# 144: Framing Our Minds
Story behind the Passage
“It is all about your mindset,” a dear friend of mine said yesterday. Of course, I know this. But, after all, you are only inside your own head, right? So, we can learn all the techniques to make our world look different. Still, we have these frames in our mind that shape how we look at the world around us and at certain topics, places, and people. For me, there is such a gap between the different frames I have for the university. It is one institution but depending on which field I work in — which people I interact with — the university itself gains such a different meaning in my mind. Sometimes, it is a place of collaboration and fun, interesting ideas, cool projects, relaxed conversations. When I look at the institution through a different frame, I just see … I cannot even describe it. It is more or less colorless.
I wrote my PhD thesis about framing and how narratives can frame your perception. This is why the topic has stayed prominent in my mind. Because of my fascination with storytelling, framing always comes back to me. When you tell a story, you frame the way people think of the content. That involves emotions and all kinds of complex processes that happen in your brain. But the most important thing is: The frame does not disappear all of a sudden. This is good because it allows you to make sense of information. But, again, you cannot easily get rid of it, even if you want to. In my case, I am simply getting frustrated because I have so many different frames for one single topic or institution in my head.
My Learnings
“This concept of media framing can include the intent of the sender but the motives can also be unconscious ones.” By “this concept,” Scheufele here refers to media frames, of course. Since this is an article from media studies, it, of course, deals with the way in which media frame our perception of the world. Given that framing theory is from the “pre-digital” age, you can assume that the theory is of even more relevance today, since our entire life is basically shaped by media. There is virtually no difference between online and offline life anymore. Going deeper into this now would end up in a philosophical discourse that I cannot manage writing about tonight.
Anyway, since I am talking about my self-made frames today, the issue of intentionality certainly is a curious one. This is because I am also assuming that some of the frames I create for my own reality are intentionally self-made while others are not. The interesting question is: Which ones do I create consciously and which ones are being created by my sub-consciousness without me being aware of it? I mean, without me being aware of the force creating the frame. Obviously, I am aware of the consequeneces, i.e., that I feel good or bad about a certain frame.
I just looked at some pictures from my research stay at Birzeit University in 2015 today because I had just mentioned this in a meeting. While going through these pictures, I simply had to smile. Whenever I stayed abroad at some university, I loved university life. Since I usually (except for my U.S. stays), spent my time at universities and other institutions in parts of the world where education still has a different value than here, I always associated being there with a higher sense of purpose. I do not mean this in some kind of arrogant “Western” way. I see this in terms of me simply being happy there. So these places actually gave me a different kind of joy. This is the important part now concerning the topic of framing; these places made me see university life and research in a different way. It felt light and uncomplicated, even though I was doing the same/similar work there.
I guess, the question or rather the conclusion that derives now is: Should I change the frame as soon as we can travel again after the pandemic has been tamed? If the location makes such a difference to my perception, this is something that I can intentionally change, right? But the opposite is also true. If I know that my perception is so much influenced by the culture that I find myself in — why not replace that cultural frame with a different mental frame? Our brain is capable of doing this — is it not?
The answer is “no,” I think.
Finding yourself physically in a different country cannot be replaced by some mental frame. Otherwise, there would not be any expats and emigrants. People move to different countries, not just because they flee from war and terror. Some simply decide to live somewhere else because they know they feel happier there. And this happiness overshadows everything else — it frames every experience. These experiences get stored in your brain and heart. So, to me, this means that you can do this much research and that much mental aerobics — to a certain extent, your frames can only be replaced or manipulated by changing your life circumstances — intentionally.
Reflection Questions
1) What is a frame that you have in mind which sometimes bothers you because you feel it limits or distorts your perception?
2) What is your view of the media right now — in how far are they framing your perception of the pandemic? How could you change this?
3) Which places do you like to visit because they frame your perception of life in a particular way?