SES-homogeneity/diversity of social circles

[cobrat]

Depends on venue and how open one is to socializing. For instance, there’s quite a bit of SES diversity in some corners of the indie performing arts world IME. Performers and participants I’ve known range from working-class or low income to genuinely wealthy folks whether they be trustafarians or those who earned it by their own efforts/talents. Sometimes, this works well and other times, there’s some tensions when the disparate worldviews clash.

Also, while my public had mostly lower-SES/immigrant students when I attended, there was a sizable minority upper/upper-middle class contingent there who mostly came from well-heeled private K-8 before opting for our public magnet due to strong interests in STEM and/or an independent streak which preferred being in a more “hands-off” environment.

This was how I became part of a HS social circle which enabled me and another classmate to spend a long weekend in the East Hamptons the summer after HS graduation. Parents of HS classmate in question were understanding enough to endure the horrified reactions of some of the denizens to the riffraff vibe I and the other friend gave off while he reveled in them as he felt the level of pretentiousness of some of his/his parents’ summer neighbors were ridiculous. Also, part of this might be a 17-18 year old male thing…

College can be an unusual case, since a college may have SES-diverse incoming students (not necessarily the case for all colleges), but SES-homogeneous graduates (most colleges and students see it as a goal, or at least a beneficial side-effect, that college will help students move or stay out of low SES, and bachelor’s degree attainment itself is often considered an indication of middle to high SES).

Colleges can be great facilitators for this, but they can only go so far in face of factors such as level of work ethic/effort/talent of individual student or larger events like being unlucky to be seriously affected by say…a recession like the one in 2008. There’s also a chance students from higher SES families could experience serious downward mobility.

This is something I’ve noticed with some college classmates as since graduation, our respective SES positions have done a 180 degree flip. It’s been a very delicate situation considering it’s arguably harder to come from an upper-middle class or higher background from childhood only to later experience financial setbacks which means one ends up in a much lower SES position not only economically, but also economically as one no longer has the financial means to continue undertaking activities associated with upper-middle class or higher lifestyles in our society.