Peer pressure has been around as long as times has been around. I remember back in the 60s when I went to school peer pressure was just as bad then as it is now. The only difference is we didn't get hazed. Back in my day the main peer pressure was to smoke. And I fell victim to the peer pressure. I don't smoke today I have been smoke-free for about four years. But the effects of that peer pressure causing me to be a smoker. I have chronic emphysema, COPD and a high disposition to lung cancer. I have to use an inhaler at all times. Today kids are pressured into smoking having sex and doing all kinds of things they wouldn't normally do on their own. And they don't realize that this pressure now can have long term effects. I've discussed the smoking. The kids that have sex today run a higher risk of teenage pregnancy, STDs, HIV, hepatitis and a whole host of things they just don't know. Nowadays I believe peer pressure is a lot worse than when my in my day. I see videos on the Internet of kids being beaten up because they don't go along with the group. I think it's just horrible. I know that every kid from today to my generation to my grandmother's generation only wants to just be popular. But popularity comes with a price. And you think you're ready to pay that price. Because when you're young you think you have the world and that nothing battle ever happened to you. But the effects of peer pressure are more than just the physical effects psychological it's emotional it's mental. Peer pressure causes kids to do all kinds of things they would they wouldn't do just normally and that peer pressure will be around for another as long as their kids some pressure. It's a sad world we live and where in order to fit in you have to be somebody or not do things you don't want to do. I would advise kids to stay away from peer pressure; but that's like asking kids stop breathing or stop going to school. Because no matter what no matter what where you live what social or economical status you have. There will still be bullies there will still be peer pressure and you'll still have to choose. And the long-term affects are so astronomical that you just can't imagine as a child. Or even an adult.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01834708
