Peer Pressure? Is it good or bad?

Before 2018, I did not know what was peer pressure. I came to know it when I was asked to give a lecture on this topic by the college to newly admitted students mandated by AICTE. I did research online. I studied many texts and watched many videos online to gather materials. I could gather some points from the US state department that issued the video for school children. The points were powerful. It helped me a lot. I hoped students also liked it.

Peer pressure

In my view, there are two types of peer pressure; positive and negative. Positive one pushes you in the right direction to achieve more and negative one derails your life from the track. Why do we feel peer pressure? It comes to everyone naturally. We, humans, are social. We are impacted by society. Whenever we meet people or follow personalities, we are influenced by them to some extent each time. It may not be overnight but it happens slowly. We feel that we too need to do something like this like him. Once this comes to your mind, you are having peer pressure. It is something you get from your peers in a nutshell. Very simply, I can put this way. Suppose, you are very much impressed by the topper in the class. When you observe him, you too feel in the back of your mind that I need to gear up and focus on your academics. This is positive peer pressure. You are getting a little bit of jolt to perform well in the future. You want to have recognition like him. Positive peer pressure helps to achieve higher things in life. On the other hand, there are hundreds of examples of negative peer pressure. The negative ones do not help anything. Suppose you have formed a bike gang. Your friends force you to buy an expensive bike. You want to get into that gang of yours. You buy expensive bikes with your parents’ money. Otherwise, you make hue and cry. You drive at 100 plus speed without a helmet. You end up having an accident. You kill somebody in the accident. Thereafter, you live in guilt. We are humans. We need to rise with our deeds. There are many things to be explored and experienced. Whenever you feel the urge of doing something, you always check whether you are under positive peer pressure or negative peer pressure. You need to rethink your decisions. Always look before you leap.