Peer Pressure And Idolization

Peer Pressure is an increasing problem that a lot of my friends (and to be frank every teenager) face. Every person who wants to be in the more popular or "happening" social group. For this people succumb to social pressure. In the process they sacrifice their personalities and change a lot of integral aspects about themselves. They force themselves into bad habits and other activities that would make them seem like a "rebel" or a "bad-ass".
 As I have already said, I myself see this happening amongst my friends. A few have even broken off friendships so that they may be accepted into the 'better' social group. I have seen good people being pushed into smoking, alcohol and drugs. This also pushes a lot of people into petty classroom/work politics. This behavior follows people into adulthood and causes further problems.

The real question here is what actually causes this behavior. The answer is pretty simple yet not that easily recognized. IDOLIZATION. As most people would know we live in a world that is heavily influenced (and might I say sometimes controlled) by the media. Teens my age (I'm 16 by the way) spend most of their time gossiping, reading and thinking about celebrities. As you all must already know I'm a little different from the rest. I am not into stuff like that. Unlike others I don't idolize celebrities for their looks or their social lives. If I do idolize any celebrity it's because of their skills that got them famous. For example I idolize Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch for their brilliant acting and for nothing else. Lot of girls idolize women like Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj and Justin Beiber (Yes I just said that) for their looks. Let me list what these people have become famous for:-

Kim Kardashian: She made a sex tape for crying out loud. She has no other talent whatsoever.
Nicki Minaj: She's a rapper whose lyrics are derivative, her vocals are highly auto-tuned and she relies on sexualization for publicity. 
Justin Beiber: This kid captured worldwide female attention because he looked cute. His lyrics are really derivative and he's lately making the news only for anger outbursts on the paparazzi.

These are the kind of celebrities who have become idols for a lot of people. Kids and teens mimic them and that is what causes peer pressure. The kid whose most like some popular celebrity is also supposed to be cool. Some guy in the US had plastic surgery to actually look like Beiber. That guy was in his 30s for Christ's sake!! Its estimated that the procedures have cost him around  $100K. $100K. Some of these kids and teens will grow to become celebrities. They're gonna influence some other generation and you can see it's a vicious circle.

I would like to conclude this post by telling all my readers to choose who to idolize carefully and also to avoid peer pressure. It's the easiest way to lose yourself to the will of others.