By: Dayshia Stratton
OwlFeed Journalist

Peer pressure is something that every person has experienced at least once in their lives, even if they never really knew that it was peer pressure. Peer pressure is something that is experienced more so throughout the school days than it is when you hit adulthood, but adults still have been influenced by peer pressure themselves.

The most common things that students have been peer pressured into doing, besides drugs, are skipping school or class, doing other students’ homework for them or letting them copy.

While many adults make it sound like peer pressure is something hard to walk away from, many students have been able to stand their ground and not fall into the pressure that their friends are trying to give them. Walking away from peer pressure, even though it is their friends asking them to do it, has had a positive impact on each student. Many feel good about walking away from the pressure because it lets them know they have a good head on their shoulders.

Such students like Agua Fria junior Monica Peters says that she ¨feels as if I am a leader and not a follower by not doing as they (my friends) had asked.¨

Not falling for the peer pressure gave many students the sense that they were good children and they would not have to deal with the consequences that children and teens who have fallen for such pressures had gotten into.

Thinking back on the fun times you could have had if you had taken the pressure still does not make these students feel like they would ever try them. They like the choices they had made to not do whatever they were pressured into because as said by an anonymous source, ¨In the long run, someone could get hurt.¨

Because peer pressure has such a negative connotation, it is still seen as a dangerous thing to society, but not all students believe it can be a dangerous.

¨I do not think peer pressure is a bad thing because everyone knows how to walk away,¨ said Britany Stratton, freshman at Belen High School. ¨It only takes not caring about what others think of you.¨ However, since there is still the negative vibe about peer pressure, many others feel that it is a negative affect to society, ¨Peer pressure is a bad thing because you could be a total different person,¨ said Jose Trevino, sophomore at Agua Fria.

Even though peer pressure is seen as a dangerous thing by a majority of people, it still can be known as something good that sometimes should happen. ¨Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing because competitive pressure from teachers and friends with things such as class work can be a good thing,¨ said Jose Trevino.

It can also be seen as a good thing in such a way of others trying to help you stop doing something bad that you shouldn’t be doing. As always though, since peer pressure is seen as good sometimes, the bad side of it still has to be seen. ¨Peer pressure is not a good thing because it does suck having many people tell you different things you should do that you don’t want to,¨ said Britany Stratton, ¨But you are still able to be strong enough to say no, so that makes it not such a bad thing.¨

Altogether, peer pressure is something that happens to everyone even if you try to avoid it. Through it all, in the end it can be seen as something good because it all just depends on your willpower to say no and how true you are to your own person to not let these such pressures affect your life by doing them.