Can Peer Pressure Really Affect You?

Have you ever been pressured by your friends to do something? Whether it be to try a new food or hobby, or maybe to even start smoking; Everybody comes into contact with peer pressure at least once in their lifetime. Peer pressure can be a very scary thing; It can cause you to start to love a new hobby or to end up in a jail cell. Many teens lose to the peer pressure, which can cause them to go down the wrong path in life. The thing is, peer pressure can be both good and bad; So is peer pressure really a problem? I think that peer pressure mainly causes problems.

Peer pressure can most definitely affect you and the course of your life. Peer pressure can be good and bad for you. “Despite the potential for good, peer pressure can have disastrous effects.” Peer pressure can help you to try something new such as a foreign food, or it could cause your whole life to spiral down the wrong path. I know that this is true, because I see it happen first hand; my best friend is always getting in trouble because his so called friends pressure him into doing things that he knows he shouldn’t. Thanks to this, his life has gone down hill. People can pressure you to do all sorts of things, such as getting involved in a new sport or activity. This is a good kind of peer pressure. I know this because, if your friends pressure you to get involved in sports, it will go into your college credit and help you to get into a better college. Which, in turn will help you get a better job. These were just some examples of how peer pressure can affect you in different scenarios. 

Peer pressure has had a negative effect on most teens and children. I know this because I see it in my life and read about it in the news. I see it happen every day at my school. It happens to so many of these kids that just want to be popular. It is the same reason why I would rather be the outcast than the most popular kid in school. I feel this way because popularity does not matter to me. I do not care how many people like me on social media or how many followers I have on Facebook. I honestly could not care less if people called me a loser because of the people that I hang out with, or the clothes that I wear. Popularity does not matter as much as we think it does, and if you went to a second grader and asked them “who is the most popular kid in your class?”, they would be able to immediately answer. Kids that should not even be worrying about popularity are going home crying because they do not have as many friends as the popular kids. The other day, my brother got off the bus crying, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said “I was being laughed at because I wear glasses”. I told him that it does not matter what people think of him because his friends would not make fun of him. That is when he told me that he had no friends. I felt furious because kids his age should not be worried about what people think about them! They should be learning who they are not who people want them to be. It is ridiculous; people should not be worried about what other people think about them no matter who they are.

Peer pressure is both good and bad. How it affects you is up to you, nobody else. Peer pressure is causing a lack of self-confidence, and it is also causing people to do the wrong things. We need to teach the children of today that popularity does not matter, and it never will; because they are not just the kids of today, but they are also the future.