Something that I have been interested in learning more about has been social pressures among teenagers. I remember my uncle talking about it a couple years ago, but I never acknowledged it because he was referring to me as the one being pressured. Lately, the issure has caught my eye again. I know that many people feel that we are placing too much emphasis and blame on social/peer pressure. From experience it does have a great impact on you and you won’t even know it. Some kids may use that as an excuse and for you to feel sympathy for them but in reality most teenagers do not.

One thing that I know for sure about social pressures is that different forms of social pressures make you do things that usually would not. Now, I’ve studied my share of social pressures on teenagers. Personally, it is funny to me how some of the things I’ve studied now on this topic was some bad behaviors I did myself. It makes me ask myself, “Why did I do that?”.

Social pressures has always been around but now we have more influences on teenagers which makes it a bigger deal. Now a days we are pressured by family, social networks, peers, and mass media.

Being that I did not have a lot of background information on social pressure on teens, I chose to do some research on the topic. As I searched for blogs and new articles on Google, I came across this one article:  Bizymoms.com. 1997. Social Pressure on Teens:social pressure. [online] Available at: http://www.bizymoms.com/teenagers/social-pressure.html [Accessed: 18 Jun 2013]. This article provided a lot of information and opinions on my topic. Some people felt that pressures on teenagers can come from parents. Parents have high expectations for their children and do not realize that they need to become their own person.

“Teenage years are a critical age in human life. This is the age close to the entrance of adulthood. The parents expect teenagers to be as obedient as they were in their childhood and behave the way they used to in their own teenage years. Unfortunately' this never happens as times change and social norms change over the years. Many adults view the behavior of teenagers as unsuitable for society. Thus' the conflicts start between adults and teenagers. This is commonly referred to as ‘the generation gap'.”

This statement didn’t really surprise me that much, but it did make me feel angry. It made feel upset because I do not understand why parents expect you to be just like them as if your their mini-me. I know parents often want the best for their children but this can overlap to not letting them develop in their own pace.

 In another article there was this one statement that made me nod my head in agreement with the writer. It was:

“In the United States, young people spend six to seven hours each day on average with some form of media (Brown, 2002, p. 1). According to one national survey of young people (10-17 years old) who regularly used the Internet, one out of four said he or she had encountered unwanted pornography in the past year. And one out of five had been exposed to unwanted sexual solicitations or approaches (Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Wolak, 2000, p. 1).”

This is true because the influence of sex is from the media. Young people are quick to go and experience it because they see everyone else is doing it. They think it is alright and there no consequences. They might learn there are consequences but they do not understand.

All of this makes me think that teenage problems will not go away . Parents and society have to learn how to handle teenage issues in a better manner.