Peer pressure

Piste

You've probably all got the lecture on peer pressure sometime in school, you know the one, it pretty much makes out that all other teenagers want you to drink and smoke but you should say no.

I've found peer pressure to be pretty much non-existent, if I'm offered a cigarette and refuse nobody ever says "ah come on ya sap!" it's usually reacted to in the same way as if I refused a sweet from someone, the cigarette is offered to the next person. Likewise if I'm not drinking, my friends will look surprised and ask why, but wont push me to drink if I say I'll be wretchedly hungover/have to get up early the next morning, they wont insult me for not drinking or put any pressure on me to do it.

I think the idea of peer pressure is played up a lot. Of course indirect peer pressure exists, when you put pressure on yourself to do stuff cos everyone else is, but that's your own fault and a result of your own insecurities. When I was a naive little 12/13 year old I thought that all the big bad girls and boys out there would be DYING to make me smoke and drink but I've found it not to be the case; really nobody cares.

So does anyone think the notion of peer pressure is blown completely out of the water, or have you found that people really do put active pressure on you to do stuff you dont want to?

KeyLimePie

well i remember in 1st year there was fierce pressure to not be a fridget.......

but i think it depends on what kinda crowd you hang around with, if you're hanging with knackers yes but if you're with normal people nope not a drop =D

Insect Overlord

Peer pressure is just something to write about in your Irish Junior Cert essay tbh.

donmeister

I think peer pressure is definitely apparent,more so with early-mid teens as there introduced to 'adult things' i.e smoking,kissing/sex,drinking,drugs as there seen as the cool thing to do,so this in turn makes people/friends give off 'peer pressure' as if you don't do said thing your a gimp etc. This can produce some wild results in different people (usually pigeons) under peer pressure to try drugs etc and there the least likely to!

But really I think everyone tends to learn in time and experience that it is aload of ****e,and if your friends are giving you peer pressure,there not actually your friends,so just tell them to fcuk off! :pac:

Just my 2c

eVeNtInE

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Insect Overlord

eVeNtInE wrote: »

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That's called bullying, TBH.

eVeNtInE

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cocoa

An File wrote: »

That's called bullying, TBH.

I'd call pressuring someone into drinking / smoking / drugs / anything else bullying too...

Timans

Piste wrote: »

You've probably all got the lecture on peer pressure sometime in school, you know the one, it pretty much makes out that all other teenagers want you to drink and smoke but you should say no.

I've found peer pressure to be pretty much non-existent, if I'm offered a cigarette and refuse nobody ever says "ah come on ya sap!" it's usually reacted to in the same way as if I refused a sweet from someone, the cigarette is offered to the next person. Likewise if I'm not drinking, my friends will look surprised and ask why, but wont push me to drink if I say I'll be wretchedly hungover/have to get up early the next morning, they wont insult me for not drinking or put any pressure on me to do it.

I think the idea of peer pressure is played up a lot. Of course indirect peer pressure exists, when you put pressure on yourself to do stuff cos everyone else is, but that's your own fault and a result of your own insecurities. When I was a naive little 12/13 year old I thought that all the big bad girls and boys out there would be DYING to make me smoke and drink but I've found it not to be the case; really nobody cares.

So does anyone think the notion of peer pressure is blown completely out of the water, or have you found that people really do put active pressure on you to do stuff you dont want to?

Why do you drink at all? What led you to start drinking?

highlydebased

Different people have different ideas of peer pressure

Personally I've always found it to be pressure to be "conforming to sample", which annoys me. Take for example at the moment, the latest craze to hit the year (5th) is to get an ID and go on a pub crawl Thurs/Fri/Sat and Sunday nights! (And ex-communicate those who dont....)

Piste

Timans wrote: »

Why do you drink at all? What led you to start drinking?

Hilarious story, I was out with my cousin and her friends, one of her friends was well hammered and I thought she probably shouldn't have any more, so when she offered me the rest of her drink I accepted and necked it. I did it out of concern for her.

JC 2K3

Agree completely. Peer pressure is a concept fabricated by adults to explain why their little darlings would ever succumb to the "evils" of drinking, sex and drugs.

Ok, not entirely, but it's blown WAY out of proportion. Curiousity, and then actually enjoying these things are much bigger factors. It's quite amusing that anti-drug/drinking and abstinence groups always focus on the idea that the reason young people will try these things is soley due to peer pressure, and espouse the notion that these things arent actually any fun at all, and that poor kids are suffering because the "bad kids" pressure them into partaking in these wholly unenjoyable activities.

KnifeWRENCH

Peer pressure probably does exist but I don't think it's as prevalent as it's made out to be. I was certainly never pressured to do anything I didn't want to. Some of my friends thought I was weird to not be getting drunk at 15 or 16 and suggested I should, but none of them ever forced alcohol down my throat or gave me hassle for staying sober. I guess a lot of it has to do with the kind of people you hang out with though - some people are less tolerant and more pushy than others.

OneArt

Smoking, drinking, drugs... I did all these things because I a) was curious and b) I enjoy them. Mind you I was pretty innocent up until I was 15/16 (was sort of in my own world anyway and not really paying attention to what my friends were doing).

Granted I've always been an oddball, so peer pressure was never something that featured in my life.

andyc09lad

all i ever did was drink but that was my own decision dont ever do drugs or smoke if its under pressure, if these so called mates are really your mates they wouldn't force someone in to doing something they shouldn't

Ave Sodalis

Honestly, I don't fall for peer pressure on any part. I don't change for people, don't wear make up because my friends do, don't drink, smoke drugs or anything and if one of my friends tries ta get me ta do something I don't wanna i just tell them the **** off and leave me be.

But I have seen it change a lot of people in my school. I know someone who never drank or smoked and had completely their own personality until they met a new group of people and started it. Same as one of my friend however with her it's more positive peer presure in that she has lost a bit of weight (she was in danger of becoming over-weight, belive me) started exercising and stopped smoking herself. She also stopped arguing with everybody over nothing which was a huge improvement.

I think it's just a matter of how you think of others as well as yourself. Relax, I say. It's a lot less stressful and you know yourself. You also feel stronger and more confident if you dont let others run your life into a bad way.

KeyLimePie

Knife-WREEENCH wrote: »

Peer pressure probably does exist but I don't think it's as prevalent as it's made out to be. I was certainly never pressured to do anything I didn't want to. Some of my friends thought I was weird to not be getting drunk at 15 or 16 and suggested I should, but none of them ever forced alcohol down my throat or gave me hassle for staying sober. I guess a lot of it has to do with the kind of people you hang out with though - some people are less tolerant and more pushy than others.

ah now. out of all your friends were any of them drinking at 15/16 ?

Pygmalion

I wouldn't say it doesn't exist, and I wouldn't necessarily say it's bullying either, a lot of the time you'll see people with little or no friends who decide that the easiest way to fit in is to just go along to the smokers corner and light up, they might strike up a conversation or they might be ignored, but they won't be seen as the kid who just sits on their own at lunchtimes.
I'm not sure if that would really be considered peer pressure, no-one's directly pressuring them to do it, but if it keeps the other kids from making fun of them I can see why they might feel pressured into doing it.

Also a lot of the times when person A pressures person B into coming to the pub it's because A honestly thinks B would have more fun there than at home, and is simply trying to be friendly (although perhaps a bit over-zealously)

Bonkers_xOx

i don't think there's much peer pressures at all during teen years and I think it's blown way out of proportion. It may exist but only for certain people.

KnifeWRENCH

KeyLimePie wrote: »

ah now. out of all your friends were any of them drinking at 15/16 ?

Yes, quite a few of them did.

evercloserunion

KeyLimePie wrote: »

ah now. out of all your friends were any of them drinking at 15/16 ?

You must have grown up in a city? Most kids out the country are drinking at that age because there's f*ck all else to do.

_sparkie_

KeyLimePie wrote: »

ah now. out of all your friends were any of them drinking at 15/16 ?

yup, all of them except me. i live in dublin btw.

Acacia

Depends who you hang around with really. Your real friends won't care if you haven't met someone, drank or smoked yet. The only people who define their own coolness by these standards are complete morons who aren't worth your time.

When I was 14 or 15 there were a few muppets in my class who were shocked that I wasn't going to go out and get hammered on Halloween, for example. I just preferred to stay in watching horror films. So I got a few ''Oh my god, that's sooo lame..." comments. Did I care? Did I fcuk. If I don't care what they do in their spare time, I fail to see why they should care what I do with mine.

So yeah, peer pressure wasn't really a big deal for me.

Jack Sheehan

Piste wrote: »

You've probably all got the lecture on peer pressure sometime in school, you know the one, it pretty much makes out that all other teenagers want you to drink and smoke but you should say no.

I've found peer pressure to be pretty much non-existent, if I'm offered a cigarette and refuse nobody ever says "ah come on ya sap!" it's usually reacted to in the same way as if I refused a sweet from someone, the cigarette is offered to the next person. Likewise if I'm not drinking, my friends will look surprised and ask why, but wont push me to drink if I say I'll be wretchedly hungover/have to get up early the next morning, they wont insult me for not drinking or put any pressure on me to do it.

I think the idea of peer pressure is played up a lot. Of course indirect peer pressure exists, when you put pressure on yourself to do stuff cos everyone else is, but that's your own fault and a result of your own insecurities. When I was a naive little 12/13 year old I thought that all the big bad girls and boys out there would be DYING to make me smoke and drink but I've found it not to be the case; really nobody cares.

So does anyone think the notion of peer pressure is blown completely out of the water, or have you found that people really do put active pressure on you to do stuff you dont want to?

All the cool kids believe in Peer Pressure...

Mialuvzfun!

evercloserunion wrote: »

You must have grown up in a city? Most kids out the country are drinking at that age because there's f*ck all else to do.

i tink ppl wil drink yung ne wer!! lol i liv in the dublin suburbs and started drinkin at lyk 13 but not very often and i still only do it less then once a month!! but not becuz of peer pressure just cos its relly fun lol

Mialuvzfun!

Acacia wrote: »

Depends who you hang around with really. Your real friends won't care if you haven't met someone, drank or smoked yet. The only people who define their own coolness by these standards are complete morons who aren't worth your time.

When I was 14 or 15 there were a few muppets in my class who were shocked that I wasn't going to go out and get hammered on Halloween, for example. I just preferred to stay in watching horror films. So I got a few ''Oh my god, that's sooo lame..." comments. Did I care? Did I fcuk. If I don't care what they do in their spare time, I fail to see why they should care what I do with mine.

So yeah, peer pressure wasn't really a big deal for me.

fair fks to ye for just doin what yu lyk. like i do go out drinking and doing wat my freinds to but not because i was pressured jus because i find it fun like different people find difffernt stuff fun!!

Mialuvzfun!

Jack Sheehan wrote: »

All the cool kids believe in Peer Pressure...

i agree ttly!!!haha

Piste

Please stop using text speak, I've already asked you once on the Junior Cert board, this is your last warning.

Fad

Piste wrote: »

Please stop using text speak, I've already asked you once on the Junior Cert board, this is your last warning.

:eek:

dafckinmodsarusinpeerpressur2gtu2tipeprprlee!

OMG!

Seriously, if you have any interest in staying on boards, use your fúcking keyboard. It's really not that hard.

confusticated

I think people maybe confuse pressure and influence - peer pressure's only used when it's bad, you never hear people giving out about young people being on the football/hurling team etc due to peer pressure, but you might join the team if all your friends are on it and you don't want to feel left out...

It does exist, sure, but you could start drinking when you're fifteen since your friends are - that doesn't mean the friends pressurised you necessarily, you might just be influenced by that and decide that you don't see anything wrong with it.

Walsh

Peer Pressue FTW! Seriously though, it's great craic all together!