The Online Scholar Institute

Peer pressure is real. There is a belief that everyone is the sum of their five closest friends. Many people believe that peer pressure isn’t as strong a force on young people as is widely advertised. This essay shall argue against this thought, and highlight the fact that peers do influence their friends’ decisions.

Peer pressure is a strong force exerted on young ones because they spend a lot of time together. Imagine this. You are a young person under the age of 16 years old. More than likely you are mandated to be in school from the hours of 8AM to 2:30 PM from Mondays to Fridays. This schedule constitutes the majority of your interactive hours as you probably spend 8 hours asleep, and the rest of hours to yourself getting ready to go to school or returning from school, or completing at home assignments. Most of your interactions would involve your peers. So it isn’t a stretch to say that your school friends’ opinions would slowly become your opinions. If one’s friends pressured them to engage in illegal activities, they could be swayed to commit crimes. This is because of the high value that students place on their friends’ thoughts on their actions. Peer pressure is real, and it is a strong force in children’s lives.

To summarize, peer pressure is as strong as is advertised. Students spend the majority of their interactive hours with their friends, and their friends’ opinions on matters do weigh heavily in their decision-making.

For the opposite view – https://theonlinescholarinstitute.com/2025/03/04/english-a-essay-peer-pressure-is-not-as-strong-as-persons-think-for/