My Gesellschaft Society Essay

Many young people in this day and age are tying to look act, and overall seem older. I deal with these struggles everyday in my life. Kids face many dilemmas in their trek to adulthood yet, they still try to obtain adulthood earlier by going through the â€Å"proper† rites of passage. These things create dilemmas, which can help or hinder lifetime goals. Two of the dilemmas that young people face today are peer pressure, and adult pressure. Kids today in the modern society encounter things such as smoking, drinking, and violence. In a Gemeinschaft society peer pressure is not going to be a really big issue in a teens life. All of the people in that society are probably going think and have the same ideal as everybody else in their community. Although in a Gesellschaft society, teens are going to struggle with different issues because no one thinks the same or follows the same ideas or trends. I know in my life it is very hard to stick to what I believe in. There is always going to be someone out there to tell you a different side of a situation. In some ways seeing two different views of a problem is good. It helps to weigh out the good and the bad. I live in a Gesellschaft society. The friends I hang around with have many different beliefs about everything. There is no way that we can all believe or follow the same ideas. Peer pressure is a very major dilemma when friends or peers try to get a person to do what they, the majority, like and not what the individual likes, or does not want to do. Peers create some of the so-called rites, when one follows, more start to follow, then it becomes the scenario of follow the leader. For example, some teens think that drinking is a passage into adulthood because the law states you must be 21 to drink. The logic of some teens indicates that if you drink you are considered an adult. Therefore if one teen tries it he/she is supposedly accepted as a more mature person, so more people will follow. Many adolescents fear their peers because of the fact that the peer group may  have set certain ideals, yet the individual may or may not have the resources to obtain the ideals. If there is a lack of resources then the individual may have a very low level of self-esteem. Many individuals do not care for the ideals yet they allow themselves to be converted to the majority and this can also create a problem with ones self-esteem. Peer pressure is not a bad thing. We all are influenced by our peers, both negatively and positively. It helps define who we are and how we feel about subjects in our lives. It is how we chose to react to peer pressure that defines who we are as an individual. Are we a leader or a follower? Both types of people are needed to make the world go round. Basically, the difference between negative and positive peer pressure is the outcome. The reverse of the situation above is negative peer pressure. The situation itself is positive peer pressure. For example, a teen really doesn’t like sports, but pushes himself to do it to please his friends or to be accepted. Therefore, he probably doesn’t do too well at it, and gets only criticism, which lowers his self-esteem from the very friends he is trying so hard to impress. That is a form of negative peer pressure. Another kind of pressure is adult pressure, adults create many dilemmas in a teens life. Adults tell teens what and what not to do. They make things harder by the fact that adults pressure teens into colleges, jobs, careers, and life over all. Adults also create self-esteem problems in teens by not respecting choices or decisions made by teens. For example, children are taught by their parents to supposedly know what is right or wrong. The child may not like their parents’ answer to a question or situation, and in some cases get furious at the decision and go and do the wrong thing. In a way this is a case of peer pressure because the child wants to do what his/her friends are doing which could be the wrong thing and the child gets mad at the parents because they say no. Adults pressure teens into not doing things also. Drugs, sex, and alcohol are some of the many things peers and adults disagree upon. The style of clothes one wears is also a big disagreement between the two groups. In a way adult pressure is worse than peer pressure. Adults control teens lives until they are eighteen years old or older. Adults may force a son or daughter to go to a certain college that the teen does not want to attend, or obtain a career that the teen does not want. Peer pressure is a normal aspect in a teen’s life. For example, if a parent doesn’t like the current teen fashion does not mean that a parent should have to fight it. When everyone at school is wearing jeans that are five times too big for them, and a teen wants to also, you can cut them some slack. But, if everyone is wearing these jeans down around their knees, you should have a battle. In conclusion the two pressures of peers, and adults are often conflicting. Sometimes neither is good, and other times both are good. Adult pressure is by far the worst creating many problems with youths today. Peer pressure may also create problems yet they are easier to deal with. The best thing to do is to respect one’s own decision for one’s self and no one else’s.