Peer pressure is one of the greatest challenges facing my generation. Whether it is due to media examples or those within a circle of friends, teenagers are conforming to certain expectations at a faster rate every year. I understand through my own experiences the difficulty of adhering to personal morals in the face of peer pressure.
Media examples are extremely influential to a person seeking a role model. However, if teenagers pick the wrong ideal to look up to, the expectations set before them can be life altering. For instance, many girls develop eating disorders to resemble celebrities. Media images cause females to generate within themselves a distorted body image where every bump or bulge is disgusting and ugly. To combat their insecurity, young women can go to extremes. I have personally seen a girl at my school reach a startling stage of starving herself, to the point of becoming literally skin and bones. Eating disorders become a life long battle in many cases, even if they are treated. In another situation, the media pressures young adults to rush into sexual activity. Scenarios glamorizing intimacy in movies and television shows cause teenagers to feel left out or abnormal for not participating in sexual activity. By constantly showing examples of skinny, beautiful people and movie scenes of sexual activity, teenagers feel pressured to look and act in the same manner.
While peer pressure can come from a role model teenagers do not even know, it often develops within their circle of friends. Because teenagers tend to value their self worth based on acceptance, feeling different from those around them can cause a change in their actions. An obvious example is those who begin to smoke to fit in with a group of friends. At my job, I witnessed a girl turn on her own values to adapt to her new friends’ standards. She began to smoke in order to take smoking breaks with them and feel part of the social scene. Since many teenagers do not have the ability to stand up for themselves and go against the crowd, they can be easily pressured by their peers to conform.
I am working to meet that challenge by helping others in my generation understand that they are worthy of peers who respect them by being a good example of a friend who has their best interest at heart. As for myself, I choose to be surrounded by those who understand and accept my values as part of my friendship. I want to be unlike the majority of my generation and withstand peer pressure, being an example that reinforces the ability to be accepted while maintaining personal morals.
1 comment:
Indy, I loved this one. I evem had both my boys read this... ;)
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