For a while now, many school districts across the country are striving towards making sure the children attending understand and are aware of the phrase “peer pressure”. Peer pressure is when someone is influenced by others into doing or saying something that they would not normally do or say on their own. Especially in elementary and middle schools, children are very susceptible to this, when they’re not mature enough to stand up for themselves and put their foot down on a matter. However, peer pressure can and does occur in adult life as well. An example would be if a man who does not have a habit of visiting local bars and drinking is pressured by his coworkers into joining them in doing so. While peer pressure does not necessarily always lead to negative activities, it is more often than not that this is the case. After all, when one is being pressured into doing something, usually, they must be persuaded into doing it for a reason, such as when the action goes against their morals or natural instincts.
Peer pressure is different from being advised or encouraged by someone close and trusted, say, a parent or spouse, in that they want the best for their loved one and believe that doing a certain thing will benefit them. In contrast, when one is under the influence of true peer pressure, they will be goaded by the people around them into doing something by making it seem fun, innocent, and beneficial, while in reality they either don’t know or don’t care that it isn’t. There is no interest in the well—being of the person being pressured; it Lies back to why peer pressure has negative connotations. When someone is doing drugs and tries to get someone to partake in them with him, more likely than not he doesn‘t think twice about the effects it would have on that person, despite knowing and experiencing them himself.
Sometimes one doesn’t even realize they are under the influence of peer pressure, All they know is that absolutely everyone around them is doing something, or at least all the people that matter, and they feel the need to get in on the action. This need comes from the fear of standing out and being different, which is another effect of peer pressure and the things that occur when one doesn’t conform to the actions of their peers, A good example of this is when a group of cheerleaders are picking on a new girl in school, and to fit in with her fellow cheerleader peers, another member of the team joins in, also to avoid the risk of being picked on herself for not doing so. Peer pressure can be seen applied in different forms.
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It can come in the form of appealing to another by describing how wonderful participating in an action is, or 7 the complete opposite — threatening another with either physical punishment or the termination of their “friendship”. At times it can even happen both ways for the same situation. It can also occur, as mentioned earlier, without knowledge of being pressured, and this can even be said for the people one is being pressured by; that is, not even they realize they are the source. It could be that they are just going about their own business, and enough people are doing the same thing as they are that they form a cause of peer pressure for others.
Thankfully, this has been noticed happening in our society, and measures are being taken to help ease the need of conformity. Articles have been written on how to recognize the signs of peer pressure and ways to stand up for oneself against them. There are even several movies depicting the protagonist accepting that they are different and realizing that it’s perfectly fine to be oneself and stand out of the crowd it gets difficult to offer aid in the cases where there is no conscious knowledge of pressuring or being pressured, which is why it‘s extremely important that schools teach children at a young age what peer pressure means, that is influenced by others into an action that one wouldn’t perform on their own is wrong and even dangerous, and most crucially, how to avoid such situations.
