SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEER PRESSURE

“The more we micromanage our children’s lives, the more susceptible our children will become to peer pressure.”

Peer pressure has always been a challenge for kids as they grow up. It still is, whether it be in the hallways of schools or on social media platforms. In many ways, the impact of social media on our kids amplifies the power of peer pressure on them. Social media will always be here, but parents can help their kids learn how to handle peer pressure, in whatever form it takes.

When parents “discipline” their kids with lectures, threats, and anger, they inadvertently train them to be receptive to peer pressure. Parents taking this approach teach their kids to listen to a voice outside their own heads. When this happens during the early years, as their brains are still developing, they get the message that they can’t think for themselves, and that they must rely on someone else to do their thinking for them.

Granted, there are times when we must take charge and tell kids exactly what to do and when to do it. However, if this becomes a pattern it gradually convinces children that the most important voice is the one that comes from others. Many parents lock in this belief by responding to bad decisions with, “See, you should have listened to me!”

Later, when their brain starts to develop abstract thinking, kids say, “I’m growing up. I can think for myself.” Sadly, if their brain has been trained to listen to an outside voice, then that voice will eventually come from their peers. So, when you hear a parent say that their kid has somehow changed now that he is a teen, you can think, “Maybe not. Maybe he is just listening to a different voice now.”

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