I still remember the first time I was in America. I wore a pair of sweatpants on the first day of school. However, I saw almost everybody else was wearing sports shorts and jeans! A depressing feeling suddenly filled me and it made me feel like I was the “odd one” in that place, so I bought two pairs of new jeans and wore one to school the very next day. I have to say those jeans cannot compare with my sweatpants in terms of comfortable, but they gave me a feeling that I am not an outsider anymore. I changed my behavior just to belonging to the new group that I tried to fit in to. We can see from my story that the desire for group membership can make people change their behavior. The change is caused by peer pressure, a desire to fill psychological
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According to the youth smoking survey done by about 40,000 students from grades 6 to grades 12 (Youth Smoking Survey, 2008-2013), peer influence is the most important reason that teenagers start to smoke. (Why teens and kids start smoking, n.d.) Kids who have friends that smoke are more likely to learn smoking. In this youth smoking example, smoking is the group norm. However, norms can be positive things that help people to become better. It is said in the Bible, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm (Proverbs. 13:20 English Standard Version)”. It is hard to imagine that a group of people that everyone in it is erudite and polite, but a person who usually interacts with this group is still uneducated and …show more content…
Loneliness is a terrible feeling, but getting into a group helps a lot. Britney Spears (1999) sang in her song, “my loneliness is killing me”. Also, loneliness is so harmful that based on an analysis of more than 300,000 people, loneliness or social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking or being an alcoholic, and it does more damage than obesity. (Derbyshire, 2010)
Because loneliness hurts people both physically and mentally, everyone wants to avoid it. If someone search “how to avoid loneliness” on the internet, tons of articles about it are going to come up, and most articles would suggest that getting involved with others would help to avoid loneliness. However, attempting to interact with others would unavoidably interact with their social group, more than two people who interact with on another and share similar characteristics (Sills,
According to the youth smoking survey done by about 40,000 students from grades 6 to grades 12 (Youth Smoking Survey, 2008-2013), peer influence is the most important reason that teenagers start to smoke. (Why teens and kids start smoking, n.d.) Kids who have friends that smoke are more likely to learn smoking. In this youth smoking example, smoking is the group norm. However, norms can be positive things that help people to become better. It is said in the Bible, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm (Proverbs. 13:20 English Standard Version)”. It is hard to imagine that a group of people that everyone in it is erudite and polite, but a person who usually interacts with this group is still uneducated and …show more content…
Loneliness is a terrible feeling, but getting into a group helps a lot. Britney Spears (1999) sang in her song, “my loneliness is killing me”. Also, loneliness is so harmful that based on an analysis of more than 300,000 people, loneliness or social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking or being an alcoholic, and it does more damage than obesity. (Derbyshire, 2010)
Because loneliness hurts people both physically and mentally, everyone wants to avoid it. If someone search “how to avoid loneliness” on the internet, tons of articles about it are going to come up, and most articles would suggest that getting involved with others would help to avoid loneliness. However, attempting to interact with others would unavoidably interact with their social group, more than two people who interact with on another and share similar characteristics (Sills,