conformity part 3

I have been thinking about conformity and about what i want to ask my grandparents about what they have had to have gone through and their experiences and what pressures they had to conform.  Some of the questions that i am going to ask is if they could go back in the past and do something different, then what would they do? I am asking this question because sometimes there are things that we are not aware that put pressure on us and we realize it later on in life.  I have witnessed this with my own mother who was pressured into learning the piano and when i ask her why did she do it, she says that her mother, when they came to America, thought that everyone does it .  Another question i want to ask is about the effect of media and how much newspaper, t and movies effected pressures to conform such as cosmetics and cloths.  Another question that i want to ask is what were the different fads that were going on when they lived and why  didn't everyone just join in, was it pressures in school and were people chastised for not following the norm?  Also what was their parents influence on marriage as well as other parts of society? How much were their parents involved and how much did they have to live up to their parents expectations.  These are just a few of the questions that i want to ask my family to get a sense of conformity a few generations back.