Peer Pressure
Jaylon Baldwin
White Ellen
ENGL1101
07 September, 2016
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure can have many different meanings for different people. However, to grasp the concept of peer pressure, people have to understand that peer pressure is the will of an individual to want to fit in with his/her peer group. Some very common examples of modern day peer pressure that I have experienced includes teens pressuring me to drink underage, smoke underage, and I have even had coworkers try to get me to lie on the job.
I remember one day I was at my class mates house party who had parents out of town. The party started smoothly but about an hour after the party began a lot of teens where drinking, and because more and more teens started drinking the pressure to drink got intense. Teens that know better than to drink started drinking just to fit in with their colleagues. The pressure got the most intense for me when a group of boys started playing beer pong and asked me to join and play with them. Even though my parents were not around and I may have been able to get away with drinking, I still convinced myself that it was the wrong thing to do and removed myself from the environment by just leaving the party entirely.
Another area I was greatly pressured by those around me was when I was at work. One day the manager couldn’t make it in so people that were on the clock were doing un honest such as eating the company’s food without paying, giving their friends free food, and clocking in and not clocking out on their breaks. One of my coworkers offered me a ride to get some food while I was on the clock. When I was offered the ride it was very difficult to turn it down because I knew that there would be no precautions since the manager wasn’t present, plus all of my friends were going as well so this added even more pressure to the situation for me. However, I just politely turned down the invitation and continued to work until it was my rightful time to leave.
The last experience I can recall enduring peer pressure was when I was in high school. I remember when I had a substitute teacher everybody skipped class to go to the gym. My fellow students pressured me to go with them so much that I did. However, halfway to the gym one of my classmates had a pack of cigarettes and offered all of us a cigarette. Since I was little I was always taught that cigarettes are unhealthy for the human body and I should turn down any offers to smoke. Keeping this in mind I did not accept any cigarettes from my classmate. Unfortunately, a lot of the teens that skipped class to go to the gym decided to smoke instead. Even though many of them would not have smoked if they were by themselves, they smoked this time because of amount of pressure from their peers and their personal desires to fit in with their acquaintances.