Societal Pressure is the exertion of influence on a person or group by another person or group or the expectations that affect an entire community or specific parts of it. Societal pressure has a great impact on young adults ranging from their late teens or early twenties to their thirties.
In this current dispensation of technology, social pressure is getting more common in our lives. Technology has both a negative and positive impact on individuals in various endeavors.
Some Causes of Societal Pressure
Societal pressure can be found among family, peer-groups, social media and business partners.
Family pressure arises as a result of parents wanting their children to take up skills and courses in school and being coersed into relationships they feel is best for them, whilst on the other end the children are been placed under duress to want to please their parents instead of fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for their lives.
Peer pressure in schools, churches, offices, and homes have a strong impact on the younger generation. As it is routinely said, the company you keep determines what accompanies you. The desire to meet up with the current happenings in the world and to acquire all the mundane things of this life has made so many youth enter into dubious activities, thereby truncating their glorious destiny.
As the book of Proverbs 13:11 quotes, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (ESV).
There are also good friendships in the bible we could pattern our lives after. Examples are that of David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 18:1-4, and Ruth and Naomi in Ruth 1:14-18.
Social media has been of great help to the world and at the other end, destroyed so many young minds by the virtue of things they watch, and listen to; the men and women they’ve emulated on social media. So many young guys are into Internet fraud, dumping much of their hard-earned money and our young ladies are getting drowned daily in perverseness trying to model after these so-called celebrities, how they dress so scantily to portray their beauty and so many other vices. Succinctly, social media has done more harm than good.
Furthermore, psychological pressure can also be seen as one of the causes of social pressure, where young adults become uncertain about their future, they feel lost and lack sense of direction with no one to guide or direct them on what to do, they even fear asking for help. This is a picture of a Wrong Sphere of Influence. In seasons like this, they are scared that when they’ve made their own decisions, society tells them that they are too young to make decisions for themselves, which could lead to anxiety.
Handling these Pressures
The first stage is the family because every great man out there comes from a family. Proverbs 22:6 AMP, “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It’s the sole responsibility of every parent to train their children in the way of the Lord and also give them the opportunity to make choices for their lives in the area of skills, field to study, relationship and also as a guide towards their destiny. Show them how to love by pointing them to the love of Christ, thereby making it easy for them to relate well out there.
Parents should befriend their kids, creating room to know their friends, give them Internet-enabled phones when it’s right – not because everyone has one. Also create time to check their phones. If this fundamental part is taken care of, the peer pressure and social media crisis can be tamed.
In conclusion, the children should be taught how to say the word “NO” in a world full of “YES”, where truth has become a scarce commodity and evil fashioned to appear good. In other words, apart from social media misuse, peer pressure, parental pressure and psychological pressure, there are so many other causes of societal pressure which can be handled at a very early age.
Everyone must learn to live in peace of mind as Christ lived, full of contentment and shunning competition. A responsible parent will not find it difficult to raise responsible children by influence and Christ-Modeled Leadership. Learn to lead like Jesus!
Michael Okuneye is a certified Facilitator with Lead like Jesus and also the African Representative. Experienced with missions and leadership matters since 1993. He is the Executive Director of Livingword Global leadership Mission; served as a missionary in Niger, Chad and in Nigeria where he resides, training Church Planters and Community Champions to build stronger and transformational churches in Africa. Having raised and trained many leaders in several nations, it has given him the voice in Leadership matters in Nigeria. He served as the Assistant to the National director of Bible league in Chad, later rose to National Head of Operations of Bible League Nigeria before proceeding to advance the course of Leadership and Mission. He is currently the Coordinator of the Teens Church in his local assembly where he raises leaders. As a great motivator, he has encouraged many, coupled with his unique approach to coaching and mentoring lives in diverse fields of specialization, more than 10,000 lives have been affected by his leadership. He is also championing the cause of community development in rural areas for positive changes. He is married to Titilope his best friend and they are blessed with five boys.
