The Conceptual Relationship Between Sense of Self and Ownership.

I believe that ownership and the sense of oneself are deeply connected to one another. The concept of ownership is not one that is exotic to people. It is a very basic concept that people understand and follow. There is, however, some discrepancy between whether you can consider intangible items as something someone owns or not.

I truly believe that owning materialistic things doesn’t define your sense of self or make you a better or worse person. I think that having intangible items such as memories and ideas that you share with others is much more important than having something like a new tv. Look at someone such as Stephen King, one of the well-known authors out there who has had multiple movie adaptations such as Pet Sematary and IT. He shared his ideas and concepts with others, which helped shape how we know him as of today. He was able to find something he thoroughly enjoyed doing, that was important to him, and made him who he is.

I think there’s a certain pressure on society, especially teenagers, nowadays that makes people believe the more items they have makes them cooler or more of a person than others. Such as the latest phone, or the more expensive clothing brand, but what does that actually say about your person? It doesn’t make you stand out in any way, but it makes you look better in society’s eyes. You may absolutely hate who you are and you have no idea who you want to be, but other people will be jealous of you because you have the newest Gucci shoes that came out.

Furthermore, I believe that a huge factor in discovering your sense of self would be past experiences and discovery. The reason I say this is because we, as humans, use our past to grow, and this alone isn’t something that is tangible, but it still plays a major role in our development. You own up to what you’ve done in the past and learn what not to do again, you have to discover what’s right and wrong on your own sometimes. That all adds up to you owning yourself and understanding who you are as a person.

Everything that I have mentioned before is exactly why I believe that even if a sense of self is intangible, it still plays a huge role alongside ownership. Just because something isn’t tangible and you can’t hold it in your own hands doesn’t mean it’s not at all important. I believe that understanding who you are as a human being makes it possible for you to own your own character.

“Who you shot for…” by dollen is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0