It is debatable whether young adults have huge influence on their friends or not. Some people seem to believe that friends don’t have influence on their friends as adults have. However, in my opinion, mates can affect their friends than anyone for several reasons.
The first reason is that young adults are the cloest ones to their friends since they spend their most daily life together. At least in Korea, most teenagers are in school most of their time. Thus, their intimate existances are their classmates. On top of that, they are in similar situations: studying together, having friends in similar groups. Take my experience for example. When I was in sophomore year in high school, I was spending tough phase because my parents were on the verge of divorce. I needed someone to tell my problems and worries. Even though I was ashamed to tell my problems to homeroom teacher, I could ask my friend, Daniel, how to solve this problem. He could answer that question since he went through similar situation to me. Therefore, I was able to get some tips and courage that I could deal with this phase. As this example illustrated, friends in similar situation are very effective to exchange tips and advices with. Thus, they have great influence.
The second reason is that students could feel distance between adults and them. Teenagers tend to think that adults can’t understand their situation and feel ashamed to show their heart thoroughly. However, to their friend, they can talk without worry like that. For example, in Korea, current social issue is teenagers’ pregnancy. According to the research of Seoul national university’s hospital, if teenagers got pregnancy, they tend to solve the problem with their friends since they worry that adults can make problem bigger: law suit. To teenagers, friends are the ones that they can depend on without worry and shame. For this reason, teenagers more depend on their mates than adults like teachers, parents. All in all, the one who can have influence on young adults most is their mates and friends in that they are in similar situation and don’t trust adults. I only hope that especially in Korea, adults can be truly friends of young adults including their pupils and sons and daughters |