How do the people you socialize with on a day-to-day base have an effect on you? Well, it doesn’t matter where you live, who you are, or who they are peer pressure can affect anyone. Peer pressure can hold a substantial amount of influence on anyone.

It usually occurs in youth, when a peer or a group of friends tries to change your view, decisions, or behavioral beliefs. Peer pressure can come in many forms. For example, peers may call you names in order to get you to do something. Peers may try to persuade you, or tell you that if you don’t do something, they will no longer be friends with you.  To try to get your friends or classmates to try bad things, that can be harmful to their physical or mental state. Almost all teenagers go through social and personal experimentation, it’s only natural. Teenagers are still finding their place in life, developing their sense of self, changes, and how they act around others. But this time of change can also bring pressures of their appearance or how their peers view them for teens to change themselves, and the things they do just to “fit in” or “be cool” can be very draining to a young adult’s mind. Due to the brain still developing in your youth ages we are pronto peer pressure more often, 90 percent of teens are affected by peer pressure. Peer pressure can also be indirect. For example, seeing all of your friends doing something may influence you to do it as well. It can encourage youths to try things that are against their regular lifestyle and try harmful behaviors, like smoking drinking, or risky behaviors. Peers can also have an uplifting impact on others’ lives, encouraging good behaviors like exercising, studying, eating well, and taking care of one another. This is often referred to as positive influence, while peer pressure carries a somewhat more sinister connotation. We all carry big influences by others around us, positive, or negative. Stay clear of what you follow and how others around you act.