Look around right now, chances are one might see at least one girl walking around the cafeteria wearing a short skirt, heavy makeup, or a low-cut top. When eating lunch one can overhear a group of girls talking about how scared they were when they thought they were pregnant, while the boys are discussing how they got wasted at a friend’s house last night. In today’s world teens are blasted with the ideal image of beauty through the Internet, television, and advertising. Teens and pre-teens go through tremendous amounts of peer pressure and sometimes lose their real personalities from it.
According to Time Magazine, people will change their opinions in order to become more consistent with others in a group. When they conform to others in this way, it greatly influences the individual’s behavior.
“I definitely feel pressured by my friends’ choices,” Madison Mobley, junior, said, “if my friends have a tendency to cheat then I am likely to cheat more, or if they are going to prank someone I might want to join in, but peer pressure plays a role in my decisions sometimes. I think people copy others because they don’t want to be different or left out.”
Many teens with younger siblings find that they have to dress and act appropriately around them because they are highly influenced by their older brothers and sisters.
“I definitely think that the way an older sibling dresses or acts affects the younger sibling,” Bonnie Burke, teacher for 33 years and parent, said, “It is a powerful influence because the older sibling is living with them and the younger sibling is seeing them more often. I think that a younger sibling will look up to their older sibling more than kids their age.”
Burke believes that parents are responsible for their children’s behavior not the kids themselves. She tells parents to keep their kids busy and their minds so active that they will not have any spare time to get into mischief.
“When children are younger I think parents should do the whole parental control thing,” Burke said, “by letting their kids watch movies that are appropriate for the age, keeping it G-rated if they are under a certain age, and watching what they wear or who their friends are.”
Children now look up to the stars on television, such as Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato; however, these stars have caused more trouble for themselves. Cyrus has once again been seen in scandalous photos on the Internet, and Lovato recently checked into rehab for an eating disorder. Many would now argue that these are not the role models that children need.
“I think girls should look up to their mothers most, even though they have flaws like everyone else,” Mobley said, “but most of the time kids look up to pop-singers or actresses, and these aren’t the best role models because some do drugs and most have broken relationships. I have heard that in the show Hannah Montana, Miley has this boyfriend who keeps cheating on her and she always lets him back in. When girls see this they think it’s a normal, healthy relationship when in reality it is not, and I don’t think this is the message television should be sending to young girls.”
An article written by the American Psychological Association states that a lot of behavior in teenagers comes from avoiding the anxiety of being left out and that in adolescence, people begin to notice how they look and worry about what others will think of them.
“I know that I went through a time when I had skin problems and I would watch T.V. shows and see everyones’ perfect faces, wishing that I could be like that and have nice skin,” Mobley said, “I realized though that wanting to be like them didn’t clear my skin up faster. But my friends watch Gossip Girl and they dress like the people in the show by wearing party dresses and stuff, so I think people are definitely influenced by what they see on T.V. and that they don’t want to be different.”
The influence of a friend’s behavior or the desire to be more grown up can cause adolescents to engage in alcohol, drugs, and premarital sex.
“I think a lot of teens get tricked into thinking that having sex is a sign of love, especially the girls,” Mobley said, “but when it is done with a boyfriend you’ve only known for two weeks or even two months it is not an act of love it is a physical thing. Plus some people think that you need to get experience for your future husband, but it’s ridiculous that people come up with excuses for why they should have sex young.”
A study conducted by the University of New Mexico found that binge drinking and substance abuse cause teens to have memory problems that led to lower test scores.
“I think that teens today are still under social pressures to do drugs,” Burke said, “I believe that they get it from their friends and peers, because they want to be the popular kid and I think it probably still exists.”
The outfit choices being made by pre-teens and teens seems to be getting worse as the years progress because of the media’s influence.
“I almost feel like [teens and pre-teens] are lying to themselves by saying that they are older now and have the privilege to dress that way because they think they are more mature,” Mobley said, “One time my friend, who was 15, was wearing something inappropriate and a guy, about 23 years old, came up to her and asked her out. Obviously her outfit implied that she was over 18 and an adult, when she was a minor and that can get you into trouble.”
The teens of today appear to be trying to grow up sooner, rarely does one hear a teen wish they were younger, only adults have complained about being old and wishing they were kids again.
“I think they are trying to grow up too fast because they don’t want anyone telling them what to do,” Burke said, “the pre-teens and teens that I have worked with are more outspoken and assertive, they want to be independent and they want to run their own show.”
The kids who act too old are not living in the present and living their childhood to the fullest. Many parents want to see their child grow up to be a good person, but some kids choose not to live up to these expectations.
“I believe [teens who act older] are robbing themselves of their childhood,” Mobley said, “there is a time and place for everything- there is a time to be a child, a time to be a teen, and a time to be an adult- and when you speed up this time to becoming an adult you are doing yourself an injustice by not giving yourself enough time to mature.”