Teens: Peer Pressure & Money

 As teens increasingly become independent, they are faced with many challenges in which they have to make decisions that are either right or wrong. This phase of a teen’s life is quite difficult as they may experiment with many types of risky behaviour such as speeding cars to drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, many too often the results are tragic.  This essay will particularly focus on the safety of teens, staying in school, and the need to find the right and safe job.

Staying safe for a teen in today’s world is a very gruesome job, as they are approached every day with the new horizons of technology and a great deal of peer pressure. The biggest issue a teen is faced with is the lure of having a relationship.Young love can be a wonderful experience, however one must not underestimate the powerful emotions that may get stirred up. Teens are usually pressured by their peers that already have a relationship to get into one themselves, because that’s what keeps their ‘cool’. It’s important to know the boundaries that are set by parents, and stay within them, regardless of what others may encourage one to do. The other challenge that today’s youth are faced with is alcohol. More than half of the nations junior and senior high school students drink alcoholic beverages, and many “binge” to relieve stress and boredom. (source: U.S Surgeon General, 2007) If more than half of the nation is doing it, then the youth think there’s nothing wrong in it and the numbers just increase from there. “Binge” drinking is consuming large amounts of alcohol over a short period of time which can cause sudden death from alcohol poisoning and stop oxygen from entering the brain. 25.5% of high school students aged 12-20 said they “binge” drank within the past month. The most affective way to prevent such things, is for parents to have regular discussions in their daily lives about all this stuff. It’s easier for the youth to understandwhen they are faced with discussion on a day to day basis rather than a one day big talk kind of thing. 74.3% of our nation’s high school students aged 12-20 are drinking.  Continuing education after high school is extremely important in one’s life todaybecause, not everyone is Bill Gates and succeeds after dropping out of high school. As statistics prove there will be 308,000 more jobs for university graduates and 170,000 more jobs for those who completed some kind of a post-secondary education. However on the flip side, not going to school, stats prove that there will be 16,000 fewer jobs for high-school graduates and 651,000 fewer jobs for those who didn’t complete high-school. (source: Statistics Canada) Interesting fact for those who plan on working for a fast food chain, they will soon have laser cookers and information systems that will allow customers to make a burger of their choice by simply pushing a button. Therefore almost 80% of fast food jobs will disappear. People with the computer skills to run the new equipment will be in high demand. (source: Canada Prospects)