Peer Pressure

Avleen Kour
Friends form an important part of our lives. They brighten our day with their beautiful smiles and jokes. At the time of our sorrow, they lessen the pain. They listen to our most idiotic ideas and still say,” Yes, you are right”. With them, we share our deep dark secrets. They even catch our emotions when we try to hide. Friends are everywhere a necessity. Even our birthday parties are tasteless without friends.
Ironically, in the modern world, we have a lot variety of friends- school friends, college friends, friends of our coaching classes, social sites, bus stops, religious places etc. In our childhood, our parents would look all our friends and put us into playgroups or classes with children which they knew and liked. We always love to have a friend or a group of friends who are superior to us in every way. But somewhere, this superiority has started emerging as a problem. One friend may think I am more superior and the other pal may believe in his superiority. This has started another evil which is Peer pressure. Peers are generally, friends of the same age group. Peer pressure is basically, coming in influence of the friends and do such a thing which does not suit us. Responding to peer pressure is a part of human nature but some people are able to resist it while others are more likely to give in. A normal student, to get into the best gang of the school may have to do many such things which are similar to ragging. It is like my cousin who has recently joined her new class,demanding a red dress and bracelet  the new fashion because her friends wear it of  and if, however, she doesn’t wear it, she would be considered inferior to all of them.
Same as for me, when I was in my school, we had a group of girls who were good at dance and had a good image in the school. I would feel a bit shy to go and talk to all those charming girls and they too, won’t talk to me much. So, in order to get into their group, I learned dance to influence them. Even now, in the college, our friends urge to go to cinema by bunking the lectures and if by chance, one of our friends could not go due to some reasons, he/she is considered as a cause of breaking the unity of the group and is then slowly cut off from the group. Moreover, there starts the back biting game for that person. And after these successful bunking and partying together, there are lies between parents and their children. So, everywhere, the situation is worsened. My friends do not trust me, do not like to be with me because I do not go out partying with them and on the other side, I have to lie to my parents every time I go out with my friends.
We go on influencing our friends. But in the last, we forget we have a life of our own to live rather than influencing someone. Why impress someone..?? We do not take proper care of our studies because in our group, the one who studies is considered as a bookworm and an inactive person. We forget that it is our books which will lead us to our ambitions, not this pressure. This peer pressure may go on spoiling things. The friends who are actually true to us will not ask for such favours but take a look in our hearts…
We are lucky that our society does not have negative approach towards peer pressure to that extent like in the metro cities and other countries. But, we as a whole, the parents and we too should be aware that such peer pressure does not get a habit in our lives. After all, friends are a treasure we have.

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