Go Along Or Go Alone: The Fight Against Conformity

Go Along or Go Alone: The Fight Against Conformity "I think everybody's weird. We should all embrace our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it." When Johnny Depp said this, he addressed the fact that conformity is taking over society, and for the worse. Going with the group is making people forget that the best way to contribute society is to be their individual selves, not to emulate another person, especially in a school or classroom environment. According to "The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth," originality is left behind in favor of conventionality by students and that is having an adverse effect on the next generation of people. Individuality is a trait that must be supported for the greater good of the future. Conformity is taking a real toll on the everyday lives of students. First, bullying is a huge problem for people who do not fit into the social norms. Students who are identified by others as geeks, nerds, dorks, etc. are more likely to become singled out by the rest of the kids, and excluded
There are even studies, such as those conducted by Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram, that support this notion. Despite this, there is one main flaw in that logic. Cooperation is not the same as conformity. Working together does not equal being the same as each other. In fact, to work together effectively, everyone needs to have different strengths and weaknesses, so that every single person can make up for the other's deficiencies. This creates a tight knit group of people. If everyone is the same, they all have the same weaknesses. If that vulnerability is exploited, entire communities can come crashing down. This creates a limit to how much a population can develop themselves technologically and culturally, before they collapse, or before they are toppled by other