The Popularity Myth: after 8th grade perspective

Well Disney certainly abuses it, could you blame them: an evil popular girl simply begs to be the antagonist. But Disney also has witches, talking cars, villains, and time travel machines, which last time I checked don't exist. If they do, could I have a phone number, please. So this is my analysis of how it works. Please consider my conditions: Middle school, in a fairly upper-middle middle class area in a partially magnet school. I can't provide a very "Disney" lunch time scenario, because in most of their movies the hero vs. mean kid scene is during lunch. For several reasons: a) We had assigned seats, and you would get in trouble if you moved. b) For quite some time this year, I didn't come down to lunch (long story). c) I stuck to a fairly tight-knit group of friends, not big on social experimentations. Still I think I have a fairly comprehensive view on how it works.

For the longest time to me, it seamed that popularity was something simply reserved for tv. There were simply people who were my friends and who were not my friends. The social ladder didn't seam to fit. Ehhh, well turned out it did, maybe in form of a bumpy ramp, but still. In other words there were categories of people, based on several factors, but friendships between them were not subject of a school wide drama. Unlike in High School Musical, it turns out to be not a big deal. Maybe because middle school is about *quote* Finding your niche or place*unquote* there aren't specialized cliques, I don't know I hadn't had the high school experience. But there was nothing much shocking about 'out of level" friendships. In fact on the most popular, secretary of the student government girls was BFFs (Best Friends Forever) with a semi tom-boyish soccer girl. Maybe it was because...(grrr I get side tracked, physc. later) So these divisions are fairly subjective, and classify the person, not necessarily who they are friends with. For as it turns out, you can have very diverse friends. So without further ado: Annie's Classification System *everyones case is different though*
Note: This is for scientific purposes only, I am against judging and classifying people. Except that it is inevitable in school and I wish it wasn't, but reality sucks.

Jocks: What PE teachers think everyone is, except that everyone else doesn't try. Usually set all the records and play many sports. Can be identified, in GYM, as the only people who try. Outside of gym they are fairly average.

"Popular" people/preps: An extremely varied area, contains those who win school elections, fashionably/preppily dressed, rather shallow and outgoing people. Its kind of hard to define, because there are several different groups of them, some who I like and some how I don't. The whole concept of them is slightly intangible, because they are so different. If anything they are social people, hence they probably know more people. Maybe shallow is wrong, too. Some of them are incredibly talented smart people. So maybe popular is a wrong label, instead "Socially outgoing people, who have many friends* While many of them are not bad people, I don't care to be their friend and neither do they, yes there are those among them who are snobs and mean people. But those make up only a percent of the Popular Preps.

People: Not that different from the previous, except less known, less social, and possibly with less friends. They can be very different, but not extreme. Tend to be on the more intellectual side of society, but that too is subjective.

Other: Rare outcasts of society, those who don't bother to be social or at all interact with the rest of the world. Sadly tend to be common victims of bullying.

Now throw this all away and consider that everybody are just people: Smart, funny, some more athletic, some with more friends, some with less, some nice, and some mean.
Sure everyone is just people, does it work that way in school?
Erm since I have apparently gotten my self confused with all these ramblings, I think I will just come to a conclusion. The thing that disney got rich on, doesn't affect the majority, but more of the extremes. Everyone else just has their circle of friends, not really caring about social status, well not too much. Then maybe 2% become the subject of teasing, and rejection from friendships, but our world cannot be perfect. And I think its easy to confuse simple bullying with popularity. In middle school people make friends they like and stick with them, in fact the people may not want to be friends with the preps, because what they care about is so different. Conclusion: Disney is not realistic.

But does popularity exist?
YES! The easiest way to explain it is with school elections. Sure there are the posters and speeches, but no one really listens and looks, they simply vote for their friend or their friends friend. And since popular people tend to have very wide relations, they win. You could ask anyone and they would tell you middle school elections are about popularity. Someone who no one has ever heard of, will never win, even if they are the best candidate. Is that fair? No, but otherwise popularity doesn't really affect personal lives. At least thats what I think. And in High School, who knows I'll see.

How was your experience? ANd what is your opinion on popularity? Your comments are greatly loved.