One of the presentations that truly struck a chord with me came from the theories group 3 represented. The biggest one that I found to be very interesting was the Spiral of Silence. The concept was created by Elisabeth Noelle Nuemann and she was a German political scientist from the early 1900s and she created this concept. The Spiral of Silence is described as people or a group being less likely to voice an opinion when the majority thinks something else. It is found that the inkling of fear that comes from even the thinking of a separate opinion from a group is what causes a person to go down in the spiral of silence in order to either fit in with the status quo or ultimately keep the relationships that they have formed in a good place. We see this when it comes to politics.
A lot of friend groups have different views and I think that we all subconsciously think about how we can not talk about the views, especially in this year of the utmost importance, or we will create a rift that may not be repairable so we keep the views separate from the friendships. With that being said we notice that those who do voice opinions become isolated from society and that strikes up another fear which also leads to the spiral of silence.
This fear is the association of negative consequence with the voicing of opinions going beyond that of just being isolated from friends, colleagues, and family. This fear is associated with quality of life and sometimes jobs as well. We see this often and don't even realize that we are seeing it or witnessing it. There are times where I feel like I shouldn't speak on topics for the sake of holding friendships or just staying publically neutral under the looks of so many people throughout my everyday life. It was interesting to learn and it also is interesting to realize. We live in a time where speaking our mind will undoubtedly be met with backlash which isn't necessarily a bad thing in some cases.
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