People Say They Would Rather Look Uncool Than Be A Part Of These 27 Excessive Trends

No matter if you like it or not, social status is an important thing in our lives. In a nutshell, sociology describes it as the relative rank that a person holds in the social hierarchy. It comes with certain rights, duties, and lifestyles. 

So, it’s normal for people to feel like they have to achieve a certain status, whether to feel good about themselves or look better in others’ eyes. One of the common ways to do that is by trying to do similar things as people in your desired social status do. 

There’s even an interesting idiom partially tied to this phenomenon – “keep up with the Joneses.” Basically, it means to try to keep up the same (or match) lifestyle that your peers have, so you look just as good as they do. 

The phrase was coined in a comic strip by Pop Momand, which went by the same name. It was published from 1913 until 1938. The comics depicted the McGinis family, who struggled to keep up with their neighbors—the Joneses.

Since Jones is among the most common surnames in the United States, the comic’s name quickly became a commonly used and relatable phrase for all, despite the strip itself not achieving the lasting recognizable fame that others did. 

Since status-seeking remains prevalent in society even decades after the phrase's conception, it hasn't faded away either. For instance, quite recently someone on Reddit asked netizens this question: “What is your ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ that you absolutely refuse to do?” 

The catch here is that this question asks not about how people seek status, but rather how they refuse to do it, but that makes things even more interesting. Especially when you take a look at the answers the people provided, which were more than 3K. So, we combined a list of the most compelling ones for you to check out. 

As you can understand from the list items and probably from your lived experiences, not all people want to seek higher status (or at least that’s what they say publicly). Status-seeking tends to be viewed as a rather vain thing. Yet, the matter is way more complicated than simple vanity. 

This “quirk” is a product of our evolution. People are wired to seek better mates, more food, and greater safety, and while such things happened more literally back in the Stone Age or so, nowadays they evolved into a search for higher social status. 

Higher social status is proven to influence a person's longevity. For example, research found that on average Oscar winners live four years longer than other Hollywood actors. An unrelatable example you say? Well, speaking about more common people like civil servants, in the UK it was found out that the higher ranking ones live a bit longer than lower ones. 

What should be taken into consideration here is that when a person is of lower social status, typically they have less control over their working lives, and have less opportunity for social participation. All of that leads to them having greater stress, and less protection against illnesses, which shortens their life. Quite unfair, isn’t it? Well, it doesn't change the fact that it’s our reality.  

So, while seeking higher status, or trying to “keep up with the Joneses” isn’t an inherently bad thing, focusing only on that shouldn’t become the sole goal of one’s life. To prevent yourself from it happening, check out today’s list for ideas on how to resist it.