Mastering the Social Game

In response to the middle paragraphs on page 10 of 12 of Jennifer Senior's "Why You Truly Never Leave High School"

       High school has prepared us for the social culture of America. Success in modern life is determined by interactions with other people - business relations, marriages, friendships. We are all monitored by public opinion. We learn this in high school, where we are constantly being judged. You either learn to deal with it, or you fold in upon yourself. In high school we develop our social methods, and it will affect our success. How successful can you really be if you don't have the social skills to get your point across? It is a cruel world, but high school tells us that we must learn to play the game.
       Senior notes how in high school "you learn how to master social relatioinships - and to understand how, basically, to 'play the game.'" Socializing is sometimes a game, and there have been many times when I knew I was a player in it. Senior once mentioned reality TV, such as Survivor, where groups of people are playing each other and guessing at one another's true beliefs and alliances. Except the social heriarchies that form are not exclusive to television games; they are everyday formations in our lives. We must choose to live by them, or we will not win the million dollars. We are taught to conceal our emotions, put on a smile or a laugh, and come up with something witty to say. All of high school "readies us to cope." We learn how to deal with people and conform ourselves to the ideas we believe they hold. We crave acceptance, and model our actions on our beliefs of what is socially acceptable. The harsh modern world is all about confidence and the social standards that are never taught to us directly by an instructor. These standards are part of the hidden code of our society, and we are forced to learn them if we want to be successful in American culture.