5 Ways I Feel Peer Pressure
And why I’ve cracked
Peer pressure isn’t just something you experience when you’re young. It sucks to be peer pressured into doing or not doing something, like taking drugs, drinking alcohol or having sex. That has happened to the best of us.
As you get older, it’s less about being peer pressured into doing something and more into being something. At least in my experience.
Moving through life, I’ve recognized what peer pressure is like on a bigger scale. It’s no longer peer pressure from a few friends in school. Now it’s peer pressure by The System, by the entire world.
These are 5 ways I personally feel pressure (and how I’ve coped with it…or not).
1. Social Media
I’ve never been crazy about social media. I guess the reason is that I’d rather be spending my time in other ways. But do I have a choice when we’re always asked —
“What’s your Instagram? Do you have Facebook?”
It’s a question I dread. It’s like human beings these days can’t connect on a more personal level. The digital plane is all that we can operate on.
While I do enjoy having Instagram for my photography, posting about my personal life doesn’t appeal to me. Nor does following other people’s lives closely.
2. Fashion
I’m talking not so much about what to wear and how, but the value assigned to clothes. Lots of people don’t want to be caught in the same outfit they wore yesterday (or even last week!). What’s more, clothes have to be expensive to be cool. I’m sure you’ve seen those videos entitled “How much is your outfit?”
Fast fashion is shoved in our faces. The ads are endless, omnipresent. I can’t lie — I’ve fallen under the spell and bought one too many shirts, sweaters and hats. Now, though, I’m careful. I’ve also bowed out of the rat race that is trying to impress. It’s a dead-end and oh so unfulfilling.
3. Socializing
Going out has never been my forte. Which is probably why it’s never been something I gravitate to. I’d rather be on my own, unburdened by the need to read social cues and act on (and react to) them.
But even to this day, I’m made to feel that I’m unworthy and weird and boring since I don’t have many friends. Since I don’t jump at the opportunity to hit the town and “live it up”, I’m abnormal. As a result, I find myself reluctantly yet forcibly putting myself in social situations because it’s simply what you do.
4. Work
The 9–5 grind doesn’t get a good rap, and yet if you look around, that’s the working style 99% of us have. We have no other choice. We have to work basic jobs and lead basic lives because that’s what’s accepted and is convenient.
While I’m not yet completely free to do as I please, where I please and when I please, I’m moving in that direction with a vengeance. I’m often told to get some stability, which is code for, “Get a 9–5 job.”
It’s true. A 9–5 job does indeed give you stability, routine and something grounded. But I dream of being unbound by a company and its rules.
Freelance isn’t the right word, but it’s a start.
5. Lifestyle
Lifestyle encompasses many things, such as socializing and work and the other stuff above. But for me, lifestyle has a lot to do with how you characterize your life as a whole.
Are you a night owl gamer who stays up all night? Are you a globe-trotting thrill-seeker who’s been around the world and back? Are you a no-nonsense entrepreneur who breathes business?
In this life, you can do anything, be anyone. But if you stray a bit too far from “the straight and narrow”, people start talking. They start asking questions. They start making comments.
I know this to be true and am still fighting to live according to my expectations, not the expectations of those around me.
