to wonder if 'popular' and 'well liked' mean the same thing

[Lydiaatthebarre]

When I was growing up 'popular' usually meant people who were well liked, nice girls - probably more bubbly and outgoing than most of the other kids but never mean or nasty.

But nowadays, and from reading threads on here, it often seems to apply to kids who are cool, super confident and often quite unkind to other girls that they consider less sophisticated or less into fashion etc than they are.

Just wondering if popular and well liked no longer mean the same thing?

I'm quite old and when I was young popular did not necessarily mean nice. Quite the opposite very often.

Popular and well liked in a school setting have rarely meant the same in my experience.
Popular people were those who seemed to have something that other people aspired to have which meant there was a lot of competition to be their friend.
Well liked was usually someone who was so innocuous nobody could find anything bad to say about them.
At my school the well liked kids were not the popular kids.....

Okay. I grew up assuming popular meant being really nice and everyone liking you. But I suppose it means being the kind of girl who gets asked to parties etc.

I remember in the Malory Tower books Miss Grayling describing Alicia as the kind of girl who would always win admiration and envy but not genuine affection, so maybe popular was ever thus.

I remember in the Malory Tower books Miss Grayling describing Alicia as the kind of girl who would always win admiration and envy but not genuine affection, so maybe popular was ever thus.

@Lydiaatthebarre This took me right back - I loved Malory Towers as a kid! I may have to reread