Society is a very influential part of all of our lives. It tells us what is cool and what is not. What is acceptable and what is taboo. Society shapes the way that we walk, talk, what we eat, what we wear and even the way we look. Society is however ever changing all of these standards. Are they worth it?

Society and the famous members of it are a very large part of the way people perceive themselves and others. Society acts in such a way that people change large parts of who they are simply because it isn’t seen as “cool” by a particular group of people. This may be by someone either picking up habits such as using drugs or drinking alcohol because it makes them “cooler”.  Societal influence is not however limited to your actions.

Society has a large effect on our thoughts; this can be a very largely geographical situation as well. For example, someone is small town rural Texas is more likely to think in a conservative way than say a person living in downtown Brooklyn.  The way we think can be heavily impacted by the people around us. This is seen in things such as commercials where they “implant” thoughts into your head with certain tactics that makes you either remember a jingle, their logo or even make you pick up your phone and order their product. Society adapts you to think less individually and “go with the flow” as many people like to say.

The way you present yourself to the world is largely shaped by what society says is acceptable and what isn’t. This may be as simple as you buying the brand new name brand cleats to fit in with the team or as drastic as getting surgery to change your physical appearance. Our community may do things such as shame those who dress in a certain way for example. Society can also have a very hypocritical style of influencing people. Like telling girls in schools that they can’t dress in a way that is comfortable to them because the boys might be distracted but then not monitoring the way the boys dress as strictly. Society is very two sided in this sort of manor.

One of the main problems with these standards that society sets is that they are changing very often. Things such as fads can often time cost large amounts of money that is overall wasted because it is popular and a must have one month then outdated and lame two months down the road. This is very evident in cell phones such as the apple products where a new phone is released every year with minor upgrades and if you still have the old phone then you are “out of sync with society”. These fads which are highly profitable to the companies that supply the “fuel for the fire” are very costly to the people that buy into the.

So in short are these social standards worth it? Not really, people spend large quantities of money on something that is popular for maybe a year just to get rid of it the next year and dish out even more money for the “newer better” model. Often time’s people aren’t making these changes for themselves as well and are unhappy with what is required to supposedly “fit in”. All of this does not equate to a worthwhile endeavor on the road towards “acceptance” by the world.