The Influence of Friends and Propaganda on a Teenager

“Not a joke, a game. I can make you guys believe anything. I can make you dance around like puppets” (Card 14). In society there exists the leaders and the followers. Friendship and propaganda are two vehicles of manipulation demonstrating the relationship between these leaders and followers. Propaganda’s purpose in society is to encourage a certain point of view, usually of a biased nature and sometimes even providing false information, to the public. Friendships, on the other hand, are relationships, or associations, between two or numerous different people. Both possess the ability to directly and indirectly manipulate people. The two ideals can appeal to the senses of people in positive and negative manners to influence opinions, outlooks, and actions. Propaganda and friendship are polar opposites, but their concepts become uniform when they manipulate ethos, logos, and pathos of people to affect ideals of another person and encourage them to want to “fit in.”

An authoritative figure holds the ability to influence people in several situations. Within friendship and propaganda a person can reflect upon another to persuade them to change their views on a certain subject. In friendship, an individual involved may change their own opinions to mimic their friends for the sake of not losing them or being excluded from their clique. “Kids actively want to emulate their peers” (Ulene 2011) and may sway their own means and ideals in order to “fit in” with their social group in fear that they will be unaccepted otherwise. As a result, this leads to a person acting upon what their friends do, simply because they want to be like them. Similarly, propaganda, presented as posters or advertisements, can easily influence the audience. Countl...

... middle of paper ...

...rection. They tend to mimic their peers' behaviors and adopt the same attitudes” (Ulene 2011). The mimicking of behaviors can lead to the eventual changing of ideals which is similar to the objective of propaganda, which works to alter one’s beliefs. In conclusion, through the presence of ethos, logos, and pathos friendship and propaganda come together and similarly can influence people for favorable or even unfavorable reasons to alter their ideals, decisions, and even beliefs.

Works Cited

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tor, 1991. Print.

Ulene, Valerie. "A Teen's Friends Are a Powerful Influence." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.

Thomas, T. B. "The Exonian Contribution on the Home Front." Phillips Exeter Academy. Phillips Exeter Academy , Apr. 1943. Web. 12 May 2014. .