Thursday, October 30, 2008
Week 10 #3
In chapter 29, Griffin talks about fear of isolation is that " the fear of isolation is the centrifugal force that accelerates the spiral of silent." ( P 373). In a group, the minority person always keep quiet . He / she doesn`t want to share his/her ideas or opinion because he/she doesn`t make sure that the others would accapt the ideas he/she has. He/she doesn`t want to be isolated in the group because he /she is minority. When he/she listens to others` ideas or opinions, he/she just keeps silent even though he/she disagrees with the ideas or opinions. He/ she has strong feeling of anxiety when he/she speaks out the different ideas or opinions. I think that everybody has the same experience in daily life , expecially, when you are new in an environment. you try hard to keep yourself in a group and are afraid of being isolated.
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3 comments:
Hello,
I totally agree with your post about the fear of isolation, especially with young people. We all want to be socially accepted by others in our peer group that we engage in behaviours that we really do not want to participate in.
We are scared that if we do not take that drink or agree that some band is as "cool" as everyone else says they are, that we will be isolated from everyone else.
Sometimes I have been afraid of sharing my viewpoints because I am afraid that everyone is going to laugh at me or think I'm wierd. Often times this has happened in classroom discussions and while I am sitting there contemplating if I should speak up, someone goes ahead and says the same thing I was thinking!
Good post about these concepts. These concepts occur in everyday society.
I think it is also imporatant to think about the exception to the rule as well. In this case the "devil's advocate." In an organizational or Industrial setting, we must account for all possibilities of outcome for a decision, and thus I usually would take this role. This would be a position which always gives the benefit of the doubt to the opposite side. Even though this is an organized discussion, and it is known that I am taking this needed role in order to advance the discussion to address all areas, I feel pressured by other group members to conform to their opinions and not speak up or play devil's advocate. Just imagine if it was not organized than I most probably would not take that role.
I too, found this theory interesting and I thought that this is a good way to look at why people might keep quiet when it pertains to their opinions about nationwide matters. And while I do agree with you that most people experience the spiral of silence at some point in their lives, there are a select few who don't because they are strong minded.
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