Setrotypical me!

Groups everyone belongs one but why do we as a human race seek to the need to be part of a group to fit in? Well to answer that question a good starting point would be evolution at the end of the day we descended from apes, sorry I am atheist and yes we descended from apes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zohMSNpW91k&feature=related) anyway back to the point at hand, essentially we are animals and animals form groups for protection, safety and companionship as its written in there DNA to do so. Humans on the other hand have slightly deeper reason for forming a group similar personality's, style of clothes or even supporting the same football club, deeper reasons maybe than animals but still the reasons are not that complex as we all have a basic human instinct to hunger for a sense of belonging.

Abraham Maslows (1943) model as you can see in the picture on your right explains the theory of human motivation and if you take close look at the model you will gain some form of understanding as to why we form groups for instance friendship, a sense of belonging and respect of others.

When I take a look a look at modern society in its everyday form I see all different types of groups. Through my own life experiences I understand Maslows model the sense of belonging that the human nature craves for instance:

• Age 8 - 12 I was a skater (skateboarder) I wore baggy clothes listened to rock music and skated on anything that you could possibly skate on.
• Age 13- 18 I was what more commonly known as a chav. Not to extreme of wearing all Buberry but Nike, Addidas, Lacoste, academics, Reebok and yes occaisionally Burberry I was more going for a rude boy image like my friends rather than a stereotypical chav look.
• Age 18- 20 I stopped being a little rude boy and decided it was time to grow up have a bit more class about myself. By purchasing designer labels and getting most of my casual wear from Topman and River Island my current dress sense although I had this before university conforms to my group at university coincidence possibly but maybe we all became friends as are image portrayed that we are similar people.
  

To summarise why i showed you the changes of my group dynamics from the age of 8 to the present day, was that when I was 8-12 years of age the group I hung around with all got into skating and me being a young adolescent I didn't want not to be part of my group of friends so I conformed to what they were doing. Although I loved skating and the dress sense the sense of belonging was the motivation I needed to change my image. When I was 13-18 As my group at school were growing older we also started to have more attitude and began to think skating wasn't as cool as we once thought we were also influence by are older brothers and older peers who at the time wore tracksuits, Nike trainers, listened to Drum Bass and Hip Hop so we aspired to be like them this was a main influence in why our group image changed. My present day image was a choice I made myself not to want to be part of a group but a change I felt that I needed to portray a grow up image and start acting like an adult but I believe somewhere in my subconscious that it was also to belong to more grown up scene an adult group as so to speak. The interesting thing I find is parts of the groups you were in will always stick with you I still like rock music which was introduced to me when I was skating, I still like the rude boy clothes, I'm still heavily into my Drum and Bass. So although your image changes through the years your interests remain the same your current image just depends on the way you want people to perceive you almost like your clothes and style is your personality on the outside.