Groupies

Everyone wants to belong in a group. In most movies espescially American ones, the stereotypes of groups are very obvious. The have the jocks, the preps, the nerds and whatever else. The movie that I particularly like the encapsules the pressure of wanting to belonging to a group is Mean Girls. Basically, the lead character Cady Heron, is a new girl from school who moved all the way from Africa. She is lured by her friend to join The Plastics, the most popular and superficial bunch of girls in the school. When she finally tranformed into one of them she became as cold and hard and plastic as they are.

In the story there also exist groupthink. This happens when people in the group keep to themselves in the fear that what they are thinking is not what others are thinking. This happens very often in the movie as there was constant conflict in the group itself to get on the good books of the groups' head, Regina George. The group also held true to their rules of what they can or cannot wear on certain days. Even to the point of chasing away their leader when she broke the rules.

Is it social suicide to not be included in a group? Apparently, it is. Belonging to a group lets a person have a sense of identity. This is sort of ironic as a group tends to have a common social interest such as an interest in a certain sport, group or band. Initially, common interest forms a group but then interests then diversify. There are bound to be things that one person in the group disagrees on or is not interested in. Ultimately, this is when a member's indivuality is apparent in a particular group.

Despite there being individuality in a group, I believe that there are unspoken "rules and regulations" there are present in most groups. I also feel that a person may not necessarily belong to one particular group and this I think is espescially true of most students.

If you belong to a group that is particularly bent on not drinking alcohol for example, it would just be plain insensitive and stupid (to put it bluntly) to tell the members of the group that you have done so just the other night. Also while it may be "socially acceptable" to discuss taboo subjects in a group, bringing up the subject that you want to try drinking might give others the idea that you have already done it and simply want to beat around the bush and test the waters to see if it is the right moment to confess. Thus, you censor yourself in these situations.

As a student you would want to mix with the kind of people who are on top of their studies in school to ensure that he/she has the right kind of peer pressure to keep them on their toes in school. So let's push things further: That same student will also have other interest outside of school like sports or clubbing for example. Only out of pure coincidence would that student find a bunch of friends in school that have the exact same interest that they do in and out of school. As such, they would seek out friends who have the same interest as them outside of school.

Already, this student has two set of groups that he/she belongs to and in the different group arises different "rules". A group consensus also silences one's thoughts and opinion at times as one might feel that they might sound "stupid" or "lame" if they do not follow the general group agreement. This has been scientifically proven and many teens face this. Pressure.

Thus, I feel that in a twisted way, we cannot fully escape groupthink, but we can limit the way it affects us. True? Well, that's just me.