Peer Pressure: Good or Bad?

Hello everyone! It’s been such a long time since I last wrote here. I hope everyone is doing happy and healthy. Let me take this moment to wish you a happy new year! I hope this year will bring the best out of you.

Today, I want to talk about a topic which I learned in class very recently, which is on peer pressure.

For many people, they might be familiar with this topic. However, do you really understand what does it mean by peer pressure?

From my understanding, peer pressure is when you are influenced by people who are around you to do something, either willingly or unwillingly. Peer pressure can influence both positive and negative behaviour. Example of positive peer pressure is when your peers influence you to do something good, such as studying. On the other hand, negative peer pressure is when your peers influence you to something that is considered bad, such as skipping school.

Peer pressure can also be in many forms, such as spoken, unspoken, direct, and indirect peer pressure. It is important for you to know whether the things you do are influenced by other people or not, in order to protect yourself from doing the things that are unethical.

Peer pressure have both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of peer pressure is peer pressure can increase your self-confidence. When you have friends that push you to do better, you will improve your performance in anything you do in life. For instance, when you spent more hours to study, this will increase your confidence to sit for your examination. As a result, this will help you to get better grades and also improve your performance in class.

The disadvantage of peer pressure is peer pressure can influence you to engage with bad habits such as taking drugs and alcohol. These harmful things can bring bad effects on your health because it contains substances that can harm your body if you consume it too much. Not only that, taking drugs and alcohol can tarnish your image and make people think badly of you. Consequently, this will affect your mental health in the long run.

As a conclusion, peer pressure can be both good and bad. You should always remember to think before you do anything. Do not do things just because your peers make you feel obligated to do so. Be assertive and know yourself better. Love yourself.

That is all from me today, thank you for reading!

If you have any opinion, you are welcome to comment under this post.

Take care and stay safe.

Benefits of peer pressure include a sense of belonging and support.

fin.

"So, let’s all take one more step. We have learned to love ourselves, so now I urge you to ‘speak yourself’. I would like to ask all of you. What is your name? What excites you and makes your heart beat? Tell me your story. I want to hear your voice, and I want to hear your conviction. No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin colour, gender identity: speak yourself. Find your name, find your voice by speaking yourself.”

- Kim Namjoon of BTS, UN General Assembly 2018