PEER PRESSURE

PEER PRESSURE

        In today’s world of modernisation, peer pressure is a common problem especially among teenagers and youths as the younger group of people are likely to be influenced by others. Peer pressure can be simply be defined as influence from a certain peer group and the word peer refers to people of the same age. So basically, peer pressure comes from people of the same age group who influence other people who are the same age. Peer pressure has many effects that depend on the characteristics of the peer group such as the behaviour, ability to make decisions and awareness of their actions. Some of these effects can be positive while other effects can be negative and these effects can be long term. We humans are easily influenced by others therefore it is important to choose the right people to socialise with or else negative influences from peer pressure will get the better of us.

          Peer pressure in teenagers is one of the biggest issues for adolescents because they are still young and can’t make proper decisions. Friends of the same age often times encourage each other to try a new activity and many of these new activities are dangerous or simply wrong to do. For instance, a teenager influences his friend to smoke and do drug abuse because to him, it’s fun while his friend doesn’t want to be left out so he ends up following that teenager. The unstable emotions of teenagers make it difficult for them to make rational decisions so they end up getting heavily influenced by their peer group and often times getting into trouble. It is a normal situation for any teenager to get influenced by his or her peers and he or she would just follow what his or her friends urge them to do. Teenagers don’t want to feel alone, left out, and all by themselves so they will start influencing each other in order to stay socialised. 

          Even when it comes to serious matters, such as studies and work, we still get influenced by our peers even though we are certain of our own decisions. Some students influence other students and tell them that studying too much is bad even though to them, studying for long hours is a normal thing to do. Each individual has his or her own way of carrying out their tasks and they should not get heavily influenced by their peers who are just trying to bring them down. For example, a student who is serious and focused in his studies should not get influenced from another student who is playful even if he is smarter. Some people use peer pressure to bring down another person, especially if the other person is a rival and in this case peer pressure becomes a weapon. This can be shown when a hardworking person is being influenced by his peer who urges and encourages him to become a slacker indirectly. A good example would be when a person encourages his ‘friend’ who is hardworking to watch a movie during the time he should be studying. This is when peer pressure is used as a hidden weapon to bring down others.  

          Sometimes, we follow our peer group’s decisions because we are stressed up and in need of socialising and some entertainment. There are times when the working or studying environment gets really tough to handle and we feel like we just want to break free from the walls of school and office. In these situations, peer pressure starts kicking in when others start influencing us in many ways that seem to help us. We might end up loitering or wasting time at a shopping mall but for most people, this is the golden moment to be spent with their peers. However, if the peer pressure is not managed properly, we will be using our peer’s influence to benefit ourselves in bad ways. For example, after studying for long hours throughout the whole week, we get influenced by our peers to watch a movie in a theatre but we might spend more than enough time there just to entertain ourselves excessively. This could result into ourselves procrastinating and wasting a lot of time. 

          Peer pressure is also caused due to the need to socialise well with others. Many young people enjoy socialising with others who are materialistic, and choosy about the way their peers act. This is the reason why many youngsters are obsessed with anything that is popular in pop culture such as communication technology, fashion and entertainment. All of these forms of pop culture are driving youngsters into influencing each other through peer pressure and many youngsters compete to be popular and socially accepted by their peers. The youngsters of today are so interested in pop culture that they tend to forget their priorities such as work, studies and behaviour. Some youngsters will do anything to get accepted by their friends thanks to peer pressure and they will end up committing crimes. The peer pressure affects the psychology of the people as they will compete in order to be able to socialise and be accepted by their friends of the same age. This kind of competition is unhealthy as there is no need to compete to be accepted by friends as real friends will accept the people they can trust and not those who are interested in being popular.

          To summarise my explanation on peer pressure, it is important that we avoid negative influences from our peers as these influences will affect our thinking. We have to stay focused on our dreams and goals so that we can block the influences from our peers. The best way is to keep an eye on the goals we desire and to keep on working until we achieve them without the need of bad influences from our peers. Although our peers are still our friends, we must be aware of their bad influences that they will try to rub on us.