FHSTheFlash The Flash Volume 54, Issue 3 May 2014 | Page 16

Features
10
Feeling The Pressure
www.fhstheflash.com

Karoline Asdal

Flash Staff Reporter

It’s six o’clock Friday morning when your alarm sounds off.
The grating noise is interfering
with your delightful dreams and
you do your best to block it out
from your head. After slumbering for a little while, you grit
your teeth and roll out of bed.
Your eyes fall on the clothing
rack in the corner, filled with
tops and bottoms from the big
chain stores at the mall. From
there, your eyes travel to the big
mirror on the wall. It’s time to
make the first decisions of the
new day. What kind of make-up
should you wear? The blue or
the red pants? What will your
friends like?
Countless decisions and 12
hours later, you meet up with
your friends to get ready for
the night. They have talked you
into joining them at the party
tonight, even though you’re
positive you’ll break curfew
and get in big trouble with your
mom. As the dark falls you all
head out, and the very moment you step into the house
the party is at, you’re offered
a beer. You knew this kind
of question would come, and
you’ve prepared your answer.
“No, thank you.” But in this
moment, everyone’s looking
at you. The cute guy from your
algebra class and the popular
girls you’d love to eat lunch
with are all staring at you with
eyes hazy and bloodshot from
the alcohol. The only thing to
do if you ever want to be a part
of their clique is to take a sip of
the bottle somebody shoved in
your hand. So you do.
“We think of peer pressure
as forcing someone into doing
something. It’s really forced because you accept it,” psychology
teacher David Kuppe said.
The accurate definition of
peer pressure is “social pressure by members of one’s peer
group to take a certain action,
adopt certain values, or oth-

erwise conform in order to be
accepted.” This phenomenon
mostly affects teenagers in
middle and high school, as they
search for a sense of belonging.
According to a survey done by
The Canadian Lung Association, “my friends smoke” and

Peer pressure has caused
numerous teenagers to deviate from both the law and their
parent’s restrictions.
“The biggest pressure is to ‘fit
in’ in social situations. It can
involve things like participating
in drugs, alcohol, sexual activi-

“I thought it was cool” are two
main reasons why kids between
the ages of 12-17 start smoking
cigarettes. Peer pressure can
appear in terms of everything
from serious, life-changing actions to simpler things, like the
way you dress and behave.
“The last time I did a choice
based on peer pressure was today. I think almost every choice
we make is at least a little bit affected by peer pressure. You’re
always going to think ‘what will
my friends think of this’ and
‘what will my family think of
this’. Never do you think first
‘what do I think of this’,” sophomore Sarah Gordon said.

ties, whatever it
takes to fit in with a particular
group,” Karen Colby, counselor
at Fraser, said.
It’s often proposed that in the
adolescence stage of life, parents have little or no influence
in their teenager’s life. Their
son or daughter now emphasizes their friend’s opinions
and choices, even though they
might not always be the wisest.
“I tried smoking cigarettes
once. My friends pressured me
into it; they told me smoking
would let out a lot of stress. At
the time I was happy with my
decision,” Gordon said.
She is not the first and defini-

tively not the last one to give
in to indirect persuasion from
people close to her.
“Peer pressure is human nature. I don’t think most people
realize that they