SteemAlive Presents: ProWritersHub - Peer Pressure by @ojerindejoel.

INTRODUCTION: The topic Peer Pressure is a big topic that must not be taken lightly as decisions that one makes from peer pressure can affect one’s life irreparable and this is why I commend the effort of those people that carefully selected all the topic we have been writing on.

Now, Shall we?

What is Peer Pressure?

As one becomes more independent or when one is starting to make some decisions by himself or herself, one’s peers play an important role in what the person will become or the choices he or she will make.

This is why it is important to know what peer pressure is and not fall victim to it or make huge mistakes.

In reality, peer pressure is not always a bad thing though it is most times thought of as a bad thing. Peer pressure sometimes influences people positively and sometimes negatively and I am going to talk more about this shortly.

Before I go ahead to define what peer pressure is, I think it is important to know what peers and pressure mean.

Now, who are your peers? Your peers are people of your age or that their age is close to yours and that you all have experiences or interests that are similar. They could be your friend or agemate in your school, church, or community.

Pressure simply means to encourage or influence.

Peer pressure is simply the influence on your behavior from a person or group of people you interact with which can be a good influence or bad influence depending on the action taken, what effects it has, and whether it is what you want to do or pushed to do.

Types of peer pressure?

Naturally, human being especially, young one desires strongly to fit in and as a result of this, they most times learn and do what their peers ask them to do and this is why peer pressure is so common. Peer pressure can mainly be categorized into two which are Positive peer pressure and Negative peer pressure.

Positive Peer Pressure

Positive Peer Pressure in simple terms is when someone’s peers push, influence, or encourage one to do the right thing or something positive that will positively help one. It helps one to know how to socialize and grow positively as a person

Below are some examples of positive peer pressure that even I had experienced.

• I have influenced some of my friends to study hard to get better results and I had also been influenced to study hard too.

• I have influenced and encouraged some of my friends to save money for tomorrow.

• Discouraging friends from gossiping or making harsh jokes.

• Discouraging illegal or dangerous activities like smoking, stealing, etc.

• Influencing your friend to work hard.

• Encouraging honesty among your friends.

All these are some positive ways in which we can influence our peers.

Negative Peer Pressure

In simple English, negative peer pressure is when someone’s peers are encouraging one to do a wrong or dangerous thing that is inimical to them or society at large. Negative peer pressure can affect one’s mental health negatively.

Some examples of negative peer pressure include the following,

• Convincing or encouraging a friend to skip lectures.

• Pushing or pressurizing a friend to drink or abuse drugs or smoke.

• Encouraging a friend to engage in fights or to be bullying the less privileged.

• Influencing your friends to wear cloth they don’t want

All these are some negative ways in which peers can be pushed or influenced.

There are still some other types or categories of peer pressure which include, Spoken Peer Pressure, Unspoken Peer Pressure, Direct Peer Pressure, Indirect Peer Pressure.

Causes of peer pressure

The four main causes of peer pressure include,

• The need to fit in.

• Low self-esteem

• The fear of getting rejected.

• Wanting to feel safe or secured amidst peers.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Peer Pressure

Just as there is positive and negative peer pressure, the effect or consequences can either be positive or negative too.

Positive effects or benefits of peer pressure

Below are some of the benefits of peer pressure.

• Getting reliable advice that can help one to overcome challenges.

• Getting adequate encouragement to continue pushing or to try something that might look impossible

• Self-esteem can be boosted through it. Positive peer pressure entails friendship and support and this help to boost self-esteem.

• Gaining new experiences that will better one’s life in life.

Negative effects or Drawbacksof peer pressure

Below are some of the drawbacks of peer pressure.

• Being around people who pushes to do things that we are not cool or comfortable with can make one experience anxiety or depression.

• Negative peer pressure tends to make one feel bad about himself or herself and thus make him or her do some bad things.

• Peer pressure causes distractions in things that one is supposed to focus on like academics, work, etc.,

• Peer pressure can bring about one not being happy with his or her appearance.

How to handle peer pressure?

To be able to handle peer pressure, one must be able to identify it. Have it in mind that, knowing what the problem is is the first step to finding a solution to the problem and so, identification or knowledge of it is very important.

Some peer pressure can be easily spotted while some cant and below are some of the signs that someone experiencing peer pressure might exhibit.

• Changes in behavior or moods.

• They might be expressing feelings like they don’t fit in

• They might be comparing themselves socially.

• They might be having low moods constantly.

• They might be having trouble sleeping.

Now, having known how to identify someone experiencing peer pressure, let us go ahead and talk about how to handle it.

Just as explained earlier, nearly everyone experiences peer pressure either consciously or unconsciously no matter how well you know your friends or how you chose them below are some of the ways to handle it.

📌 Always plan: Don’t forget Benjamin Franklin’s phrase which says, If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning is very important in life in general and so it is to shunning peer pressure.

Let’s take for instance, if you would like to attend a party, you should ahead that you might be offered alcohol or drugs and so you need to think and plan on how to handle the situation and not fall victim to the pressure. Don’t ever be caught unprepared.

📌 Learn to say no comfortably: This is one principle that I had learned from my brother and which has been helping me. You need to know that the worst they can do is to laugh it off or jokes about it at that same time and they won’t even bring it up next time.

However, giving an excuse the first time will not stop them from bringing it up the next time. Say No without any excuse.

📌 Move with people that feel the same way you do: There is a reason why it is said that two heads are better than one. Having someone who you can stand with you against any form of pressure makes it easy for both to resist.

📌 Another way of handling peer pressure is to let people know who you are, what you do, what you want, who your parents are, and some other things about you.

Knowing all this will reduces the amount of pressure you will be getting from your peers.

📌 Also, don’t ever hesitate to ask for help from adults whenever the situation is dangerous, They have been in existence for a while and they have garnered more experience than you do.

Some other ways to handle peer pressure include,

• Knowing when to walk away.

• Never make decisions without thinking about them twice.

• Build your confidence

• Lastly, remember you are not obligated to fulfill anybody’s request.

And that is it for this post. Thanks for reading🤗