Peer Pressure

DAY 23/30/23/JUNE/2020 

Peer pressure

I work as a visiting faculty with one of the esteemed colleges in my city. I teach the first year students, soft skills subject. Its fun to be among young blood raving with energy. It makes you feel younger and so positive. 

Recently we finished with the mid term exams. One of the topics in the syllabus was about stress management. So naturally there were questions about it. One of the questions was about what are some typical stress areas for students? I wanted them to reflect and answer the question. The later part of the question also talked about what would be some ways of tackling it. That way the students also think about the practical application of what they learned in the course.   

  

Now the exams are done and I have the pile of the answer sheets with me to assess. I was checking the answers. It was very interesting to know what kind of stress today's students go through. To mention a few that came out were:

Studies

Exams

Assignments

Parent's expectations

Future

Career prospects

This is all understandable. Even we would jabe been stressed by a few of these factors during our studentship. The one that caught my attention was one stressor which was almost common among 90% students. It was 'peer pressure'. When I read the descriptions, I felt that these kids are too image conscious. They take themselves very seriously when it comes to social presence. The other one which was again prominently common was fear of public speaking. That set me thinking and analysing the situation.

There were a few thoughts that came to my mind.

Today's kids are very individualistic. They mostly think of themselves. 

They are so much drawn into the social media, that they have created a separate dream world for themselves where they behave like superheros. However when its comes to interpersonal skills, they dread even speaking.

Probably their constant pursuit is to match the social image in reality, which would be pitting a lot of stress on these kids.

Since they are so much on the social media, chatting and writing, they have begun to forget the basic speaking skills. Conversations ake them awkward because somewhere it seems they have lost the power of expression in person.

During college times, I remember, our peers and friends where like last thing was to bother about your friends. It use to be so open. There was a lot of trust which I see missing here. Instead they are suspicious, doubtful and hence on the guard.

There is so much need among these kids to have attention, recognition. If this doesn't fall in naturally then they would probably be faking it to grab attention.

I don't know. These are my thoughts and they may prove me completely wrong. And I wish they prove me wrong!

God bless these kids!!

  

© - Rahul Shinde 23/JUN/2020 https://tinyurl.com/y9sm92vr