The price of popularity

Peer pressure is a term describing a person's changes, or temptations to change, in attitude, behavior and morals as directly or indirectly influenced by their peer group and it can be a positive or a negative thing. In this chapter we talk about the negative aspect of peer pressure.

This kind of peer pressure takes place when teenagers are pressurized overtly or even subtly to take part in activities that they are not always comfortable with, or that they know will not please their parents.

When I was a teenager we were talking about drugs being the biggest issue to contend with – and I did not even know anyone who took drugs. In 2007, however there are so many other temptations, all prerequisites of being cool.

Your friends ‘sell’ you an idea and it sounds like it could be fun and surely your friends would not ask you to do something harmful, besides, everyone else does it. Being accepted is of huge importance for teenagers. Today, acceptance is still important to me, but I am not prepared to forfeit my values in order to get accepted.

Acceptance often weighs more heavily on my scale of priorities than money. Wade would tell me that he’s proud of my new business idea and that it will make us a ton of money and I would look at him with a faraway look in my eyes, saying “Finally I would get all the recognition I deserve…” when in fact I need money more than recognition right now.

What is recognition really and whom do you want acceptance from? Surely your friends have accepted you and if they expect you to do things that you are not comfortable with in order for you to remain acceptable, they are not worth being called friends?

If you want recognition from people you do not really know so that you can become part of their group, it is always a bad idea.

I heard a saying once that hurt back then, but it is so true:

“You would not worry about what people think if only you knew that they never think about you.”

In other words, people that are ‘controlling’ your thoughts may not even be aware of your existence. In which case, you had much rather impress them with your good set of values and great personality.