Turn Shuffle Off, Put it on Repeat

Structuration - The "creation and recreation" of organizational environment through rules and regulations.


Structuration with its structure creates somehow a template. In this case a template for everyday life. Each day becomes redundant, repetitive, same as the others. A good example of a repetitive pattern of life is school. School is the same everyday unless of course for special or extreme situations that would call for breaking the pattern.

Everyday we wake up, get dressed, and go to school. In school we have schedules. The schedule never changes and we are forced to follow it and it dictates what we do in school and what class we go to. In class we get tons of work and tests so much so that sometimes when we try to remember our lessons each of the lessons in each class overlaps with each other. It makes everything much more confusing.

Ateneo specifically has its own structure of sorts. One thing that is unique to the Ateneo is the INTAC class. I never really got to know what INTAC was really for because it never really did what it was supposed to and that is introduce us to Ateneo culture. INTAC class was one thing I never looked forward to. Another Ateneo structure is the strict ID implementation. I have no problem with this because it really is for security reasons, though the guards are sometimes too annoying. They know you have an ID but they still check if it's your ID. That's not the problem though. The problem is that they sometimes take too long just to check if the face on your ID is your ID. But all these are just patterns, structures. They are all unavoidable situations and are already part of everyday life. Going to school, home work, school work, ID implementation, schedules they are all what we encounter everyday.

Though patterns are somehow a good thing also. At least we do not have to think hard of what we have to do each day. The only thing we have to think about is whether to follow the pattern or not and sometimes thinking outside the box is a great thing. It adds color to your otherwise black and white life. A little variety won't hurt and it would keep our lives more interesting and exciting.

Great Minds Think Alike...

                … or so they say. The theory of groupthink, is very intriguing that it introduces the idea of unanimity over individuality. All I can say is that this is very true. People want to do what others want to do and who can blame them? Unity means that there will be less conflict between ideas and therefore less conflict between individuals. This can also mean that work can be achieved in a shorter span of time. However, would it maximize quality as in the case wherein individual ideas be pooled together to form a better idea?

                Yes, groupthink would result in more peaceful and speedier manners of work, but what of the individual ideas? Thinking as one would only result to one goal and apply only one idea out of the many possible ideas each individual in a group could come up with. We should respect each other’s ideas and criticize if necessary. In this way higher quality outputs can be achieved because of the variety that will be achieved. There would be more color in the work put as each individual’s ideas will be from their own originality and likeness.

                Groupthink reminds me a lot of a hive mind. A hive mind is a collective consciousness where there is no individuality. Everything or everyone thinks the same as if there is really only one mind that controls them all. A hive mind reminds me of the popular video game Star Craft wherein one the races there actually have a hive mind. The race is called Zerg. They are very primitive whose only goal is to spread and destroy anything not Zerg. They always attack swiftly and in swarms or most commonly known as a Zerg rush to catch opponents of guard and outnumbered. Picture depicting a Zerg rush.

Can't see the picture clearly? Here is a link of actual gameplay footage of a Zerg Rush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfl279o_Cko

                Groupthink can be a good or a bad thing depending on the situation. When pressed on time this could be a good thing, but when quality is a must individuality is called upon and pooled together to form variety and color. :)