WHERE THE BEAST ARISES
Negative peer pressure is like a beast. It creeps into every corner of our minds, leads us to create unnecessary comparisons, and makes us feel bad about ourselves. Those thoughts will gradually accumulate in our heads, day by day, year by year, and eventually, we will be eaten up by that beast.
As the fairy tales often tell us, if we want to slay a monster, we need to find its cave, find where it came from. Today, Fourtastics will tell you another fairy tale, where we are that beast slayer, finding Where The Peer Pressure Beast Arises.
Internal Causes:
As humans, we need to feel “belong” to a community. A lack of belonging or low self-esteem is one of the places where peer pressure arises. Our inner peace can easily be disturbed by our need for acceptance by another individual or a social group, which could overwhelm our own morality or confidence. As a result, we feel a need to create an identity shift to fit those social standards or make ourselves feel better by looking down on others who are different from us.
As mentioned before in our previous blog, “Positive Peer Pressure,” teenagers are the most susceptible subjects to peer pressure because they are still in the phase of figuring out themselves and their social identity. That’s why we often see school violence in their secondary and high school phase. It’s because they haven’t figured out anything about themselves yet, and they haven’t received the recognition from the social group that they want, so they are drawn to asserting their dominance and strength on others to feel that they do not lack anything.
In such cases, education plays a significant part in getting ourselves back on the right track. No matter how much education and training we receive, each person has their own emotional system, and the best we can do is provide them with the ability to adjust and modify their feelings, which includes the ability to recognize peer pressure, deal with it professionally, seek help if needed, and identify when they may be unconsciously applying peer pressure toward others.
External Causes:
Family Relationships: The way family members interact with each other has a crucial impact on the development of a person’s self-esteem, confidence, and mental well-being. When the family bond is weak or distant, the child may lose trust, and respect, and have no space to express themselves without fear or judgment. As a result, they lose confidence in themselves and peer pressure creeps in.
Peers: The way peers interact with each other also has a great influence on the mindset and personality shaping of someone. Toxic, unhealthy relationships with friends could result in solation, resentment, or low self-esteem.
Social Media: Social media has become an indispensable part of our life. It helps to connect people with people and provides its users a sense of belonging since anyone with any identity is welcomed on the Internet with a completely separated online identity. Nonetheless, those fabulous pictures and fake lives on Facebook or Instagram are, most of the time, just an illusion. The vulnerable children and teenagers going on the Internet could easily fall prey to those delusions and wish for such lives while looking down on what they are having at the present.
Our Words
Now that we have told you where the beast arises, we truly hope that each of us can progress on our journey to beat this scary monster, find ourselves, and gain inner peace. Knowing these, you can not only help yourselves whenever you are under stress, but also realize that the roles of your surrounding environment are just as important, and who knows if you can help somebody beating their own beasts?
Quỳnh Ngân
