PEER PRESSURE

As we grow older and socialize with people mostly of our same age, we are more or less affected by them. There may be times where we may face some challenging decisions, some may have a lucid answer but some don’t have a clear right or wrong answer, some decisions also involve moral and legal questionnaires. Making decisions on our own may become difficult but when “other people” get involved and try to pressurize in some way, it becomes more difficult and make us bang our head.

People who are of our same age and experience are called peers and when they influence us to do something, it is called “PEER PRESSURE”. Peers have influence on each other affecting their lives to a great extent. If we take in account the positive aspect, peer pressure is important for social and self development. We learn more by interacting with our peers’ .We compete to out-stand and this brushes us only when the competition is a healthy one and have a fair chance for both. They also help us to explore our hidden talents. Many values like time punctuality, team work, sportsman spirit, tolerance, perseverance are inculcated within us because of our peers. But when we see the other side of the coin we end up remarking that negative effects are even more and at times harmful and dangerous too.

We always come across this sentence – “come on everyone is doing this, don’t behave so abnormally! What everyone is doing, we have to follow them or else we’ll not be fit for the gang!! Rather we’ll be stigmatized as a weed that sucks and people will dislike being with us. What a criteria..!! Self esteem is directly affected by the degree to which we feel accepted by the peer group. Youngsters want to try every new stuff as they love doing experiments with things and even with their lives.

As juvenile, they are attracted to opposite gender which may lead to early pregnancy and transmission of STD. Being in a relationship is like a status symbol and cheating upon someone resembles the cool attitude. How ironic is this? Such a beautiful feeling of being in love with someone has merely fallen to the grounds of desperation. Pity!!

Worse than this is getting indulged in smoking, drinking and taking drugs which they never wanted to but did just because of the peer pressure. Playing with own lives not realizing the affect their closed ones will have. And I tag them as fools, knowing the post effects they continue doing this. They indulge in activities which mangles them and deviates them from their path.

Taking this issue as a matter of concern ,these days media is telecasting series of “gumraah” , “crime patrol” to create awareness about the circumstances of the steps taken .

Peer pressure explores the real ‘WE’. It is how we react to peer pressure that defines us who we are as an individual. And its better to have an enemy than to have a friend who is more like an enemy. As also said by WILL SMITH, “Don’t chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people –the ones who really belong in our life –will come to you and STAY!!! “