Generally speaking, when parents or students alike speak or think of “peer pressure” it is often used in an incredibly black and white context, such as peer pressure concerning substance abuse, and peer pressure relating to our general surface demeanor. 

I spoke with a few students who had varying opinions on the school’s overall environment with relations to peer pressure. I thought it was important to talk to various walks of life amongst us here, so that’s exactly what I did. 

I asked each of them the same three simple questions: 

• How would you define peer pressure in your own words?
• Why do you think people are easily influenced by friends or classmates?
• Why is it hard to stand up to friends/classmates when involving peer pressure?

“I define peer pressure as the people around you constantly pressuring you to do something that can be good or bad,” said 17-year-old senior Cameron Liddell. When asked why people are easily influenced by friends and classmates, Liddell responded with, “I think people are easily influenced by their classmates because they don’t want to come off as lame.” I asked him the final question, Liddell responded similarly, “Like the previous answer, I think it’s because you don’t want to lose your friends or come off as lame.” 

To find at least one other person’s opinions on the matter, I asked a student in my NEST hour I had not known prior to this conversation, sophomore Anna Greminger. “I think that peer pressure could be best defined as the act of feeling the need to do something as a result of coercion from one’s equals,” Greminger said. Along with that, Greminger was asked why they think people are so influenced by friends and classmates.  “Often the influences in our lives shape us to be who we are and the choices we make. In a place where teens are constantly trying to figure out who they are as a person, it can be easy to want to participate in the same activities which one’s friends do – regardless of the consequences.” 

For some people, it can be difficult to stand up to their peers. “It is difficult to stand up to friends/classmates against peer pressure. Standing up against the peer pressure could mean risking friendships and being rejected by your peers, which in a high school setting, can seem ineffable,” Greminger said.  

I spoke with one more student about peer pressure, and as to what their opinions were on the matter. I asked all the same questions I asked the other interviewees to sophomore,  Janelle Alvarez. “Doing something because the people around you are pressuring you to do so,” Alvarez said when asked about how they would define peer pressure. “I think it’s easy to be influenced because we see these people often and we trust them, but also because sometimes people think since other people are ‘doing it,’ it can’t be that bad.” 

“I think it’s hard to stand up to friends/classmates because people care about others opinions, and people don’t want to be seen as afraid or ‘uncool’ especially with friends, you’re going to want to fit in with them and go along with what they are doing. You don’t want to be left out,” Alvarez said. 

Overall, peer pressure is something that affects everyone, whether or not it is realized.