Anthony Liccione once said, “Some people will just go with the flow of things and sway in life, while others will fight against the currents and go upstream to reach their destiny.” So many people spend their entire lives following the acts of others, trying to fit in, instead of carving out their own path to become a great individual of their own. We live in a world that is run by social media, where celebrities influence the minds of almost everyone. Fame and fortune are the two biggest influences on human behavior today, people are willing to do almost anything to be noticed. However, being noticed by doing good deeds is more important than being noticed for the wrong reasons. By being a good role model for future generations, we can have a positive impact on the decisions they make that will affect the world they live in. To begin, peer pressure is often misinterpreted by older generations, who think it is teenagers strong arming others into doing things they should not be doing. The bully type attitude towards peer pressure is completely nonexistent in the world today, and the real problem lies in subtle influences that teenagers are exposed to. For example, going out to a party where drugs are present is likely to cause teenagers to become curious and feel the need to fit in with everyone else. While they are not being told to follow along, they do so anyways because of the belief that people are judging them. Nobody likes to be judged, and the best way to avoid that situation is to just follow along and become part of the crowd. Statistics show that teenagers are more likely to have friends with people who have the same interests as them. If one of those friends becomes interested in alcohol, the other person is more likel... ... middle of paper ... ...n both positive and negative ways and is often thought of wrongly. Times have changed, and the internal struggle of not wanting to be judged pushes teenagers to give in to things we have considered, “societal norms”. While negative peer pressure still exists, examples of positive peer pressure can be found in pushing each other academically and athletically to become a more well rounded person. Furthermore, dealing with peer pressure often includes becoming a good role model for younger generations to follow. Setting a good example and doing good deeds is not only the duty of a catholic in society, but it is the right way to have a positive impact on society and strengthen the community. Role models are essential in life, they steer the ship back on course and guide it in the right direction to allow teenagers to to fight against the current and reach their destiny.
According to "Peer Pressure Statistics & Facts," the statistic for the number of young adults who consumed alcohol due to peer pressure was more than 75%. Drinking is a social activity, therefore adolescents will most likely never drink on their own (Gibbons et al., 2003; Pomery et al., 2009). One's years as an adolescent are highly stressful, and there's a lot of pressure on them to fit in with their peers. Teens begin to highly value their relationships with their peers during this time period and the importance of the opinions and attention of others are highly increased (Burnett et al., 2011; Nelson et al., 2005; Steinberg, 2008). An article on "Psychology Today" adds that "…brain imaging studies have shown that several areas of the brain make adolescents more sensitive to the rewards of peer relationships than adults" (Albert, Chein, & Steinberg, 2013). They crave social acceptance so they will turn to their peer norms to see how much they should be drinking, how they should behave when they are drinking, and so on. Another quote says that "Indeed, several studies showed that peer norms are predictive of adolescents' willingness to drink (Blanton et al., 1997; Gibbons et al., 2004; Ouellette et al., 1999). With that said, it is clear that there is a strong connection between the influence of others and the teen's willingness to drink. An article on "Drug Rehab Services" talks about how around 40% of Canadian tenth grade student had a consumed alcohol in the past year, show by a survey in 2001. Of those teens, many of them drank at an even younger age which was shown to be some form of peer pressure including from friends, or movie, and music industry influences. It is much easier said than done
One should remember that not all peer pressure is bad, although that is mostly what you see today. Good peer pressure needs to be done more, because why would you want to make someone do something bad, instead of helping them do something good and impacting them, because honestly who would want a worse world rather than a better one? Truly the way to improve our lives as human beings lies on peer pressure, it is at the core of ways we can make a change for a better, and not more for the
One of the biggest factors for teens using drugs is peer pressure. The definition of peer pressure is “social pressure by members of one's peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted.” The desire to fit in ensures that there is always new teens that may later become addicted. This is an important factor when it comes to drug use.
Peer pressure strongly influences teenagers to drink. During the teenage years it is generally very important for teenagers to feel they are one of the group and that they fit in and are not different. Teenagers who feel unpopular sometimes drink alcohol to fit in, even though they may not choose to do so otherwise. One example of this is binge drinking in college fraternities and sororities.
Remember your first cigarette? How about your first beer? First puff on a fatty? What about jumping off the old bridge into the creek? What/who convinced you to do it? Friends...Right? Peer Pressure: Influence from members of one's peer group (and a hard thing to resist if you ask me). Well, studies show that I am not alone. Peer pressure is a condition of the brain! The human brain values achievement in social settings over achievements performed alone. Two parts of the brain linked with rewards, the striatum and the medial prefrontal cortex, showed much more activity in success amongst friends than success by oneself.
One article that covers the results of a national survey states that ¡§Adolescents¡¦ levels of alcohol and drug use have been found to be strongly associated with peers¡¦ use. However, other studies have shown that a student¡¦s drinking was more strongly influenced by how much he or she thought close friends drank than by perceptions of the extent of use by students in general¡¨(Results 2). This is a statement that I can agree with because growing up I have watched many young people become greatly influenced by their friends. Now a days the phrase ¡§peer pressure¡¨ concentrates on pressure from a direct group of friends rather than a students peers as a whole. Another reason the article gives for the cause of Binge Drinking is that ¡§Students who perceive that more drinking occurs than actually does provide themselves with an excuse for drinking more because ¡¥everyone is doing it¡¦¡¨ (Results 2). Everyone knows that most youngsters want what every other kid has, this idea relates in the...
Peer pressure is doing something that is not quite normal, but your friends pressure you into the situation because they do it. This definition of peer pressure is something that is always happening, especially with the world changing each day. Things like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, are all possibilities that peer pressure is related to. However, in the texts “Shooting and Elephant” by George Orwell and “No Witchcraft for Sale” by Doris Lessing demonstrate peer pressure among many thing; however, there are many solutions resulting in good things compared to the bad things that have happened. Solutions to peer pressure in these texts could be many things, but the three that would work best would be: ignore the person, walk away, and lastly, know that you should not do anything you do not feel comfortable with.
Children aren’t old enough to recognize peer pressure and are easy to persuade. Kids could experience peer pressure walking home from school and become influenced to steal, fight, or commit small crimes: throwing rocks into someone’s window, trespassing, or kicking neighbor’s cars and causing damage. Being peer pressured gives rise to drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and sexual activity. Without knowing the effects of drugs, kids can overdose or even lose their mind. If the drug the kid takes help them relieve the feeling of abandonment or other possible effects from lack of parental involvement, there is a strong possibility the kid will become addicted. Alcohol is easy to locate to kids who have older siblings or older neighbors despite their age. The amount of peer pressure to consume alcohol can sometimes be more challenging than to smoke cigarettes. Most kids are introduced to the DARE program at school, which is mainly for saying no to drugs but doesn’t focus on alcohol as much. Another possibility for alcohol becoming hard for kids to avoid is the known effects. Some parents educate kids on how bad smoking is and when kids watch television they see the effects of smoking from elders placing microphones to their necks to talk. However, ads about the effects of the consumption of alcohol is not shown as much on television. Children who don’t have parents at home all
... instead of following the majority. The issue of peer pressure can relate to teens, as they are in constant pressure to be ‘cool’ or to be in the ‘in’ group. It does not really promote individualism, so people cannot develop their own ideas but rather follow the leader of their group.
Peer pressure is the influence from members of one’s peer group. Peer pressure affect many school aged children, and teenager, because of the desire to want to fit in. Affects of giving into peer pressure can lead to taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and having sex. By researching
Role models have an astounding effect on the lives of young people in our society. A role model has the ability to shape the views, ideals, and actions of a young person. Role models help youth to discover how they wish to become in the future. The influence that role models have over young people is tremendous. It is important for role models to be positive and responsible in instilling good morals and values because future generations are directly dependent on the role models of today. By examining the influence of role models, role models in the community, and role models in the media, we will be able to determine the true effect that role models have on the lives of youth.
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” (Dr.Seuss). Society often thinks of peer pressure as a negative implement. Often times the community imagines peer pressure as teen influencing one another to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sexual intercourse. But really all peer pressure is, is the encouragement of changing values and behaviors of an individual. Peer pressure can be thought of as positive for teens, because it allows and individual to become a leader in an environment, strong encouragement to work hard in school, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Children grow up and move into teenage lifestyles, involvement with their peers, and how they look in other peoples eyes start to matter. Their hormones kick in, and they experience rapid changes in their minds, and bodies. They also develop a mind of their own, questioning the adult standards and need for their parental guidance. By trying new values and testing ideas with peers there is less of a chance of being criticized. Even though peer pressure can have positive effects, the most part is the bad part.
Many of the choices teenagers make are influenced by peer pressure. Sure, I had an obsession with many trends growing up, but later on in life I heard a quote that really aimed at my thoughts, the quote was "The shoe doesn't make the man, the man makes the shoe. " After hearing the quote, I thought about what I did in my life to fit in, and realized that what a person wears, buys, or listens to, doesn't create who a person is. Peer pressure throws out the thought of being who you want to be; peer pressure is more reminiscent of "be like everybody else.
Peer pressure is when we are influenced to do something we normally wouldn't do because we want to fit in with other people or be accepted by our peers (A peer is someone you look up to like a friend, someone in the community or even someone on TV).