There are those who are willing to engage in immoral and/or illegal behaviors in order to have a sense of belonging.
What about the individual who participates in a criminal activity, in spite of their morals and values, just to fit in? The price of fitting in doesn’t matter because the only thing that has any importance is satisfying the need to belong. We see the manifestations of this need in the news every day. Someone is always making the headlines or breaking news for this very reason – the need to fit in and belong.
The ‘Ponzi Schemers’ are an example of the need to fit in and belong to an elite group of influential and wealthy individuals. Similarly athletes who allegedly dope to win competitions are another example of the need to fit in and belong to an elite group of athletes who are at the top of their game. We may even ask why perfectly good people jeopardize so much to belong to their chosen group of elitists.
The behaviors chosen by some individuals to fit in and belong don’t necessarily have to be defined by parameters such as mischievous or illegal. For example, as a teenager you might have dropped out of school and spent all of your time connecting with other drop-outs on Facebook to fit in and belong. Or, you might have worked at a part time job as a teenager so that you could fit in with the crème de la crème group by wearing only the most expensive, trendy designer clothes and owning all of the latest electronic gadgets. You might have practiced hour after endless hour in athletics to be a star athlete so you could fit in with the popular sports jocks.
Make a list of the choices you made as a teenager to fit in and belong.
