Every month Dear Anonymous answers questions and doubts popping up in your mind about anything and everything but this month we thought of doing it a little differently.
Have you ever slipped out of your comfort zone just because it was cooler according to the people around you? Have you ever chosen a tight uncomfortable dress over a comfy sweat shirt just because your 'peers' thought it suited you more?
Then this month's dear anonymous discussion is perfect for you! Crazy creatives would like to talk about Peer Pressure and the Pressure created by social networking sites on our lives.
So we'd like to begin by posing a very simple question to you, What is peer pressure? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to give in to peer pressure?
We can answer the first question for you. It's pretty common to want to belong and feel part of a group. There's nothing wrong with that at all and in fact having good friendships in our lives is really important for our happiness. But there is a down side to seeking out good relationships and wanting to be a part of a group which is very different from us. That desire to be part of something and have good friends can put a lot of pressure on people to act in a certain way. When we're influenced to do something we wouldn't normally do, or stopped from doing something we'd like to do, because we want to be accepted by someone/a group, we start moving into peer pressure territory.
Peer pressure can show itself in lots of ways including:
- dressing in a certain way
- getting involved in particular activities
- listening to particular music
- decisions about using drugs and alcohol
- decisions about who we date
- choice about who we're friends with
- academic performance.
Peer pressure is prevalent in all walks of life. It is not only a problem with teens or adolescents but even some adults feel peer pressure, usually those working at a company or firm.
The pressure to act in a certain way can be:
- direct, e.g. someone telling you what you should be doing.
- indirect, e.g. it's not always obvious, but a group might have certain habits or do certain activities together. When you are in a different group of people, you might be unlikely to do those things.
- self motivated, e.g. putting pressure on yourself to fit in with your friendship group.
The answer to what can help you is simple. Just be yourself. Learn to appreciate those who are different but don't force yourself to be one of them because if everyone was the same, no one would be unique and life would be boring. It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are so let's take a step towards saying NO, to ourselves and to those who want us to change.
The second thing we will be talking about today is the omnipotent and very popular social networking pressure. This is a very different kind of pressure we feel. The need to have a pretty display picture. The need to post or key in every place you've ever visited. The urge to make yourself look better on social networking sites maybe one of these pressures.
Is it so embarrassing to post a photo of yourself in your jammies? doesn't everyone wear them? Doesn't everyone sleep in one? Then why don't we do that? Instead every time we wear a short dress or leather pants we quickly post all of them on social networking sites. Why do we keep checking to see how many people 'liked' it. The real question should be were you comfortable? Did you like wearing what you wore?
We would like to share an incident which recently took place in Jalandhar :
A young girl committed suicide over Facebook comments, which has raked up the issue of how social networking is the new peer pressure. TOI explores.
The link to the whole article is here:
So this new year make a promise to yourself that you will live by your own rules.#SayNoToPeerPressure
We are looking forward to answering any questions you have through PMs and we are also willing to listen to incidents of peer pressure and if any of you need help to get through the pressure, we are only a PM away. Send your questions to our crazy creative account [crazycreative].
Thank you,
With regards,
Credits
Temptations. + xbeyondwordsx + Angel-Jot. + Yuvika_15
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