Do we care what people think of us and can we control it?

I know from my own experiences, that we as humans are self-conscious. Most of us care about what others think about us. Why do we? It is just natural human instinct to want people to like us which means we care about what they think of us. We all want to be liked and wanted which is why we strive out for friends. In order to get friends you need to have people who think highly of you and want you around.
People can easily control what others think about them. We can control the way we dress, what we say, or the way we act. One example of the way we control what people think about us is that you can dress in popular clothing styles to make people think you are cool or to fit in with a group.
There are also things we can’t control though. One thing we cannot control is our talent. We can obviously not all be star athletes. But usually people have at least one thing they are really good at and sometimes influence the people we make friends with.