The Dangers For Teens When Living A Virtual Life By Clare Kermond

“Are you serious?” “It’s true, I’ve never drunk before.” Sitting in the lifeguard office with some college age coworkers, I let the big secret slip. “Why not, it’s fun? “People get so friendly when drunk. That’s why I love parties.” “Don’t you want to get a feel for drinking before college?” In health class, teachers warned about the peer pressure at parties and painted pictures of big, hulking trouble-makers pressing beer cans in our hands and threatening us if we didn’t chug or circles of friends chanting “Do it, do it, do it!”. It’s not. For me, peer pressure was in the little things—Snapchat stories of classmates doubled over in laughter while clutching Mike’s Hard Lemonade, excited whispers about parents willing to buy kids alcohol and allow a horde of drunk teens in their basement, first hand experience of my older sister sneaking in half her grade and …show more content…
Even if what your missing out on isn’t all that great—think the boring parties or loss of trust from parents—one still doesn’t know the feeling. In her article “The Dangers for Teens When Living a Virtual life”, Clare Kermond describes the concept perfectly “For teenagers, the key worries driven by social media are feeling bothered when they miss out on social gatherings, worrying when their friends are having fun without them and fearing their friends are having more rewarding experiences than them.” Even though my peers may not have more fun than me drunk, I don’t want to watch them have experiences. The whole other complication is that it’s senior year. Now or never to party with my peers. Even if I do make a mistake, it won’t follow me to college as long as the police aren’t involved. I’ve expressed the newfound freedom—wearing Chacos everyday to school, getting rowdy at football games and dances, reaching out to make new friends—but none of these compare to stepping downstairs into the world of basement