The Effects Of Competition On American Culture

Competition between peers makes people strive to try and be better than their opponents, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the competitors and their responses to the competition.

Competition is prevalent in various aspects of life, including sports, school, and jobs. Everyone at some point in their lifetime will have to compete against others in order to achieve a goal or earn a prize. It’s how the world has worked for a long time; it’s survival of the fittest and this minor competition between everyone is how we have continuously gotten smarter, faster, and stronger. Competition is necessary to a certain degree, but how much is too much? It’s definitely not a bad thing, and as long as there’s a healthy amount, it can be beneficial because it fosters self-improvement, and it will push people to go all out and try their absolute best.

Alfie Kohn states that “competition by its very nature is always unhealthy” and has written an essay opposing the concept. There are various examples of competition in the world today, from sports that the world watches on television, to spelling bees children in elementary and middle school participate in. Competition is a part of our daily lives whether we’re aware of it or not; however, it does have its disadvantages that leads me to support Kohn’s opinion.

Before describing the dominant culture in the United States, we first need to know what culture is and what a dominant culture is. Culture is the life style people choose. This includes language, religion, values and norms that a group of people accept without thinking about it. Now that we know what culture is, what is a dominant culture? The dominant culture in a society is the established language, religion, behaviour and norms that are proper to a certain culture. This is the dominant culture. Most often, dominant culture is the most powerful culture in a country and has the most powerful people or the most people associated to the culture.

American Lore is just like any other lore it has myths, legends, and fairy tales, but American lore shows the history of America and how we live today, with a twist to the story. With Legends, myths, and fairy tales it expresses the way americans think and how creative we can be to come up with these stories from things that could actually happen. Legends are based on historical facts Myths are based on religion and gods and goddesses. Fairy Tales are made believe not real, includes special creatures. Tall tales and legends are more based in American lore and is heavily based on history and the many traditional stories that are spread from generation to generation. American lore is based on, “power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement which is a personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards . Hedonism pleasure or sensuous

Competition In Chapter 5 , “ Bling, Bombs, and the Bible”, in the book called Game On: How Pressure to Win at All Costs Endangers Youth Sports, author Tom Farrey claims that children can benefit from participation in sports even though the sports are not highly competitive. To support his argument Farrey uses the examples of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE as well as a description of how the historical background of youth sports evolved in the United States. I believe Farrey’s claim is invalid because competition is a significant part of adult life and therefore, children must learn to cope with highly competitive situations from an early age. Additionally, Farrey seems to focus on non-competitive sports that were prevalent in the past, however,

There is also the competitive spirit that has historically driven our nation to try and be first in

In Hannah Pandels’s article, Healthy Competition is Good for Children, she makes the statement that it, competition, is a necessary and essential part of our society today. This article was written partly in response to numerous other articles stating the opposite but one was singled out. The American author Alfie Kohn. Now this fits into the childhood development debate that has been ongoing lately regarding the theory that today’s kids are more entitled to things and have less problem solving skills then previous generations. With that back ground she begins to vocalize her thoughts regarding the issue. Her thesis is clear, it is in the title for goodness sakes, that competition is a normal part of growing up and it is essential to the proper development of children. She states “competition breeds excellence” (Pandel) this simple statement engulfs the

Culture is something that defines what society is and how it will act. As a result of this cultures will evolve and shift over time. This evolution of culture is encouraged, a culture that is stagnant and not changing is one that will ultimately die and fade away. However since this evolution is caused by humans, it is an imperfect evolution and as a result harmful elements come to be integral parts of society. As stated in “Evolving Ideals of Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys” we can identify one of the negative results of this evolution is the drive to perfect one's image so that it will match that of the stated “standard”. This essay goes into great detail about how action figures of male

In order to effectively analyze cultural differences and power struggles that were demonstrated on the macro and micro level, one must understand the environmental dimensions that were associated with the target population. The dominant American culture often unconsciously ignored the cultural differences with the inferior group that was shared in their environment. As the dominant culture, it is always important to be culturally competent and familiar with the non-dominant culture morals and beliefs. Comparatively, the individuals psychological and spiritual dimensions that were influenced by the social behavioral perspective on the micro level, were associated with their target population.

With out competition, entrepreneurs wouldn’t have anything to risk by starting something new and other companies wouldn't have anyone to go against when it came to who could sell the most of the same product. Competition is also in sports, but not just for the game. For example, Sumo wrestlers compete for the rankings. When they win a competition, their ranking goes up. Their rankings are what makes their everyday decisions. “Each wrestler maintains a ranking that affects every slice of their life: how much money he makes, how large an entourage he carries, how much he gets to eat, sleep, and otherwise take advantage of his success” (37). If he were to lose his ranking all together, he would be, what american consider, unemployed. “Ranking is everything”

The United States is without a doubt a sports culture. We just finished a Sunday dedicated to football also known as Super bowl and now we are about to partake a month of March Madness in basketball. One thing that is shown by the athletes is definitely competitiveness. Some athletes motto seem to be eat, breath and compete. No matter the event/ task some just have that competitive streak in them in everything they do. Due to competitive disposition, student athletes are more motivated in academic endeavors

Throughout the 1960s there was a cultural phenomenon that started in the United States and spread like wildfire to multiple other cultures in the world. This phenomenon was also known as countercultures. This decade raised the 76.4 million Americans born during the baby boom generation. The babies of this boom entered their teen years during the 1960s and they definitely embraced a multitude new standards, dramatically different from the way their parents were raised. While some encompassed new ideals in dress, music and movies others joined countercultures and rebelled against the social norms with poetry, novels and art. Three of the most altering countercultures were the Hippies, the Sexual Revolution and the Gay Liberation.

Technology has a huge influence on the American culture and American society. Over the past couple years technology has made a big impact on everyone's lives, whether they realize it or not. Anywhere you go or anything you do you will come in contact with technology. The Doctors office, The Dentists office, The Grocery store, your workplace, School, Restaurants would all be a completely different place without technology. I think the piece of technology that has the biggest impact on everyone's lives would probably be a computer or a laptop. In my life a laptop has played a big role in my life these past couple of years in school and during my education.

Many people feel that American society is too competitive. Americans tend to enjoy sports and the concept of rivalries. Sometimes even a “family game night” can turn fiercely competitive. However, not all Americans are focused solely on winning. Competitions lead to a good outcomes because they push people to do their best, teach the reasons behind hard work, and form better athletes.