“Peer pressure” was one of those big buzzwords (buzz-phrases?) when I was growing up, and I remember thinking that it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard of. I couldn’t comprehend a situation where I had to go along with my friends or they wouldn’t be my friends anymore. I thought that real people didn’t have to deal with peer pressure, that it was just another of those weird adults-trying-to-understand-kids things.
I still don’t buy it, even being older. Maybe it’s just because I have good friends, or maybe it’s because individuality is “cool” now.
However…
Have you ever had a lot of people tell you the very same thing, so many people that you start believing they’re true, or at least wondering if you’d had it all wrong. I mean, if your brother came up to you and told you that the sky really isn’t blue, it’s green, you’d laugh at him. If, later that day, you talked to a cashier at the grocery store, and she told you the same thing, you’d think it was a funny coincidence. If you kept hearing it over and over from seemingly unrelated sources, you’d start to look at the sky funny and doubt what you were seeing, wouldn’t you?
I guess that’s what peer pressure really is… it’s just the power of people. Hearing that you’re ugly your entire life until you believe it wholeheartedly. Having people tell you that aliens live on Mars until you start peering at the sky at night. Advertisements telling you BUY THIS, BUY THAT, until you start wondering how it was you survived on this earth without some kind of mp3 player. Myriads of people accusing you of having a crush on someone you’re just friends with until you start looking at him sideways and thinking, why not?
Does this happen to you guys, or am I just a pushover?
I don’t know that that’s ever actually HAPPENED to me, if it has I’m not aware of it, but I can definitely understand where you’re coming from, it’s quite scary really, just how much influence a group of people can have over somebody!
December 8th, 2007
I think it’s true… peer pressure comes into many different forms, and it’s never played off as “someone MADE me do it”. It can be subtle as well, and it’s when you feel like you’re giving into whatever everyone else thinks or wants or does.
It always happens to me, and everyone. Even if someone commented “Why would you wear that” is peer pressure, because then you’d be pressured into NOT wearing it.
December 10th, 2007