How Does Interpersonal Communication Affect Our Identity

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There are approximately 7 billion people living on this Earth, and each of those seven billion we come into contact with will alter our identities. This puts into perspective how many people are really impacting us. Anyone we have come into contact with throughout our lives has played some part in our identity. Some think that others do affect who we are, while different people think that others do not affect us because we are our own people who can make our own decisions without others. Although every person is an individual being and we have our own separate thoughts and feelings, our identities and personalities are determined by what other people think of us, because we are always interacting with new people and learning from them.
Some on the opposing side believe that the people we associate with do not
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Communication plays a bug role in how our identities are shaped. According to Understanding Interpersonal Communication: Making Choices in Changing Times, “When we manage our identities, we decide upon a particular communication behavior to influence how people perceive us” (West 64). As our identities are changing throughout our lives, the way we show off our identities is how other people see us as a person. Communication cannot happen with only one person. As we project our identities, we also teach those about what we know and learn from what others know. As we meet and surround ourselves with new people, we learn from them and teach them about our own knowledge. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise of Knowledge claims, “…insofar as all human ‘knowledge’ is developed, transmitted and maintained in social situations…” (Berger and Luckman). All of our knowledge is spread to other people through social situations. If you do not surround yourself with other people, you will not learn anything and you will not be able to share what you