“The proposition that individual human beings are programmed into their values, either by the influence of genes on personality or by social pressures, can neither be proven nor refuted” (Lewis, H., 1990).
I strongly agree with this sentence because I believe it is difficult to say how and why people act the way they do and portray particular values opposed to others. At the same time, I believe social pressures are the main influence on “values”. In a hypothetical situation, let’s say that an individual could act in his/her own best interest 100% of the time, without having to worry about what others perceived. If this were the case, this individual would not possess any values pertaining to humility or selflessness because he or she would only be concerned about himself or herself all the time. While this is a hypothetical situation, it is obvious that the world does not function like this and there are plenty of people that often tend to judge others based on actions or words alone on a daily basis. This being said, our lives are greatly influenced by what others think of us and that directly affects the values and the personality we display when around other human beings.
This makes me think of a particular example from my personal life as well. Whenever I watch a YouTube video or read a media article on the Internet, I always have the tendency to check the comments afterwards. Why? Only because I want to know what others think, so I can potentially relate to their thoughts and emotions. The majority of Internet users will admit to also doing this because it has become such a common thing in our culture to shape our lives based on what others perceive of us.
Similarly, social pressures directly influence people’s values and that ultimately affects the way they conduct themselves in public. While this cannot be proven to be absolutely the case, this is merely where I think personal values emerge. Genetic factors can play a role to some degree, but what good is that genetic predisposition if that “preprogrammed personality” will not coincide with what society is demanding of you today? Being a vital part of society requires constant adaptation because the world is always changing and people are continuously coming and going. The world will never be the same as it was 100 years ago and it will not be the way it is today, 100 years from now. Therefore, I believe social pressures play the key role in defining one’s values more often than not.
January 16th, 2015 at 15:53
First of all, good job on this blog and I also like the sentence that you quote on the article. You main idea is that the most important element to influence people’s value is social pressure, and you give a hypothetical example that people will become selfish and arrogance because without social pressure people will only concern themselves. Also you give you own experience that you always check the comment after watch video or read article because you want to know about others think. So you think that social pressure will change people’s value and directly affect people behavior in the public.
I agree that social pressure can influence people’s value, but I don’t think that people without social pressure will “not possess any values pertaining to humility or selflessness”, because people who only concern themselves do not represent that they are not humility or selfish. There may exist people who only concern themselves are humility and selflessness.
January 16th, 2015 at 17:39
I believe that to some extent society do influence our choices but this does not effect our actual opinion or thought about our values. As merely if we were to be programmed by the influence of society in the valuation of our values, there would be no such thought of what others would thing of us, as we would always be in the right direction with society judgmental view. As it is our minds that raise the question what society will think of us?
My point here is, that we are free to make the choices that we think will benefits us but it is implementing those chooses that brings in the thought of social acceptance. As stated by Lewis H. “most people feel free to from and express their personal evaluation and beliefs, even if they do not always feel free on act on those beliefs”.
As stated in the case of reviewing other people comment in YouTube videos, I am definitely sure that in one of those many videos you did have an opinion that differs from other but implementing your thought that is different from others, makes you think what others would think of you if you stated your thought. In this case and mostly many like this, it is the implementing we are concern of not the thought or belief of it.
January 16th, 2015 at 23:27
I like the quote that you’ve selected, as it is one I have examined as well, and I too believe that social pressure plays a key role in defining our lives. However, my one question is that to what extent are those who comment on articles pressured by social media? I feel that social media is a viral impersonation of a group activity, where there will always be a couple of outspoken members, while the others just sit and listen. Likewise, I believe that there are always be the same commentators presenting their opinions on various articles and what not. That being said, I believe that one can influence others through social media just as social media can influence them. Therefore I think that social media only changes a person’s “values” to a certain extent, but that the person’s background and upbringing is their foundation to the values they pertain today. Social media can only change or influence a person as long as they let social media to do so. If people were to act without pressure, I’m sure their values will be different, but those that keep their values consistent even with social media can dominate a lot of other people and can therefore create a social pressure of its own. Lewis stated that personal values “are as essential as air, food and water, and protection from its elements. Without [it], it is probably impossible to lead a purposeful and satisfying life” (Lewis 18). Our personal values should be a foundation for our character, and social media expands one’s values upon others while it diminishes everyone else.
January 17th, 2015 at 13:34
Ankit, to respond to your question, I think the extent to which people are pressured by social media depends directly on how much they use it in their lives. Some people use social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr once in a while to express their opinion about something or an experience they had. On the other hand, there are numerous people who overuse social media by posting every little thing that they are thinking about or experiencing. These people’s lives revolve around social media, which ultimately takes away from their actual lives. “Human beings cannot separate the way they arrive at values from the values themselves” (Lewis 13). They become so engrained in the culture of media that they start to believe things that are not necessarily true.
An example of this is the satirical article that was posted online in response to Marcus Mariota receiving a speeding ticket. Everyone knows that Marcus is known to be a very humble and kind individual, so this speeding ticket came as a shock to everyone. Therefore, someone decided to post a satirical article portraying Marcus’ sincerity, over exaggerating tremendously. However, many people believed it was real because all they had heard was that he was a very nice guy. This is a prime example of how social media can misguide people, depicting its influence on many people’s lives.
You had said you agree with the fact that social media can influence one’s values but their upbringing and background is the foundation to those values. My question to you is, do you think people can completely obliterate that “foundation” due to negative influences from social media?
Satirical article: http://thatoregonlife.com/2014/11/ops-releases-transcript-traffic-stop-marcus-mariota2/
January 18th, 2015 at 17:22
I think you did a good job on this quote and explanation. I do agree that values are influenced by social pressures and that if we were in a situation without society then we would be selfish and wouldnt be concerned with anyone else. I do question the social media aspect of your argument though. I do not think that the comments people leave on YouTube or on some articles are entirely their values. I think that on political articles can usually be peoples values but especially on YouTube, I believe that more people are concerned with either starting a controversy or being mean than actually showing what their values truly are.
The other part i question is that values change over time. While I agree that society has changed and never will be the same again, I think the core values of humanity have withstood the test of time and that is how the main values were formed. Wanting to help people other than yourself is a perfect example of that, which we agree is a human value, there have always been doctors and volunteers throughout history. But besides those questions i thought you did an excellent job.