It is extremely important that you choose your peers wisely as they have a long-lasting impact on your personality development.
During adolescence, it is not unusual for you to make a lot of friends. However, it is extremely important that you choose your peers wisely as they have a long-lasting impact on your personality development.
Adolescence is the age where you begin to develop your individuality. As adolescence is the most crucial period in determining your future, you need to make informed choices as to who you wish to spend your time with.
Friends and peer groups:
The friends you choose can influence you in both positive and negative ways. Either way, you are always exposed to peer pressure. Depending on your choice of friends, this peer pressure can either be healthy or detrimental to your growth and wellbeing. If your friendships influence you towards bad behavior, then certainly, it is not a healthy friendship to keep.
Positive friendships
Some examples of a positive friendship include:
- Influencing you to indulge in physical activities.
- Supporting you morally and motivating you to focus on studies.
- They are inspiring you to eat healthy food.
- They are helping you to mingle socially and imbibing good social behavior in you.
Negative friendships
Some examples of a negative friendship include:
- Those who encourage the use of harmful substances like tobacco, alcohol, or drugs.
- Friends who encourage bad dating behavior and meaningless romantic relationships.
- Friends who pressure you into making unhealthy choices for social status like expensive or indecent clothing, inappropriate entertainment, etc.
The kind of friends you choose can influence you in both positive and negative ways. In most instances, you will find it easy to choose a friend who is at the same wavelength as you in terms of interest, thought process, etc. However, when it becomes negatively influential or drives you against your comfort zone, you need to reconsider this friendship.
Conclusion:
Adolescence is the most influential period in a person’s life. One should be careful in choosing friends during this phase to ensure healthy and positive development of one’s personality.
Special thanks to Dr. Supriya Arwari (M.D, D.G.O) for the expert advice.
