Lugo 1 Brittany Lugo ENC 1101 Miss Shelton November 28, 2011 Paper choice: 1

Surrogates and their Influence

When you think about all the time spent educating yourself in school, you realize that there is a beneficial significance in completing high school and receiving your diploma. We are so greatly influenced by outsiders in our own decisions and dreams to continue our education by going to colleges and universities. For example, surrogates. A surrogate is a person that has personal experience on a topic or issue in which someone else is inquiring. Major surrogates in a college setting positively influence a transitioning student from high school into adulthood because as they encourage their students to pursue their dreams by furthering their education while influencing them to be more involved within their community. Some forms of surrugates include parents and friends. These groups of people have an impact on how students make decision regarding academic work, extracurricular activities and party life. In Daniel Gilbert's "Reporting live from tomorrow " Gilbert mentions surrogates and how everyone can learn from them. He also touches on super-replicating beliefs, beliefs that are carried out from generation to generation in society that sets a bar of standards in this case of what a college experience is suppose to be like. In Rebekah Nathan's community and diversity, she describes how a college community can also influence a student's college experience by promoting methods like group activities and community programs to get students involved. Society has the ability to predict the way young adults plan their life

Lugo 2 leading into their adulthood by attending a four year university, and being able to get a well-rounded college experience. Society plays an important role on how we think, and how we view life. A type of surrogate would be Parents who are giving advice to their child going to college. Parents want to make sure their child goes to college , and picks the right degree for a worry-free career. A student's opinion of a cool career is most likely different than their parents. The super-replicating belief that money brings happiness influences parents views on what a great career is. It makes them believe the better job is one that makes a great amount of money, besides the one that's more enjoyable. The relationship between the student and the parent is a strong connection because the student is young and inexperienced with life itself. The parent has had a longer life experience; so, their wisdom on life is more valuable. The more someone can learn prior doing it themselves, the better chance they will have at making the right decisions. As Gilbert wrote, "When people are deprived of the information that imagination requires they're forced to use others as surrogates, which suggests that the best way to predict our feelings tomorrow is to see how others are feeling today"(Gilbert, 181). This quote briefly explains that we depend on others to help us make future decisions on matters which we don't have extensive knowledge in. College freshmen beginning the journey of adulthood. They are entering a whole new world in which they know very little about. Program leaders such as Room assistant's (RA) would be considered as a surrogate in the community in which the student is being introduced to. They affect and influence decisions and life choices the student will make because, they are committed to importing knowledge into every college student so that students are able to know every aspect of topics they may encounter while at a university . Rebekah nathan explains that Students are confronted with an endless slate of activities vying for their time(Nathan 230). There will be information given by these surrogates that would most likely be helpful in the end because, it is experiences from the past and sometimes things change. Other

Lugo 3 positive surrogates such as older siblings, friends and associates also assist student's in their college experience. Most of them have either been through the lifestyle recently, or is currently experiencing it. They summarize the college lifestyle by giving the Do's and Don'ts, allowing students to learn from their mistakes and start with some knowledge of college. These types of people Gilbert explains that, "it is also true that when people tell us about their current experiences, they are providing us with the kind of report about their subjective state that is considered the golden standard of happiness measures"(Gilbert, 177). The relationship with these Surrogates is more stronger than the parents because they are younger with younger experiences that seem more relevant to the student. Therefore, Information given by this group of people would relate more to the student due to it being current. Though peers, and older sibling's are considered Positive Surrogates they can be a negative influence . This group of people have not yet matured enough in the sense where they know the correct direction in life. As Gilbert mentioned, "we recognize that our decisions are influenced by social norms"(Gilbert 182). College student's as well as young adults love the freedom and party lifestyle. They enjoy the independency and are still trying to figure out life. The super-replicating belief that college is about getting wild, partying and drinking has been rendered amongst students giving negative influential beliefs to incoming Freshman students. The sorority and fraternity life is a trend and most students feel that's the highlight of college life. Peers are surrogates have the most influence on students but less experience. They are experiencing the same things and can relate the best to each other. When they explain their situations and experiences, they can ensure to give advice on negative aspects of college if it is not too late. Peers are mostly used as surrogates for the party lifestyle. For example, a group of friends see their friend leave from a club with a guy she barely knew while under the influence of alcoholic substances. They see her the next day and she shares her experience of waking up in a strange environment uncomfortable and has memory lapse of anything that occurred the previous night. Her friends now learn from her experience and will never consume a large amount of alcohol at a party.She

Lugo 4 was a positive surrogate for these students. Drinking and partying are not abnormal, these are part of the social norms in college. Society has it's standards for young adults who graduate high school, to continue their education at a four year university, and get a great paying Job. In every commercial for colleges they mention higher paying jobs, and success. They enforce the thought that it is impossible to be successful without a college degree. Students grow up hearing that they must go to college and they have to pursue a career. Society is influential in every area, whether it's the media, Parents, Teachers or peers. The elders use their positive influence to guide student's through this time period to help ensure that they make the right choices so that they can fulfill these expectations. Although this type of guidance is available to students, they sometimes have to learn by their own experiences of wrong choices. " We know that our choices sometimes reflect our aversions, but we assume that other people's choices reflect their appetites"(Gilbert 182). They have to be their own surrogates sometimes, experiencing life on their own so that they can be someone else's surrogate. In the end, it's the student's choice to give themselves a well rounded college experience without having to suffer consequences. We go through life learning new things each day. Society gives us many opportunities to make the right choices, whether we learn by observing, or we learn by hearing from other surrogates experiences. In the text, Gilbert mentions that , " The information we need to make accurate predictions of our emotional futures is right under our noses" (Gilbert 184). We have everything that we need to make smart choices in life Although, It's not always the smartest thing to believe everything people say; but, when they explain their experiences and beliefs it's best to listen to see if there is something to learn, important information that can help plan their futures. Gilbert says " we think of ourselves as unique entities, minds unlike any other, and thus we often reject the lessons that the emotional experience of others has to teach us." (Gilbert 184). This meaning that we are so stuck to believing that we are how Gilbert would say "Superior" human beings,we believe we can handle everything on our own.By doing this we don't give

Lugo 5 opportunities to hear someone else's opinions or wisdom based on their experience. Surrogates help student's recognize that they don't necessarily know everything about college life and what's in store for the future.As Gilbert stated, "we experience our own thoughts and feelings but must infer that other people are experiencing theirs"(Gilbert 182). This means that we make ourselves seem as if we don't need anyone, but in reality everyone needs each other. Everyone can benefit from surrogates. They help us to make life choices based on their experiences. Based on Daniel Gilbert's beliefs, a person should not imagine how their future will turn out, but they should predict what will happen based on decisions made from other people's life experiences. As Gilbert would say Imagination shortcoming is it's failure to recognize that things will look different once they happen, in particular , bad things will look better(Gilbert 180). Our imagination can trick us into thinking things will look better after we try it. So why try things that have the opportunity to go bad, when you can sit and learn about a similar situation from someone else. Society has the ability to predict the way young adults should plan their life leading into their adulthood, and is able to give feedback on life and its consequences.

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Work cited Gilbert, Daniel. " Reporting Live from Tomorrow." Emerging contemporary Readings for Writers. Ed. Barclay Barrios. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 169-189. Print. Nathan, Rebekah. Reporting Live from Tomorrow." Emerging contemporary Readings for Writers.Ed. Barclay Barrios. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 169-189. Print.