**Note: If you haven’t noticed yet, readers, the last few posts have been pretty unrelated to anything relevant. This is because I’ve been using this blog to host my AP English essays! That’s right. Sorry! Regular content will return in the future. In the mean time, email me at firsttimefeelin@hotmail.com if you’ve got any questions related to Picher and/or the rest of the Tar Creek Superfund Site. Ciao!
Popularity: what causes it and whether or not it can be manufactured and sold to the unpopular, is a subject that has long fascinated psychologists as well as Abercrombie & Fitch. But perhaps more interesting than popularity is conformity. Or, a person’s willingness to do what everyone else is doing just because it is popular. People are told on a daily basis what they should and should not like; the amazing part is that they actually listen.
In the world of today you cannot turn on a television or radio without being exposed to the latest fad. What is popular is considered synonymous with what is best. With a frame of mind like that, original thought is quickly becoming an endangered species. Not that anyone is truly original anyway. Conformity has caused us all to vaguely resemble one another. We are all products – products of the movies we watch and the songs that play on our iPods when we hit “shuffle”.
Like most trends, however, it would seem that popularity can only stay “in” for so long. When something becomes too popular, conformity hits a snag. Enter the pop culture rebels. They buck trends simply because everyone else is participating in them. It is the delight of their existence to discredit what everyone else adores. Nowadays it seems the hotter the artist or brand of clothing, the greater the number of people standing on the sidelines and rolling their eyes.
Unfortunately, these brave souls are still victims of the mighty machine known as popularity. Whether they acknowledge it or not, the non-conformist movement itself has become a trend. The cycle does not stop. Rebellion has simply become the latest fad.
