Choosing friends and peers who have a positive influence on our lifestyle choices is crucial for personal growth and well-being. These influences can motivate us to set and achieve goals, maintain a healthy work-life balance, and make choices that align with our values. Our health choices are constantly influenced by our friends, both consciously and unconsciously. Friendship, in terms of intensity (measured by the frequency with which individuals see their friends) and quality (measured by the frequency of the interactions), also plays a significant role in shaping our decisions, especially around childbearing.
Peers, or groups of people with similar interests, age, background, or social status, influence personality development. They can influence our lifestyle choices by modeling the behaviors they engage in, and if the majority of our peers engage in healthy behaviors, we may feel accepted and valued by them. Studies show that the more friends we have and the more time we spend with them, the happier we are. Peer influence is when we choose to do something we wouldn’t otherwise do because we want to feel accepted and valued by our friends.
Parents and friends generally play a role in shaping an individual’s behavior and beliefs through parent expectations or peer pressure. Our choices are influenced by who we are with when asked the question, how those people reacted, and any conversations we might have had. Whether you are good friends or not, peers influence or socialize you a great deal.
Five ways friends can positively influence teens include preventing isolation and loneliness, increasing their sense of belonging, and providing companionship. Friends profoundly impact our lives, shaping our personalities, experiences, and sense of belonging. Quality time spent with friends is invaluable.
📹 How friendship affects your brain – Shannon Odell
Dig into what happens to your brain during adolescence that changes how you value, understand, and connect to friends.
How do friends impact your life?
Friendships can enhance a person’s sense of belonging, happiness, and self-worth, help cope with traumas, and encourage healthy lifestyle habits. They also play a crucial role in promoting overall health, with adults with strong social connections having a reduced risk of health problems like depression, high blood pressure, and an unhealthy BMI. Studies show that older adults with meaningful relationships and social support live longer than those with fewer connections.
However, many adults struggle to develop or maintain friendships due to various factors, such as prioritizing work, caring for children, aging parents, changes in personal lives, or moving to a new community. Despite these challenges, maintaining friendships can lead to increased happiness, improved self-confidence, and improved overall well-being.
How do friends influence your decision-making?
Scientists are exploring the impact of social influence on decision-making, particularly among teenagers. Research indicates that changes in brain activity when others are around can influence one’s actions. This social influence, or peer influence, is influenced by the value people place on different ideas and behaviors. Teens are particularly sensitive to peer influence due to their highly attuned brains to social situations and an extra sensitive reward system. This suggests that social relationships can be harnessed to develop healthier habits and motivate others to do the same.
How do peer groups influence our life?
Adolescent peer groups play a crucial role in supporting teens as they transition into adulthood. They help them reduce dependence on parents, increase self-sufficiency, and connect with a larger social network. They also help them negotiate relationships with others in different social systems and become important social referents. Peer groups influence individual members’ attitudes and behaviors on cultural and social issues, such as drug use, violence, and academic achievement. They also teach unity and collective behavior in life.
Peer groups provide an influential social setting where group norms are developed and enforced through socialization processes that promote in-group similarity. Cohesion in peer groups is determined by factors such as group communication, consensus, and conformity concerning attitude and behavior. A normative code, which can become rigid, can arise as members interconnect and agree on group behavior and attire. Deviation from this code can lead to rejection from the group.
What is the importance of peers and friends in your life?
High-quality friendships offer understanding, support, and validation of self-worth, making them stable and satisfying. Spending time with friends can be beneficial for those with anxiety or depression, but certain qualities, such as co-rumination, can worsen depression. Co-rumination occurs when people excessively discuss negative aspects of their lives, leading to increased depression. To combat this, research suggests refocusing friendships on both positive and negative aspects of life, engaging in healthy activities together, and encouraging each other to maintain healthy habits like physical activity, healthy eating, and good sleep. This approach can help individuals feel more understood and validated in their relationships.
How has friends influenced your life?
Friendships can enhance a person’s sense of belonging, happiness, and self-worth, help cope with traumas, and encourage healthy lifestyle habits. They also play a crucial role in promoting overall health, with adults with strong social connections having a reduced risk of health problems like depression, high blood pressure, and an unhealthy BMI. Studies show that older adults with meaningful relationships and social support live longer than those with fewer connections.
However, many adults struggle to develop or maintain friendships due to various factors, such as prioritizing work, caring for children, aging parents, changes in personal lives, or moving to a new community. Despite these challenges, maintaining friendships can lead to increased happiness, improved self-confidence, and improved overall well-being.
How do friends influence your personal lifestyle choices?
Friends play a crucial role in shaping our perception of ourselves, lifestyle, and social network. Positive friends encourage positive self-perception, while negative ones can lead to feelings of inferiority. Friends can influence our clothing, diet, music, and spending habits, influencing our spending habits. A healthy social network can lead to a happier and healthier life. A Harvard study suggests that close relationships are essential for happiness and health.
To maintain healthy friendships, it is essential to be kind, attentive, talk often, make time for friends, and demonstrate trustworthiness. By nurturing these relationships, we can create a supportive environment that promotes happiness and longevity. By doing so, we can contribute to a more fulfilling and fulfilling life.
How do friends and peers influence your lifestyle choices on Quora?
Individuals frequently exert an unintended influence on others, yet this is not a matter of personal choice. As long as one maintains proximity to the influencing individual, there is a possibility of emulating their verbal and behavioral patterns, which could result in a perception of being influenced by that individual.
How the peers and friends impacts choices around self concept?
The self-image of a child is often determined by their relationship with their peers, who can be more influential than family in shaping their opinions. Factors such as physical appearance, attractiveness, and appearance can significantly impact self-worth. Physical features such as being considered pretty or handsome, being easily attracted, having a unattractive face, being too small or too large, having skin problems, or being too tall or short can all contribute to a sense of self-worth. These experiences can lead to a belief that one is not good enough.
How does friends and peers influence your lifestyle?
Peer factors exert a significant influence on an individual’s lifestyle choices, whereby the behaviors exhibited by one’s peers serve as a model for one’s own behavior. The likelihood of adopting a healthy lifestyle is increased when the majority of one’s peers exhibit healthy behaviors.
How do peers influence personal development?
The study indicates that students tend to become more similar to their peers in various dimensions. This is evidenced by the observation that competitive peers become more competitive, open-minded peers become more open-minded, and conscientious peers become more conscientious.
📹 INVISIBLE INFLUENCE: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior by Jonah Berger
Human behaviour is influence by countless environmental factors. Most of these factors we don’t even realise. But Jonah Berger …
Hey kids, keep holding on a bit. In teen, I almost had no genuine friends, didn’t have much family either. But I grew up and learned to place value on myself and understand what I value on others. Life was not always fair, but now i have the handful of people I can call friend, and they truly care. Some of them are remains of relationships I had in teenage. they weren’t friend then. life can be full of unexpected things. So take care of yourself, bad things happens, but good things happens as well. Remember that, okay? (I wrote this as a reply to a comment, but I think some of us needs to hear these kind of thing time to time. So here it’s again.) <3
it really hurt hearing this as a 15 year old that has never had a genuine friend since the age of 6. I really want a good friend. I always listen when other people talk and I’m genuinely interested and I try to understand them, but I feel like i’ve never met anyone that cares so much the way I do. People I’m around don’t care what I have to say. Edit: thank you for everyone that responded, it makes me feel less alone 🙂 I didn’t think anyone would see this so I just typed this in a very depressed mood. But I’m mostly fine, just the friends part of my life is a bit off. I’m planning on participating in activities and clubs in my school so i can meet more people, I’m not hopeless, just a bit tired. I really like being by myself but it’s hard if you don’t have any friends. And I will not change for anyone when looking for friends, and neither should you. I know that,,my time hasn’t come yet” and I know I should be patient but oh does it hurt seeing people my age live their teenage lives,,to the fullest”. Okay, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone and let people that read this know and relate that yes, we will not be able to tell cool stories about our teenage years to our grandchildren. But we can work on ourselves. Adapt new hobbies. Try to respect ourselves. Maybe none of that will resolve the loneliness, but you’re gonna feel better and will get out of bed. Just wanted to end this on a more positive note. Take care of yourself.
I would ask that they make a follow up to this article regarding what we should do if we did not have a close friend in our childhood or adolescence, whether it be due to bullying, extreme introversion or the inability to feel lonely, a faulty Theory of Mind (found in people with autism), or just plain bad luck.
I feel like most of my friendships die out because I don’t put enough effort into them, but I’m afraid of being annoying or judged by my friends. I keep having these horrible intrusive thoughts about whether my friends truly care about me, and I can’t seem to reach a clear answer. Putting all your trust into someone is like a gamble, they might seem like they’d value and reciprocate your love and trust but it doesn’t always turn out that way, and that hurts.
“A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.” “A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.” “The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”
Friendship is essential not only for us but also for other species. Our crew managed to get on camera an amazing relationship between a crocodile and a bird, in which both work together to help protect their eggs. In this case, of course, the brain works in a different way, but still highly beneficial for those involved.
During adolescence, our improving Theory of Mind allows us to expand our world in a way we couldn’t before, to include another independent, conscious being. Ideally, our understanding continues to evolve through our entire life. Some people grow with us, but most friendships are for a season, and that’s okay.
As someone who almost do not have any friends or even a real family to go to my entire life, it’s difficult to come across topics like this and now I want to write/express the following and maybe someone in a similar situation can relate and feel less lonely, I’ll write the following not for pity but for the other purpose I stated. You just have to pardon my grammar. Since the pandemic began I realize many things and faults in myself including my issues socializing. This has roots starting from the issues of my parents, then me not being able to really pick up/learn things while I was much young that lead me not being able to not allow myself to get bullied in school for years, plus the body dysmorphia that I’m feeling right now because sometimes you have things that you can’t control plus some other factors but yeah at the same time I still have my own things that I can control. I’ll try not to focus much on these and just express my sentiments about socializing because as you can see that I have a lot going in my mental health, things like trauma, emptiness, loneliness, fear, etc. So about socializing, it’s hard for me. Me being misunderstood happens a lot and yeah I have my own faults too that hasn’t much given chance to explain and ask for reconciliation. Not being able to have friends at a really young age kinda end something special because I can say that for my experience now that I’m 23 turning 24, it’s a challenge to befriend someone who possibly has already people/friends of their own.
I never really had a true friendship until college. The friendships I had in my childhood and teen life apparently I was the only one who thought they were true. When I went to university I had new friends and we didn’t really understand each other at first but as years passed we grew to understand each other and became good friends whom I really treasure now.
I may have Asperger’s Syndrome but luckily I am blessed with a group of high school friends who are like angels to me. Still are in contact with them until now! Sure, some of my close high school friends are currently overseas and some in my home country (Malaysia). At least I get to hang out with them when we have the chance 🎀❤
This is a very detailed article as it also tackles the effects of friendship in our body physiologically. Having friendships has positive effects on our mental health and how we cope up with things. They are those people who we rely on. It reminds me of our people in reviving mind, as we always remind them that friendships are good and beneficial however, we must choose those real and good ones. We always remind them that in friendship it is always quality over quantity.
I love to be friends with everyone in the class. Cause, I get to know their perspectives and world views to everything going in the class. Even better, I can get to know them as a person. Which is just, I don’t know how to put it. But, I value human interaction more than anything. I’ll even ditch my homework for friends. Offcourse then I have to… To do more work? Anyways, talking to people, whoever it may be, is most of the time, worth it.
I value my friends as if they were family. Like I call them my best friend but I also see them as my Siblings/family. I care so much about them too, to the point where if I lost them, I would be devastated. I don’t wanna loose my favorite people 😫. So yeah friendships are very important and can be life-saving graces sometimes. And to those that think they don’t have any friends or that they have trouble making friends, I’m sure you will find somebody one day that you’re close to. And to those kids who are bullied most of their life and end up going friendless, I swear it’ll get better. You will find one person at some point or maybe multiple people that relate to you and you click with. So just hold out! The right person will come along!
I used to have a lot of friends and close friends. But when I was 22, I moved to a different country and wasn’t able to maintain contact with all of them. Now 12 years later, I have no friends. I barely talk to my old friends anymore. It’s also hard for me to make friends. I just don’t have any interest or motivation to do so. I’ve become comfortable with my own company too much that I dread the thought of hanging out with someone else.
I was just day dreaming on the way home. When I just left alone in an event, realising that I am the only one with no friend circle… – my daydream was. “You’re not alone, you’re an observer. But when you get out there (move to college, out from pandemic isolation) I want to see what’s beyond” Thinking “what’s beyond”, this might be the answer.
I love all my bffs. And all my friends are my bffs because I don’t like the idea of just having one bff and everyone else are just friends, ya know? I also don’t like the idea of not including someone because it’s happened to me more than once and it hurt. So all my friends are bffs because I don’t want anyone feeling left out or jealous.
I received a notification about this article just when I am having issues with a friend right now 😟. I miss her so much but I think she got fed up of my attitude, she’s cold to me and she constantly ignores me, unlike before. I kind of think that I deserve it because I don’t give back the same efforts that she gives to me. I think right now, she found someone better than me. I’m hesitating to approach her or make the first move because it is hard to swallow my pride. But if she finds her peace without me, then I can dissapear in her life. We haven’t officially ended our friendship, it’s just me overthinking HAHA. Besides, I’m still at my teens and I’m hoping to meet a lot of new people along the way. However, I can never find someone like her. I love you and I miss you so much, Sophia.
Well my teenage years are almost over, and sadly i haven’t spent much time with my friends outside school because I’m not good at making deeper connections or maybe I haven’t come across much better people but I’ve spent a lot of time with myself and my family so I don’t regret it that much and I hope that I and everyone like me can have real and true and good friends 💝💖
I feel sorry for whoever never got the chance to be loved and cared by a true friend I’m praying that things will get better for you all, I’m sort of a lone wolf myself and never really had friends, specifically I’ve never had a best friend in my life, but this changed around 2-1.5 years ago,My best friend also was relatively lonely like me but we now stand for eachother and I’m so thankful for that it truly means a lot to me,on valentine’s day four days from now will be her birthday and I’m preparing something to dedicate solely to her something which I’m doing for the first time in my life Take care everyone and take care of your friends too, peace out 🙂 Edit:I eventually wrote a poem to her and she absolutely loved it!
I’m 13 and I do not have an actual real friend that you hang out with and talk to a lot with, I never had a genuine friend until I was 11 but we argued 24/7 and were friends for about few months, ever since I was in nursery till year 8 (7th grade) I never hung out with anyone and I was so quiet and shy my whole life esp at skl, I was even yelled at by teachers for being too quiet and I didn’t and still dont even know how to talk to others properly but I was (and still am) just so scared to talk to others my heart hurts so badly and beats so fast when I am in a social situation, I hate when I’m around lots of people I literally struggle to breathe, people keep telling me to be friends with others but when I tried to they dont understand me at all, I recently started to talk to someone who considered me a friend and even they dont understand me, she keeps telling me that she will help me overcome whatever thing is wrong with me but all she does is force me into MORE social situations, but I want to be with her still since its the only way ill ever feel something other than emptiness, loneliness and numb, I want her to distract me from all those emotions, idk what to do anymore n idk what’s wrong with me.
I do long for irreplaceable friends. It’s hard to connect to other teens due to my lack of phone use and infrequent, but passionate times I decide to communicate. It’s kinda like wanting the feeling that doesn’t exist to specifically myself. Seeing the lack of strong bonds, i have blamed many a personality flaw on myself. From described above, to the feelings of betrayal from my early childhood, to adhd turned to confirmed autism. Perhaps I can say that my patience has eroded, along with my mental health. Well, one day I will accept myself, even if my mind overloads multiple times.
The article is educative and enlightening. Indeed, friendship has an impact on our brains. perusal about the numerous ways that our brains are structured to react to social engagement and human connection was really intriguing. Despite the widespread belief that our families have the greatest influence on us, our friends and neighbors really have a more significant impact on how we develop. I noticed that some of the information presented in the article was oversimplified or even inaccurate. For example, while oxytocin does contribute to social bonding, it is not always the only hormone that is responsible for that. It would be nice to add additional complexity to the analysis of this subject 🙂
I’m really glad that I have true friends and that too 3 of them. People might think that they aren’t true but I have been friends with them since I was 4 and now I am 15. As we evolved our friendship evolved too. Earlier I never realized that they were soo important but now as a teen, I understand that without them I’d probably be very lonely. It’s like they told in the article, we complete each other’s sentences, even in text, and have soo many funny inside jokes that usually make no sense from a third-person view. We even understand each other and we can’t keep a grudge longer than a day (it used to be 2 months earlier)
Igained a vest friend last year in November as my old best friend made me choose between my new one of them…they weren’t nice anymore and we’re becoming toxic so I chose mynee bestie and now we’re still bestest best friends almost a year later can’t imagine my life without them!^^. love them so much and we’ve been theough a lot together^^
I had one friend in college but due to Young age we or say I got so emotional that it ended silently she reached me so many times but I was overwhelmed with emotions so I didn’t respond her like warmly like friend & also bc we were in phase of examination & after that our university was going to start so that’s how our ways got separated & life become so busy & to chase dreams but in these all times I never forget her till now I want to contact her her number is off but still I’m willing to connect to her bc she was my only true friend I made in my life ever.
I used to have a group chat with 2 friends and one of them cut us off with no apparent reason, my friendship with the other friend is no longer the same, although we are still in talking terms, our conversations have decreased and the conversations are no longer lengthy as they used to be. Finding new friends is really difficult as its difficult to find someone that is trustworthy and has similar interests as yourself.
God loves you and takes care of you for the arrival of this message to you. God exists and He is the one who controls the universe. The biggest loss that a person can lose in this life is to live and die without knowing God and His Messenger Muhammad and the Islamic religion is the last religion after the Torah and the Bible. I advise you who read this message to read The Qur’an is translated in its own language, and after that, you can decide whether you are convinced of it or not. What is your feeling after death, and you see what awaits you from God’s torment, an eternal loss of intelligence to know and read, and you have the judgment after your conviction.
I love my friends but sometimes my friends is my friend is jealous so much I don’t love this might be said because they sometimes go to other people I don’t like that angry who is he make another friends is like not friendly and kind me feel answer for me things about stinks so bad people who love Anthony
My mom and dad doesn’t let me go outside, So when I had my first actual friends. Rhian and Paula. My life was so nice. I could talk to them about anything. I felt free, I felt happy. But Rhian had to leave. It’s not as fun with just me and Paula. Now a ”friend” I made was a terrible friend and she just brought toxicity to my life. I’m friendless in school and my classmates makes fun of me for it. I also take things personally so everyone hates me!
My friendship..i think there’s no such thing… If we add any sympathy to others.. May be they listen to u.. But they think u r always a trouble person.. I’m that kind of person.. I stoped to share vulnerable stories…. Everyone like u if u are not care about ur weakness or vulnerable stories.. If u are the person who enjoy present moment most..or if u able to communicate everyone equally.. Everyone treats to u nicely.. But don’t ask favors.. Try to do urself is better.. Asking for help is the bravest thing i understand myself very well.. Have leadership skill is better to engage everyone..even ur friends as well..u can maintain that friendship longterm…
Thinking about Pria… Is quite absourd that can exist someone that basically fullfill all your “holes in the person” because everyone are not perfect, and basically even your Friends aren’t… That means that the perfection that some One see in some other One Who start call It “friend” Is only an illusioni that your brain make on that Person, and basically put the First Person in a position of “laco of quality”
I wish I had been true to my teenage friends…all those years I tried so hard to be a good friend. I turned myself what they needed me to be, instead of being my original self. It’s true I was trying to figure myself out…but I didn’t get the space I needed. It’s been 5 years since we shared dorm and classes, but what I then hoped to be special is something I resent now…. dear friends! No you didn’t know who I was…and we were’nt the same…we don’t share wevelengths, although you believe the opposite and I never corrected you.
Hello mister planets about suppose article is about friendship death friendship talk about chocobos of friendship the brain that is important for us, about bring give you information like to like think about your friends more more because if your friend is sad you would be sad if your friend is happy you would be happy your friend is enormous you will be enormous and the ather phidio talk about there is a man that talks about the friends ship and I think he was acting like a crazy
I love my friends but sometimes my friends are Judith me any Wednesday so if anyone is beautiful they go for them and play with them at make me cry and the lawn I don’t like that or two of my friends I love them love all of the people make friends make like like make friendship I don’t loves that because that make me alone has make me cry let’s make my heart broke down, when they play with them they don’t want to play with me they want to play with the other girl or was that as a boy broke my goodness did make me cry Maserati symbol good is that this guy is like Regina Muhammad and they are my best friends I can’t make them I can’t make anyone good thing for me there are my best friend I hope they be with me is it all my heart sank about I didn’t think about anyone only part with my family and my fever friends original Mahmood and naiah and Abraham I hope they can listen for that letter about my heart I hope you can listen for it thanks to listen for me I hope you learned about me more thing about friends