The issue of conformity in "outliers: the story of success” by malcolm gladwell

Everyday we will follow others, wether we want to or not. Everyone just wants to fit in and be apart of trends. People worry if they don’t do what everyone else is doing they will be looked down upon. Conformity is when we adjust to certain judgements to match with a group standard. In our world I think conforming to society is very important. What drives people to conform to society is people find it easier to go down paths that others have already made rather than make new ones.

To begin, in Outliers Gladwell touches base on many different stories of children or young adults earning success. But in many of these stories, success came from their background, parents, cultural heritage, etc, but what we can take from this, is that these people didn’t necessarily pursue what they wanted too, they pursed what was easiest for them. These people took what they already and grew off of it. They did not just earn success from themselves they just followed the path that had already been made for them. For example, in chapter 1 Gladwell states that “ successful hockey players are born in the months of December, February, January and March”. So, any hockey player born in those months may continue down that path just because of someone they know being successful within the same circumstances as themselves. People think if the follow what others have done the same success will come to them.

Also, a huge contributor to conformity in our world is social media. Everyday we go on social media with hundreds of “ friends”. We watch big influencers do new things all over these platforms, and we follow after them because we think they are right.

All over social media new trends go viral each day, new fashion, etc. The last thing someone wants to be is the odd one out for not following these trends. Conformity on social media can cause a lack of creativity, which is when people start to just do what everyone else is doing because that is the easiest for them. People don’t want to start something new because they do not want people to see them fail, because with failure comes being looked down upon. Most teens are what cause the biggest conformity over social media. All tennagers want, is to fit in with the rest of the crowd. Big influencers will create high standards that teens will follow just to fit in and be like everyone else, and you won’t be taken the wrong way if everyone acts the same. In a society where everyone just wants to be like each other, nothing new will come and we will be stuck in the same loop.