The “In Group”: Eve Shalen talks about her 8th grade class
The “Bystander Effect”
Hitler Youth Rally, excerpted from Leni Reifenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” (1935)
Psychology Electric Shock Experiment (Milgram Experiment) H from Paladin Jr on Vimeo.
Stanley Milgram’s “Obedience to Authority” experiment
More on the Stanley Milgram Experiment
Kitty Genovese
Special Topics in Walker's 8th Grade 
In the video Eve Shalen says all the kids in her 8th grade class new had known each other for at least 6 or 7 years but some of the kids found something different about a friend and they started bullying. I think that this is horrible because all the kids were the same yet they fond a way to bully someone about something they are doing when the bully’s are doing it too. Eve said that the bully’s where Popular but I don’t see how a few people can be popular if everyone likes the same thing and they are the same.
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In the most recent video, a girl talked about her eighth grade class. In the class, there were some students that were consistently bullied and she was one of them. She commented that, “It wasn’t the differences between us that caused the hate, it was the hate that caused the differences between us”. What she meant was that she wasn’t hated because she was different- the whole class was basically the same- but she was hated because the group of popular girls needed someone to pick on and alienate. To me, this was really sad. A group of people was bullied just because some others needed to feel above someone.
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The “In Group”: Eve Shalen talks about her 8th grade class. In this video, what really struck me was when Eve said, “Differences between us did not cause hatred, hatred caused the differences between us” (1:17 – 1:22). I believe that Eve is trying to bring out the point that all the students in her class were the same, not causing hatred. One day however, someone brought out a hatred causing that to be different. The girls immediately rushed to the “mean” side, in order to remain having self preservation. Not only that, but there is some kind of almost invisible like force to cause hatred to be contagious. Must be like smiling. This statement turns into a pattern. Everyone starts off the same, no hatred. One thing changes, hatred, difference. All to pull out is, why, what, who..etc? You can ask questions about every ridiculous thing out there, just as we were asking about the video in class, but some times there just is no answer. Pulling out from the information that I have I drew this conclusion. You may question it, but I may not necessarily have an answer.
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Since we watched the Eve Shalen video, I’ve been thinking about one thing that she said; that she would like to think that she would walk away now, but she can’t be sure. This concerns me because I have been wondering what I would have done. Would I have walked away, laughed with them, or said something to the diary owner or a teacher. When I first answered the question in my head, I thought that of course I would at least walk away. that’s the right thing to do! But isn’t that what most people think at first? Everyone thinks they would do the right thing, but would they? This leads to the question what would we actually do since it’s just instinct to think you would? Also, What does this say about society? I have been thinking about this for a few hours now and I’ve decided that if I was in that exact situation, I would tell the student that the diary belonged to. But if it was my friends with the diary, at most I would just walk away and keep my mouth shut, but I might stay with them and laugh. This can tell us that society wants to think that they will do everything right but in reality, they might not.
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Snowman, there are a few things you said that really made me think, especially your comment that society wants to think they will do everything right, but in reality, they may not. What makes you different from society, though, is that you ARE thinking about this–not just acting. The fact that Eve’s story caused you to consider your own decision is what sets you apart. I think that’s pretty admirable.
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I am commenting on the video: The “In Group”: Eve Shalen talks about her 8th grade class.
In the video, Eve talks about her eighth-grade class. She said that she had known the people since she was little. She said, that she was one of the few kids in the class that got picked on. One day, one of the more popular girls from her class asked her if she wanted to see something, eventually turning into instead of Eve being bullied, her bullying someone else. One thing that stuck out to me in the video that she said was:
“Often being accepted by others is far more satisfying then being accepted by one slf. Though that satisfaction does not last, too often our actions are determined by THE MOMENT”
I think that she is right. Most times when given (for her) an opportunity to finally feel like you are ‘fitting in’, you want to take it, and do not think of the consequences. So yes, you may feel happy momentarily, but afterwards you will probably feel like it was a mistake.
Also, many times people are asked- what would you do in that situation today? I think that this question can not be answered until you are in that situation. In the video, Eve said that she hopes to have learned her lesson and not make the mistake again.
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Im replying to the Eve Shalen video. Some things Eve said I connect with. I went through 1st through 6th grade being bullied. In first grade i was an outcast, I came to the grade late so all of the friend groups had already been made and I was not in any of them. I was younger than the rest of my grade and less mature which had made me an easier target for bullying. Im skipping a period of time here that im not specifying on. A few years later I had made a friend. We were friends because of a condition that she had made that I had naively agreed to, so our friendship was on shaky ground. Therefore I ended up laughing at people and talking about them behind their backs for the sake of being liked, as i only had one friend. I am not saying what happened to me afterwards. Unlike Eve’s class, in our class some people knew how to play sports, some people were bookworms, some everyone liked just because, and some were just plain different and “weird” (i fit into the last category). So instead of everyone being the same with no obvious reason to bully, there were obvious reasons.
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I think that it was interesting when she said that it was better to be accepted by everybody else, than to only have you be happy with who you are. I think that it isn’t moral to do what’s wrong and feel happy because people have accepted you. Instead, we should be an up-stander: say it’s wrong and it will change. But that is hard thing to do. I think this relates to A Break with Charity. In A Break with Charity, Susanna wants to fit in, but she wants to do what’s right. I think that we should try hard to do the right thing, but we can’t promise that we always will.
P.S. Yes, you should be worried that Voldemort is posting on your blog.
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You-Know-Who (or should I say Voldemort?), you write that we should be upstanders, but that this is a very hard thing to do. I couldn’t agree more. Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to be an upstander, but just couldn’t bring yourself to do it? I have.
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After both seeing the video in class and now I feel that I have a better understanding of the video. The video talks about bullying. In the video it talks about Popularity. What is popularity? Popularity is when you are admired by others, But who really admires you? If your “POPULAR” Then are you admired? No, Most people think your mean,selfish,rude and horrible! Eve talks about how all the kids are the same. They are all sort of nerdy book readers. But then a group of kids decided that they were the popular ones. So who appointed them? Themselves. Eve also talks about a situation she was in. There was this girl who was bullied worse then her, but she was invited to read her diary.She didn’t think twice before she was giggling with the other girls. I think this shows how screwed up society is. The fact that we are sort of peer pressured into making fun of others. I feel like its the circle of life. KIDS..SCHOOL..POPULARITY..BULLYING..PEER PRESSURE..GUILTY 😦 She also brought up that she doesn’t know for a fact that she wouldn’t do it again but she might. But no one knows the future right?
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ATLA, you bring up some very good points, especially when you point out that no one really likes the “popular” kids, they just fake it. I pretty much agree. Yet, they still follow her, right? You write, “Who appointed them? Themselves.” But I wonder if it’s that simple. I mean, they cn appoint themselves anything, but it doesn’t really mean anything unless everyone else goes along with it, right? Also, you write that this is the “circle of life,” as though this is inevitable. School (and life) will always be this way. But why is that case? I mean, if the popular girl is only getting power from the followers, then why can’t her followers just decide to think for themselves–since they don’t really like her anyway? It seems to me that the followers have the most power, if they want it, because they have strength in numbers. All they have to do is say no. What are your thoughts?
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“The in group” I can relate to the part when she says That she hopes that she would have turned around on what she did but shes not for sure because you never know on what you would do if you knew different in the past. All of us, well most of us have done something mean that has hurt somebody’s feelings and want to turn back on what they did , because they realized what they did was cruel and demeaning. We all wish that we would have done the right thing. But time travel hasnt beern invented yet. Everything happens for a reason. Even though that may have hurt someone’s feelings and made them cruddy about themselves and emarssessed. Its there to teach us something. To teach us something about the past. To make us realize that being mean isnt the right thing to do even though it means we get to “fit in”.
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This girls story is both sad and interesting. She started by saying that her class was closely knit. This made me think that they must all be close a nice to each other. But then she said that these few people decided that there was a need for bullying. She said that no one had qualities that were significantly different from each other. So she was confused about why she was getting bullied. She said that she was judged because she was wearing the wrong clothes or wearing her hair wrong. This made me think. Who gets to decide what clothes are the wrong clothes? Or what hair style is the wrong hair style? Who gets to decide who is popular?
I also found it interesting that when given the chance, she didn’t think twice about bullying another girl. This made me think about if I have ever been in this position without knowing it. After awhile of thinking, I realized that yes, I have done this. It made me feel horrible. But it also made me more aware. So, next time if I am put in the position of bullying someone I will know and won’t do something bad without knowing it.
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This video is just sort of sad to me. The main reason why is because this could happen to anybody. Any person can be become a outsider just so there can be one and that same person can become an insider just by doing the popular thing, even if that thing isn’t the best choice. Another thing that makes video sad is that bullying and being a bully can happen and be anyone. People can say that the bully a another type of person “never going to be me” but the bully isn’t a different type of person, it’s us. Just like in this video, the girl said she was one of the few people in her last who was bullied, though when a got a chance to fit in she also bulied. Many times people who are considered bullies and often bullied themselves either by family or other people around them.
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