The Corrupted World Of Floyd Banks

5:00PM Peer Pressure

Hey peoples, welcome to the critically acclaimed 'Through the eyes of Floyd Banks'. Today's topic is Peer pressure. Well, most teens know about peer pressure. Whether you're nerdy, popular, fat, thin, smart, dumb, athlethic you would have experienced some form of peer pressure. Peer pressure is defined as 'The efforts of a group of equals to maintain conformity to the group's social norms..

'Often, peer pressure can be a positive force in a teenager’s life. The advice of friends can help teens make the right decision in a tough situation. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with trying to conform; belonging to a group can help adolescents begin the complicated process of separating from their parents and developing their own, increasingly independent identities. However, when bowing to peer pressure means betraying personal beliefs and values, peer pressure becomes a negative force.' Quoted from http://www.guidanceassociates.com/copwitpeerpr.html


I was looking for some examples of peer pressure and real life scenarios when I came across a piece from this site http://www.girl.com.au/peerpressure.html (I modified some parts of it so that it would be relevant to this piece I was writing;

Wanting to be a part of the crowd at any time is quite healthy and normal, after all is it extremely important to feel wanted. But wanting to be a part of a select peer group to the point of doing things or acting in a certain manner that is unlike your usual self in order to fit in, can be a dangerous thing.

Peers can help influence us all both in a positive or negative fashion. You learn from them, they learn from you. The way we choose to react and deal with peer pressure defines who we are as individuals.

By definition a peer is someone that you look up to or can be someone you consider an equal in age or ability. And when we talk about the term "pressure" in the negative sense as exerted by these peers, we refer to the pressure that these people place on others to persuade them to do something that they would not normally consider doing of their own accord.

I recall when I was a high school student at an all-girls school a few years ago - there was always the constant pressure from other girls to take up smoking, skip classes or to behave in a rebellious manner. Fortunately for myself I had enough sense to know right from wrong and possessed the strength to tell the students in question that smoking was not very cool at all and that I'd rather get an education than a detention! But for many, the idea of standing up to peer group pressure is frightening.

People cope with peer pressure in different ways. How you deal with it is entirely up to you. You may feel comfortable talking to someone else about what you are experiencing and get some advice from them about what to do. Or you might be courageous enough to challenge the views and ways of your peers. The one thing you should NOT do however is bottle up your feelings. You will only be miserable and end up hurting yourself.

It is important to understand that just because you don't agree with your peers on all matters, does not mean they will respect you any less. In fact, if they are mature enough about the situation, they will probably respect you more for sticking to your convictions. And if they don't and insist on ridiculing your decisions or actions, then they are probably not worth knowing in the first instance.

Although it can be hard to walk away from peer pressure it is not impossible to do so. You need to find the strength to say "NO" to harmful pressure from others. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs and finding inner strength and confidence is the key to surviving




Some parts of this excerpt I fully agree with. I agree with when they said to not bottle up your feelings because it would in fact make you feel depressed, lonely, miserable and a whole mess of other things. One of the things i'm guilty of is the last thing they referred to, which was how you need to walk away from peer pressure and find the strength to say NO. Sometimes I find it hard to leave people when I'm liming (hanging out) with them. I know if I leave they wouldn't tell me anything, but sometimes I just feel like if I leave people would view me differently or they'd say something about me or something along those lines... it's really hard to explain WHY I it's difficult to leave groups of my peers sometimes. Even though you probaly reading it can't possibly seem to understand why I don't just walk away and go wherever else I have to be at that point in time, just take my word for it and understand that it's hard to tear yourself away from that specific group of your peers. Remember a peer is defined as a peer is someone that you look up to or can be someone you consider an equal in age or ability, maybe this has something to do with it... maybe since I 'look up' to these people/have so much respect for them that I care alot about their opinions/views of me that THAT'S the reason I'm pressured so much. That was just my little stab at it, though I could be wrong.


There was a part where a girl was talking about when she was in high school and she said how she had enough sense to know not to be smoking, skip classes etc. and she possesed the 'strength' to tell other classmates that what they were doing was wrong. Yes, it IS frightening standing up to your peer group sometimes and telling them what they're doing is wrong/not right and you're the only supporting your point of view. I mean, if the people are my breadrins (my closest friends), then OF COURSE i'd tell them when they are doing stupidness or anything wrong. Because I wouldn't want my friends doing anything to put their life in danger/ cause them trouble. BUT!!, if it's just casual people like my classmates or something I wouldn't go out of my way to voice my opinion because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate me preaching to them about what's right and what's wrong. Plus, if you tell you 'friends' that they're something wrong and they get angry with you to the point where they want to stop being your friend, then they're not your friend after all. That's the reason why I wouldn't tell anyone else other than my breadrins to stop their s***.

Just keep your head up and know that you're an individual. You're not sheep, you have your own brain and you don't have to follow a leader... hopefully I could take my own advice...

I'M OUT PPLS!! STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT SHOW!!!!