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Munish Ramdharry 9/17/2015 Engish101H Journal #1 “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” – John F. Kennedy. In 1961, these powerful words were stated in President John F. Kennedy’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Kennedy felt that by conforming you are giving up your freedom as an individual to whom/what you are conforming to. In doing this, you relinquish your ability to grow and have your own thoughts and act on them; while conforming a person cannot flourish. Whenever we change our behavior, views, and attitudes in response to the real or imagined presence of others, we are experiencing conformity. Society today still encourages conformity while being individual is considered different, however, society has made it where people don’t have a choice when it comes to certain things if we wanted to be “normal” and liked. This effect is mainly seen throughout the use of social media. Thus, due to our desire and need for belonging and acceptance, the majority will influence their thoughts and behavior on our society. …show more content…
We as humans constantly are concerned about our social image and outcomes. These newly updated online technology tools help us use the Internet to communicate with friends and to share information and resources with our networks of contacts. Anecdotal evidence suggests social media are altering our opinions and influencing our choices, which plays a great role in conformity. Furthermore, by deviating too far, individuals risk rejection. If a person feels that he cannot change the situation, he is unlikely to try anything new. The apathy becomes self-fulfilling. No one tries anything different, and consequently, nothing
society, there is not only a tolerance of certain kinds of non-conformity, but sometimes uniqueness and individuality are celebrated. For example, in the last presidential election both Bernie Sander and Donald Trump were campaigning “against” the establishment. They were nonconformist candidates whose campaigns gained supporters based almost entirely on the fact that their ideas went against the “mainstream” candidate moderates in their political parties. Also, in the U.S. today, the government doesn’t enforce conformity. In fact, the Supreme Court has made some decisions in recent years on issues like gay marriage that have upheld the right to be a nonconformist. However, although the government doesn’t enforce conformity, there are many ways that individuals encourage others to conform. For example, in schools and other institutions, individuals who “don’t fit in” are often harassed and bullied for being different. People who look different, dress different, or act different, face a lot of hostility. Also, it is common for individuals with differing opinions, particularly, on political issues to shout each other down. Social media is a platform where often people with unpopular ideas or opinions get bullied into being quiet and keeping their opinion to themselves. Therefore, even though, we seemingly live in a society that is tolerant of nonconformity, there are pressures to conform and be like everyone
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." John F. Kennedy. When we permit ourselves to comply with what our acquaintances, family or public opinion asks of us, we lose the capability to develop into our own person. Conformity, then again, is more than simply the young lady wearing UGG Boots and an Abercrombie hoodie to fit in. It is all the more then just lis...
Conformity, or going along with the crowd, is a unique phenomenon that manifests itself in our thoughts and behaviors. It’s quite simple to identify countless examples of the power of conformity in virtually all aspects of social life. Conformity influences our opinions and relationships with others, often to a higher extent than we realize. It is posited that people generally conform to the group in order to fit in and avoid rejection or because they truly believe the group is more knowledgeable than they are. After analyzing numerous studies and experiments on the nature of conformity, one will find that the motive of social acceptance is the greatest driver of conformity.
“Conformity is a form of social influence that involves a change in behavior or belief so that one can fit in with a certain group” (McLeod). Such a change is a response to imagined (which involves the pressure of expectations or social norms) or real (which involves the presence of others) group pressure. Another definition of conformity can be “yielding to group pressures”. Group pressure can take many forms, for example persuasion, teasing, bullying, criticism etc. Conformity is also referred to as group pressure or majority influence. The term conformity is mostly used to show an agreement to the position of the majority, and this is brought about by either by the desire to be liked or to fit in, or just to match a social role. The aim of this paper is to argue that conformity is among people because they always live in groups-work groups, family, political, religious and social groups. At the same instance, they are adjusted to obey authority. A conformist mentality makes it easy for people to be influenced by others.
Sherif (1936) studied responses of the auto-kinetic effect on both groups and individuals. By placing participants in a darkened room with a minute source of light at the far end he discovered that participants were eluded and saw the light moving - this was because there was no other point of reference for them to focus on. Participants were asked how far the light was moving, when alone they would state many different answers but when groups were tested the answers of the last participants were taken as a reference for the next answer this created a group norm, this group influence was to be so powerful that when participants of the group test were to proceed as individuals those answers had become internalised and a lack of individuality was now seen amongst group. This shows that group norms still tend to influence even after the group is split. <Introductory Psychology, Malim and Birch, Macmillan press, 1998> Unfortunately this study lacks ecological validity due to its lab based conditions,(Success in Psychology, 2nd Edition, Twining, 1998) and it's focus on artificial stimuli, another factor that needs to be considered in the evaluation of this experiment is the date and time in which it was conducted, this study will only show conformity levels at the time and in the place where the study was conducted and therefore would now and here be irrelevant.(Social influence - class handout, Deborah Breithweight, 2004)
Conformity is defined as the occurrence of people yielding to social pressures as a result of pressure from a group of their peers; when faced by the pressure to conform, people will alter their behaviour and actions to fit the norm demonstrated by their peers (Lilienfield et al., 2012). Conformity is studied so that is can be understood and used in society to facilitate positive outcomes, and help avoid situations where peoples’ predisposition to conform leads to negative consequences (Lilienfield et al., 2012). By understanding conformity and other social processes society as a whole is able to understand themselves better and motivates them to work on improving as a whole (Lilienfield et al., 2012).
“Social conformity has been practiced in societies around the world since ancient times,” and the reason it is so effective is that humans have an inherent need to be accepted as part of a group (Sadat). Furthermore, Hossna Sadat reports that:
“Conformity means changing attitudes or behavior to accommodate the standards of peers or groups. The pressure to conform can be immense, even if subtle. Wearing a thin tie when wide is in vogue makes many men uncomfortable, as does wearing the wrong brand of tennis shoes for many teenagers” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011, p. 653). Conformity happens when the individual gives into the requests of the group, although the feelings of the individual are to do otherwise. The individual is persuaded to comply with the group to belong to the group.
“I didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time –Betty White (“Betty White Quotes,” 2014, para. 1).” This quote can be interpreted to fit with several of the social media avenues that many people spend their time on. Day in and day out people post, tweet, share, and pin countless times throughout the world. These different forms of communication were first created for an easier way for people to connect with others. Yet now, so much time is spent on these social sites that it has warped the interactive part and is causing more damage than good. Many are growing a desire and are living for the amount of “likes” they can receive on a post or how many re-tweets they can generate. Instead of going to these outlets to participate in a partial portion of their social lives, people are filling that time with the technological aspect of communication. As White said, this can become an inordinate amount of wasted time and can ultimately grow into further damaging circumstances. These different social media channels can cause emotional harm through disparaging the relationship between friends, conjuring of a narcissistic personality, and the retrogradation of ones self-esteem.
Conformity involves the changing of one’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviours to match those of the ‘norms’. The “norms”, established by society, are what we should or ought to be thinking, feeling, or doing if we wish to be accepted into a group. This desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need.
Social media is so popular that according to a recent article published by forbes.com, “72% of American adults are currently using social media sites; that figure has gone up 800% in just 8 years”(Olenski). Social networking was originally created to simply reconnect people with old high school pals, but in recent years it has evolved into a completely different operation. When social media first originated it was also intended for adult usage, which has in recent years expanded into the usage of all ages. Social media can create a negative affect on lives because it has been proven to be a dangerous addiction, for it takes away interpersonal relationships that are essential in life, and it has been proven to prevent people from being productive in life.
These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).
We live in a world that has become addicted and dedicated toward social media and it is driving America’s youth into the ground. Teenagers and adults are so wrapped up in social media that is runs their lives every day. Constantly people are checking their phones for the latest on social networks. They have to see pictures, tweets, statuses, comments, likes, and the list goes on and on. Social media is becoming the focus point in the modern American society that it is beginning to control people’s social skills, communication skills, and their livelihood.
On a daily basis, people are being influenced by the people around them, whether it is directly or indirectly. A person’s thoughts, feelings and actions can influence and be influenced by society. These social interactions provide enough opportunity for the presence of people to influence and change behavior, views, and attitudes of an individual. There are several forms of social influences, such as conformity, which I will be discussing. Why we conform has been a topic of considerable interest to social psychologists in particular such as he classic and well-known studies of Muzafer Sherif and Solomon Asch. In addition to researching why we conform, there’s also the question of whether conformity is good or bad.
Conformity is a harm to ourselves. “If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you too?” This common saying that is often taken as a joke is accurate in majorities of people 's everyday life. However, I cannot stress enough how true this is. We are so blinded by the fear of being left out that we do thoughtless things to fit in with the social normality. This mindset leads us to committing self-destruction. We cannot think for ourselves, because we rely heavily on other people 's viewpoint. Again, I am brought to the conclusion that we do not have control over our