Description of the positive and harmful aspects of peer pressure in our society and how to overcome it

1. EXTENT OF PEER PRESSURE IN OUR
SOCIETY
WRITTEN BY: SAMAWIA IQBAL
A sound of laughter roared behind Lucy, “how ugly she is, just look at her, no
makeup no dressing sense; ah! she is so ugly that no one wants to be her friend, Am
I right Jenny? Absolutely right, said Anna.” All these were the sounds Lucy used to
hear every day and again tears rolled down her cheeks and she went out. The next
day Lucy entered her class and everyone was stunned by her look, she was
transformed into a completely new person and a crowd gathered around her and
everyone was praising her for that, but deep down Lucy felt totally broken and it was
all her peers who wanted to see her the way she was looking now but she was unable
to satisfy herself for that change; but gradually she became habitual of that
environment and the guilt she felt for herself in the beginning began to fade away in
the dirt of that appreciation that she gained in return ofbecoming what others wanted
her to be, rather than being what she was. It was not only Lucy who was facing that
teasing and not only Lucy is the victim of the peer pressure in institutions, out of
every 101 students 20-30 students went towards depression due to peer pressureand
this is how the extent of peer pressure is increasing in our society.
Peers are the people who are in close contact with you, other than family members
they may be your friends, relatives with whom you are spending time, your
colleagues in your work station and all these people influence our life greatly. As we
have heard it that, “a man learns from his surroundings” so it is actually true because
we all adapt ourselves according to our atmosphere and people around us, peer
pressure is a better term to be used in the sense because we adapt changes in
ourselves in the influence of the pressure that our surrounding puts. Todaya person
can live in society only if he plans his life according to the norms and values of the
people around him, and to resist them requires a strongpersonand due to this mostly
people yield in front of their peers and their values.
Peer pressure is like a disease that is now prevailing in our society, it affects the
people so badly that they lose their self-power to decide anything on their own.
People under peer pressure cannot live a peaceful life unless they follow what their
peers want. Peer pressure in our society has gained many forms and it may be
positive or may be negative but the severe circumstances have resulted because of

2. negative peer pressure that can indulge young generation into something bad which
results in severe outcomes. Teenagers are at immense risk of developing peer
pressure because at this age man is learning from his surroundings and when he is
pressurized from his peers he may indulge in something extremely bad or it may be
possible that he standout against that and continue to live his life as he wishes. Peer
pressure which mostly develops in people is because they want to become more
acceptable and instead of making a difference they just yield to the pressure they
face so that they don’t feel awkward or uncomfortable.
Peer pressure is positive in the sense that it enables a personto study harder when it
comes to school competitions. They study and work hard to compete their fellow
members. It helps to analyze yourself and to contemplate on your way of life. Some
of the practices that mass follow actually teach you the way of living. While looking
at others it can help you think positively towards your life. Positive peer pressure
does not pressurize you to do things according to them, but instead of that they
inspire you in a way to change yourself. It also becomes encouraging when peers
listen and give feedback as you try out new ideas, help you to solve your problems,
help in decision making. Peers are the bestencouraging factor as they can encourage
us to do the best and encouragement from peers is a very important element only
when it is in positive sense; but it is sad to tell that human nature is molded in such
a way that it is much easier for a personto fall for the bad things much quickly than
any other thing, so in our society peers have indulged young generation into
extremely bad activities, like going with a crowd to drink and smoke, indulging in
sex before they feel ready for it similarly it results in severe circumstances like they
lose their concentration on the main aims of their life and all what happens is that
they are completely distracted they indulge in totally different activities which then
results in harsh behavior , mental tiredness and some of them suffer a lot of
depression and anxiety. Many times it happens that you are forced to lead a certain
kind of lifestyle that you don’tlike and just becauseof peer pressureyou follow that,
for example you may not like late night out with friends, you may not like partying
every weekend and similarly you may notlike drinking and smoking but youindulge
in these activities all because you will not be accepted by your peers if you don’tdo
those things according to them regardless, ofwhat you feel. You lose your own taste
of life and what really matters, is others point of view. Negative peers make you
blind and completely dumb to think about your life. Looking at all these points we
cannot purely categorize peer pressure as either positive or negative only, quoting
Jennifer M. Rodriguez according to him:

3. “Peer pressure is neither good nor evil. It is a tool that leaders use
to persuade others. When used properly, it is very effective
management strategy; when used recklessly, it is abusive.”
Thus we cannot say that peer pressureitself is good or bad it all depends on how we
respond to a particular thing. Everything has its own boundaries within which you
can follow that thing and it turns out beneficial, but if you cross those boundaries
you may face severe circumstances. So as long as it is related to peer pressure you
can follow your peers to someextent where you think that you are going on the right
path, but oncethat pressure exceeds it’s better for you to leave that path. The biggest
consequenceoffollowing your peers is that it canlead you to the loss ofindividuality
once you follow them it takes you to a point that you are compelled to do things in
the way your peers want.
There have been number of studies to draw out the effects of peer pressure on
children and adolescents. In children commontheme ofstudywere all related to their
abilities for independent decision making and in adolescents the studies were related
to their relationship with sexual intercourse and substances abuse. Moreover, peer
pressurehas nowmoved from face-to-face interaction to digital world. Todaypeople
are also facing social pressures. Peer pressure related to drug abuse has been studied
and the “Canadian Lung Association” found that 70 % teens who smoke have friends
who smoke or started smoking due to peer pressure. According to “Underage
Drinking Research Initiative” two-thirds of 10th graders and two-fifths of 8th
graders have tried alcohol. The “Monitoring the Future Survey ”from the same
initiative found that approximately 30 % of 8th graders have used illicit drugs.
Studies on sex related peer pressure have also put into record, a study from the
“Kaiser Family Foundation” found that; one-third of the males feel pressure from
their friends to have sex and 23 % of females feel pressure from their friends to have
sex. Peer pressure related to driving habits in a survey have found that 44 % teens
drive better in the absence of their friends in car. Sometimes peer pressure can lead
teens to harm themselves by cutting their skin or even committing suicide. The
“Mayo Clinic” found that teens with those friends who self-harm themselves are
more likely to self-injure as well. The study from the “Yale School of Medicine”
found that teens who are bullied are at the verge of self-injure and it can lead them
to suicidal thoughts and often committing such sins. Thus teenagers who choose
wrong peer groups are more likely to face lots of troubles related to their social as
well as private lives.

4. Charles D. Hayes shared his point of view regarding peer pressure as follows;
“of course, peer pressure has strong positive component. It
provides the social cohesion that allows the very development of
communal affiliation. But peer power as an extrinsic force is a lot
like radiation; a little goes a long way.”
Considering the effects of peer pressure and how it can be utilized in a positive way
some studies have drawn out applications for the beneficial use of peer pressure as
a leadership tool, in education sectors where competentinstructional leaders usepeer
pressureat teaching level to establish accountability pressureon teachers. Secondly,
peer pressure is used as an effective tool in getting people to vote, Gerber, Green,
and Larimer conducted a large-scale field experiment involving over 180,000
Michigan households in 2006 and four treatments, using the social norm “voting is
best for the community” they draw out results that it puts pressure on the individual
peers that if they didn’t vote they would be judged and this was really effective as it
increased the percentage of the overall voters. Thirdly, an experiment conducted by
Diane Reyniers and Richa Bhalla studied the influence ofpeer pressurein charitable
donations that peers do influence each other in a way that if one person donates a
greater amount of money puts pressure on their peers and as a result they also
donated greater amount, this suggested that peer pressure shames individuals for
making smaller donations. Thus, we can say that it depends onyou how to make use
of peer pressure either in a positive sense or negative sense and our society is using
it in both ways. On large scales peer pressure is being used in healthy activities but
when it comes to teenagers they are using it in mostly unhealthy activities due to
which an overall image that comes in our mind regarding peer pressureis usually in
negative sense, ignoring healthy aspects which can be used in society to promote
good things.
Concluding this topic of speech, we can say that peer pressureis not only a bad thing
which can result only in negative outcomes but it all depends on you how you use it
in your life and as a member of a society you should encourage healthy use of peer
pressure so that it can bring positive outcomes. And as parents a greater
responsibility comes on your shoulders because mostly teenagers are affected by
peer pressureso to avoid that, parents should keep their lines ofcommunication open
for their children so that they can easily share anything they are suffering from. If
you find peoplesuffering from this issue offer them supportand advise them without

5. judgement. In this aspect John W. Gardner beautifully explained the definition of a
creative individual facing social pressure:
“The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social
pressurein which restof usare caught.He is capableof questioningthe assumption
that the rest of us accept.”