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She also wrote: "Computer science, technology and physics just did not figure in my teenage world view. Nobody popular in my school chose to study those subjec

by sampo 13y ago

She also wrote: "Computer science, technology and physics just did not figure in my teenage world view. Nobody popular in my school chose to study those subjects." She gave more weight to the peer pressure from other teenage girls, especially from the popular girls, than she gave to the word of her teacher. Not very uncommon. Peer pressure on what is considered "cool" vs. "lame" is a strong force in teenagers. I don't know if it's fair to say that every teenager who is not immune to that is not accepting personal responsibility.

altrego99 13y ago
It is easy to not succumb to peer pressure. You have to just change the way you are thinking - people follow peers to become accepted. But if you do, you will not get noticed. You have to stand out. You have to do what the others are not doing - and make a stand for it. And you will get noticed. For example if everyone in your class smokes, and you politely decline everytime you are asked to, people will notice. If everyone wants to do a PhD but you think of it as a waste of time and want to get out, people will notice. And people will even follow you.
- Yhippa 13y ago
  > It is easy to not succumb to peer pressure. You have to just change the way you are thinking - people follow peers to become accepted. But if you do, you will not get noticed. When you are growing up I think it's very difficult for kids and teenagers to avoid pressure especially for something as prevalent as this. I feel like "nerd" fashion is in so you see that a lot in society as rappers and athletes sport that look so that aspect of the nerd life is acceptable presently. The other aspects of nerdery that might not be socially acceptable to teenagers are playing with robots, programming a web app, and building a mobile application. To me if you like doing things like that you are probably the type of person okay with going into computer science or engineering. Until that's just as socially acceptable as joining the football team I doubt you're going to see much mindset change around the idea of going into engineering vs traditional liberal arts.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  I don't entirely disagree, but this is a high risk, high reward strategy if you're looking to get positively noticed. And with humans, dealing with disapproval is hard, so while the steps to "not to succumb to peer pressure" are not complicated it may well be misleading to say that it's "easy".
adekok 13y ago
> I don't know if it's fair to say that every teenager who is not immune to that is not accepting personal responsibility. To give it some perspective, in 1942 there were 18 year-olds fighting in the war. The people then were under tremendous pressure. They had enormous responsibilities and enormous independence, compared to today. What changed? Are we supposed to expect that at 18, she's ready to live on her own, sleep with anyone she chooses, join the military, but she's still a child, and can't muster the wits or guts to fight peer pressure. I, for one, have higher standards. It's demeaning (IMHO) to deny her own responsibility in her actions. What do you think of her opinion now? She's clearly older, maybe in her thirties. And she's still denying all personal responsibility for her actions. When I was 18 I did stupid things, and I'm adult enough to admit they were stupid things. Why can't she make the same admission?

by sampo 13y ago

altrego99 13y ago

It is easy to not succumb to peer pressure. You have to just change the way you are thinking - people follow peers to become accepted. But if you do, you will not get noticed. You have to stand out. You have to do what the others are not doing - and make a stand for it. And you will get noticed. For example if everyone in your class smokes, and you politely decline everytime you are asked to, people will notice. If everyone wants to do a PhD but you think of it as a waste of time and want to get out, people will notice. And people will even follow you.

Yhippa 13y ago
> It is easy to not succumb to peer pressure. You have to just change the way you are thinking - people follow peers to become accepted. But if you do, you will not get noticed. When you are growing up I think it's very difficult for kids and teenagers to avoid pressure especially for something as prevalent as this. I feel like "nerd" fashion is in so you see that a lot in society as rappers and athletes sport that look so that aspect of the nerd life is acceptable presently. The other aspects of nerdery that might not be socially acceptable to teenagers are playing with robots, programming a web app, and building a mobile application. To me if you like doing things like that you are probably the type of person okay with going into computer science or engineering. Until that's just as socially acceptable as joining the football team I doubt you're going to see much mindset change around the idea of going into engineering vs traditional liberal arts.
dllthomas 13y ago
I don't entirely disagree, but this is a high risk, high reward strategy if you're looking to get positively noticed. And with humans, dealing with disapproval is hard, so while the steps to "not to succumb to peer pressure" are not complicated it may well be misleading to say that it's "easy".

adekok 13y ago

> I don't know if it's fair to say that every teenager who is not immune to that is not accepting personal responsibility. To give it some perspective, in 1942 there were 18 year-olds fighting in the war. The people then were under tremendous pressure. They had enormous responsibilities and enormous independence, compared to today. What changed? Are we supposed to expect that at 18, she's ready to live on her own, sleep with anyone she chooses, join the military, but she's still a child, and can't muster the wits or guts to fight peer pressure. I, for one, have higher standards. It's demeaning (IMHO) to deny her own responsibility in her actions. What do you think of her opinion now? She's clearly older, maybe in her thirties. And she's still denying all personal responsibility for her actions. When I was 18 I did stupid things, and I'm adult enough to admit they were stupid things. Why can't she make the same admission?