How would you know you have lived up to society’s expectations and how would you know whether society regards you as successful or not? The answer is: through other people. You rely on other people’s approval. “In order to be successful you have to be acknowledged by somebody else. You need proof and most of the times you need somebody else to tell you that you are a successful human being” (Dragos). The meaning of success is difficult for an individual to figure out because it is defined by society. In order to be successful, society has to think of you as successful. Success is also a comparison between people. For example, if two people were compared to each other (whether they are both successful or both unsuccessful), the more successful one would be considered successful and the less successful one would be considered unsuccessful. One cannot be successful if society does not accept them as successful because society defines what success is. Real success, however, is doing what makes you happy. As Dragos asserts, doing what makes you happy inevitably leads you to success because you want to do it, rather than being forced to do it.
We know that society’s pressure to succeed puts a lot of stress on us. We know that stress causes us to adopt unhealthy habits and lifestyles such as getting only a couple hours of sleep each night, skipping a meal, and putting ourselves down when we do not reach our goal. What we might not know, though, is the extent to which the pressure affects our actions and behaviors. Under pressure to succeed, many students resort to academic dishonesty in order to get good grades in school. Academic dishonesty is the violation of “the submission of work for assessment that has been produced legitimately by the student who will be awarded the grade, and which demonstrates the student's knowledge and understanding of the content or processes being assessed” (de Lambert, Ellen, and Taylor). Such violations include lying, cheating, and plagiarizing. A survey conducted by McCabe in 2001 shows that 72% of high school students admitted to academic dishonesty (Finn and Frone). Another survey conducted by McCabe and Travino in 1993 shows that 78% of undergraduate college students admitted to academic dishonesty (Finn and Frone).
The purpose of school is education. School is supposed to be an institution that provides us with the skill and knowledge that would be useful in our lives. Today, however, school is deemed nothing more than a prerequisite to our career. We no longer value school for the sake of learning. We only find it significant because we believe it is a requirement to a successful future.
“People don’t go to school to learn. They go to get good grades which brings them to college, which brings them the high-paying job, which brings them to happiness, so they think. But basically, grades is where it’s at” (D. Pope).
We take the opportunity to learn and to be educated for granted. We also take the opportunity to succeed for granted. We no longer see success as a privilege that we have to earn and work hard for. We now view success as an expectation that we must fulfill. We do not appreciate success anymore because we expect it. When we do not succeed, on the other hand, we become frustrated because we believe we did not get what we deserved.
Society puts a lot of pressure on us to become successful. It pushes us to do well in school, get accepted to good colleges, and have a great career. These are believed to be the stepping stones to becoming successful. Society believes that being successful will lead us to a lot of money and power and inevitably ultimate happiness.
‘Doing well in school,’ ‘good colleges,’ and ‘a great career’ are all terms defined by society. Society judges what a good grade is, what a good college is, and what a great career is. Society ultimately decides what being successful constitutes. This is where the pressure comes from. We all want to be deemed as successful. Being successful is held by society as a worthy quality, and we obviously all want to feel like we are worthy to society. In order to do so, we feel we have to live up to society’s expectations of what being successful is. We feel the pressure to get at least a 4.0 gpa in high school, to get accepted to all the colleges we apply to, and to have a career that society appreciates and respects, such as being a CEO, a doctor, or a politician.
Yes, society seems to have it all figured out for us. What society does not seem to realize, though, is that the pressure it puts on us to become successful has also created a strain on us. It has led us to adopt unhealthy habits and lifestyles. We focus so much on becoming successful that we disregard our mental and physical health, such as working so hard that we do not allow ourselves to get enough sleep or putting ourselves down when the outcome is not what we want or expect.
When we discuss the topic about society’s pressure for success, we tend to focus on an individual’s own success. What we do not realize is that people do not only feel the pressure to be successful themselves, they also feel the pressure to have successful children as well. Success is no longer just a goal for oneself. Because one’s children represent one’s genes and/or one’s parenting skill, success has also become a goal for one’s children as well.
If a parent has a very successful career but his/her children fail to also have a successful career as well, he/she is deemed as a bad parent because he/she fails to make use of the resources he/she has in order to guide his/her children down the same path to success. Even if a parent does not have a successful career, he/she is also deemed as a bad parent because he/she lacks the capability to provide the means necessary in order for his/her children to succeed. Society holds the parents responsible for the outcome of their children’s success. If the parents do not have children who are genetically destined for success (for example, let’s just bluntly say that the child is academically stupid), the parents must provide an enhancing environment that would lead their children down the path towards success (such as enrolling them in a good school, helping them with homework, getting them a tutor, etc.). When a parent fails to have successful children, he/she is regarded as a bad parent.
Parents feel intense pressure from society to have successful children. This pressure to be regarded as a good parent, or to not be regarded as a bad parent, causes them to do whatever it takes to make sure their children succeed. They make sure their children study, complete their homework, take college prep classes, participate in extracurricular activities, etc. Parents believe that they must push their children to do all these stuff in order for their children to become successful. What they do not realize is that they are now putting pressure on their children to succeed. They put pressure on their children to do well in school, get accepted to top colleges, have a great career, etc. Although this can be a motivating factor for the children to do well in school (which obviously is not a bad thing), it can also be a stressor that makes them feel like they must live up to society’s standards in order to be good enough.
Parents who have gotten used to the opportunities to succeed may take it for granted. They no longer see success as a great opportunity for their children, but more as an expectation that their children have to fulfill. Parents who have not had the opportunities to succeed may feel the need to prove to society that their children can be just as successful too. Because of this, the children feel the pressure to succeed, not for themselves but for their parents and society’s expectations of what they should do and what they should become.
By applying the Topoi to this topic, we can examine it through different categories:
Contrast - There are two different ways society influences an individual: directly and indirectly. Directly: Society forces or puts pressure on the individual to act and behave a certain way. An example of this is when students study or do homework because their parents tell them that they have to. Indirectly: Society shapes the way an individual thinks in order to get them to act and behave a certain way. In comparison to the last example, it is when students study or do homework because they were told that doing well in school would lead to a great career in the future.
Values: The pressure that society puts on us to be successful can either be a motivator or a stressor. In the practical realm, it intends to serve as a motivator to push people to work hard in order to succeed. In the ethical realm, it serves as a stressor that makes people feel they must live up to expectations in order to be deemed worthy in society.
Cause/Effect: Society’s yearning for perfection caused society to put pressure on people to succeed because being successful is an asset of perfection. This pressure on people affects the way people think and behave because they feel they must act a certain way in order to succeed, such as taking AP courses, applying for grad school, etc.
Change: The pressure to be successful is gradually being exerted to younger and younger students. When I was in high school (which was only three years ago), AP courses were only offered in high school. Now, they are being offered in middle school too. A couple years ago, students did not start interning until they have graduated from college. Now, they are interning as early as their sophomore year in college.
Form/Structure: The superficial problem of the pressure to be successful is the stress it puts on people to do well in school, get accepted to good colleges, have a great career, etc. Its deep problem is the misconception it gives people that they must follow a specific path or they must have a certain career in order to be successful.
Pageflakesis a one stop research spot where you can store your resources for convenient retrieval. You can add search bars, RSS feeds, and bibliographies to your pageflake. Everything you add serves as a flake and is conveniently displayed in a bar on your page. You can label and organize your flakes accordingly. On my page, my flakes include: RSS feeds, active searches, my Zotero bibliography, my Diigo bookmarks, and my Del.ic.ious social bookmarking soul mate (Richardkulisz).
RSS Feeds: My RSS feeds consist of blogs that have been useful to me or blogs that I think will be useful to me in the future. Some RSS feeds contain specific social pressures such as the pressure to be skinny, the pressure to get married, the pressure for higher education, etc. Other RSS feeds contain broader topics such as the pressure to be perfect, the pressure to be a good person, the pressure to be cool. Whichever way, my RSS feeds contain useful information that can either help me on a specific topic or can give me ideas about new topics.
Asma’s Blog gives insights about the pressures that the author and her friends experience, along with her analysis of them. It discusses the pressure to get married, the pressure to be good looking, and the pressure to make a difference in the world in a couple different posts each.
Bradley Krone AP Blog contains blogs that argues against society’s pressure for perfection and society’s pressure for beauty.
Daddy Dialectic concerns how the children in our society are raised nowadays as well as the lifestyle of our modern families. It discusses the pressures we face as parents and as wives and husbands and the pressures we put on our children. More information…
Dating Speech contains posts about the pressure to date, the pressure to get married, and the pressure to not get divorced.
Everyday Sociology provides a list of categories of topics that relate to social pressures such as Popular Culture and Consumption, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, and Social Psychology. It also analyzes specific pressures and their effects on our thoughts and behaviors. More information…
Jayniechip contains an interesting post about society’s pressure to be right-handed.
Mind Readers Dictionary lays out the blogger’s observations of people’s actions and behaviors in given events and situations. It discusses how certain pressures influence people to think and behave in a certain way. More information…
Reflections reports the author’s observations of and experiences with people. Some of the topics he covers are conformity, obedience, and expectations, which are the basis for people giving into societal pressures. More information…
Sociological Stew recounts the author’s encounters with political and societal pressures as well as her discussions with her students about these issues. She explains what people do to cope with these pressures. More information…
Search Flakes: In both the Universal Blog Search and the Universal News Search, the search term is ‘society’s pressures.’ When other search terms such as ‘society pressures’ and ‘social pressures’ are typed into the search bar, the results tend to be about politics. Although ‘society’s pressures’ also resulted in mostly articles about politics as well, it offered the most useful articles on this topic. Some articles that showed up were the pressure to maintain abstinence until marriage and the pressure to stay in a marriage despite unhappiness.
Diigo Bookmarks and Del.ic.ious Social Bookmarking Soul Mate: My Diigo bookmarks include blogs and articles that either talks directly about specific social pressures or it relates to the general topic of social pressures. This, in a way, serves in a similar way to my RSS feeds. More information on my Del.ic.ious social bookmarking soul mate (Richardkulisz) can be found on my post.
