements have caused paradigm shifts and also how different technological generations interact and perceive themselves. So let’s first define technological generations and make a time frame for each generation so it could help us in our investigation across generations.

“A technological generation are generations of people who live in era dominated or influenced most by a technology”

Recent technological generations:

Because the technological generations from country to country and from continent to continent so we use Wikipedia as a source, because it is a user contributed encyclopedia and people around the world can delineate their own technological generations.

1- Radio generation:

A paragraph from Wikipedia (under title of, “Old-time radio” illustrate the radio generation in USA,

“Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the 1950s. During this period, when radio was dominant and the airwaves were filled with a variety of radio formats and genres, people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs. In fact, according to a 1947 C. E. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners.”

2- TV generation:

“The Golden Age of Television is the period in the United States between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, a time when many hour-long anthology drama series received critical acclaim.

The golden age of British TV enjoyed its peak around the same time as in the United States, ranging from approximately 1949 to 1955 — although the term has been used to describe the period right through until the 1970s.”

3- Video cassette recorder/CD/DVD generations:

4- Computer generation/Internet generation:

“The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Information Era, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. The idea is linked to the concept of a Digital Age or Digital Revolution, and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based around the manipulation of information. Commonly seen as an outflow from the Space Age, capitalizing on the computer microminiaturization advances of that effort, with a fuzzy transition spanning from the advent of the personal computer in the late 1970s to the emergence of the internet in the early 1990s, and the adaption of such technology by the public in the two decades after 1990. Since the invention of social media in the 2000s, the Information Age has evolved into the Attention Age according to some publications.”

“The first Smartphone was called Simon; it was designed by IBM in 1992 and shown as a concept product[8] that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada.”

Simply it is miniature computer that are introduced in market. Nexus of Google Inc and Ipad of Apple Inc is the recent additions of 2010.

Movement across national and cultural boundaries:

Culture and religion is the strongest paradigms that through which we divide people into ours and others, see and understand the world around us. But movements across national borders and also across cultural boundaries cause a paradigm shift.

Paradigm shift:

Stephen R. Covey in his famous book, “The 7 habits of highly effective people” used the concept of paradigm shift for changing self image. He declares the paradigm shift as the most important insight that one can gain from perception demonstration but he warns that paradigm shift could be both positive and negative. He argues that the paradigm shift from earlier Character Ethics to Personality Ethics is a negative shift.

Everyone has a picture of himself/herself of worth, value, appearance and achievements. Simply, these are our opinions and judgments about us. These are not static and absolute opinions and change from time to time by changes in us and in our circumstances. The changing perspectives about us are really important in our performances and growth rates. But sometimes we stuck to a self image that we liberate ourselves or in other time the changes become so rapid that we can’t adjust ourselves to it.

Hypothesis:

Technological generations go through paradigm shifts. It is logical to think that individuals who are with strong character and learn how to use technology of his/her time the paradigm shift will be positive and vice versa.
People who cross the cultural borders to experience the new expectations that are usually different from expectations than in which he or she was used to. The change in expectations makes to rethink and shake the concept of self image. Again, it is logical to think that for individuals with strong character it will be a positive paradigm shift.
Fusions of the technological adaptations or cultural adaptations are a paradigm shift that improves self image by uniqueness of the paradigm shift.
Test:

1- To learn the experiences of the different age groups with different backgrounds to investigate the affects of paradigm shifts due to technological advancements and their influences in their self image.

2- To learn the experiences of the international students or immigrants and to investigate the affects of the paradigm shifts facing the change in expectations.

Methodology:

1- Using paper questionnaires, digital questionnaires and interviewing face to face to learn the result of paradigm shifts on their concept of self image.

2- Golden Age of Television. (2010, February 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:04, February 21, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Age_of_Television&oldid=343675571