Throughout the sixteen years that I have been alive, I have learned many lessons. One of the most important was a saying that my parents always told me, just be yourself. Although this may sound like an easy rule to follow, with the pressure of other people, and the need to fit in with a common crowd, being yourself becomes a way deeper and more difficult task. Many children, teens, and even young adults find it easier to follow along with modern trends and fall under the radar, rather than doing what the love and being noticed or possibly judged for doing so. This is where many people, in my opinion, are wrong. As said by Annie Dillard’s mother, “Torpid conformity was a kind of sin; it was stupidity itself.” Many believe that if they conform
Many people want to be just like the others. They want to fit in and therefore act the way others act. This is the type of shit people need to get out of there head. Everyone is different and it is what makes everyone their own unique selves. If
Case in point, teens’ students, and children all follow the progression of fashion. To illustrate many celebrities such as Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, Rita Ora, and lastly Arianna Grande all have their own style. However people tend to follow their favorite celebrity and become like them. This includes, their hairstyle, clothes, watches, shoes, gadgets etc. Suppose Ariana Grande went on stage with a dissimilar color of hair such as the neon lavender, everyone would want to dye their hair in that particular way to stand out and rebel. As a result people would follow the trend and copy what the artist is doing. Continually these people need the approval of others to feel radiant and popular. With that being said, our society follows what others do, instead of expressing themselves without the judgment of
According to American Indian writer, Sherman Alexie, “Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” For so many people, especially in our world today, there is a greater pull to remain a part of the crowd and to blend in while many others view the need to stand out much greater. In my life, I have always been more of a person to blend in and in some ways, that has always been a good thing.
An issue that has been circulating is whether or not to conform. Rob Siltanen says, “... The ones who see things differently. They 're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can 't do is ignore them. Because they change thing.[...]” ( cited) What he says is agreeable because the one that does not conform, will be the one that changes themselves,their society and even their future. This matter is an open topic of debate because one may agree that an individual does not need to conform to society 's ideals in order to find their happiness or be successful in life.
Why go against the grain? Why do you need to stand out? Why cant we live in a society where everyone and everything is the same? Which is best for us? Why do we even care? We all have had our share of trying to fit in or be unique. Society does not permit people who are different a easy life. In the odds of society's views, the differences individuality brings help the improvement of society. People bring more value when they are unique then when they try to fit in. They bring more value because if we fit in we become uniform. If we live in a society where everything is the same then we would die.
But, we are told our whole lives the most important thing is to stay true to yourself, even though nobody ever mentions that anyone who crosses a certain boundary of expectations is subject to a lifetime of harassment by the very same people who preach the importance of expressing and embracing your self
Don’t be a conformist. Don’t be common. Be an individual. Conformity, although prevalent in society past and present, is never the answer. As individuals, we were made to be unique. Our insight alone is greater than the elementary principles of the crowd. However, if we conform to societal beliefs, as many of the racists did in “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), then what are we? Uneducated, crowd-pleasing citizens who won’t form our own values. The inability to form our own values causes everyone to cast the same vote. No one expresses different opinions, every white man downgrades African Americans, every male is “superior” to every female, and every child is of lesser value to adults. So, by being an individual, although one may be yelled
In our society everyone expects to be the same, however, no one is ever going to be the exact same. Everyone has different beliefs and different interests. Today people judge the nice stuff people can afford and the way people dress. In the story, “The Doll’s House”, there were two girls known as the Kelvey sisters and they were really poor. “They were dressed in “bits” given to her by the people for whom she worked” (Mansfield 203). Nowadays people judge you on appearance and if you are dressed sloppy you are more likely to be made fun of. If you cannot afford the up to date things people have a reason that they don’t want to talk to you. If you are wealthy you are more likely to be judgmental. Not all people are like this but it is known
One of the many joys of life is being able to choose your own path. The decision of being a conformist or a nonconformist lies all in the palm of your hand. In his article, ‘The Sociology of Leopard Man’, Logan Feys states, “To be human is to be an individual human, with individual tastes, talents, values, and aspirations that are distinct from those of others. Living in society, we are under constant pressure to surrender our individuality to the will of the majority, the school, the workplace, the family, etc.” Everyone is their own unique person, with a different personality than the next, and at the end of the day it is your personal option to display or hide your own individuality when around others. Overall, Feys claims that society holds a heavy cloud over everyone's head that pressures them to submit their own personality,
We must decide for ourselves whether to conform to such a social etiquette. We are taught as soon as we are old enough to grasp the idea that it is bad to be unique and to avoid being different. At some point, however, we must decide within ourselves whether to spend every day trying to be like everyone else because society says we should or living each day true to ourselves. Our strength as a person is proven through what we decide. The benefits of being true to ourselves greatly outweigh any negative aspects of choosing that path.
People are constantly doing whatever it takes in order to impress the people around them. they create this fake image of a perfect life, and in all honesty that must be exhausting. A lot of people keep their opinions to themselves and only express themselves in ways that they know will be acceptable to society; they say what they know people will want to hear. Margo calls this the paper town, which is full of “ paper people living in their paper house… All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store,” (57). I love the way John Green/Margo describes this. All these people are obsessed with their image, obsessed with having a certain look, owning the right clothes, obsessed “with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail, (57-58). I never been good with dealing with fake people, whether they are try to be deceitful or they are just attempting to fit in. I am not saying that I have never done this. We are all influenced while growing up, in the way we talk, act, dress, and activities we take part in, even me. But I have come to realize that not one person on earth has a perfect life, and if you look close enough you will see the wear and tear on buildings,
I believe that it is better to stand out rather than to fit in. When you stand out, you are able to learn so many things about yourself that you never knew about. But first, you need to stand out from the crowd, do what matters to you and change the world for the better. By being yourself, it allows people to follow in your footsteps by becoming a leader, not a follower. For example, in a garden bed there are a million of white flowers, but one rose. That one rose is unique and everyone wants that one since it is different from the rest. By fitting in, people are killing their own creativity just to be accepted to be like others. We feel pressured to measure up to the same standard as everyone else to satisfy people's’ needs and wants. We want
Differentiating yourself from the rest of the population isn’t frowned upon; wanting to achieve greater things for yourself than what is given to you is not frowned upon; and being whoever you want to be is not frowned upon. Although people
As I transitioned from elementary school to middle school, I have always heard about everyone trying to fit in. For me, I too have experienced trying to fit in. While others tried to fit in by buying the trendiest clothes, listening to the latest music or playing the newest games, I thought I could fit in by just going along with everything people said. However, because of this, in the long run, I began to lose myself.
From experience, it seems as though the everyman doesn’t really know who they are and what they want to be. So, as a result of being so undefined, one will try to define themselves as what everybody else seems to be; basically becoming one of the crowd. Giving this a specific age to associate this with, the age would have to be a pre-teen or late elementary and early middle school. The awkward stages of the twelve and thirteen-year-old girl that was Kayla were particularly callous and unsympathetic. This stage for my class was simply about fitting into a cruel and judgmental group of people. As a result, instead of celebrating and admiring our differences, any particular individual would bury the uniqueness within themselves and mask their own personality with the one that was accepted. Then, by becoming the accepted, my classmates and I had become the everyman. Thankfully, though, the harsh unforgiving environment of middle school would transition into the inviting and extraordinary place that is high school; where differences are celebrated by the upperclassman which blazes the trail for the underclassman to follow. The transition into high school was typically the time where my class and I had, for the most part, discarded the everyman archetype for at least a short while, and became