Hyun Chung

Project 1: Video/DVD Analysis

Techies, Jocks, Emos, Hipstersthese are some of names of the cliques existing in
todays high school. According to the Youtube video titled, High School Social Groups,
students sharing similar interest, ability, and culture often form their own group to have sense of
belonging. This psychological effect not only leads the students to find their safe zone in school
but it also creates division of student groups. The video begins with few interviews of students
belonging to various groups in school: each student gives his or her perspective of how school is
divided into groups, each defining its unique characteristic. The video emphasizes that school
bullying occurs when a student cannot belong to a group and due to such reason, it has become a
privilege for a student to be a member of a certain clique.
Auguste Comte is the person who established the science of society. His ideas were used
to form a stable society with positive changes. He said there are laws of society that balance the
society. In school, many groups have invisible laws that make the school life stable. In school,
these groups play their role to make a stable classroom environment. Comte would view bullying
and other negative factors as dysfunctional group, or possibly a factor that shape the direction of
the societys change. Our school community is evolving everyday to resolve the issues we have,
which would be the path to social changes.
Emile Durkheim is well known for his views on the structure of the society. According
Emile Durkheims theory, collective consciousness, values, and rules are critical to form a
functional society. In fact, such society would emphasize stability and provide security to an
individual. If the stability is threatened or disrupted, Durkheim believes that a society should

Hyun Chung
adjust to reachieve the stable state. Unlike Marxs conflict theory, Durkheim believed in the
cooperation among the members in a society where each person plays a significant role to have a
functional society. For Durkheim, a society is an interrelated system where one cannot exist
without others. Similarly, in the video, each unique student group plays its role in school: techies,
being experts in computers and emos, listening to dark punk music. Durkheim would agree that
since each group has its functional role, there is no reason for disruption in the stability of
school. Durkheim would view the subject of school bullying as disrupting the order and the flow
of the system because for Durkheim, such issues occur due to the fact that a student cannot find
his or her functional group.
If Marx was to see the current school society, he would heavily focus on the inequality
and the troubles among the students. He mentioned that the separation of the ruling class and the
working class begins from the power and the control of resources. As we can see in a school,
there are students who are more powerful or smarter than the other students. With this advantage,
different groups would be formed, creating gaps among many students. Moreover, Marxs idea
can be also applied to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and age: for example, physically
stronger boys would separate themselves from the weaker boys and international students would
find better bonding with another international student. These factors not only decide where a
student would belong, but it would also create separation. Marx would view such division and
conflicts occurring due to the differences among groups as sign of social changes, a result of
competition over scarce resource. Unlike Marxs world, the resource in his theory is no longer
power, property, and money but instead, they have become popularity and privilege of a group in
high school.

Hyun Chung
The video shows the realistic perspective of how todays teenagers view themselves
belonging to a certain group. The students have learned throughout their high school that it is
better to be a part of a group. They have realized that as long as each student does their
functional role in school, there is peace. The video strongly notes the idea of functionalism where
todays teenagers naturally learns to find their own group to find the security in their school
lives.