Risky Business Essay: Final

                Every teen has that time in their life where they want to be someone else, fit in, “be cool” but some people don’t seem to quite fit into that category. Meaning they don’t fit in or they’re not “cool” thus they change themselves physically and emotionally. But seriously everyone fits into that category either in school or at a work place.  It can be a bad thing but it can also be a good thing at times.

                You see that girl that everyone likes all dressed up in a cute top, skirt, and combat boots then you see that extremely swaged out guy in an obey shirt, khakis, and vans thinking, “oh that’s super cute/swaged out can I dress like them?” We all have to admit we thought that in our head, it’s not a crime but when we actually change our whole entire perspective on things because we want to look like them, be like them. Well physical attractiveness, cultural traits, and disabilities affect the level of peer acceptance; people don’t always go based on personalities like everybody says but also their looks. About 10 percent of teenagers surveyed said that they had not been influenced by peer pressure, but in that same group, 28 percent of teenagers agreed that giving in to peer pressure improved their social standing. Teens think by just changing their appearance won’t do anything but sometimes it might change your attitude as well. As you start to change you begin to stray away from your parents as well, from the ages of 13-23 54% males explored whether peer acceptance can act as a moderator and protect global self-esteem against the negative effects of experiencing low closeness in relationships with parents.

                There can be a plus side to all of this, I know when you think about think about this it’s a bad thing to think about but once you actually get to understand this topic it’s not that bad; you can actually find yourself by being someone else, surprisingly.  As people encounter new situations, they begin to understand themselves more fully by noticing how they feel in that situation and in how they behave. Sometimes it might take that for them to go through different personalities to actually understand themselves. As we all know when a person changes, they either change for the better or the worst, and when it’s for the better then the person will surely know that he/she found the right friends, right attitude, and right road to travel.

                Even adults probably had that time in their life where they wanted to be someone else, be someone else, to be “cool” but it can be a bad thing, and a good thing. It might change you the wrong way where you become the person or it might change you in a good way where you discover who you are as a person. But being yourself is best, no one else but you. Exploring is a good thing, but changing yourself isn’t really that great unless you turn out to be a better person for the world.