Essay On A Walk Around My Campus And Stereotypes

Stereotypes are rigid, oversimplified and exaggerated beliefs that are used to label or categorizing entire social groups of people and individuals. Stereotypes can be both positive or negative and can help construct ideas that feed prejudice and discrimination (Adler). However, they can be positive as well as negative. There are sexual, racial and socioeconomic stereotypes.
When taking an observational walk around campus, I started at the quad and saw three female standing talking in a circle. They were wearing expensive clothing, and were talking to each other, but also using high end cell phones at the same time. I applied my own stereotypes to these student. Even though I do not know them, I believed that they were probably not very friendly, and not very serious students. Next I crossed a parking lot where a group of younger skateboarders were congregated. There were about ten of them, and they were dressed in “skater clothing” and were a little younger than college students, maybe in high school. There were two girls, but they were not skateboarding. When I see individuals congregated in a social group, I make assumptions about their individual identity based on group stereotypes. I believe that skateboarders are reckless and wild, a not very conservative. I assume they are all listen to the same music, either rap or metal. Some probably use drugs. I make these kinds of stereotypical assumptions without knowing them personally. Finally, I saw a group of people playing Frisbee and hacky sack outside a dorm. They appear to me like “hippies” because of the clothing they wear and their long hair. Even though it was cold, they were wearing shorts and sandals. When I see people like this I also make some assumptions based on preconceived notions. I think people like this smoke marijuana, care about the environment and listen to a type of alternative hippy music, or music from the 1960’s. Often, they go to protests, like Occupy Wall Street. Again, like the “preppy” girls and skaters, I only really know about these social groups from movies and TV; I do not have many friends from these social groups, but I assume these things about their identities because of general stereotypes about them. Stereotypes are not bases on true information about a person, but a collective set of ideas that are applied to them to make them easier to identify and make snap judgments.

Work Cited

Adler, Ronald B. Interplay. the Process of Interpersonal Communication. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.