Thought This Was Interesting But change my mind After Reading It Again

Without a clear identity, many Americans suffer from an inability to ever completely assimilate. To make matters worse, we are torn between competing impulses to fit in and stand out. To deal with this tension, psychological research suggests that we seek out social sub-groups within larger communities as a way to achieve "optimal distinctiveness." In other words, we try to blend into the larger community around us by the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and other symbols of assimilation, but maintain our individuality by finding smaller social groups defined by a particular characteristic.*

This is crapola. Or maybe it's for Gen Y. I haven't yet told you how scared I am with what Gen Z will be.


Brewer, Marilynn. "The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 17 No. 5, October 1991, 475-482.