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Effects of peer pressure on adolescents
Negative impact of peer pressure for children
Negative impact of peer pressure for children
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“Popularity Project” When I was in 3rd and 4th grade I was always so concerned with being popular, it was to the point where I would hang out with people who were bad influences. They would always swear a lot, be mean, be selfish, and be self centered. (Keep in mind that I was in 3rd grade) I would push away a lot of the people who cared about me, especially some of my old friends since preschool and it really sucked. I guess you could say this all started around 3rd grade I was so obsessed with being popular I would change every single thing about me down to my hair. I was considered the “leader” of the group, and I would make rules on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. and if you broke those rules you would not be able to sit with us. From …show more content…
However I realized I didn’t need school in my life, so I pretty much gave up. Then summer came along and we decided to go to Mexico and for once I enjoyed it, I didn’t worry about what I wore or what my hair looked like I could actually enjoy it. I seemed to have forgotten what it felt like to be popular and I enjoyed it. When school started back in the fall for 4th grade I was separated from my group of “friends” and being the mean person I was I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I was hated and I deserved it I also hated myself too. Having no friends because of who I was made me want to change, I wanted to start over I wanted everyone to forgive me. I started by apologizing to everyone I hurt, especially to the person who I disappointed the most my mother. Then to all the people whom I spoke rudely of. It took a really long time for people to forgive and trust me again, but slowly I gained that trust back and then when that was all over I started getting my grades up. But the person that I wanted to forgive me the most was myself, but I couldn’t I put so much people in pain. Around 5th grade I gained everyone's trust back and I was also the most loved person, everyone could depend on me and trust me and I was
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.
A large majority of teens want to fit in and feel like they belong, but how far are they willing to go to fit in? The more they want to fit in the more likely they will be easily influenced by suggestions from others. During my second week of eighth grade, I felt like I wasn’t fitting in and that everyone was silently judging me and criticizing me. Of course now that I think about I don’t think anyone really cared about me, but I was more self-conscious about myself then. One day during lunch my friends and I sat next to a couple of girls who were known as the “popular” girls and I thought that maybe I would fit in more if I was friends with them. I spent the rest of that lunch hour trying to build up the courage to talk to them and at last minute I told the friendliest looking girl, that I loved her shirt and I asked her what store she bought it from. She told me that it was from Free People; she then gushed about the store and told me how everything there was amazing. She suggested that I should check it out sometime so I did. I, of course couldn’t wait to shop there. I told myself that if I shopped at Free People, I could maybe fit in with her and even be a part of the popu...
I was so ashamed of my physical appearance and nostalgic of my senior year of high school, that I isolated myself from the majority of the people I’d met. I started binge watching Netflix in my dorm room, making frequent trips to a nearby dermatologist and crying to my mom and friends from home about how I hated school and wanted to transfer ASAP. I was cold, lonely and ugly. I couldn’t wait for winter break so I could forget about my sucky dorm and lack of college friends for a while.
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.
...friends” then they would interpret my words differently and make me look like a bad person. Rumors were spread, arguments took place, and I lost those two friends because they couldn’t treat me right. I learned to not be friends with anyone who might spread rumors about me or that might be too easily offended. I found out that the popular kids can be mean sometimes. I was made fun of for my oversized sweater. The sweater used to belong to my older cousin whom I admired. I didn’t know why they thought it looked funny when I believed it was the best piece of clothing I ever owned. The popular group taught me to keep dressing the way I want. Then my attire could make the girl upset and I would be the one comfortable at school. Therefore, my peers taught me about life and myself. This group affected me because I learned to not fall under the norms and make my own trends.
Social influence/peer groups were one of the dominant themes in my observations, survey, and literature. Social influence looks at how individual thoughts, actions and feelings are influenced by social groups (Aronson, 2010).The desire to be accepted and liked by others can lead to dangerous behavior. College life can be an overwhelming experience for first time college students and or transfer students as they struggle to manage class time and social activities in an attempt to fit-in in the new environment that they may not be used to. Students can experience too much anxiety and drop out of college or fall behind classes. Working at the Cambell Student Union information Center, I observed a great deal of students falling into this trap of social influence and peer pressure. A female student tripped as she was going up the stairs to Spot Coffee but did not fall. What appears to be a group of guys who are not popular (guys who are not very well known), were seating where popular students normally seat. The group of guys started laughing at the girl and stopped. One guy kept laughing, but it was obvious he was forcing the laughter as to purposely attract attention. He started making jokes about the girl and carrying on the laughter so he would appear to be funny. Another example, which portrays peer influence, involves parties over the weekend. Multiple students stated they were falling behind in classes on the grounds of their friends wanted to go out the night before and they did not want to seem/appear “lame” so they tagged along. The influence of a group is intensified by the person’s desire to be an accepted member of the peer group. To achieve this desire he tries to conform in everyday to the patterns approved by the grou...
My first year of junior high, (in our school that was seventh grade) I was not spending all my time trying to be popular like all the other people in my grade. I was just being me how I always had been. One day at I was sitting at the lunch table with a bunch of people I would hang around with sometimes. Some of them were talking about there weekends.
I really dislike stories like Hans Christian Anderson's The Ugly Duckling. Not all ugly ducklings turn into swans. Some of us turn into ugly ducks. We need to learn to accept it, and to find that being an ugly duck isn't really necessarily all that bad, because going with the flock isn't always the best or most satisfying way to go, even if it does seem like the easiest. I was never one who "fit in" with my peers. From the day I began school at the age of five, it was obvious that I was somehow different from the rest of them. Since I was hyperactive, kind of shy, and too intellectual to be popular, I rarely had many friends, and at times found myself a subject of ridicule, mocking, and outright abuse. My first ploy, which lasted for a number of years, was to attempt to conform. This was very muc...
(2000) found that sociometrically popular boys are seen as prosocial, nonaggressive, and studious. Perceived popular adolescents demonstrate both positive and negative qualities. They are characterized as cool, powerful, influential, arrogant, exclusionary, elitist, manipulative, controlling, and aggressive. Furthermore, they tend to engage in highly visible and prestigious activities
In one journal entry I wrote, I brought to light that the popular group is something that every one of us, for some reason feels as though we need to be a part of. This is from my own experience and things I have observed throughout my four-year career in high school. I think it was perhaps worse in junior high, however. When you are in seventh and eighth grade you are not sure of who you are and are desperately searching around for something to belong to, to be a part of. Why is this, why are we a society that are most often drawn to the most popular, "cool" and "beautiful" that high school has to offer? Why is acceptance the most important thing to us, is belonging really as important as losing your own sense of self? Who you hang out with, who your closest friends are as an adolescent without a doubt help to shape who you are. And it's funny that you seem to end up being friends with the ones who are the same type of people as you. Same fashion sense, taste in music or cars and movies. When searching for an identity in high school, it is hard not to just attempt to pick up the one that seems the most socially acceptable. I know that my personal experiences include these conforming characteristics. Still as a freshman in college I am constantly looking at the fashion of my peers, wondering to myself "do they think I fit in"? This was especially true the first few weeks of college when I wasn't sure who my good friends were going to be; I made sure that I dressed as well as I could everyday, in all the new clothes I had bought specifically for college.
“Most teenagers feel insecure about who they are are still unsure of themselves. The safest way for them to feel accepted is to be associated with the popular clique.” Being socially accepted is something that teenagers long for. Being popular is a shortcut. If a person tells the school that they should wear black on Monday, then teenagers will wear black just to be like all of the others.
Write down the names of those people, and how they offended or hurt you. Activate the spirit of God within you by speaking to those situations and declaring that you have forgiven those people and surrendered to God to make you whole. Next, take the time to reflect even deeper: Did you perform any initial actions to hurt that person or in retaliation for what they had done to hurt or offend you? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through asking for forgiveness from those people if you are able to reach out to them and to prepare you for whatever the response may be. Disclaimer: Because people are on different spiritual levels, and because some of the people you may be dealing with may not have a relationship with Jesus at all, there is a chance that your apology may not be accepted. This is why it is important to pray that the Holy Spirit prepares your heart in such a way that you are able to work through any feelings that may come if someone chooses not to accept your apology. Even in that situation, give thanks to God that He has worked on your heart in such a way that you were able to do what He expects and offer peace and reconciliation to that individual. Pray that godly relationships be renewed, and that peace resides in every
I remember a time a few years back when I had a group of fairly close friends. We would always hang out with eachother and we would await the day at which we were to enter high school together. When we finally reached high school, there where now a whole new group of people that were older than I. I still had my group of friends, but gradually I started to lose one of them. My friend was going against my other schoolmate, and before I knew it I was hurling the same insults as they were. It was all part of a process; a process, I thought, was going to make me popular. I thought that if I could make someone look lower than I was, I would gain self-confidence and become more popular.
After that summer I became more focused on how I needed to change. I was motivated to finish things that I started even if they were hard, I had to persevere through them. I was putting myself out there by talking to people more and asking them to hangout. People have mentioned that I am a very different person compared to who I was in middle school. When things came my way now, I would not give up.
If you are convinced and ready to forgive, you may be wondering where to start. My suggestion is to start small by letting go of the grudges, bitterness, and anger. Forgiveness has set me free. My moments of the perpetual journey of repeated practice and willingness to forgive have created my foundation for long-term change and stability. Understanding the act of forgiveness and unconditional love has carried me to the side of life that is kinder, softer and easier to bear, which has shifted my perspective of viewing our world.