ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with an analysis of the concept of the self as presented by the psychologist William James, and explores the specifically social influences on self-development as described by sociologists George Herbert Mead, and their modern descendants. It addresses the general issue of how people make sense of their involvements in the world and then behave toward others on the basis of those comprehensions. The book describes three ways in which persons participate in contemporary media forms as audiences of electronic selves, as producers of those visions, and as actors who communicate with one another in and around those settings. It focuses on how people experience their own placement in social relationships and express that sense of placement through emotions. Finally, the book discusses the problems societies create when they hold up certain pathways as ideals while ignoring others.
