Peer pressureThe concept of an individual having a desire to do something,because his peers are doing it would be a vague definition of peer pressure.
School and College LifeIn a person's life, education plays a vital role in shaping a person to harness his full potential.students always get compared to one another based on their academic performances.The intention of the teacher in doing so, would be to encourage others to strive harder and reach higher heights.If students don't try to take it the right way there would be the following problems
Students who are not able to live upto the standards will have a feeling of inferiority complex
Students will have to strain their self to reach the benchmark irrespective of one's unique qualities and capabilities.
Students will start feeling secluded and can also cause a rift between good friends for some trivial comparison
Work Life-The peer pressure has become an integral part of life ,even while you are working.People get compared to the achievements and accolades of peers in the same hierarchical level.Employees get evaluated by comparing their performance with their peers.This may cause people to work harder and harder causing adverse effects to their health.People who try to work very hard some times end up spoiling the equilibrium in the work life balance that they had struggled to build.
Personal life-If we are surrounded with peer pressure from school to work ,then we would also end up applying the same thing in our life.We usually try to take decision based on our neighbours ,relatives and so on.To put it in perspective,If our neighbour buys a new house or car,Then we have this instinct of calibrating ourselves with them and trying to strain our pockets to live upto their expectations.We should put an end to this in order to live a peaceful life.We should do something because we want to do it or we like to do it,not because we have to do it.
Positive effectsWe have always been talking of what are the negative effects of peer pressure.If we change the way we look at things we can probably get some positives out of the whole scenario.
Benchmarks-The downside of never comparing yourselves with someone else is that we would always be the best in our eyes ,even if we have the potential to be better.If we stay satisfied with what we have and what we have achieved ,Then we will never be able to harness our full potential in reaching a goal.
Motivation:We can always get motivation from someone.we all should have role models.This is slightly off topic,But instead of us having role models that are older than us and are of a different generation we can have role models of our own age.This will help us have realistic goal and also make us feel optimistic about our goals to reach them.
Stress-The most harmful effect of peer pressure is stress .We have heard about people who are having adverse health effects.There are instances in which,people have have been involved in activities during schools and colleges ,just because of peer pressure.The only thought we should have is that,the activity we did was for ourselves or just out of pressure.
Goals-For most of us,the goals are benchmarks that,we set comparing ourselves with someone else.We can reassess our life goals to see that ,what are the things that we want for us and not because someone else had that goal.