[Ghoulish Delight]

I took a soc. psych class that focused on the fact that so many bahaviors that we take for granted are the result of social pressure. Try standing backwards in an elevator. Try standing in a pubilc place and do absolutely nothing. Try eating a utensil-required meal with your hands. You'll feel that pressure, whether someone's there or not. You'll feel like something is wrong.

Social pressure is real.

But I found myself thinking, "Umm, so what?" during that class a lot. Because none of this was news to me. I was under no illusion that there was some amazing practical reason that people stared at you funny if you were facing the back wall of an elevator. Big deal. It bugged the heck out of me that the professor never went to the next step, the step of, "Okay, we've identified our social programming, so what do we do about it."

It wasn't until a while later that it ocurred to me...what needs to be done about it? I came to the conclusion that the "solution" isn't to try to get rid of social pressure. That's ludicrous, it's what allows society to exist. Without it, without the ability we have of a species to NOT think about every single little act, we wouldn't function.

The key, as I see it, is simply awareness on an individual level. To create a culture devoid of negative social influence is an impossible goal, and fraknly one I don't even consider a good one because with the bad goes the good. Blandness would be the only alternative.

Instead, the solution, on a per-person basis, is to simply be aware. As long as you are cognizant of the fact that your choices, your likes and dislikes, are influenced by the culture and media around you, you stand a chance of taking control of it. There's no need to reject it if you understand it.

"I face forward in elevators because I'm supposed to," is different from "I face forward in elevators because I'd rather not have people staring at me, and I can see what floor I'm on." "I wear these designer clothes because other people do," is different from "I wear these designer clothes because they flatter me and improve my chances of positive social interaction."

If you're aware of the source of influences, you stand a chance of recognizing when it's better to ignore them.