What a dreary life we would have if all we had were our flesh and bones -- and blood and sweat and tears. No extensions whatsoever. But, thankfully, we have affinities. We communicate. We have memories. And imaginations. And aspirations. We take many forms, despite our physiological limitations.
We know we are not alone -- and not the only one(s). Alone, neither the Self nor the Other endures -- in his or her or the Other's eyes. Nor is the social self necessarily a socialist.
It is the unfinished selfie in which friends, dear ones and random others and places and things always appear, and with time quietly fade away -- only to be replaced by others, or none at all.
1. CLICK TO SEE THIS: What Charles Horton Cooley's scholarly self thinks that he thinks is his original thought about the social self
2. And see what George Herbet Mead says:
"The “I” of introspection is the self which enters into social relations with other selves. It is not the “I” that is implied in the fact that one presents himself as a “me. “ And the “me” of introspection is the same “me” that is the object of the social conduct of others. One presents himself as acting toward others – in this presentation he is presented in indirect discourse as the subject of the action and is still an object,– and the subject of this presentation can never appear immediately in conscious experience. It is the same self who is presented as observing himself, and he affects himself just in so far and only in so far as he can address himself by the means of social stimulation which affect others. The “me” whom he addresses is the “me,” therefore, that is similarly affected by the social conduct of those about him." (Read more).3. REGARD: James Neill ~ "The Social Self" Slideshare
