Power of Popularity

1475 Words6 Pages
Our society fuels off of conformity, our social norms define who we are and what we do. As soon as a new type of scarf or clothing style becomes popular, consumers go crazy; everyone rushes to get the latest fashion. Conformity is home to the fashion industry; however, in previous generations cigarette smoking was the “bee’s knees”, which has now gotten the new reputation of being repugnant and has been frowned upon. Conformity can be beneficial to humans; as a group we are smarter, and more creative when our heads are put together. Oppositely, conformity can be extremely harmful and can cause us to overestimate a perceived social norm. In this generation, drinking alcohol has been popular in some social groups depending on the values and personality traits of those in the group. All together, conformity is the most powerful source that drives consumers to oppose or favor drinking. With instant communication at the fingertips of every teen through social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, teens are strongly influenced by their peers’ actions. Through social networking, the power of popularity has been largely up scaled. Adolescents are typically influenced into their drinking habits by their perception of the social norm. Researchers conducted a study in which 532 people ranging from 14 to 15 years old were surveyed on behavior, social status and willingness to drink. In the study, 74 boys were placed into an online chat room and were confronted with preprogrammed pro-alcohol or anti-alcohol norms of their peers, which were actually preprogrammed researchers (Teunissen, Spijkerman, Prinstein, Cohen, Engels and Scholte 2012). The power of popularity ruled their opinions. If the teens’ friends opposed drinking they followed and vice versa. Furthermore, the teens tended to respect and listen to the “high-status” peers rather than the “lower status”
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