Week 12 - Jaiganesh Nagarajan - Power of Titles
Power is relative and is based on what we give it. In reality, everyone has an equal amount of power but society has arbitrarily given titles more or less power depending on its needs. For instance when we turn 18, we are considered adults then. Yet when looked at from a biological standpoint, there is not much difference before and after you turn 18. Society has made an arbitrary rule that we are now considered adults and are considered mature for the most part. The power of being an adult lets us vote, earn credit, join the military, etc.
However, that does not mean that the person who turned 18 has more power than people who are younger.
(Enago)
The title of being an adult in society is what gives people that role of authority over themselves. Now as an adult, they are more inclined to go out and explore because they are mature enough according to society. Similarly, we can give ourselves power by just imagining it. It is not the same as what society gives, yet we can give ourselves a boost to help get through a problem. All we need is a title. A title also acts as a first impression, the phrase that one should not judge a book by its cover shows how a book with a mediocre title may not receive the same popularity as the same book with a title that attracts readers. While the book may contain the same content, the title is what gives the reader a first impression on how the reading experience may be. While we should not judge based on just first impressions, they do play a role in the bias towards that book.
Hi Jaiganesh! I found your ideas on the power of titles to be very relatable. I often feel as if people’s titles change the way other people view them. For example, I was in a committee in which the other members did more work than the committee head. Although the person had a title of committee head, they did not do as much work as the rest of the committee. Therefore, titles can often be misleading. It is unfortunate that titles play such a big role in society because of how it impacts people’s professional success. Having valuable titles can often increase the strength of a resume. These bonus points are solely determined on the person’s title in that role instead of the actual work they did. This unfair issue persists in many fields. Even in a school environment, students try to join as many clubs as they can and gain officer positions. These students may not make any valuable contributions to the club. Instead, they may just attend club meetings and gain officer titles. These titles boost the students’ college applications even though they may not have actually helped improve the club. Many officers do not even attend their club meetings after using their titles on their resume.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is hard to change unfair power that titles give us. Because it is nearly impossible for a third party member to evaluate someone’s contribution to their club, titles make it more convenient to simplistically describe someone’s dedication to a certain group. However, it is important to comprehend and process a person’s titles less than someone’s achievements and awards. This is because the accolades represent a stronger example of the effort and time that they spent.
Hi Jaiganesh! I found your blog surrounding the power of titles to be very interesting. I feel that a lot of the time when I am reading about people's backgrounds, I find that the title they have ex. the CEO of a startup has a lot of impact on the impression I have of them and I think more positively of them, vs when someone who is an intern, I think of them more as inexperienced. The whole complex of power and structure reminds me of when I watched a show about space exploration, and NASA, a very well structured heirchical style of power needed to collab with a younger more contemporary democratic open style, and this led to a lot of mis communication and disagreements. I also feel that tittles are somewhat overrated, because I often see people in higher power titles than me not carry through and often end up costing the whole club or team.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you tied into the age old "never judge a book by its cover" and stated that titles are part of the book, both signifying a literal and metaphorical statement..
Hey Jaiganesh, when I first read the title of your blog, I thought you meant book titles. I was ready to read on how book titles can captivate and pull people into the text. How titles can either make someone open a book or not. However, when I read the first paragraph, you had meant labels on people. After reading you blog, I most certainly agree with you. When you turn 18, nothing much changes physically, but according to law and society, you are now an adult. In my perspective, I honestly do not understand why, since studies has been shown that your brain does not finish developing until your late 20s. So I do not understand as to why they choose 18, like you said, when you are 18 people expect you to do all that "grown-up" stuff when half of us haven't even graduated highschool.
ReplyDeleteHey Jaiganesh,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very different from what I was expecting, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I agree with you that we can have power just by imagining it and willing it into existence for ourselves, but I also think there's a different kind of power in social markers that are set for us. Like the example of turning 18 that you provided where when you turn 18 there's this apparent "power" that you immediately receive. You concluded that, that was essentially a social construct and while that is true I believe social constructs such as those have a power of their own that holds weight