Social Peer Pressure :)?:(?

Most of my colleagues talked about the negative sides of peer pressure, however peer pressure isn't all bad, like everything else it has it's positive aspects. If a kid is failing all of his classes and his friend/brother seems to be exiling he/she will feel pressured to improve academically to be on par with said friend/brother. If a kid is smoking weed all the time, and one of his friends tries to get him to stop that is peer pressure, but would you consider that a bad thing? I know many of my classmates wouldn't, Tim gave an example of how he tried to get his friends to stop smoking but they wouldn't listen so he met new friends that were more positive (for lack of a better word), that was unfortunate, however I went through the same thing recently with one of my close friends however the message did get through to him, and he did stop smoking. His grades improved, his relationship with his father improved, pus he skipped death. So is peer pressure bad? It doesn't always have to be, heck many of you (step up kids)are guilty of peer pressure in your blogs. The little messages about having to be yourself, being your own person, being a leader not a followers, you are telling someone how to behave, telling them how to live. But are your messages negative? Of course not

Peer pressure and Insecurities

Many kids Today feel like they have to fit in to be accepted. That being different or "weird" will cause them to be ostracized by their friends, so they reform themeselves and act in conformity with how they think their friends consider "cool." Peer pressure  refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. In young people, youth peer pressure is considered as one of the most frequently referred to forms of peer pressure. It is particularly common because most youth spend large amounts of time in schools. In addition to this, they may lack the maturity to handle pressure from 'friends'. Also, young people are more willing to behave negatively towards those who are not members of their own peer groups. However, youth peer pressure can also have positive effects. For example, if you're involved with a group of people that are ambitious/study hard in school,  you might feel like you have to follow suit to avoid feeling excluded from the group.