In daily life, we have the necessity to ask for help and questions; however, we tend to have an anxiety before asking questions. We fear that we would be judged based on the kind of questions we ask. That concept of fear starts once we start school, a place where we learn basic knowledge of the world, and disciplines to follow rules through textbooks and other concepts. Neil Postman says, “the principal intellectual instrument available to human beings is not examined in school” (829). I agree with this statement because in schools, teachers give out rewards for answering their questions instead of allowing us to question them. Curiosity indeed is an outlet of our ability to ask questions in general, but right when start school, that ability decreases, and overtime, our questioning ability vanishes because school not only limit our questioning ability, it also restrains our capability to explore our creative side.
In contemporary society, it seems like following others is a common practice. Many of us follow the behavior of other people, such as following the fashion trend of the New York Fashion Week, or eating the so call Greek Yogurt because most people are eating it. Most of us become so busy with following these trends, we tend to forget to question why we are following their ideas, when we could generate our own. Often people tend to believe that they are in full control of their lives, but in reality they are narrow-minded. As people’s intelligence become more convergent, the more likely that they will be manipulated in this cutthroat society. Neil Postman demonstrates that when he says, “Let us suppose you have just finished being examined by a doctor. In pronouncing his verdict, he says somewhat accusingly, ‘Well, you’ve...
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...iorates our questioning ability is undeniable. It is not impossible to encourage the students to ask questions. With alteration of a few rules that the lawmakers created, questions could be profoundly incorporated in schools. That not only will serve as a benefit of the people, especially the next generation, but will also benefit the society because people will be able to use their creativity and free flow their mind in, and they will apply that to every aspect of their lives. Surely that will improve and develop the society.
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"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.
In all of our years in school, we, as students have been taught to ask questions and expand our thinking. There are no such thing as stupid questions and we have grasped the idea of self- expression. Students , being teenagers, are the most unstable and emotional of the human subspecies and fin...
As the semester finally approaches the finish line, I revisit my past work to compare and contrast how this class has developed me into a successful writer at the college level. Throughout the year my writing style has developed and become broader as I have learned how to incorporate more of my personal views as well as reliable, unbiased information. This portfolio is a representation of how many things I have learned along the way while being an English 102 student.
Teachers help us expand and open our mind by giving us skills throughout students’ early life to help students when they are older. By learning information from teachers, students become better people, in a couple of ways. Besides inquiring knowledge from their teachers, students learn to work with one another, open their mind to other peoples’ thoughts and ideas, respect one another, and learn different techniques for life’s issues.
“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:
In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, “when we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group” (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups’. Lessing’s essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience.
Roberts E V, Jacobs H.E (2000) Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing (6th Edition) Prentice Hall College Div
Lerych, Lynne, and Allison DeBoer. The Little Black Book of College Writing. Boston, New York:
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.