Society says if you act a certain way or dress a certain way you will be accepted into a different social group. If you do not live up to these social "norms" you will not be accepted into that group.
For instance, if you want to be popular you have to dress and act differently than the others around you. You have to stand out, yet fit in at the same time. To be popular you must be well dressed, usually have some money in your pocket, and talk down to all of the non-popular people beneath you. If you do not do this, you will not be considered popular to society.
You can also be put into different groups unwillingly according to social norms. If you are smart, wear glasses and like to have intellectual debates you could be considered a nerd. This may be true, but it is not pleasant to be put into a group that you do not necessarily agree with.
Just because you like a certain style does not mean you need to be put into groups, especially if that group is considered negative. People often mistake how a person dresses versus how a person acts. Society says that teenagers that dress like Goths (all black, dark makeup, etc) are people that often cause a lot of trouble. They are rude, and they only care for themselves. This may be true for one or two of the people that dress this way, but it doesn't mean they are all this way.
Another problem with put people into different social groups would be the exceptions. What about the people that do not fit into a social group? They are left on the outside with not ability to find a group to fit into. In this society acceptance is very important, most people do not feel complete unless they feel a kind of acceptance into society. So putting people into groups forces people to be a certain way to fit in. Everyone will find away to be accepted into society, even if they are not being the person they actual are.
Often society looks only skin deep and expects people to be a certain way. They put people into groups/categories based on this and are unwilling to believe any different. This is not the truth and it should not be seen as the truth. We are all individuals and completely unique from one another.
Society will believe you will be friends with people depending on what social group you are put in. This is not always true. Just because you have some common characteristics within a group, does not mean you will get along with someone. Like I said, we are all unique, and there is no way of guessing who a person is.
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i can't say i agree with you on this one. I think we've largely moved away from a world of cliques and social groups--it's not like in the movies where jocks hang out with jocks, musicians hang out with musicians, etc. I think we've done a tonne to break down the walls between these social groups, even if there's more to do
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting to note that depending on the country and culture, these expectations can differ greatly. Here we probably associate someone like Regina from Mean Girls as popular. However, in Japan she would be the most unpopular kid. They hate rude people. However, if you had good grades and are nice with everyone, you'd be really popular.
ReplyDeleteI think social groups and cliques and are definitely still present, but it's a lot more complicated than in the movies, which are overly simplified and stereotypical.
ReplyDeleteI find now that things are very much changing as our culture becomes more accepting. Obviously there will still be those who are outcasts but that is not neccessarily a bad thing. But the world is starting to change in this regard for the better I believe.
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