“Take one sip. Nothing will happen.”
“You are twenty and never watched porn?”
“You should try to find a partner in a dating app.”
“You know that girl? She always speaks ill of her family. What a dumb girl!”
“That girl always gets red marks on her skirt. She just wants attention”
We all have heard these. Peer pressure is vast. They will mould your personality. One day they will ask you to drink and smoke. Another day they will ask you to have casual sex. The point is that these are not wrong. But then again, you are doing that out of esteem needs in your peer group and not out of your own will.
This leads to bad consequences to you. You may become an addict like them thinking that is a trend. You feel if you don’t go with the flow with them, you will be called uncool by your classmates and other friends. Reasons can be a TV series, a movie, smoking, drinking, partying and rarest of all, reading.
Peer group is necessary. They can help you be better. But that’s not how it works nowadays. Now it only involves speeches like “Date that girl” or “Take revenge from that guy. Beat him up. You are stringer.”
Now we will look into some of the causes peer pressure is bad.
- It has been found that the biggest reason behind violence against women is the perpetrator getting drunk.
- Following social media trends that might prove to be harmful sometimes.
- Individualism is suppressed in most cases.
- Even in cases of studies usually one will go with the subjects their peer group is taking which may not be of their interest.
Teen girls are on the peak to receive the bad side of peer pressure. Teen boys may have given a dare to kiss a girl’s or abuse a girl. Peer pressure also make us lose our individuality. It’s always like what the group says is correct and I have no opinion. This causes lack of creativity, lack of self-esteem, lack of decision-making power etc.
Peer influence also makes a person take risk, being unaware of the consequences.
For example, a girl is made to have sex with a particular guy. Unaware of the result, they might have unprotected sex, leading to teen pregnancy which comes with a lot of cons.
It has been observed that in some groups of teenagers’ violence is well accepted. One will hardly see violence as a abominable way. This leads to more of teen crimes.
Number of teen crimes in India is around 3000 a year. Out of that a huge amount is caused by peer influence as found in research.
Peer group is very important in a person’s growth and hence one has to be very careful about the negative influences by their groups. One should be fully aware of the negative outcomes of taking drugs, being judgmental, bullying others. That is the only way a person can turn peer pressure into peer growth. Individualism must be cherished and encouraged.
Parents have a huge role in this time. A teenager must receive all support from their parents or guardians. So that, they have good friend circle and a fall back place in their family.
