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Stephen McClanahan
Mrs. Miller
Accelerated English
18 January 2011
Have you ever felt pushed to do something based on what others are doing,
whether you wanted to or not? Have you ever felt the urge to change what you believe in
order to “fit in”? If you said no, then you have just lied. Everyone experiences some form
of peer pressure, whether that pressure is for the better or worse. In general, the urge to
give in to social norms and standards is called conformity. Conforming is the act of
changing your thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and ideas in order to meet a standard set by
others. Conformity has been used since the rise of civilization as a means of control and
order. However, very few people know of or believe in the negative consequences of
social conformity. Should conformity continue to spread, the individual will lose
power to the collective, and can only be effectively stopped by the irony of anti-
conformity.
The idea of conformity is a fairly recent. While conformity has been used for
century’s to control, the thought of its negative consequences are fairly new. While
many’s first encounter with conformity’s connotations were from the crack theory’s of
counter-culture entrepreneurs, the first real encounter of what society could become
under the influence of conformity came in 1949 with George Orwell’s 1984. In his novel,
Orwell depicts a society completely obedient to its totalitarian government, and a group
of rebels who attempt to break free. He uses his novel in order to show what can come of
McClanahan 2
professor at Swarthmore College. During the 1950’s, Asch performed a series of tests
involving individual choices and group choices in order to assess the conformist aspects
of the individual versus the collective. In his research, Asch found that as much as 75%
of a group changed the answers to his questions in order to fit in with the group, for
something as simple as discussing the different lengths of line. With numbers as shocking
as this, one can only think what else people conform too.
Using both Asch’s research and Orwell’s vision, we have a disturbing theory for
the future. A deadly consequence of “fitting in”, we will eventually lose our sense as
individuals. The only way we can combat such consequences is, ironically, to conform
against them and express one’s individuality by thinking for one’s self. I pray that we
continue towards a future where such drastic changes will effect our society.