Social Pressures
Social pressures involve the direct influence on people by the other individuals in the surrounding environment influenced by changing their attitudes, values, and behaviors to conform to the influencers. It is essential to understanding that as social beings, our minds are affected by what is happening around us. The mind picks ideas from the world on beliefs and systems of belief compelling to be preserved. Socially, people end up sustaining particular social views that we don’t endorse on a personal level. Pressures on the social world guide what you read, watch, and hear from the surrounding and the internet.
Notable sources of social pressures are considered in digital media; Authority figures, group norms, and inconsistency. Generally, people in authority are influential in the development of particular viewpoints. People like educators, professional organizations, and individual family members with higher social status. These people in authority push social behaviors to subordinates as they should comply for smooth running as set by authority figures.
Group norms are a source of social pressure as a particular way of thinking should be adopted within the group. Academic, activist, and even family are groups which demand a particular way of social behavior and have set ideological norms. Social pressure within a group makes one member fear reprisal from the social group when they express an opinion that contradicts the group’s social views. Inconsistency is, in its way, social pressure. It comes from the feeling or a perception that shows someone is inconsistent. This feeling makes a person to seek evidence that challenge personal views and, in the process, potentially change of mind.
From a critical thinking concept, the understanding of what social pressures are all about and their effect on the social life of a person is vital in the personal Assessment of negative and positive social pressures and ways to handle the pressures in life. Critical thinking will allow individuals to deal with social pressures, making them go against their will and perception. Critical thinking on the effect of social pressure allows individuals to realize that no one is perfect, and the social influence should not change the way you think and behave with no reason to change. Critical thinking on social pressures will influence an individual to be associated with like-minded people with similar social norms and beliefs. Internalizing the social pressures increases the ability of an individual to spot social influences from external sources and allows the individual to evaluate their personal views.
The critical thinking concept, especially on the social influences, will change my reactions to social events and situations that require a person to choose whether to change with the influence. In my life, the concept is applicable in social groups, and while I am using the internet. Using the understanding of the concept, I will think and behave independently within social groups and among my peers. In social group interactions, whenever a situation requires social views, I will easily differentiate social influences and personal decisions on contradicting general social views of the group. On the internet, I will be keen enough not to be affected by social trends and following negative social views damaging to my ideas. The critical thinking concept will help me think in a new way about my relationships and social information on the internet.
References
3. ideological immunity. (n.d.). Falliblefox. Retrieved from https://www.falliblefox.com/ideological
Towns, A. E., & Rumelili, B. (2017). Taking the pressure: Unpacking the relation between norms, social hierarchies, and social pressures on states. European Journal of International Relations, 23(4), 756-779.
