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              The main idea of this essay is “Systems Theory, Psychology and Social medias”. In this term, I understood that we were supposed to discuss about how we felt with this course by also using questions such as : How I feel?, What I think?, What I understood?, What I’d like to ask?, How can I use it in my life?. So I’m going to part this essay following these questions :

HOW I FEEL?

              To be honest, when I decided to choose this lesson, I was mostly attracted by the part “Psychology and Social Medias”. I thought that the purpose of the course was to discuss about the effects of social medias on our daily lives, the way we start to act and think according to how it’s currently changing our lives.

              When I get that we were going to talk about the systems theory my first impression was to be a bit lost because I didn’t knew anything about it but this impression fled away really quick because I discovered an entire new theory taught in a way that I’ve never experienced. Basically, I felt the first lesson as refreshing because it was the first time that us, students, had the time to think and reflect during the class, which most of the time we don’t have the possibility of, our point of view mattered, we were questioned and our answers were relevant during the class and at the end we had the opportunity to discuss all together in groups, to confront our visions and perceptions and finally to built something together, whether it be a sentence, the name of a movie or even a drawing. This methodology was completely new to me and really different from what I’ve experienced previously in other lessons, and I think that it helped to open our minds, to create cohesion through the group and even friendships! The fact that every lessons were balanced between a “theoretical” part in which we discovered new concepts offering a base for the “practical” part in which we needed to think about what we thought, what can we use in real life and then to discuss with others and to create something means to me the definition of what can be harmony in a lesson.

WHAT I THINK?

Before this lesson, I had no idea about what the systems theory was. I see this lesson as an initiation to it because we mentioned a lot of concepts, but we didn’t really went deeply into it, which had the effect to awake our brains and to start to think, really. For once, what was required was to take a step back and consider the way how we perceived things, that could have been oriented in a special way by the concept that was presented to us, to question it and, according to the concepts we talked about, either to have a new eye on it or to be comforted in the way we used to think, which is interesting to me because we usually don’t have the occasions to do it and all of that by thinking properly by ourselves.

WHAT HAVE I UNDERSTOOD?

              Now it’s time to make my own assessment of this course. First, I would say that I both discovered and understood what is the systems theory and how interesting this perspective can be.

When we usually study or talk about something it’s more common to apprehend it through the closest eye that we can have on it: in biology we study the functioning of the heart then the lungs, in history we study preferably our own country and then others or otherwise we only focus on the one pimple on our forehead without looking to the whole face. It’s seems to be easier to look at things that way. But this lesson makes me realize that as for the DTT, it would be even easier not to focus on parts of the problem and give a restricted solution to it but to reinsert it into the whole that its part of, take a step back, analyze the entire situation, think about solutions and the consequences related to it and then act. It’s all about that: the need to reintroduce each action into a set of interactions that are influencing each other in both ways through an entire system including mutual effects on every parts, individuals or being in the universe like kind of implicit exchange. Following that, I’ve also understood through the example of the Anthropocene that by inserting it, not only in our simultaneous perception of humanity but in a historical perspective, we can also consider it as a whole currently ongoing but also previously which introduces not only each individual and its own purposes but also each era or period of time with its very specific characteristics, leaving years after years scars and priorities that we can notice through each individual’s or system’s behavior. Understanding that, helped me to understand more the effects of history. But if we take a step back, the consideration of the historical point of view or not is just a question of perspective. Also when we talked about AI, and the fact that some people were really optimistic about it or really pessimistic but with their own explanation and that we talked about it at the end of the class, I’ve understood to consider even more and to appreciate each others perspective.

And finally, more than understood, I would say that I learned to think through this lesson. Indeed, we had this possibility, we were encouraged to do it by groups and then at home through our self-reflections and I think it’s great. Because we weren’t thinking like when we’re in the bus the head against the window, we were oriented to think about a concept, to challenge ourselves and to deliver our very own point of view in a clear and organized way and to me it’s a great learning.

WHAT I’D LIKE TO ASK?

I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable with this question. How was I supposed to know what would I like to ask when I was already completely submerged by new concepts to explore, leading to a bunch of new thoughts and reflections…More related to a request than to a curious question, what I would really like to ask is time. Basically, time is everything and our relationship to it creates the shape of our lives. In the context of the systems theory, I wonder what type of relationship with time prevails. In one hand, I wonder how can we follow the link that lead one interaction to another with all the impacts that it creates or in the other hand, if we can consider all the connections simultaneously, creating and influencing each other without a precise order to detect. But actually, by asking that we can consider that it’s a matter of what degree do we focus on. Do we concentrate on the multiplicity of interactions happening in the same time as a whole or if we consider the prevalence of the chronological happening of it’s impacts, focusing on each parts. To me, both of these analysis can be useful to consider. Focusing on parts can help to understand how something is fonctionning by reducing the level of things to focus on and focusing on the whole can help to understand dynamics at work through all of this.

HOW CAN I USE THIS IN MY LIFE?

              Theoretically, we followed a course registered in the psychology department of the university. But to be honest, what we’ve learnt through this lesson isn’t all about psychology. Trough the systems theory we approached a new vision of “living”, which makes me think about how to consider things, actions, being in every sense of the term. When I was in secondary school, my English teacher once told me “Nothing happens by chance”, and this special sentence got stuck in my head for years. With the systems theory and the fact that everything is connected in any ways possible, this sentence makes now all its sense. Indeed, If we take our time to think a bit, take a step back from situation and start to pull up the connection wire, we have now the possibility to understand properly how the world works and also, maybe most important, to know how to act properly. Because we have this knowledge, we can’t deny, in a certain way, that our acts will have an impact on every things that are related to it and this is exactly how I want to use what I learnt in this class in life.

“No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, part of the main, therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls to thee.”

After watching the movie Mindwalk, I had a feeling of completeness. This movie allows every concepts that we mentioned in this class to make sense in a real-life discussion. The holistic perspective of Sonia can be resume in this quote: “Everything that I wrote, I wrote it because or in reaction to my personality forged by my precedent experiences related to interactions and systems.”, which completely embrace the systems theory. The example of the dilemma between red meat and artificial heart illustrates the ecological thinking of interconnection, chain effects and question how we prioritize to act one way instead of another. The conclusion of that is that to live in a sustainable way we have to change but mostly, we have to change everything in the same time.

What is interesting with Mindwalk is that the other point of view represented by Jack is allowed to question it by asking: “Where do you start?”. As the egg or the chicken, human want to know how to begin to start acting. Sometimes (as in this dilemma), it’s hard to find the right and proper answer. In the end, the solution seems to be whether a revolution that change everything in the same time but implies complications (as we know from our past experience of revolutions) or small reforms much more doable but without the certainty to change the situation properly and radically.

As long as I remember, the first time that I’ve heard about rhizomes was in secondary school in biology class. The fact that this type of plants grows horizontally sticks in my mind because I couldn’t get the fact that it was coming out of the ground but in the same time growing “horizontally”.

              Maybe we can’t be radical in this terms. Maybe horizontality needs verticality to function. The philosophical use of rhizome is an interesting metaphor to illustrate a situation without hierarchy and with plenty of connections, such as the example of “Pando tree”. But now I wonder how to apply it in real life. To me, it seems a bit blurry to use it in real life because I don’t clearly imagine a situation in which we can apply it. Whether it be in work, school, family, association, community…in some ways there will still be a hierarchy. Based on law or charisma, it is impossible to evolve without it. The human nature does that social constructions are based on interactions and decisions in order to survive. Considering the childhood, the way to be raised and the very own experience of every human being, we can state that some people are going to take the lead of a situation and take decisions and others won’t simply do it. For sure, it doesn’t have to be aggressive, to put the others down or manipulate them (even if this happened frequently) but I think that we can’t exclude the hierarchy that are constantly built naturally when some people are living in society.

The human nature implies undoubtably progress. In order to survive, humans had to think about improving their way of life by any means possible. They also evolved in a really lazy way: they didn’t wanted to walk that much *BIM* the wheel was invented, they didn’t wanted to push the button of the TV *BAM* the remote control was invented, and so on.

Now, we’re in a transitional era. Since a few decades, humanity bet on a constant digitalization of our way of living. We can find fascinating the fact that everything can be simplified and way more performant whether it be related to health, research, communication or even human by subscribing us fully in a transhumanist perspective. But taking in consideration realistically the selfish inclination of human (and the example of I robot of course), we can imagine that even if we keep in mind to be really careful with the use of AI, someday humanity will make a mistake that would push the limits too far and cause irremediable consequences.

We can already feel it through the use of our smartphones. Us, as a generation, won’t be fully disturbed by it in our social construction because we had the luck to have an approximatively preserved childhood from it. But the generation right after us is beginning to act in a really amplified way, making any small thing of their life something that they NEED to overshare to their pairs. This constant need to overcommunicate allows to increase overthinking and overreacting because this type of communication implies an immediate response on the other side which, when it isn’t given, can put the individual in an intense stressful situation.

We weren’t told about how to use this type of devices and if we survive to the climate change issue, the fact that we’ll probably let AI and technological devices invade our entire life will probably be the next threat to humanity.

The example of DDT is perfect to show how reactionism express itself in human nature. As the Universe is made with its own initial conditions in one hand and the interference of working systems belonging to living beings, these living beings have to face problems in order to survive and consequently to find solutions. But sometimes, “problems” can be instrumentalized in order to foster some people or point of view through potential solutions that are in fact unneeded or inefficient.  Phenomenoms such as “millefeuille législatif” which implies to present laws in order to respond to an immediate situation without considering previous laws, taking a step back from the situation and having for only purpose the will to content people as electoral argument, all of this without bringing any better situation can be considered as reactionism: pointing a problem, finding a potential solution that ended by making the situation worse than the initial one.

The point is that we need to consider a situation through its actual context, how can it evolve in future through each solutions that we can bring and then its final state after trying to solve it. For example, I choose to follow this lesson because of the terms “psychology and social medias” because I fought that we will talk about the effect of social medias on the way we live and how it transforms our ways of interacting, behaving and thinking, which I think will be, after environmental issues, the next major problem that humanity will have to face hoping to avoid ad hoc solutions and their side effects.

Everything is a question of point of view. In this class, we put into perspective the fact that we can either focus on the parts or on the whole, that we used to measure intelligence and creativity in a quantitative way whereas we can do it qualitatively. Then, we had to draw something representative of what we wanted to keep in mind from this class and, by definition, we had to choose a define point of view. For me, it is really important to keep in mind that if we choose a point of view there will always be another one, to never forget that the way wanted to think, to act or to see reality isn’t shared by everyone else and that we need to respect that. When we talked about the Anthropocene, I felt interesting to take a step back and to think globally about it, which implies the consideration of the weight of History that influences our way to live in priorities, structures, and interactions: we, our ancestors, choose to act that way, to said this and built that and it’s why, currently, we live that way. Considering that, the historical aspect of the Anthropocene as a whole complete the “systemic aspect” that is currently ongoing which introduces not only each individual and its own purposes but also each era or period of time with its very specific characteristics, leaving years after years scars and priorities that we can notice through each individual’s or system’s behaviour.

Through this lesson, I felt the ambiguous point about the independence of systems: the fact that systems imply the connection between its different parts constantly influencing each other so that we can call it a system pursuing its own purposes and creating its own dynamics which is happening in the same time as the fact we, as human, remain individuals with our own purposes and personal orientations also. So the concept of self-organization emerging from a bunch of individuals behaving in a completely disordered way at the beginning and finally starting to act following a kind of order is really fascinating. It seems to be natural but in the same time we can consider it as a social construction emerging by following the law of the human nature, in other words, norms and values perfectly assimilate by everyone that are regulating our interactions. For example, we can consider the noise “hmmr hmmr” of someone clarifying its voice as an indication of paying attention which isn’t something that we properly learned: we just know. And everybody in the room also knows it despite the fact that nobody formally asked to talk down. However, the fact that by reaching the critical mass of people leaving a system , the system doesn’t exist anymore underline that each part of the system remain individual with its special particularities and the lack of it can influence the functioning of a system. So according to that, it seems that we can estimate the “social value” of an individual by the influence of its leaving from the system. But hopefully we’re not in a George Orwell dystopia.

Physically I live in Athens. But I used to live in Paris, Toulouse or Angoulême. Each cities in which I’ve felt this “home feeling”. But I’ve also felt that in the bus, in the street or even at school. For me, feeling home implies the fact of being comfortable in an area, a “comfortability” which can be brought by people, items, buildings, and even more, to have the feeling of “belonging to”.  But I think the mantra “home sweet home” is a bit simplistic. As human we crave for this “home feeling” because we’re animals that need a proper recognition of their environment to evolve in society and create a peacefull state otherwise it would’nt be possible. The point is that we need to distinguish the static and material aspect of “home” in which you declare where you live from the feeling of being home which an expression of a well-being state. In the case of nomadic peoples, the fact of being in a constant mobility does not deprive the possibility of feeling home (aside more political issues related to it). The multiplicity of being home is what makes it interesting in the way that it calls personal stimulus each targeting memories or people related to a feeling such powerful that is deliver something in the brain that conduce to feel “home”: it’s a kind of image that we create to reinsure ourselves. For me, the strength of this feeling takes its roots in the plasticity of its expression, which however doesn’t influence the ease or the difficulty to feel it.

Based on almost philosophical foundations, I see this course as a boon conducive to reflection. The development of systems theory makes it possible to highlight the need for the awareness of the other and to underline the need to reintroduce each action into a set of interactions. I’ve learnt to pay more attention to the fact that everything works by systems. I’ve understood that they are mutual effects on every parts, individuals or being in the universe which is a kind of implicit exchange. I really felt stimulated by this course and the very interactive approach used to work and to evaluate, which really allows the student to be included in the course and even to enhance their own self-esteem by demonstrating that it is accessible to participate and to be relevant. It can be useful to apply this way of considering others in our daily lives in the way that systems work as well in a group class as family as friend group as working team. I think it’s a way of seeing things that commands respect and empathy, values ​​that are absolutely necessary for community life. Following the syllabus and the subjects that will soon be discussed, especially social media and how we can apply this approach to it, I can’t wait to attend the next class.

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