Social Pressure

I have been having some nagging thoughts lately. Our social climate has been shifting over the last year and where many things in our day to day have shifted, there are still a lot of widely believed social stigmas about businesses, gaming and most of all music.

I probably hear it four to five times a day: “So-and-so sold out! Just listen to their latest album,” or “That wrestling company needs to fire their creative team, they are using this person wrong!” My most recent favorite quote that just popped up on my facebook timeline was, “McDonald’s is the Nickelback of fast food!”

That right there sent me for a loop. How in the world does a successful fast food franchise, which serves twenty five million customers each day, compare to a widely reviled music group known for being booed off stage, selling out their image and singing sad songs about photographs?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious for those willing to take the time and actually draw the comparisons, and a lot of it has to do with social grooming done in our formative years.

Nickelback is actually not a failing band. They are in fact one of the most successful bands to come out of Canada. For this to be true some fraction of this global hatred for the group has to be false right? There are still people buying enough albums and concert tickets for everyone involved in the band to be making a decent living. Unless Chad Kroeger is selling mortgages on the side, Nickelback is still drowning in cash from their music career.

This is where we can start drawing a little bit of a comparison.

McDonald’s has almost 39,000 restaurants worldwide as of 2020, growing more and more each year, and they are more successful than almost any other fast food chain in the world. The proof of that lies in the “Big Mac Index.” A tool published by The Economist that is used all over the world to measure differences between nation’s currencies.

With that said, McDonald’s is not exactly seen as a respected establishment. Back when a lot of us were children a documentary called “Super Size Me” was released that peeled the curtain back on fast food organizations and showed us the detriment of eating at any one of their restaurants. Their primary target was Mcdonalds. This helped create a social stigma around McDonalds that is very similar to what we see with Nickelback.

What I did not know was the exact moment Nickelback became vilified in the same way. We know how and why McDonalds got its bad press, but almost nothing of the like can be said about the rock group. While digging to find an answer, I came across several articles discussing Nickelback, but none of them took the neutral approach. When researching for a piece of work, I usually dismiss any article or video that uses the word “Garbage” to unironically describe something. It just means the author has a bias that they are not willing to challenge themselves on.

I am not one of those writers.

After a while I gave up on finding an answer, but I do know a thing or two about social pressures, and I think that has a lot more to do with it than any particular incident.

Do I think that one day someone of high social status one day decided they did not like Nickelback, and somehow managed to perpetuate that hate among their social group? Well, yes actually, I do. The invention of Twitter and Facebook have allowed celebrities to build an inner circle of friends and an outer circle of loyal fans, which then bled out into those social groups, and spread like wildfire to one person after another.

Very few people truly believed what was said to be true, they just agreed to it to be accepted, which highlights a much bigger part of human culture.

When we are young and going to school at any grade, one of our primary goals is to build a pack, or a “social circle;” A group of people that you accept and desperately want to be accepted by. In fact, you will do anything within your power to keep them around you, up to and including sacrificing your own wants and likes when you are with them.

I know what most people will think after they read that. “No way! I was the king of my school! I owned that place!” Take it down a notch, friend. My experience was a little different, and it is likely that yours was, too. I had a group of two friends throughout middle and high school, whom I referred to as my “brothers.” We were three equals who accepted each other for who we were, but like many things I remember from those days, it was a lie. I can recall countless times I was unwilling to chime in on a conversation because I was afraid how they would respond to my opinion. Conversations where I just accepted their stance because I did not want to challenge their beliefs and keep them as friends.

Trust me. You do this, too.

Even today I find myself slipping back into old routines. It’s almost like those experiences were grooming me to be an “obedient worker.” Even with my roommates and boss, I hesitate to share my opinions because I think my ideas might just ruin these relationships I have created. It sounds crazy when you take an honest look at yourself and realize that no one ever knew the real you. The person you were was hiding their truth behind their own insecurities because they were afraid they had to find new friends, and that is where this journey we are on together comes full circle.

We didn’t know and it likely was not on purpose, but during our upbringing we were conditioned to adopt other people’s opinions, giving the people we respect the power to shape our personalities into bastardized versions of themselves. This is already a terrifying prospect before you realize they are also molded the same way by a person they respect. This kind of social pressure strips us of our individuality. It makes us hate things we used to love. I see it all the time as a pro wrestling fan, even more so in 2021! With two mainstream televised wrestling organizations to watch on prime time, you bet there are a lot of people throwing around the word garbage. There is also an equal number of their friends jumping on board with them, afraid to lose their friendship.

At some point, one of your friends said something similar to, “Why are you listening to Nickelback” or “ew, you actually like McDonalds,” and that moment shaped your future so much that, to this day, you will abhor the idea of either of those things in public, while quietly enjoying them at home as one of your guilty pleasures.

The point I am trying to make is that we are all adults. We should feel comfortable with polite debate and differences of opinion. It is how we learn and grow to be better people. Life would be just too boring if everyone liked and hated the same things. Personally, I am actually a Nickelback fan. Probably the first one to admit it on the internet. Chad Kroeger’s Hero from the Spider-Man soundtrack is one of my favorite songs of all time.

None of this is factual, by any means, they are just some guy’s nagging thoughts. Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate your time.

I am a creative writer as well, and I would love a fun creative prompt to get my juices flowing. If you have a good one, please send it over to [email protected] with the subject “Creative Project.” I look forward to your ideas.