A child wants to stop going to school. A teenager is ashamed to speak up in class. An university student drops out of school altogether. The problem only escalates with age. Popularity is a hot topic for the young generation, from young children to young adults. It makes some people love school, and others hate it. But what is popularity?
Alexandra Robbins, a bestselling author of books about high school, says that there are actually two types of popularity. Perceived popularity, and sociometric popularity. Perceived popularity is based on reputation. Who people think are popular and well liked. There are 3 elements to perceived popularity. A student has to be visible, recognisable and influential. Sociometric popularity, however, is different. Sociometric popularity is based on who actually likes each other.
People are being judged by the wrong qualities in life. Praiseworthy talents and hobbies are being smothered for the sake of being popular. Friendships are lost and given up to be ‘popular’. Popularity is just another word for peer pressure. Lunchtime’s can be a horror for people, simply not having anywhere and anyone to sit with, and having the feeling that everyone is watching you and either pitying or scorning you, both equally bad. Schools aren’t helping either. They encourage you to go to a counsellor, but what they don’t understand is that going to a counsellor doesn’t help. It either establishes you as a snitch, or makes yourself ashamed that you had to go to the counsellor in the first place.
What can you do about this popularity problem though? Truth be told, not much. Hierarchies are naturally going to fall into place. There is nothing you or I could do about that. What we can do, however, is change the way people see popularity. If you could remove perceived popularity, people would have a much more down-to-earth, realistic view of popularity. Additionally, students should put themselves into groups instead of the teachers choosing. With students choosing their own groups, the loners will all end up together, with the end result of them banding together, sitting together and everything. It will eventually eliminate loners.
by Samuel
Hi Samuel, I think you have done a very good job with your article, I learned a lot, but I think that it's better if the teacher chooses your groups for a project or anything, otherwise I think that the article is very well written and has a lot of data backing it up.
ReplyDeleteI agree about that popularity is the way someones like school and other's hate school. I enjoyed a lot the article because it makes me think about people like this what do they think about this, do they agree or do they don't even care? I agree about that is better that students choose groups because at the end all the loners will be together and might be friends.
ReplyDeleteSebastián Zaragoza from American school Foundation of Guadalajara (ASFG).
Samuel:
ReplyDeleteYour article is great! There is just one thing I do not really agree with. I think that if a kid is feeling excluded and as you said has nowhere to go, they SHOULD go to the office or with the counsellor. If the kid is having problems with the popularity thing the office or the counsellor WILL try to help the kid, not make him/her feel worse than how he/she already feels. A side from that I thought your article was very well written. I did not know that popularity divided into 2 parts, that was so interesting! Thank you!
Sincerely:
Alejandra Hernández
México, Guadalajara, ASFG