Why We Like What We Like

Central argument: Alva Noe argues that people act the way they do because of the influence of their environment they are in rather than being what they would like to be. This is one of the very few interesting articles that I have read and I completely agree with Noe because I know that a lot of people act the way they do because of some influence and not out of originality.

I have a stack of fashion magazines back home and every season me and my friends go through it and see what's "hot" for that season and then we shop accordingly. At one point this winter one of my friends also pointed out that she wouldn't be able to survive a day out if it weren’t for the super amazing fashion magazines. Come to think of it, I think those magazines have controlled our minds along with a lot of other sources that I will talk about later on.

We, especially us teenagers, want to fit in the society and be as popular as we can. To achieve that, we have to act accordingly and one of the easiest way of doing it is by dressing up the popular way. My mom jokingly told me to save up all my clothes for my children as fashion runs in a cycle and what is popular today could be popular in the next 20 years or so. That is true and this is where the lack of originality kicks in. People do not come up with new ideas, they just re-use the old ones.
Media has a very big hand in encouraging the people to act the way everyone else does. The way of speaking, wearing your hair and putting on makeup all comes from here. If you wear your hair the way people did a few years ago, it will probably be uncool and if you are a highschooler there is a high possibility that you will be named "loser." Especially with the dance steps. If salsa was popular a few years ago, it is now taken over by b-boying and it might get changed any time. This is the problem I face. I hate dancing, but as I want to fit in I learn the "cool" steps and when I am done learning there are new "cool" moves created already and the moves I mastered are already "so yesterday." Seriously, I think it is easier to climb up Mt. Everest than to try and keep up with the trend nowadays.

Almost all my friends have either one of the apple products. Why? Because it is "cool" to have one. It is not that it is better than other electronic devices. In fact, when it comes to phones, I think the most reliable phone is the old black and white nokia cell phone. However, people don't use it anymore because it is no longer in fashion. A lot of people have switched from normal earphones to beats because it is "so in." People buy those unreasonably expensive headphones even if they don't really have any interest in music. They do so thinking that this will make them more popular in the society.

If noticed I have used a lot of informal phrases and words under quotation marks. I did so because that is how we normally speak. It reminds me of this movie named Never let you go where a couple of clones try to imitate the people they see in movies so that they can fit in the society. The only difference between them and us is that we aren't clones. Noe is right about her argument. We aren't newborns and every individual can come up with unique brilliant ideas. However, we choose to act the way we act according to our environment and the people's expectations.