Popular Cliques

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Why People Do The Things They Do Acceptance. It’s all about acceptance. Teenagers need to be popular. They are afraid of rejection. They just need to be accepted by everyone else so they can feel wanted. “Most teenagers feel insecure about who they are are still unsure of themselves. The safest way for them to feel accepted is to be associated with the popular clique.” Being socially accepted is something that teenagers long for. Being popular is a shortcut. If a person tells the school that they should wear black on Monday, then teenagers will wear black just to be like all of the others. But, only a small amount of teenagers will wear white, while everyone else is wearing black just to be different. Being popular helps people receive positive …show more content…

“Popular teenagers feel that by associating themselves with particular music, clothes, culture, they’re rebelling. This makes them ‘savages’.” There are five main cliques. There is the popular clique. The popular clique is made up of the girls and guys who play popular sports like soccer, basketball, lacrosse and football. Teens who are in these cliques are fake. They might even purposely join soccer, basketball, football or lacrosse even if they don’t like those sports just to be accepted. There is the athletic clique. This athletic clique is made up of the girls and guys that talk about sports all the time. Sometimes, they exaggerate that they are stronger than they really are. There is the smart clique. This smart clique is made up of the girls and guys that are A students. You could imagine them carrying around an encyclopedia everywhere. There are stereotypes that they wear glasses and have braces, but that’s not necessarily true. There is the weird clique. This weird clique is made up of the girls and guys that people consider unintelligent or awkward. They usually aren’t well-liked and they get made fun of. There is the troublemaker clique. This troublemaker clique is made up of the girls and guys that are F students. They usually get in trouble a lot and might even get suspended or expelled from

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    Cliques are small groups of between two and twelve people most of the time. Cliques are mall enough that the members feel that they know each other better than do people outside the clique. Members of a clique share common activities and friendships. They are social settings in which adolescents “hang out”, talk to each other, and form closer friendships. Groups of friends, called cliques can be important for social upgrading, but in most cases the enormous power and effects of these cliques can create alienation, exclusion, and destructive results. In my high school, as well as every other high school in America there are social groups of individuals, called cliques , that effect every individual whether they are an insider or an outsider. Generally there are the cool cliques , the athletic cliques, the punk (goth, freak) clique, the surfer clique, the smart clique, and the average clique. Almost everyone finds their place in one of these cliques, but there are always a few outsiders who go through high school never knowing where they belong. These are the people who are constantly ridiculed, picked on , and talked about day in and day out. The effects can be devastating, even deadly. In Littleton, Colorado two outcast teenagers came into school one day and began shooting, targeting the athletes and other students who had made their lives awful by ridiculing them constantly. “Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed their suburban Denver school with guns and bombs on April 20 1999, killing 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives.” Augustana University education professor Larry Brendtro explained “kids who feel powerless and rejected are capable of doing horrible things.” A high school student, Jason Sanchez understands why the two outsiders snapped by saying “If you go to school, and you don’t have friends, it drives you to insanity.” So what do these lonely outcast kids do if everyone rejects them? Roger Rosenblatt discusses in his article, “Welcome to the Works of the Trench Coat”, how kids will “discover self-worth by hating an enemy.” The kids of Columbine for example “look alike; they conceal differences. People who are attracted to clans and cults seek to lose their individuality and discover power and pride in a group.

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    Brown, B. B. & Klute, C. (2006). Friendships, cliques, and crowds. In G. R. Adams & M. D. Berzonsky (Eds.). Blackwell Handbook of Adolescence (pp. 330-348). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

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