Someone does something because of peer pressure, it means that they do it because of other people in their group do it. The thoughts, behavior, tastes of fashion, music, television and other walks of life are often seen having a deep impact on the living of an individual. We may tend to get influenced by the lifestyles of our peer. The changing ways of life, of our peers, often forces us to change our ways of looking at life and leading it. It’s a human tendency to do what the crowd does. The few have the courage to oppose the peer pressure and be the own selves rather than being one among the lot. Peer pressure is affecting most of us, both, positively and negatively. The distinction between positive and negative peer pressure lies in a thoughtful analysis. Some of your peers blindly leave negative impact on your life and some leave it as positive impact on your life. Let us look at the positive and negative effects of peer pressure.
Peer pressure is useful since it makes us more alert, we can improve own-self and attentive to the happenings around us even the small ones that we might look over but actually be helpful for our knowledge and development. Also, when our peers or classmates are good at studies and other activities it motivates us to match their performance. It is certainly good if we are careless and lazy. When our peers achieve something it taking inspiration from them will bring a positive change in our way of working. For instance, if my classmate has make hard work in the study or any other work and it is delivering better results then I too can adopt that schedule and improve my grades. When we are with our peers we watch their habits and we can pick up some good habits from them, like good thinking, reading, riding etc. These habits will add to our personalities. Being with a peer group can change our overall view of life from negative to positive and turn pressure into motivation, a positive force which will push us in the right direction.
Opposite to this, most of the time, it so happens, that we are enforced to lead a certain kind of lifestyle due to peer pressure. Someone may not like partying, going to watch the movie on weekends, etc. But peer pressure may make you do all, that you will never wish to do. The teenagers cannot understand the good and bad things, at this age they like only peers behavior. There are many teenagers who experience great pressure from their peer that forces them to take towards the bad. Peer pressure can direct to a loss of individuality. Extreme peer pressure may lead you to follow what your peers feel right. Their pressure may force you to go by everything they think right. Peer pressure can actually lead you to lose your tastes in life and force yourself to begin liking what they like. The person loses his/her original way of looking at life. This makes the conclusions that, before following your peer, think about the impact.
Mrs. Santoshi A. Shete
Lecturer in IT
AISSMS’s Polytechnic, Pune
