I was reading the Lifestyle section of The Sunday Times (23/3/08) when an article titled “Art or mutilation” caught my attention. The article states that implants of silicon or Teflon beads can be inserted under our skin, forming raised designs and patterns. The process is painful and is also potentially hazardous to our health as infections can easily set in. However, this has not stopped 28- year-old Alexx Ng, a self-employed investment agent, and his 10 or more friends from doing it. Alexx has a total of 18 Teflon beads, each size of a 50-cent coin and a star-shaped silicone implant under the skin of his right arm. In the article, he mentioned that he was not an attention seeker and he did not really know why he did it.
Personally, I felt that Alexx went for the Teflon implants because he wants to be liked by the people that he is mixing with, and this is an example of normative conformity. Normative conformity occurs when people are influenced by others to gain rewards or to avoid punishment In Alexx’s case, the reward that he gets by doing what his friends does, is to be able to maintain positive relationships with them. In addition, perhaps Alexx felt that should he not do what his friends does, his friends would ostracise him, thus to prevent himself from being excluded, he went for the implants.
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3 comments:
We see hear and see such comformity happenning around us all the time, don't we? Esp in our secondary school days when the need to belong to a group is how we identify ourselves with.
I agreed that normative conformity can be seen. Especially when Alexx do not really know why he actually implanted the Teflon beads. Base on the textbook, conformity actually decreases as the age increases. But apparently, Alexx still felt the pressure to conform so as to be accepted among his group of friends.
i'd like to think of this as individualism, even though he has friends who has done tattoos and implants. it's a personal preference i think.
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