External Influences

During the TED talk “Is there a real you?,” Julian Baggini discusses how external influences determine who you are as a person and how your personality is solely a collection of all the external influences that have affected you throughout your life. Furthermore, “Talking to our devices”, written by The Week.com addresses the large impact technology has on the human race plus how technology will continue to change in the future and the likelihood that as humans we will be forced to change with it. Another article, “Thinking out loud” by Daniel Kahneman explains how, someone talking to you, a word that you read, and a picture that you see, can all influence the way we think and act. This topic is explained through his writing about the Priming

You are the sum of your parts.” To condense this passage talks about how you are made up of all the external influences in your life, example being all the experiences you encounter. It explains how you are not a human that is affected by these experiences but rather you as a human are solely made up of these experiences. Next the article “thinking fast and slow” reads, “Our memory works in such a way that things that happen to us in one moment influence our behavior after that in ways we don't realize.” This quotes tells of how something that happens to us in the moment, seeing or hearing something, a feeling that we have, how that can subconsciously affect us in ways we don't realize. Both of these articles support the idea that who we are as people is decided by what we surround ourselves with. “Thinking fast and slow” and “Is there a real you” relate directly to each other by both talking about how your lifetime experiences affect you and/or make up who you are. If you are your experiences than the person you become is based off of the situations you were put in and the things and people you surround yourself

For example the article, “talking to technology” reads, “Computer dictation programs have been around for decades, but in recent years, voice-activated technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, thanks to dramatic strides in artificial intelligence that have made computers much better at understanding the nuances of human speech.” This section of text discusses how technology never stops changing and improving. Technology is an external influence that affects most people. “Talking to technology” directly supports “Is there a real you?” In how external influences are ever changing therefore as they change you change. This statement also relates back to the idea that who you are is based off of what you surround yourself with, and as the things that you surround yourself with change and advance that you as a person are also