You’re walking down the hallway, you see a number of students bunched together. They’re all dressed in new shoes, wearing golden necklaces, sporting Nike and Lululemon attire. As you wonder what you could do to fit in, the first thing that comes to mind is to start dressing like them. But later, when you gaze back at that group and their oddly-matching attire, something doesn’t sit quite right in your stomach.
Teens today seem too scared to stand out and it’s affecting modern society. Many young people see someone doing something and if it seems popular, they tag along. Many teenagers are so attached to this concept they’re too scared to ever do anything original.
Psychologists have noted that human brains tend to hop on the bandwagon and copy others for satisfaction.
“Mirror neurons were discovered in monkeys in 1992. Although researchers have identified no similar neurons in humans, similar mirroring activity goes on in the brain’s motor cortex. The behavior begins early in life… It seems to be part of our genetic endowment to seek to behave like those around us,” notes Jane Kelly, a communications specialist with the University of Virginia.
Your brain sometimes seems like it’s following a cheat sheet by copying others to make getting through life easier.
“When everything you do relies on what the general public is doing, you’re not being yourself anymore. You’re just doing everything for the acceptances of others,” sophomore Charlotte Ferazzi said.
What seems to be making the decline in individuality worse is social media. Go online and you’ll find people saying, “Here’s what we are wearing in 2025.” Often one article of clothing – like camo hoodies, tops with cute bows, running shoes, or certain makeup products – are extremely popular today, but next month something completely new and different takes its place. Trends like this stress out viewers and make them feel like a hamster stuck on a wheel, constantly running for the satisfaction of others to just simply keep up with the latest fad.
“People are scared that others won’t like them if they’re different, we find comfort in being similar to other people and other people being similar to us,” sophomore Robin Wenger said.
“Groupthink is a concept discovered by social psychologist Ivring Janis from the early 1970s. It happens when people in a close group prioritize agreement over realistically considering other options,” the employment company Unstop writes.
But there’s often an outlier, someone who doesn’t agree. Disagreement isn’t wrong but it’s commonly seen as such.
People don’t want to get laughed at and pointed at when they say something different, which often results in conformity.
“Dystopian novels are often based around conformity and everyone having to be the same and that’s basically what’s happening to our society now; everyone wants to be the same.” Ferazzi said.
The plot to dystopian novels may not directly apply to our current society, but the concepts of these stories do. More and more people are holding back who they truly could be, we just need to show our true colors and not live in a dull, bland, achromatic society.
“We will lose the art of self expression” Wenger said
“We are going to look the same, and we won’t be able to bond over each others styles anymore” Wenger said
“We don’t have individuality anymore Nobody is their own person, everything we do is copied off of someone else online” Ferazzi said
So what can be done to change this pattern and bring back individuality?
“We should eliminate group think instead of automatically stating ‘WE all think this’” Wenger said
“I think people should just follow their hearts and what they wanna do instead of asking others ‘hey what are we wearing this year’” Ferazzi said
“Everyone should try to be their own person, Individuality helps people have a sense of their own being” Kimaya Vatkar, a sophomore at Noblesville High School said.
