Originality And The Influence Of Peers On The Developing Mind

Who are we? What makes us who we are? All of our beliefs, ideas, and dreams are built off of bits and pieces of every person we have ever interacted with. Have you ever spent a lot of time with one person, perhaps a best friend, a significant other, or even a family member? The more time you spend with someone, you tend to pick up small little behavioral traits, or ideas and beliefs from them. A good example of this is an event referred to as a “hivemind”. I’m sure this has happened to many people. You’ll be with your friends or family, and in reaction to a certain stimuli you will both say the exact same thing. Our thoughts will change the more we associate with any individual, making them more alike, thus increasing the odds of this “hivemind”, a near impossibility for two complete strangers (with the exception of a hivemind such as a quote to a TV show, or a line from a song, etc. These thoughts are in reaction to a source of media widely available to all, making the probability of a “hivemind” more likely). It’s hard to be original when everything we are is borrowed from someone else. All the ideas we have are influencedin some way, and sometimes very close to stolen, from someone else. For example, as I write this, I am at an authors presentation, talking about her upcoming book where a greenhouse grows humans is a central plot point. A human green house could be easily interpreted as an idea borrowed from the cloning of human beings, and even a spinoff of the character idea of Poison Ivy from the Bat Man comics. In this, we must realize that originality is dead, and was never even alive to begin with. Creativity may be alive, new ideas spun off from a variety of influences do exist, but originality in its defined sense, does not exist. Main Entry: orig·i·nal·i·ty Pronunciation: \ə-ˌri-jə-ˈna-lə-tē\ Function: noun the power of independent thought or constructive imagination1

The problem with the defined word ‘originality’ is that it says that originality is “independent thought”. Independent thought would have to be free of influences, therefore ruling out just about everything ever said to be original. All ideas we have depend on previous ideas, either of our own, or of others, to spawn. Let’s take a deeper look into the influence of others in our childhood years. The role of a parent is often viewed as a guiding hand, one that imbues the growing child with a sense of morals, ethics and an understanding of the world. But under more scrutiny, the role of a parent usually ends up being more of a mold caster, casting their child in the exact shape and form that their parent wants them to be. For example, more often than not, Christians raise Christians, Mormons raise Mormons, and Democrats raise Democrats, and so on and so forth. The ethics

instilled in a child, too, are forced upon them. From an early age we are taught what is right and wrong, what is proper and improper, by choice of the parent, not of the child. Boys are told that only certain attire is appropriate, girls are told to be ‘ladylike’ and ‘proper’, and we are told what to worship, who to associate with, and what language is appropriate and what isn’t. Although, studies show that parents don’t have as strong an influence on children as one may think2, they do provide a fair amount of influence for the child’s early years. They place the building blocks for their beliefs and dreams to mutate from with the addition of beliefs and attitudes of peers. Perhaps the biggest influence with almost no argument is a child or teenager’s peers. Once a child surpasses the stage where they yearn for constant attention from a parent, and begin to drift slowly towards a social circle of their own peers is when the child’s mind truly begins to change.