A social problem is a condition
that at least some people in a community view as being undesirable. Everyone
would agree about some social problems, such as murders and DWI traffic deaths.
Other social problems may be viewed as such by certain groups of people.
Teenagers who play loud music in a public park obviously do not view it as a
problem, but some other people may consider it an undesirable social condition.
Some nonsmokers view smoking as an undesirable social condition that should be
banned or restricted in public buildings. Every newspaper is filled with stories
about undesirable social conditions. Examples include crime, violence, drug
abuse, and environmental problems. Such social problems can be found at the
local, state, national and international levels.
|There are many social problems that teenagers go threw. Drugs and Teenagers
Drug use is the increasing problem among teenagers in today’s high schools. Most
drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years, these years most crucial in
the maturation process. During these years adolescents are faced with difficult
tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles,
assenting independence, learning to cope with authority and searching for goals
that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily, adolescents are curious
and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there us a
temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result
of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and availability.
Drugs addiction among adolescents in turn leads to depression and suicide.
One of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure. Peer
pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents, it can have a
positive or a negative effect, depending on person’s social group and one can
follow one path of the other. We are greatly influenced by the people around us.
According to the lecturer from Faculty of Leadership and Management (FKP),
Islamic Science University of Malaysia (USIM), Madam Marina Muneera Abdul
Muttalib said that, in today’s schools drugs are very common, peer pressure
usually is the reason for their usage. If the people in the social group use
drugs there will be pressure a direct or indirect pressure from them. A person
may be offered to try drugs, which is direct pressure. Indirect pressure is when
someone sees everyone around him using drugs and he might think that there is
nothing wrong with using drugs. Person might try drugs just to fit in the social
norms, even if a person had no intentions of using drugs one might do it just to
be considered “cool” by his friends.
Today drugs are considered to be an acceptable social phenomenon by many
teenagers. Here is a personal example of drug use from a teenager, “When I
started using, was only on weekends, at parties. I used drugs ‘recreationally’
and therefore thought I had no addiction problem. I used drugs like nicotine,
marijuana or LSD to be happy or to have fun. I needed drugs. I kept using drugs,
I used drugs like marijuana to fit socially. I had problems in my life,
emotionally, that drugs only seemed to solve. Drugs made my problems worse. I
started snorting cocaine. I injected heroin into my veins. I almost died. I was
addicted.”