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A review by melhara
Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World by Mitch Prinstein
4.0
A very interesting analysis on “likability,” why we admire people who are more popular, and why we crave attention/popularity.
I found the “popularity” comparisons drawn between highschool and life after highschool to be pretty fascinating. For example, Prinstein claims that the way we admire celebrities or people with a higher status and picture ourselves being friends with them (or wishing they’d be your future wife/husband) is similar to the way we (not-so-popular kids) admired and wanted to be friends with the popular kid in school and craved to be noticed.
It’s important to note that Prinstein’s concepts are not necessarily universal - the concept of “popularity” is a social construct based on a society’s culture. A “popular kid” in Asia would not necessarily be considered “popular” in an American high school. Therefore, it’s important to distinguish that a lot of the key concepts that are shared in this book mostly applies to the average American.
I loved the sections of the book that focused on the implications that social media has on popularity. Social media sites have basically redefined social status and popularity by basing it on the number of ‘likes,’‘subscribers’ or ‘friends’ that we have online. It’s very reminiscent of one of my favourite Black Mirror episodes, Nosedive.
(if you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out)
The last few chapters of this book focused on child development and what parents can do to make their children more likable. I might revisit this when I have children of my own.
We never really left highschool at all.
I found the “popularity” comparisons drawn between highschool and life after highschool to be pretty fascinating. For example, Prinstein claims that the way we admire celebrities or people with a higher status and picture ourselves being friends with them (or wishing they’d be your future wife/husband) is similar to the way we (not-so-popular kids) admired and wanted to be friends with the popular kid in school and craved to be noticed.
It’s important to note that Prinstein’s concepts are not necessarily universal - the concept of “popularity” is a social construct based on a society’s culture. A “popular kid” in Asia would not necessarily be considered “popular” in an American high school. Therefore, it’s important to distinguish that a lot of the key concepts that are shared in this book mostly applies to the average American.
I loved the sections of the book that focused on the implications that social media has on popularity. Social media sites have basically redefined social status and popularity by basing it on the number of ‘likes,’‘subscribers’ or ‘friends’ that we have online. It’s very reminiscent of one of my favourite Black Mirror episodes, Nosedive.
(if you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out)
The last few chapters of this book focused on child development and what parents can do to make their children more likable. I might revisit this when I have children of my own.