To understand being different in America, then it is imperative to understand the groupings that people are placed in by their peers at young ages. The grouping starts in early high school for most kids, this is about the time that they start representing themselves based on how they feel inside. The major cliques or groups that people are placed into are the same throughout the country, no matter what high school you attend you will recognize these groups.
The Popular Kids "The Look"
The Popular kids, or the most wealthy kids. These kids are usually on top of the pecking order in high school, and are often referred to as preps. Being a part of this group usually means you are "cool" and well liked not only by your own group of people, but by most other people as well. These kids set the trends and are usually the best looking and athletic kids, or as previously stated just have a lot of money so that they can have "the look."
The Emo kids, the kids who are classified as being depressed, pessimistic, and who like the color black. Emo is a short way of saying Emotional, but it seems that the definition for being emotional is becoming more and more vague with each generation of freshman in high school. In a high school today you can find the group of "Emo kids" pretty easily, they dress in a very conformed way. Almost all of the "Emo kids" will be in baggy black jeans, a lot of them will have bright colors in their hair mixed with the traditional deep black and the guys will have their hair pressed down as much as possible; a lot of times they will have their hair in front of their eyes. Being a part of this group usually means that you have had something happen to you somewhere down the road, and this event had an huge impact on your life. A lot of the kids today also join this clique if they just like the color black it would seem, or are just not accepted by The Popular kids.
The Punk or Skater Kids, are usually the biggest group in your average high school because this group is the most vague in its description of members. A kid who has been socially placed into this group is usually very relaxed to the general eye, but most of the time they just do not care for your opinion on their lives. This group of kids is generally the most accepting to new students, or people who feel as though they have no other group to be in. The dress for this group has not been very stereotyped since the 90's, the aspect that makes this group stand out in today's high schools would be the stereotype of smoking pot. Most kids believe that if you are in this clique than you probably are a pot head, or some other form of addict. When you don't care or respond to peoples opinions than all sorts of things start to be said about you, caring is part of the norm in high school.
Skater Kid
A lot of contemporary music is based off situations that the kids in the Emo and Skater groups deal with. These kids have a lot of music to relate to in our society. The band Bowling for Soup came out with a song in the early 2000's called "High School Never Ends", this song is about how in high school people are always concerned with how they look, and the things they have. Everyone is always concerned with what everyone else is doing, and how your friends also shape how people view you. High school sets the stage for how our society views being different.
At the end of the day, all these kids had one thing in common. They all just wanted to fit in and be accepted, that is how America works. Part of living in America is conforming to the most acceptable social norm for your "group", to do anything to fit in.
These are the three main categories that children are placed into after their freshman year in high school. For the next four years of your life this grouping will dictate how you live your life and who your friends are. But this does not necessarily mean that every kid is placed though, in every high school you will find the few kids who were not placed and are considered the "weird" out cast kids. There is usually it least one of these kids per grade in high school, these kids have, for whatever reason, awkward social skills at best. They try very hard to fit in, but to no avail; It is hard to become a new person in peoples eyes once they already have their opinion of you. These are the kids that are worried about by guidance counselors, psychologist, and even other kids. These are the kids who end up doing something radical or crazy in their high school. We learn in high school that being different has no place in our general society, if you are different in school you were socially exiled and bullied on a constant basis.
Being Different In America
To understand being different in America, then it is imperative to understand the groupings that people are placed in by their peers at young ages. The grouping starts in early high school for most kids, this is about the time that they start representing themselves based on how they feel inside. The major cliques or groups that people are placed into are the same throughout the country, no matter what high school you attend you will recognize these groups.
The Emo kids, the kids who are classified as being depressed, pessimistic, and who like the color black. Emo is a short way of saying Emotional, but it seems that the definition for being emotional is becoming more and more vague with each generation of freshman in high school. In a high school today you can find the group of "Emo kids" pretty easily, they dress in a very conformed way. Almost all of the "Emo kids" will be in baggy black jeans, a lot of them will have bright colors in their hair mixed with the traditional deep black and the guys will have their hair pre
The Punk or Skater Kids, are usually the biggest group in your average high school because this group is the most vague in its description of members. A kid who has been socially placed into this group is usually very relaxed to the general eye, but most of the time they just do not care for your opinion on their lives. This group of kids is generally the most accepting to new students, or people who feel as though they have no other group to be in. The dress for this group has not been very stereotyped since the 90's, the aspect that makes this group stand out in today's high schools would be the stereotype of smoking pot. Most kids believe that if you are in this clique than you probably are a pot head, or some other form of addict. When you don't care or respond to peoples opinions than all sorts of things start to be said about you, caring is part of the norm in high school.
A lot of contemporary music is based off situations that the kids in the Emo and Skater groups deal with. These kids have a lot of music to relate to in our society. The band Bowling for Soup came out with a song in the early 2000's called "High School Never Ends", this song is about how in high school people are always concerned with how they look, and the things they have. Everyone is always concerned with what everyone else is doing, and how your friends also shape how people view you. High school sets the stage for how our society views being different.
At the end of the day, all these kids had one thing in common. They all just wanted to fit in and be accepted, that is how America works. Part of living in America is conforming to the most acceptable social norm for your "group", to do anything to fit in.
These are the three main categories that children are placed into after their freshman year in high school. For the next four years of your life this grouping will dictate how you live your life and who your friends are. But this does not necessarily mean that e
Want to be different? Not in America.
For More Information on this topic please check out:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/29/0124247
http://www.booksie.com/editorial_and_opinion/miscellaneous/deadxalone/different-vs-society