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The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth Analysis

449 Words2 Pages

In The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, written by Alexandra Robbins, the reader is expected to connect the lack of individuality of many in high schoolers to the results of the social and biological experiments by Asch and Berns. Throughout the story, Robbins in constantly showing how high schoolers are conforming to peer expectations, despite their own personal interests. Because of a fear of rejection for uniqueness, many high schoolers share the opinions that “I have to be the same as everybody else, or no one will like me.” Personally, I have observed similar experiences. People fear being different. For this reason, everyone wears converses, everyone has Swell bottles, and everyone wears Lokai bracelets. Following these trends allow people to fit in. In addition, high …show more content…

According to research, students in similar social circles have similar levels grades, leadership, and engagement. In my own experience, I have noticed high schoolers conform particularly to their friend’s desires. Even from simple things such as getting the same meal at lunch, students are constantly bending to the expectations of others. Yet, Robbins describes how we are set up to conform from childhood, and these studies of conformity prove it. In Asch’s study of conformity, he shockingly found that many people will give the wrong answer to an obvious question if everyone else gives that answer before them. This can be linked to teens bullying someone despite their conscience telling them otherwise because all of their friends are doing it. Robbins highlights Whitney’s own experiences with being afraid to not do what her friends are doing, such as bully people. Since Asch’s study, scientists have delved deeper into the study of why this occurs, and Berns discovered a link between physiological experiences of fear and non-conformity. I notice myself experience even the physiological symptoms associated with

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Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, illustrates that conforming to society takes away your individuality and makes your identity a false one, which is inspired by the people around you. To start with, if you were the same as everyone else, there would be no new ideas or anything meaningful in your life. In the society of Fahrenheit 451 they were, “...turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be” (Bradbury 55). This quote allows us to see how the school system creates students in the same way, by not allowing them to think for themselves. From the beginning,

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In the short story “Fear” by Gary Soto, and “The Case Study”. There are bullies that show to be caused by identity and choice. These bullies made choices that resulted in them being mean or rude in any way. “Fear” was about a kid named Frankie T. who had a broken home and no father, he was a bully at his school so he would hit kids and steal their lunches. “The Case Study” is about a group of popular kids (and then the whole school) who bully one person because of an opinion they had before.

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Conformity shapes our everyday decisions, whether it is acknowledged or not. Students supress their true selves out of fear of being ostracized, conforming to the social standard of normal. In The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth By Alexandra Robbins and the movie Dead Poets Society, Both Whitney and Neil face conformity, but they each deal with it differently. This raises the essential question, what are the effects of conformity in high schools? Conformity causes students to develop self esteem issues, due to their belief that their real personality and appearance is lacking and such, changes themselves to fit the standard of normal.

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The writer in the persuasive essay ¨Individuality vs. conformity: The Healthy Middle¨ focuses and explains that conformity is in all ages and everywhere around all schools. The author supports their explanation by pointing out that most high schoolers want to stand out and fit in at the same time. The author’s purpose is to show the audience how teens should find a healthy middle so that they know how to be different and stand out while at the same time the they can also be comfortable with who they are. The author writes in a logical style for the readers because he wants to get his point across and send his message towards all high schoolers and teenagers and others interested in the topic of conformity. I agree with the writer of ¨Individuality

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The biggest fear that many students around the world attempt to avoid is to be physically and emotionally damaged. The goal is to blend in with well-respected classmates and to fit in with others. Although, to those who do not achieve this goal, they are usually targeted by an immature bully. However, an average bully is able to create a more fierce bully within an innocent victim. Perhaps a monster is enraged and caged inside of everyone.

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In 1955, Solomon Ash published an article “Opinions and Social Pressure” to a popular magazine. The article outlines an experiment conduced by Ash about conformity and how humans act when faced with conformity. Using cards with various length of lines, Solomon gathers 123 college students to question the length of each. Within this experiment, many different variables were in play in order to outline how a certain subject would respond. Although Solomon Ash’s experiment and article may have been effective in a time where racism and sexism were evident, it is viewed as non effective today.

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Conformity, in relation to societal norms, happens to be something many people strive to deviate from, yet only few are able to achieve. One reason for this could be because the media nowadays is being blamed for manipulating people to subconsciously adhere to certain views. The media is being used to evoke certain thoughts, whether it be about purchasing something being advertised in a commercial, or even in news reports to give the viewers a certain impression on a topic. Likewise, there are people who are successful in resisting this level of conformity. In real life, Lynn Coady, author of Genius or Madness? would exemplify such behaviour, based on what ideas are presented in the essay.

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Everyone says it. Your mom, your teachers, even your friends. Everyone encourages you to just be yourself, but if you think about how individuals are shunned, does anyone actually want you to be different? While society claims to encourage individuality, in reality it compels people to conform, causing most people to sacrifice their individuality to fit in.

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High conformity families use their interactions to highlight and enforce uniformity of thought.

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One of the most famous conformity research studies are Solomon Asch’s experiment on conformity which was carried out in the 1950s. Male college students took part in Asch’s research study to see how the subject will react to the judgement of the other participants. The research was covered up with a simple “perception” task. The subject was put with seven other “participants”, who are actually confederates who have been briefed prior to the experiment on how to respond in the trials. They were shown cards with lines and had to answer accordingly.

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The study of conformity has affected the way that I view the world now because, conformity is everywhere. Conformity is in public, it’s in schools, at your home, in a store, etc. You see conformity in schools, imagine, you’re sitting at your desk and the students sitting around you are talking, not doing their work, you’re going to join in on the conversation.

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Conformity is a common topic in modern debates. Some argue that most individuals attempt to conform to a common societal norm or attitude. Others claim that liberal, diverse, and unique ideas are encouraged now more than ever. Both sides often make the claim that individuals who simply agree to fit in are not usually smart. Additionally, individuals who challenge the norm and think outside the box are often quite intelligent.

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Although society wants people to fit in, children and adults should understand that standing out is not bad. Dr. Seuss makes an outstanding point by saying humans are born to stand out. This quote relates to me because I do things that set me apart from my friends, because I know that I am another entity and I was born to be different. Why would I or anyone else want to fit in? I wanted to fit in so bad when

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The Effects of Nonconformity At school, we are often pressured to join clubs and categorize ourselves in a certain level of a GPA. We define our self-worth in test scores and what peers think of us. We can lose our independent qualities and attributes that make us unique in the world. If we stop going with the flow, we can be true to ourselves. Nonconformity is powerful because it can achieve recognition that would otherwise be inaccessible, it prevents stagnation and promotes innovation, and it provides a voice for those who lack one.

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The focus of this essay would be the conformity in the education system among students in Singapore. According to Psychology Today, “(c)onformity is the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs and behaviors with those around you” (n.d.). The key forms of conformity in Singapore’s education are normative and ingratiational conformity. Normative conformity is succumbing to group pressures in order to fit in due to the fear of rejection and ingratiational conformity is the act of conforming to impress or gain acceptance from others, motivated by social rewards (McLeod, 2007). In Singapore, the society has molded people into thinking that in order to do well and succeed in the future, they would first have to achieve academic excellence in school.

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