Corporations are the new High School

Today I lost access to a few of my favorite websites from my work computer. Before you begin inquiring as to how mach porn websites I was going too, I will tell you now. None, no porn, zero, zilch, nada, my viewing experience was whole hearted in nature and execution. With that being said I have been denied access to the enjoyable review and commentary sites of IGN, Gamespy, 1UP and - the ever important cornerstone of the internet - Youtube. Additional the - jewel encrusted grand crowned emperor of my internet buffet - Penny Arcade has been banished from the electronic realms of my work. I am sure there are those that have resisted this movement and even now are once again finding alternate routes back to their sites of choice.







Regardless of the actions of others, my co-worker commented that "thankfully" Youtube is now blocked here and at every other high school in America. Then as quickly as Zeus dropping a buck with a lightning bolt from 200 yards it occurred to me, Corporations are very much like high school. When you look at them at first you would think they don’t have very much in common. But if you ponder the social rules, situations and enviroments that are present in each you can find similarities between them.

Both have large masses of people coming to a common building. Both have mind numbing tasks that seem to have no real purpose until you complete project and realize you where but one piece of a vast array trying to work harmoniously toward the same end goal. Within both there exists clicks, groups, clubs, teams that work together, fall apart, pursue common goals together and back stab each other for personal gain. In my opinion if you name just about any cliché plot device or problem from any high school movie short of something about prom and you’ll find within the Corporate World. (Although the thought of a corporate prom is funny, coworkers building up courage to ask each other to the prom, a band playing “Wonderful Tonight” to couples slowly dancing while making out. The fear that each others braces will lock together.) People within both are trying their hardest to be accepted and liked by others around them in order to better gauge the successes in their life.

Perhaps it is not that Corporations are like high school but rather the rules of society are created in high school and then refined through the rest of your life. In that way we can see the similarities between the two but also acknowledge the vast differences in the motivations behind our actions.