Status creates an invisible yet undeniable barrier between people of all races, income brackets, and educational levels. Status, as defined by dictionary.com, is, “the position of an individual in relation to another or others, especially in regard to social or professional standing.” Today, media and social media play a huge role in perpetuating status and what characteristics place someone in a higher or lower “ranking” than others. Too often, people, especially teens and young adults, let the idea of status take charge in their lives. Sometimes their motives for going to school, dressing a certain way, or sharing certain things on social media, are driven by what they think is an ideal status. Although everyone has their own idea of …show more content…
There are many Instagram users with millions of followers for what seems to be no reason. If you look at these people’s profiles, you will discover that they are either very popular because they are wealthy or attractive. Kylie Jenner is an example of someone who has a huge Instagram presence and following. Her posts usually include pictures of her extremely expensive and “luxurious” cars, promotion for her makeup brand, or pictures of herself in revealing clothes. I believe that people like Kylie Jenner have as many followers as they do because of status. Many people aspire to attain the material things that these people have, hoping that cars, clothes, and looks can move them up the rankings of …show more content…
I have noticed that majors that are more art or humanities based are seen as less demanding and challenging than science and math based majors that are highly regarded. I believe that competition among majors is directly caused by careers and income. It is widely assumed that the careers that result from art and humanities majors such as designers, psychologists, and teachers, make significantly less money than their STEM counterparts such as doctors and engineers. These careers are also seen as less prestigious and honorable. It’s unfortunate that today, many people might feel passionate about a certain subject but feel pressured to study something else as a result of pressure from their family and/or society to be a “high status” individual. College involvement is also a main factor in college status. A lot of people take pride in being involved in multiple organizations such as clubs or fraternities and may actually look down on others who are not very active. Ranking of fraternities is also prevalent here at University of Michigan. There are known sororities and fraternities that are better than other ones based on the attractiveness of the pledges or quality of their
So what allows a campus fraternity to fall under the category of a social institution? Social institutions are commonly conceived as the necessary focuses of a social organization, which is common to most of society and usually deals with the problems and procedures of structured social life. General characteristics of a social institution involve regulated patterns of behavior that are specific, continuous, and organized. The patterns become the regulated norm, and are carried on from generation to generation, allowing the social institution to continue on through the years. Fraternities were first developed back in the late seventeen hundreds and continued to expand over the past couple of hundred years. Today there are about sixty different fraternities all over the United States, represented by different letters of the Greek Alphabet, with several chapters and various schools. Fraternities is a ‘member only’ social institution that is just for guys, (women have similar institution called sororities). Every fraternity has a board of members that they personally e...
Every year students at an accredited university have a decision to join groups/activities. In many cases a lot of students choose to join either a fraternity or a
That standard of academic excellence pushes you to become a great student, “if students want to become affiliated with academic discourse communities, or even if they want to succeed in school, they have to make considerable sacrifices,” (Johns 326). Johns’ outline of success academic discourse communities is on point. Fraternities are academic communities along with social. Much sacrificed time has to be taken to be apart and contribute to fraternity, for example a leadership role. A fraternity offers many opportunities of leadership opportunities.
Greek organizations are debatably the most undervalued and misconceived aspect of college campuses. Most people don’t see the benefits that fraternities and sororities bring to college campuses and their communities. Some see these organizations as large beneficial clubs and others see them as potential problems. Many of the allegations put forth by individuals that discredit the benefits and good deeds done by Greek organizations are weak justifications for their removal from college campuses. Greek organizations provide campus communities with academically responsible students, philanthropic activities and increase community involvement.
This notion of success limits creative innovation of thought and pressures people achieve a careers that they may be interest in (grammar problem?). Ho explores this idea in her essay (qtd Peterson 2002) “It’s been common knowledge that many of [Princeton] undergraduates join the financial realm every year, creating a kind of lighthearted, self-deprecating joke about becoming I-bankers and once hopeful novelists heading to Wall Street” (170). The environment around those students was able to force them to change their career options based on what is considered successful by their peers. Despite This idea of success being narrow and not inclusive to everyone, some students felt the need to give up on their dreams and give in to the pressure. This pressure is not exclusive to elite institutions, society as a whole experiences this pressure when trying to pursue a lesser value endeavors. Davidson explores the idea of exclusivity that is created by society when she says “This is the lesson of attention blindness yet again: If you measure narrowly, you see results just as narrowly. In other words, the more standardized our assessment, the more kids fail” (61). The standardized tests that the educational system uses narrows itself to specific skills and talents that society considers important. It limited what students can achieve based on the talents that they acquire. Artistic talents do not have the same value compared to conventional studies. Similarly, elite institutions like princeton and harvard, have also narrowed down what careers are considered successful or worth pursuing. Ho describes this phenomena in her essay “I found not only that most bankers came from a few elite institutions, but also that most undergraduate and even many graduate students assumed that the only “suitable” destinations for life after Princeton-the only sectors
Paul Fussell wrote; Class a Guide through the American Status System in 1983. Fussell introduces interesting points that suggests how we, as Americans are viewed through social class. This book will have you contemplate about where you fall in line in terms of the social hierarchy system. As I read, the book I analyzed how our social status is revealed not only in terms of money, but other significant characteristics that define our habitas. As humans we are social beings, and we all make assumptions about the people around us or label them. Fussell argues that social class and social status can be defined in many ways. In fact, he enlists the nine American class structures that according to his opinion American society are comprised. He investigates
Status affects many people of the world because many people often try to be like others, and get like others it’s okay to be inspired by others but it’s not okay to try and be like others . On often occasions people want to stand up to a social standard’s by any means possible . A world connection to status is the news and what’s going on with black people around the world . For example, if a black man walks outside he has to dress/talk a certain way to be accepted
Additionally, Instagram is also a contributing factor because in a journal article by Maria Lally (2015) focuses on the influence of Instagram selfies. Lally describes Instagram as “a way of life. They want to document everything and want to look perfect while doing so (Lally 2015).” She suggests that a lot of these public figures on Instagram makes their life including their appearance look presentable so they can get a high following mass and numerous of likes on their photo. It sets a standard that an individual must look a certain way in order to obtain all that and if they cannot, others will not notice them. It affects some in a negative way leading them to feel low self esteem and want to lean towards cosmetic surgery to enhance their
One of the most prevalent issues in today’s society is the notion of social and economic status. As a whole we tend to focus on how much money we make and our place on the social ladder. The way that we perceive social and economic status is displayed in the story “Volar”. The short story “Volar” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer displays a strong theme of how social and economic status are viewed in today’s society.
Everyday people try to find their place in society and by doing so they look at their social status in society. This individual paper will be discussing how one is given a social status in society and having this particular status may influence one to act or behave differently then they usually do to keep up with their status. Moreover will be looking particularly at the social status I hold with the role expectations that comes with the status, look closely at status and role in more detail and further more examples of situations faced with thus status.
The three main factors which the members of the chapters included in the study were whether or not the fraternity had a house, how large the fraternity is, how old the fraternity is or how long it has been on campus, and the amount of resources available to the fraternities. Having a house is often a deciding factor when potential new members are considering the different fraternities. According to the members in the study, it is also associated with the heavy alcohol consumption, because the house offers a place for this consumption to happen. Pressures on the fraternities to complete fill their house to comply with campus policies can also cause the active members to “lower the standards” during new member selection, strictly to reach the numbers required by the school, letting in people who are joining the fraternity for the wrong reasons.
Since the introduction of internet in the 1990’s, its importance worldwide has always grown tremendously. From the first email send to the domination of Facebook and other social media websites, it has changed the way people communicate. The use of social media is increasingly becoming the preferred way people share their daily activities, ideas and knowledge and that is why it’s the most talked about and used platform. Many companies are encouraging their employees to use various social media platforms and engage online for office productivity, posting opinions and presenting their thoughts. Corporations realize that Social Media tools such as blogs, forums, podcasts and social networking websites makes internal communications faster, more convenient and effective. Social media is a low-cost, high-impact tool that can also complement and reinforce your existing communications efforts. It gives a new dimension to internal communications in many ways: building relationship with employees, leads to diverse thinking and innovation, and reduce costs and Increase Productivity. Social media has impacted positively in the business world, but its downside has impacted teens in high school, with issues such as cyber bullying, and people using Facebook and twitter to get over their boredom and research proving that the more they use social networking websites the more envious they feel.
A Social Status is defined as “a social position that a person holds” (J. Maconis., 2010). This shapes your identity, meaning who you are as an individual and in the society, and is most commonly thought as your role. For instance, something as simple as an occupation. Generally, your job or how you make a living defines your social status. Everyone holds multiple
Identity is defined as one’s personal characteristics or attributes and their membership of a social category. In today’s society it is important to note how social media impacts upon our individual identities.
Nowadays, social media is growing very rapidly throughout the whole world. Social media has changed the way that we communicate with others through using these common social networking sites like Face book, Twitter, and Instagram…For that, social media has positively and negatively impacted our life.