Peer, people of the same age range who share similar interests, views, and values. Peers are different from the gang because a gang could have people from different age ranges. So peer pressure is the persuasion given by peers to do something either good or bad. Peers can persuade a person to do different things, either good or bad but in most cases, it is the bad part. Peer pressure can be passed in different ways, either by action or verbally.
Concentrating on the bad peer pressure is the most common of the two types of peer pressure. Young people are the ones mostly affected by peer pressure with over 70 - 80% of young people who smoke were being influenced one way or the other by their friends. Young people nowadays hardly confide in their parents but instead in friends and best friends 'bestie', those friends around the person have more influence in the person's life, even more than the person is willing to admit.
Most of the time we can't help being influenced by our peers because they play huge roles in our lives and we have attached a lot of importance to their opinions. There are very few peers who pressure you positively, people who want you to succeed and push you towards a good path. But your negative friends pressure way more because they want you to do what they are into. Peers have gone as far as setting people up so they could conform to their pressure. Young people need to know that their friends play too much of a vital role in their lives.
Older people get pressured, in the case where they want to feel among, they do things that they shouldn't do. People have been pressured into doing money rituals to join their friend's so-called standards. Another case is where you see a friend buys a car, and you have the money to buy a similar car but there are more pressing needs than buying a car. If you end up buying that car instead of solving the more pressing issues, then you have been pressured into a wrong decision.
You can't stop peer pressure but you can reduce it. Firstly, start to think for yourself and your future rather than what friends think for you. The life you are living is yours and every bad decision you make would affect you greater than it would ever affect any other person. So when you think for yourself and do not allow friends to input their ideas over yours then you would be able to make decisions that you are not only proud of but you also take full responsibility for.
Choose friends who influence you positively, a right-thinking person, whose friend is negative but is unwilling to forsake the negative influencing friend, is what lets you get influenced negatively. People know that if your friend wasn't there, you wouldn't have ever smoked or drank or joined a cult or skipped classes or bought those guns, when they were more pressing matters than that. Your friends and peers tell a great deal about you and the type of friends you follow would always influence your decisions.
When friends are pressuring you negatively and you don't want to conform, speak out. Learn not to bottle in pressure because one day it might drown you, look for somebody trustworthy and confide in. Preferably, let it be an older person because they would have more experience in life and be able to direct you on how to handle that pressure. Don't hold it in, there are willing ears, you just need to find that person and be careful with who you confide in. For those that believe in God, pray and tell Him your grievances, He is one friend that can never betray you. God also has your time, every single time you seek Him.
Avoiding negative friends might have little effect now but has influenced your future positively. Learn to be your person and be more confident in yourself. Don't look for others' opinions of yourself than your opinion of yourself. Stay tuned to ritrends.com for more.
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