Today, we are living in
the era of technology. Technology is very common to the society nowadays where
everyone has at least a communication gadgets in hand. For example, mobile
phone, smartphone and tablet computer. The advancement of technology has led to
the fact that communication has become more and more convenient. For instance,
people can access to the Internet and social media such as Facebook with a
smartphone anywhere and anytime. Communication technology has brought influence
in terms of the social behaviour to the society regardless of whether the
impact is in positive or negative.
Conformity refers to a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group (McLeod, 2007). It changes people by influencing them to act or think as the group members. Conformity is meant by yielding to group expectations or definitions of the situation (Fakhar, 2013). For example, I went to watch Dead Pool with my friends in GSC cinema last week. After the movie, we went to a café and chill. When we discussed about the movie, I actually think that the movie was not really good but all of my friends thought that it was absolutely brilliant, so I tempted to conform my friends by pretending to agree with their point of view rather than being the odd one out. This theory implies some degree of conflict between the demands of the group towards the individual and what the individual would actually do.
Besides, conformity can have either positive or negative impacts to the person depending on the situation. For instance, from positive perspectives, it can help to maintain a social norm. Example, when I go into the library, I will automatically to talk softly and walk gently. In contrast, from negative perspectives, it can make people to act blindly without any understanding of the act. For example, my brother played truant with his friends last month, however, when my mother asked him for the reason of why he did that, he could not give any reason but just followed his friends, so I believed that my brother has conformed to his friends to play truant because he does not want to be left out of the group. Conformity can be influenced by factors such as individual status, peer influence and group pressure (Tang, Wu & Sun, 2013). I agree with this statement that peer influence can be positive such as motivation and encouragement, however, group pressure can also be negative such as bullying, persuasion and criticism.
Next, conformity
can be known as majority influence (McLeod,
2007). It usually happens within a large group of people. The minority
of a group will tend to conform to the majority of the group when they get
influenced. Communication technology has brought the social behaviour of
conformity to the society because of the social media. For example, I can
relate to the issue of Facebook. Back to the old days when Internet is not
popular, people do not even go online. However, when the technology is
advanced, going online is common, most of the people start to involve
themselves in the world of social media, such as Facebook.
In our society nowadays, all of the youngsters own a Facebook account and therefore, the elderly also register a Facebook account to follow up the trend. For example, my siblings and I registered a Facebook account when Facebook was first established, by that time, my parents are not interested to it at all and always nagged us for playing Facebook every day, but when time goes by, Facebook is getting more and more popular until one day when my mother asked me to teach her to play Facebook, and I realized that my mother has conformed to me and my siblings. As a result, having a Facebook account in the society nowadays has become a must. Some of the people even rely very much on Facebook. According to the research by Statista as shown the figure below, in the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had reached 1 billion, by the way, as of the fourth quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly active users. The number of active users worldwide of Facebook has increased significantly as it becomes popular.
Furthermore, peer pressure is
known as one of the factor of conformity. Peers can influence each other
imperceptibly, just by spending time together often. Peer pressure is the pressure from others to conform to the behaviours,
attitudes and personal habits of a group or clique (Gordon, 2015). Peer
influence increases during adolescence and it can promote negative behaviour
through social media such as cyberbullying. “…According
to the report, 49 per cent of those targeted by bullies were victimised
off-line, while 65 per cent of teenagers were subjected to abuse in
cyberspace,” (Gayle, 2013). For example, the case study of Jessica Logan (1990 – 2008).
Fakhar, N. (n.d.). Norms, Conformity & Social Learning Approach. Retrieved from http://mass.pakgalaxy.com/norms-conformity-social-learning-approach.html
Gayle, D. (2013). Facebook is The Worst Social Network for Bullying with 19-year-old BOYS The Most Common Victims. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2294023/Facebook-worst-social-network-bullying-New-survey-shows-youngsters-targeted-online-else.html
In our society nowadays, all of the youngsters own a Facebook account and therefore, the elderly also register a Facebook account to follow up the trend. For example, my siblings and I registered a Facebook account when Facebook was first established, by that time, my parents are not interested to it at all and always nagged us for playing Facebook every day, but when time goes by, Facebook is getting more and more popular until one day when my mother asked me to teach her to play Facebook, and I realized that my mother has conformed to me and my siblings. As a result, having a Facebook account in the society nowadays has become a must. Some of the people even rely very much on Facebook. According to the research by Statista as shown the figure below, in the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had reached 1 billion, by the way, as of the fourth quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly active users. The number of active users worldwide of Facebook has increased significantly as it becomes popular.
(Source: Statista, 2016)
Furthermore, peer pressure is
known as one of the factor of conformity. Peers can influence each other
imperceptibly, just by spending time together often. Peer pressure is the pressure from others to conform to the behaviours,
attitudes and personal habits of a group or clique (Gordon, 2015). Peer
influence increases during adolescence and it can promote negative behaviour
through social media such as cyberbullying. “…According
to the report, 49 per cent of those targeted by bullies were victimised
off-line, while 65 per cent of teenagers were subjected to abuse in
cyberspace,” (Gayle, 2013). For example, the case study of Jessica Logan (1990 – 2008).
(Source: Cyberbullying Resource, 2016)
The advancement of communication
technology has brought social media but it also created a platform for negative
issue to happen because of the social behaviour of conformity that led to the peer
pressure. It often happens among the teenagers
who always have contact with the social media. Research shows that peer pressure occurs when teens are alone in front
of a computer and it is leading them to commit cybercrimes such as
cyber-bullying (Schill, 2011). For instance,
the teens pressure or encourage others to participate in cyberbullying because
social media is a platform where they can have freedom to do that without
control by the adults.
Moreover, the teens who being pressured conform to their peers because they are feared to be bullied, therefore, they rather to be the one who bully others. This cyberbullying among teens can include everything from online hate lists, mean posts, harassment, threaten until intimidate through the social media. According to cyber bullying statistics from i-SAFE Foundation, 80% of teens who made the cyberbullying own a mobile phone. This showed that the advancement of communication technology is one of the factor that causes cyberbully to happen. The video below shows how peer pressure which is one of the factor of the social behaviour of conformity relates to cyberbully.
Moreover, the teens who being pressured conform to their peers because they are feared to be bullied, therefore, they rather to be the one who bully others. This cyberbullying among teens can include everything from online hate lists, mean posts, harassment, threaten until intimidate through the social media. According to cyber bullying statistics from i-SAFE Foundation, 80% of teens who made the cyberbullying own a mobile phone. This showed that the advancement of communication technology is one of the factor that causes cyberbully to happen. The video below shows how peer pressure which is one of the factor of the social behaviour of conformity relates to cyberbully.
(Source: YouTube, 2012)
For my
perspectives towards this topic, in the society nowadays where mobile device is
so important to the people that could not live without, we are all conformed to
the influence of social media. People are so addicted to the social media and
could not stay away from their mobile phone. It is quite embarrassing to admit
that brushing the teeth is no longer the first thing people do after they wake
up, but checking the social media’s content. Communication technology brings
connections to the people around the world, yet it also brings distance to the
people. For example, people nowadays always play with their mobile phone no
matter where they are. It is no longer a strange situation to see a bunch of
people sitting together with zero interactions and just focusing on their
mobile phone.
In
conclusion, conformity can bring positive and negative impact to us. It can
influence us to behave in a way that is positive but also act in a way that
brings negative outcomes. Therefore, we must think and analyse critically
before we act and do not conform to others blindly.
References
Cyberbullying
Resource. (n.d.). Case
Study: Jessica Logan. Retrieved from https://cyberbullying.ua.edu/index.php/case-study-jessica-logan/
Fakhar, N. (n.d.). Norms, Conformity & Social Learning Approach. Retrieved from http://mass.pakgalaxy.com/norms-conformity-social-learning-approach.html
Gayle, D. (2013). Facebook is The Worst Social Network for Bullying with 19-year-old BOYS The Most Common Victims. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2294023/Facebook-worst-social-network-bullying-New-survey-shows-youngsters-targeted-online-else.html
Gordon, S. (2015). Peer Pressure and Bullying – What
Is the Connection? Retrieved from http://bullying.about.com/od/Basics/a/Peer-Pressure-And-Bullying-What-Is-The-Connection.htm
i-SAFE Foundation. (2004). Cyber Bullying: Statistics and
Tips. Retrieved from https://auth.isafe.org/outreach/media/media_cyber_bullying
McLeod, S. (2007). What
is Conformity? Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html
Schill, R. (2011). Peer
Pressure Leading Kids to Commit Cyber-bullying and Other Online Crimes. Retrieved from
Tang, J., Wu, S., & Sun, J. (2013). Confluence: Conformity Influence in Large Social Networks. Retrieved from http://keg.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/jietang/publications/KDD13-Tang-et-al-Conformity-Influence.pdf
The Statistics Portal. (2016). Number of Monthly
Active Facebook Users Worldwide As of 4th Quarter 2015 (in
Millions). Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
Youtube. (2012). Cyber
Bullying and Peer Pressure. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5_S2JigMbs
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