Sometimes
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Michaela Leonard is a Junior at RTHS.
She is involved in Interact, and enjoys
her Honors Physics and Chemistry 2 classes.
Have you ever been pressured into doing something that you may or may not have wanted to do by a peer? Was any of the peer pressure a positive way of improving your life or a situation? To be completely honest I believe that it depends on who is being pressured, what they are being pressured into, and how they feel about what they are being pressured into.
Peer pressure is tricky, for one you need to know what peer pressure is. Google states that a peer, “is a person of the same social group, ethnicity or status”. “Peer pressure is the influence you feel from a person or group of people to do something you might not otherwise consider doing”(Survanshi). So the idea of peer pressure is being forced or suggested to do something that you would typically not do, as a result of someone you may or may not know.
From my own experience, peer pressure has had both a positive and negative impact. Overall joining Scholastic Bowl was a great time for me and I enjoyed the experience even though I wasn't the greatest member of the team. When I was in seventh grade I decide to join the Scholastic Bowl, because my friend, Grace told me it would be a great experience.
In my opinion I believe that, like most things, if there is a negative side, then there inevitably must be positive; however, the theoretical line between the two can get blurred sometimes. A great website, courierpress.com, states that ”Peer pressure can encourage youth to be successful by achieving good grades and not engaging in a high-risk lifestyle. The same concepts and principles observed during negative peer pressure also apply to positive peer pressure, but the consequences are constructive” (Youth and Resources). When a person is being pressured its just trying to change their mind, there is not a reason why it cannot be on a positive or negative note. Just as someone can be pressured into doing drugs, they can also be pressured into joining clubs.
I had asked two of my peers their opinions on peer pressure and they each gave a wonderful response. I asked them two questions. The first was, “How has peer pressure positively affected you, or has it not?” The second question I asked wasan peer pressure indirectly affect you?” I asked them these two specific questions because I believe that peer pressure affects everyone differently depending on who they are and how they were raised, but I needed to get multiple perspectives.
First, I asked my friend, Faith, “How has peer pressure positively affected you, or has it?” and she responded , “I hang out with a lot of different people and so the people I was hanging with wanted me to go and do something bad, illegal, and one of my friends didn't want me to go with the others. She said I should go with her and she gave me all these examples of how going with the others could have turned out badly”. I asked this specific question because it makes the said person think about times in their lives when they had been affected in a good way. I also asked her if she thinks that peer pressure can indirectly affect you? “Yea, I think it can, like when a person sees someone that they look up to and they are involved in something, whether that is good or bad, the person could want to join in on it”. This question also helps to think of how much in your lives, we are influenced by those around us, or the things that we see in our everyday life, such as news, TV, and school.
I asked the same questions to my friend Stacey and her response was similar to Faiths but they have different experiences in both of their lives. How has peer pressure positively affect you, or has it? “Back at Thomasboro my friend, she pressured me into joining the Student Council, and I didn't want to but it was actually kind of fun”. Can peer pressure indirectly affect you? “It can because you see stuff on Facebook, and twitter and there is a celebrity that you look up to, and they might have a cat and so by seeing it you want to own a cat just like theirs”.
I believe that peer pressure has a extreme impact on each and every person whether they know it or not. One of the largest places to be impacted is at school where each and every student is clawing at the chance to fit in somewhere. The problem is, what do they do to fit in? Peer pressure leads not in one direction but in several, and that direction depends solely on who the person is, what they are being pressured into, and how they feel about the action that they are being pressured to take.
Peer pressure is tricky, for one you need to know what peer pressure is. Google states that a peer, “is a person of the same social group, ethnicity or status”. “Peer pressure is the influence you feel from a person or group of people to do something you might not otherwise consider doing”(Survanshi). So the idea of peer pressure is being forced or suggested to do something that you would typically not do, as a result of someone you may or may not know.
From my own experience, peer pressure has had both a positive and negative impact. Overall joining Scholastic Bowl was a great time for me and I enjoyed the experience even though I wasn't the greatest member of the team. When I was in seventh grade I decide to join the Scholastic Bowl, because my friend, Grace told me it would be a great experience.
In my opinion I believe that, like most things, if there is a negative side, then there inevitably must be positive; however, the theoretical line between the two can get blurred sometimes. A great website, courierpress.com, states that ”Peer pressure can encourage youth to be successful by achieving good grades and not engaging in a high-risk lifestyle. The same concepts and principles observed during negative peer pressure also apply to positive peer pressure, but the consequences are constructive” (Youth and Resources). When a person is being pressured its just trying to change their mind, there is not a reason why it cannot be on a positive or negative note. Just as someone can be pressured into doing drugs, they can also be pressured into joining clubs.
I had asked two of my peers their opinions on peer pressure and they each gave a wonderful response. I asked them two questions. The first was, “How has peer pressure positively affected you, or has it not?” The second question I asked wasan peer pressure indirectly affect you?” I asked them these two specific questions because I believe that peer pressure affects everyone differently depending on who they are and how they were raised, but I needed to get multiple perspectives.
First, I asked my friend, Faith, “How has peer pressure positively affected you, or has it?” and she responded , “I hang out with a lot of different people and so the people I was hanging with wanted me to go and do something bad, illegal, and one of my friends didn't want me to go with the others. She said I should go with her and she gave me all these examples of how going with the others could have turned out badly”. I asked this specific question because it makes the said person think about times in their lives when they had been affected in a good way. I also asked her if she thinks that peer pressure can indirectly affect you? “Yea, I think it can, like when a person sees someone that they look up to and they are involved in something, whether that is good or bad, the person could want to join in on it”. This question also helps to think of how much in your lives, we are influenced by those around us, or the things that we see in our everyday life, such as news, TV, and school.
I asked the same questions to my friend Stacey and her response was similar to Faiths but they have different experiences in both of their lives. How has peer pressure positively affect you, or has it? “Back at Thomasboro my friend, she pressured me into joining the Student Council, and I didn't want to but it was actually kind of fun”. Can peer pressure indirectly affect you? “It can because you see stuff on Facebook, and twitter and there is a celebrity that you look up to, and they might have a cat and so by seeing it you want to own a cat just like theirs”.
I believe that peer pressure has a extreme impact on each and every person whether they know it or not. One of the largest places to be impacted is at school where each and every student is clawing at the chance to fit in somewhere. The problem is, what do they do to fit in? Peer pressure leads not in one direction but in several, and that direction depends solely on who the person is, what they are being pressured into, and how they feel about the action that they are being pressured to take.