Are you in style? First Draft.

Jasmine N. Offor
Conformity: Action or behavior in correspondence with socially accepted standards, conventions, rules, or laws. What seems to be the main effects of conformity in our society as a whole? There can be said that there are a great deal of elements about conformity that affect our society but the one in particular that will be discussed is fashion conformity. One very popular fact that we all know is that we all want to be accepted by our society and each other no matter who we are. This leads us to conform to social fashion trends in order to fit in.
Fashion and advertisements work hand in hand as a team to affect our perception of our social society. Conformity is a result of the advertisements. We as a society full of conformists will never change. We (human race) will never change because this is basically encoded in our DNA. No matter how hard one tries to be different, they end up always being the same as everyone else. We always want to be a part of the new “cool” thing and what’s so called “in” at the time. Those that try to rebel against society seem to get looked down upon until what they were doing suddenly becomes the “in” thing and the circle starts over again. So much effort is put into feeling a sense of acceptance and a sense of belonging, which most people over look the fact that fashion and fashion advertisements affect their day to day lives.
Advertisements have a great impact on the way society views a lot of different lifestyles and products. It’s the advertisements job to inform the public on new and upcoming things that are going on. Advertisements play a big role in what we as a society need to know to “keep up with the Jones’”. Ads have a great impact on us because we look to ads to fulfill what we need to conform to next. Without it I really don’t know what style would be like. Fashion ads to the best job of getting a society to conform. The ads are mostly seen around the world and almost always leave us wanting more. We want to be that person on the ad that is the epitome of perfection that we have to be the first to have that product. This invisible checklist hits all of our wants and needs and makes us want to be exactly what we see on the ads. Once the ads are able to capture the audience in such a way, the moneymaking process beings.
Even thought fashion ads have a great impact on what social norms can be, they also have a very strong impact on those that choose to rebel against the fashion norm that is trying to be portrayed by the ad. There will always be a group of the generation that will fight to rebel against the norm in hopes of becoming an individual in society. What they don’t realize at the time by starting this movement is that they themselves are a group of conformers; a group that is conforming to the rebelling of a norm. After the group finally realizes that they indeed conformed, they change their ways and that particular movement is then “trashed” and the cycle recycles itself again.
We can clearly see that they life cycle of a social norm is not that long but the affect that it has on society is worth a lifetime. We can learn many lessons from those that decided to rebel as well as those who decided to conform. We must realize that when we conform it is a subconscious decision that is played out by our psychological needs to be accepted by others.