People's attitudes are determined more by their immediate situation or surroundings than by society as a whole.

People are social beings. The advancement of our species has been majorly influenced by interaction with each other and exchanging fungible knowledge. This mutual exchange can be traced back to the primeval days of homo sapiens and hunter gatherers, where people used to form "groups" and share any new contrivances with each other. As humans evolved, these small groups, of which they form a part, played a crucial role in determining the attitudes towards each other. Rather than predicating an opinion on the societal behaviour, people began to behave based on the attitudes of people in their circle. In my opinion, I mostly agree with the prompt that people's attitudes are heavily influenced by their mileau, to this day due to the following two reasons. Firstly, most people spend majority of their time within small social or soietal circles in today's digital world. Since their interaction with the outside world, or outside their "circle" is limited, their everyday attitudes are not, for the most part, determined by people outside their immediate surroundings. For instance, a software employee, having worked 12 hours a day, and vexed by the haughty and inclement behaviour of his boss, could very well be irascible when he comes home. maybe the society or the city he is living is ebullient and lively, but his life might not reflect the same elements. This is very commonly observed in our quotidian life. To quote another example, a student might be recalcitrant at his / her bullies. This resentment does not have to do anything with the outside world, rather the bullied student's attitude is based on the way people in his / her surroundings treat him / her. From the above two examples, which are commnly observed in our day-to-daylife, it can be inferred that a person can remain indifferent to a society's attitudes, and gives more importance to the behaviour of the"known" people, whom he / she encounters daily. Secondly, people are more influenced by the environment they are brought up, since it is strongly entrenched in their minds. For example, a person coming from penury might have a strong determination to bring his / her family out of poverty. His / her attitude is strongly contingent upon the sufferings of family membets at home. This situation is overt in India. When we look at major "cities" of India, and then observe the coterminous slums, there is a stark contrast. This severely affects the behaviour of people. The rich might spend their money in a profligate way, because they are brought up in affluent surroundings, while the poor might be striving to earn a penny. A person's attitude ultimately depends on the living conditions he / she is brought up and the small circle he / she is a part of. Though some might argue that when a whole society is full of vice, and heinous crimes and incidents would severly affect a person watching it on a news channel, though it did not take in his / her neighbourhood, the effect of such incidents is ephemeral. The general attitude of a person is largely dependent upon his family, friends and foes. A common person's attitude may or may not be compatible with that of society's but it is the small circle that he / she is a part of, where most of the life is spent.