aleclair's definitions
A popular person is one who is well respected by his peers and has a strenuous and demanding social life. The word is mostly used in the context of middle or high school.
Popular students in middle or high school are not necessarily popular because they are nice people. As well, popular people aren’t necessarily heartless snobby bitches or assholes – different high schools have different standards of attraction, meaning that the qualities that are looked for in the social elite differ based on the school environment. At some schools and in some groups, truly nice people are liked, and in other schools and groups, popular people simply wish to climb the social ladder by whichever means possible; social behavior is a game of chess rather than an enjoyable experience.
To say that every school has a social elite is a fallacy as well. I have been to two high schools; one of them did not have a school-wide social elite. Instead socialization was immensely group-based, with the majority of socialization taking place in your group. There were people whose names were known by everyone, but for the most part, there was no major gap between popular and unpopular, and it could have been argued everyone was popular in some way, whether good or bad.
Two types of popularity occur in a high school setting. First, there is positive popularity, where people know and revere you. Secondly, there is negative popularity, where everyone knows your name, everyone talks about you, but nobody likes you.
Popular students in middle or high school are not necessarily popular because they are nice people. As well, popular people aren’t necessarily heartless snobby bitches or assholes – different high schools have different standards of attraction, meaning that the qualities that are looked for in the social elite differ based on the school environment. At some schools and in some groups, truly nice people are liked, and in other schools and groups, popular people simply wish to climb the social ladder by whichever means possible; social behavior is a game of chess rather than an enjoyable experience.
To say that every school has a social elite is a fallacy as well. I have been to two high schools; one of them did not have a school-wide social elite. Instead socialization was immensely group-based, with the majority of socialization taking place in your group. There were people whose names were known by everyone, but for the most part, there was no major gap between popular and unpopular, and it could have been argued everyone was popular in some way, whether good or bad.
Two types of popularity occur in a high school setting. First, there is positive popularity, where people know and revere you. Secondly, there is negative popularity, where everyone knows your name, everyone talks about you, but nobody likes you.
Like in Bruce Almighty, where Bruce asks for the powers of God yet falls apart due to his duties being God, the boy standing on the fringes of society did not ask to be popular, as he knew the social headache he would receive.
by aleclair December 1, 2006
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