“I’m Guessing He Was Very Popular In Prison”: 50 Times Popular Kids Seriously Messed Up

Wanting to be liked, admired, respected, and looked up to isn’t ‘wrong,’ as it’s a part of our development, but there needs to be a balance to these things. If you base your entire life around looking for other people’s approval, you’ll likely end up stressed, anxious, and chasing happiness instead of enjoying life. Giving up your uniqueness and individuality for the sake of fitting in or having a vast social network is unhealthy.

Meaningful relationships are worth investing your time and energy in, but they need to be built on a foundation of authenticity, trust, honesty, and support. True friendships require a give-and-take dynamic, as well as support through the highs and lows. If you feel like you can’t be vulnerable or that your social circle is never around when the going gets tough, that’s not friendship.

Though being popular and trying to build up your social capital in school might sound like the only thing worth fighting for at the time, when you change your environment and go to college or enter the job market, everything shifts. What made you super cool back in school might not carry over elsewhere. However, being a genuinely likable, caring, genuine, empathetic person never goes out of style.

The actual research on popularity is divided. According to the Newport Academy, the long-term effects of popularity in high school are neither good nor bad. On the one hand, having wide circles of friends can be beneficial. On the other hand, it’s the quality of those relationships, not the actual number of people you know, that actually matters.

While some research showed that having bigger circles of friends could reduce the instances of depression later in life, other studies found that higher levels of self-worth and lower levels of social anxiety and depression were linked to deeper and closer friendships, not popularity. In other words, popularity and true friendship are two very different things.

Newport Academy notes that teenagers want popularity in order to build up their independence, determine their identities, and get their friends’ approval and acceptance. However, it becomes an issue if the person starts doing risky things just to get attention, becomes addicted to social media, or starts withdrawing from their family.

Other subtle pleas for help include teenagers feeling pressured to pretend to be someone different at school or on social media and feeling lonely despite having a vast social circle. In these cases, familial support and potentially the help of a professional therapist can be invaluable.

Who were the most popular kids at school, dear Pandas? Where did their popularity come from? Did they manage to maintain their reputations until school ended or did something happen and everyone stopped thinking they were cool?

Do you think popularity and fame are worth the effort or are they something you’d rather avoid, personally? If you’re feeling up to it, share your school life experiences in the comments.