Lifestyle of Pluralism Assignment: According to Milner, “lifestyle pluralism is a mélange of relatively unranked groups that have differing lifestyles and discernable social boundaries” (Milner, 2016, p. 111). The example given include groups in high schools like the jocks, preps, nerd, skaters, etc. I do agree with Milner that lifestyle pluralism exists and is inevitable. Students do not have much of a choice to participant in the concept of lifestyle pluralism due to the observation that these groups are “clearly limited by income, cultural capital, family connections, and physical attributes” (Milner, 2016, p. 112). I personally ran into these situations in high school. Everyone was so quick to categorize other students, even if a peer was not the way others categorized them. For example, the skaters at my high school had a stigma against them for being below average students. Their appearance, posture, and sometimes attitudes gave off the impression that they did not care about their grades. There was many of them though, that although outwardly did not appear paying attention, still aced their courses with flying colors. Generalization is rarely accurate.

Milner, M. (2015). Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: Teenagers in an Era of Consumerism, Standardized Tests, and Social Media (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Milner describes the ‘status’ in teenage crowds to be a different example and a category of its own in comparison to how society itself perceives the meaning of ‘status’ applied in the real world, although they are in some ways somewhat similar (Milner Jr., 2015); he goes on to explain that “For teenagers, acceptance or rejection by peer cliques and crowds—preps, jocks, nerds, etc.—is often perceived to be much more important than academic success. Some become virtually obsessed with social distinctions made by their peers.” (Milner Jr., 2015).Lifestyle of Pluralism Assignment

As terrible as it is, I agree with Milner’s argument. During the most vulnerable phase in one’s life, being a teenager and going through lots of changes both physically and mentally and majority of teens have the need to feel accepted by society or their peers mostly. They feel a sense of accomplishment or belonging when this happens. Unfortunately, during the teenage years, most teens are heavily influenced by their friends and peers more than other influences and this creates a big impact on their self confidence an self worth; I’ve witnessed this among my peers and friends back in high school and just my peers generally from my own experiences.Lifestyle of Pluralism Assignment