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Peer pressure among teens
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Teenagers feel a desire to never be singled out and to be perfectly in line with one another otherwise they may feel as if they are staring death in the face. The “in crowd” is a burning supernova everyone aspires to be a part of. Simply just sitting around drifting away from the supernova; being alone in the void of space. Being drawn towards that black hole which you never can escape its ensnaring gravity. Space in this situation describes the incredibly complex world of the teenager. The supernova is the popular guy who every boy wants to be, or that powerful clique every girl yearns to be a part of. Teens are having to pray that he will stay in orbit, and never fall into social angst. When teenagers change themselves to be a part of this …show more content…
The collective behavior of the in crowd is highly negative because it causes teens to go against their morals, wanting to change themselves, and bullying other teens.
Collective behavior is bad for the youth because it will cause them to go against their morals. When people are in a crowd, they may feel a lack of responsibility so they may do things such as become violent (Examining Momentarily 2). Teens may do things they would not necessarily do by themselves. Lebon, a French psychologist stated that people feel less accountable for their actions, so if something goes wrong the crowd did it not the teen himself (Sociology 616). When a teen becomes a part of a group they are forced to give up individuality, and conform to the group (Collective behavior 10). Collective behaviors are highly negative, for “lynching is a form of collective behavior, actions by a group of people who bypass the usual norms governing their behavior and do something unusual” (Henslin 616). Collective behavior has always been an issue, and it really affects teens because they are still figuring out who they are. Youth is easily sucked into norms in which teens can lose themselves and do
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Online bullying is no strange concept for teens today (Teens, kindness 3). Two thirds of teens have witnessed cruelty online and other joining in (teens, kindness 4). 21 % say they themselves have joined in. Teens are willing to hurt others to not be the one getting hurt. “88% of social media-using teens have witnessed other people being mean or cruel on social networking site.” (Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites 2). Most teens witnessed bullying, but do not say anything which makes them by stander and they are just as bad (Teens, kindess). Teens know it is wrong, yet choose to remain voiceless. Back then teens never went to school, but after the year's attendance had been better than ever. Teens who went to school would bully those who did not, so they came to avoid being a target. In school those teens may help to spread rumors to hurt others so they can climb their social ladder (Sociology 621). Scout and Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird experienced this in their own school. Rumor spread about the court case “The school buzzed with talk about defending Tom Robinson, none of which were complimentary” (Lee 89). School has been already hell for some teens, but the malicious attacks on others, and the rumors of hate make everything so much worse. Teens have the hopes of being at the top of the social ladder. When they are at the top of the social teens can say what they
As a teenager we are all looking to be accepted by our peers and will do whatever it is they want us to so we can be accepted. That is to say the feeling of needing to be accepted by ones peers is done consciously; the person starts to do what their friends do without thinking about it. (Teen 3) In fact, teens are more likely to be affected by peer pressure because they are trying to figure out who they are. (How 1) Therefore, they see themselves as how their peers would view them so they change to fit their peer’s expectations. (How 1) Secondly, the feeling of needing to rebel and be someone that isn’t who their parents are trying to make them be affects them. (Teen 2) Thus, parents are relied on less and teens are more likely to go to their peers about their problems and what choices to make. (How 1) Also, their brains are not fully matured and teens are less likely to think through their choices thoroughly before doing it. (Teen 6) Lastly, how a child is treated by his peers can affect how they treat others; this can lead them into bullying others who are different. (Teen 3) Consequently this can affect a teen into doing something good or bad; it depends who you surround yourself with.
The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth is a book by Alexandra Robbins which summarizes the story of seven different teenagers that have many different problems, which many of todays teenagers also have. I found myself having many similarities to the teenagers in the story, for example, when with her group Whitney, the popular bitch, thinks “You didn't day that when we were alone, but now that you're in front of a group you do” (Robbins 21). I can relate to this because I feel as though many people are pressured to say or do things they normally wouldn't whenever they are with their group or ‘clique’. Robbins has this idea that the freaks and geeks, or “cafeteria fringe” will someday grow up and use what they are criticized for to become more successful than the other peopler people. She calls this the ‘Quirk Theory’ (Robbins page 11). This helped me to learn that right now, in high school, not being ‘popular’ may seem like the end of the world, but the reality of it is that after these four years, it wont even matter, but what will be important is how you learned to grow as a person and the true friendships that were made. This makes me want to focus more on my education and learning to grow as a person instead of focusing on how many friends I have or who I sit with at lunch, because truthfully it wont matter once high school is over.
It helps them make a statement, and show who they really are as individuals. Today teens express their true selves through clothing, music, etc.
author Alexander Robbins states: “From the age of five children increasingly exclude peers who don’t conform to group norms. Children learn this quickly. A popular Indiana eighth grader told me ‘I have to be the same as everybody else, or people won’t like me anymore’” (150). The human brain is wired such that children will end friendships with kids that they find different. Robbins finds this behavior to be undesirable saying that it is not only unappealing, but it is a cop-out. In agreement with Robbins, parents across the world, organizations, and teen movies tell society that conformity is bad and that children should not conform to the group, rather they should stand alone and be individuals. However, Solomon Asch’s study may have discovered why this is. He concluded that: “The investigations described in this series are concerned with the independence and lack of independence in the face of group pressure” (1). Asch determines that in the face of pressure people are more apt to conform.
Adolescent years are a time period in a human beings life where we search for a place that we are most comfortable. It is a time where we try to find friends with similar interests and those who will easily accept us for who we are. Once we are accepted by those friends, we tend to do more things with hopes of getting approval from “the group.” Trying to fit in during adolescence is a significant factor for self-motivation because it determines the level of being accepted and popularity amongst our peers. Through our year of adolescence we experiment and try to discover oneself as a person, but we also find what our strongest traits are that are used in order to be accepted, or to feel more popular. Popularity is defined as a state of being liked or accepted by a group of people (cite). As the group of people gets larger, so does that person’s popularity. For some people, popularity may come easy due to their charisma or looks, but there are those children who feel lonely due to their lack of popularity.
In the past 20 plus years the world has encountered many changes. One of the biggest changes has to be the world of media. Magazines, T.V.s, cameras, radios, computers, cell phones, and many more kinds of technology, that are used as media outlets, have transformed and been created. Perhaps two of the biggest transformations have been the creation of magazines and eventually social media websites. Magazines have gone from being paperback to digital then social media networks came into play. With these new transformations in media people have changed with them. Perhaps trying to fit in with what they see being portrayed or trying not to get left behind in society. Whatever the case may be people have begun to change for, what seems like, good and bad. Today there are hundreds of social media websites including: blogs, dating sites, social networks, media sharing, and social news. There are also thousands of magazines circulating including: music, beauty, health, and many other kinds. In modern time these instruments have been utilized in ways that can be detrimental and instrumental in many ways to many people.
First of all, whenever someone opens a book or magazine or turns on the television, they see a bunch of teens having fun. Immediately, because of how society sees teens, people think that the teens must be doing something wrong. People think that teens are out to cause trouble, when in reality, most of them mean no harm.. Many people may think that teens are dangerous and shun them for their own safety. It is almost a prejudice against the teenage race.
Struggling to catch his breath As the hangman’s halter, Tightened in his neck. He stands at the tree, Doesn’t touch And doesn’t speak. They say he bumped into a white lady while racing to catch the freight monorail.
Many years ago, Abel Meeropol famously wrote “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees...” The purpose of this poem was to describe the heinous lynching of African Americans in the south. They would be strung up to a tree and hung in front of crowds of hateful people spewing ignorance with no regard for human life outside of their own race. Sometimes their neighbors and loved ones would be present as well, while they struggled to free themselves and gasp for air before they eventually die. Although lynching is better known as the act of hanging a body up to a tree, there are also other acts that fit into the lynching
"Parents and teachers often miss children's nascent understanding of group dynamics, as well as kids' willingness to buck to the pressure," Killen explains. Children begin to figure out the costs and consequences of resisting peer group pressure early. By adolescence, they find it only gets more complicated."
When people join a large crowd, often they find themselves losing their individuality. Some people may feel a strong desire to conform to fit into the crowd (Changing Minds, 2013). People in crowds may undergo deindividuation, which is a loss of individual identity to gain the social identity of the group. This can result in a loss of the normal constraints that a person may have to guard against deviant behavior (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2010). This behavior results from the feelings of arousal, anonymity, and a reduction of individual responsibilities. People may feel that in a group their less responsible for actions and behaviors. This can allow people to participate in destructive behaviors without feelings of moral and ethical responsibilities one may have when alone.
Conformity is abundant in a group of adolescent peer groups. Adolescent peer groups often are filled with peer pressure and the need to “be like everyone else” (Simons-Morton, Bruce, and Tilda Farhat.). This peer pressure can cause these adolescents to change who they are and how they act around others. Many adolescents conform to make sure they don’t stand out or go against popular opinion. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the guards and the inmates conformed to their roles and if they did not they would look out of place and be punished ("THE STORY: AN OVERVIEW OF THE EXPERIMENT."). The inmates that did not conform to the guard’s rules were often beaten and abused. The inmates that did conform to the guard’s rules wouldn’t receive punishments
With excitements, many teens get hurry out to disobey authority or involvement in crimes. The young may be engrossed to the mob’s way of living as it stays out of the law and takes place in illegal behaviors. Others prefer to be in the mob because of the many problems they encounter at homes. With the promise of a greater life by the gangs then the excited teens get attracted to the illegal activities of the mob (Bryman, 2008).
If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood
Once hormones have revealed themselves, children turn into confused young adults that think they can do everything by themselves and that there will no longer be any need for nurturing from adults. The word “young” from “young adults” is what teenagers completely ignore, when actually they should do the opposite and ignore the “adults” part. Furthermore, this causes infliction between teenagers and adults, especially their parents. Once they have the courage to say “no” with consciousness to what they are ordered to do, they come across a feeling, a feeling of being big and powerful. Because of that, teenagers then only focus on their new discovery of rebelling against adults and are, metaphorically speaking, injected with ego.