Group Settings

After reading Schwalbe, I started to recognize how "Group Think" influences many people to make decisions based on the type of group they are surrounded with or trying to be a part of. I interviewed three people who chose to remain anonymous about a time when they regretted a decision or behavior that they engaged in as part of a certain group.

The first individual I interviewed was my mom. My mother got pregnant with my brother at the age of 18, the summer after her graduation. She had the ambition to attend college and receive a degree to have a career and have better opportunities for her future. However she did not have the best kind of friends to influence her. The "road" to go after high school for her friends was not to go to college, instead to get pregnant. All her friends will tell her to get pregnant after high school to have the easy way out in life. They used to tell her that if she gets pregnant, she will have a baby's father that will be forced to support her and the child, basically just be a housewife. Many of her friends already had children so they used to tell her about all the benefits of being a mom and they would rather be a mother then having to still be a student after high school. My mother says she always wanted kids but wished she could of waited until after college to be able to raise a child with a career. It was a risky decision for her to make to have a child at a young age because she was not aware of the hardships of raising a child and having to support the child without the father's support. She later realized that those "friends" she had in high school suddenly disappeared and just wanted to make her life complicated since their life's were complicated and hard already. My brother became my mom's focus in life and I learned from her that "friends" do not always give the best advice. One must be very careful with how "friends" are trying to influence you, it is not always for the good.

The second individual I interviewed was my cousin. She also used to hang out with the wrong kind of group in high school that influenced her to make risky and dangerous decisions. Her friends used to ditch school in the mornings to go smoke at a house. One day she as well decided to follow her friends to do what they were doing. Her friends will tell her how fun it is and how it is better than being bored at school. My cousin was risking a lot but was convinced since a lot of her friends were doing the same and they never got in trouble by anyone. She was risking getting caught by the school and/or her mother. Not only risking of getting caught but putting her health at risk too. It was her first time smoking weed so she was not aware of all the health consequences that go along with smoking. That was not going through her mind though at the time since she was well convinced by her friends.

The third individual I interviewed was my friend. He comes from a rough family background. His family are all gang members and influence him to do decisions that most of the time he does not want to do. He did not really have the choice if he wanted to be a gang member or not since his family influenced him at such a young age. He grew up thinking it was right but as he started to mature and grow up, he started to realize what his family had made him do. He realized the negative influence his family was to him and how it was affecting his life. Being a gang member runs a risky life. All day, everyday day they are being faced with a threat from the opposite gang so therefore the are at risk of a dangerous,deadly consequence. My friend has been trying to get out of the gang but has been really hard for him since his whole family is involved and it will be seen as betraying his entire family.

Everyone gets influenced by a certain group everyday, however it is up to the individual to decide what type of group he/she want to get influenced by. I strongly believe that one should not try to fit into a certain group to get advice and be influenced, instead one should stand OUT!