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Social pressure has existed for as long as human beings have lived in groups. People exert influence on their friends and colleagues, making them take some actions and change their behaviors to engage in their social circle. Various persons have suggested that, despite the differences between generations in terms of technology and the economy, all young people confront the same pressure. However, this essay proposes that young adults currently face more social influence than in the past. For example, they confront parental influence to pursue their preferred courses, experience peer influence to adopt negative behaviors and please their friends, and are subjected to exam performance pressure to avoid being placed last in school rankings.
One of the significant coercions which students face is the paternal pressure they experience while choosing careers. A study conducted by Ranil et al. showed that parental pressure was the motive which drove them to the medical profession (324). Most young people consider their parents advice when choosing their careers due to believing that their relatives are more experienced in such issues. For this reason, they frequently join the courses which are not appealing to them to please their guardians. Such pressure to pursue particular high-paying careers is currently significantly higher than in the past because of high unemployment rates and living costs. Therefore, learners in the past experienced lower social pressure than modern students.
Influence from friends is also a common form of social compulsion students confront on a daily basis. Adimora et al. explain that young adults face detrimental impacts from their peers, which leads to negative acts such as smoking, drinking, negative way of dressing, and speaking (220). As students grow, they are influenced by their friends to adopt malicious behavior such as drinking and smoking to fit in their social circles. This influence is remarkably substantial nowadays due to the increase in social media usage experienced in the last few years. The youth feel the need to do cool things to seem trendy to their peers, which was not rampant before social media development and demonstrates that todays learners face more societal influence than before.
Another form of social coercion young adults experience is the constant pressure to perform well in their placement exams. Ozen and Atmaca found that ranking and labeling the students by& placement examinations& is the most damaging aspect of human nature (423). Placement exams involve ranking students according to their performances in various tests. Whereas these tests are essential for teachers to evaluate their students capabilities, they exert a lot of pressure on learners to excel. For instance, students have to read regularly and worry about their achievements to avoid disappointing their parents. Such hardships were not common before the 1950s, which proves that students now face more pressure to succeed than in the past.
However, despite the evidence provided, some people might argue that educational performance pressure is not as high as it was because there are more non-educational careers than in the past. Badenhausen suggests that the average NBA salary is projected to hit $10 million for the 2020-21 season (para.1). Whereas nowadays there are more career choices available to students, some professions require rare talent and physical capabilities. For instance, most NBA players are taller than an average student, which means that most young adults would not fit the requirements to play basketball professionally. The best option for such students is to pursue education, which puts them under constant pressure to both perform in school tests and impress their parents. Therefore, modern pupils still face much more pressure than previous generations.
In conclusion, current learners experience more societal pressure than former students due to various factors. In particular, they face parental influence to pursue their preferred career courses instead of their passions. Students also confront peer coercion to be accepted by their friends. Finally, they also experience stress to perform well in placement tests. Therefore, educational institutions and other stakeholders should find solutions to this recurrent problem.
Works Cited
Adimora, Dorothy E. et al. Peer Pressure and Home Environment as Predictors of Disruptive and Risky Sexual Behaviors of Secondary School Adolescents . African Health Sciences, vol. 18, no. 2, 2018, pp. 218-226.
Badenhausen, Kurt. The Average Player salary and Highest-paid in NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL and MLS . Forbes, 2016, Web.
Rani, N. Asha et al. Medical Profession as a Career-pressure or Passion: A Cross-sectional Survey among Undergraduate Medical Students . International Journal of Medical Science and Education, vol. 3, no. 4, 2016, pp. 322-327.
Ozen, Hamit, and Taner Atmaca. Self-esteem of High School Students: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis . Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, vol. 14, no. 3, 2019, pp. 422-435.
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