Overcoming peer pressure
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The National Youth Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Task Force, Inc.
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018
Peer pressure is both a good and a bad thing. The question as to the good of peer pressure inexorably comes with its bad side. To avoid the bad side of pressure is to, in essence, take part in the good of it, what is it, though?
It is, to me, simply the degree to which the social group influences your own perception of what you should and should not do, and then also how this leads to what you do. The good is what is good for you and the bad is what is bad for you. Then it is only a matter of how good and how bad on net based on the peer influence.
Let’s say you’re at a party, and you’re having a good time, but one peer or friend is known to be involved in illicit substances, drugs, and uses them before a safe age or more than a safe, responsible amount even if at a safe age, they offer the drug to you.
Do you take it? Or do you pause, reflect on the possible harms, and say, “No, thank you”? What do you do?
These are tough decisions at a young age. For those who are subject to the peer pressure of drugs, the possible harms are increases in fatalities or addictions, especially with the recent rise in the deaths associated with opioids connected with fentanyl.
Even those increase risks aside, the pressure of the friend is bad pressure because there are more harms than benefits associated with the peer pressure. Bad peer pressure is your friends or peer wanting you to do something that is not for your best interest in the long-term.
Okay, now, let’s switch up the script and have some good friends who come with you to the party and then the other drug-using peer is already at the party and offering the drug to you – bad peer pressure, but then your other friends who do not use substances or use them safely and responsibly come to your aid.
They decline on your hesitant behalf in order to help you. They give you boost, bolster you, to take the high road and support you in it, so you do not feel rejected while doing the short-term fun thing in favour of the long-term beneficial thing.
Peer pressure can be good or bad. But the point is to avoid the bad pressure, have good friends who have your back when the bad peer pressure can come forward, and so you can have a better time in the long-term.
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