Peer+Pressured+into+Hating+iCarly+-+Anjelica+Orloff

In order to start my research project, I believe the first phase should be to draw a hypothesis on what I believe to be the reason behind why children form hatred towards iCarly or any other type of children's programming. I believe that peer pressure is the main issue behind why kids chose to hate certain things. While I believe it to be true that children are able to form their own opinions about shows and iCarly, I do believe they are at the age where they are very impressionable by their peers and will acquire different likes and dislikes in order to be socially accepted. I took a look at an article by Dr. Laurence Steinberg titled The Power of Peers in order to further my research about peer pressure in children.

The article did an excellent job in explaining the reasons why children are prone to fall under pressure by their peers especially in a school setting. One interesting quote I took out of the article was “The less secure we are about our own identity and our own decision-making abilities, the more we are influenced by others' opinions" (Steinberg, 141). I believe this argument can be supported by those who understand that children, especially those who have reached adolescents are entering a phase of their lives when they are searching to find their identity, so they are more likely to conform to others in order to try and find themselves. I believe this is relevant to iCarly because it might take one kid to say "I hate iCarly" in order for all his or her friends to follow along. To support this argument I took a look at other shows and movies where peer pressure was visible. An example I came up with was a scene from Mean Girls where Regina George was sabotaged by Lindsey Lohan's character and her group of friends. They tried to embarrass her by cutting two holes in her shirt so her bra would be visible. Unfortunately, the plan backfired and soon the whole female student body was altering their shirts with two holes cut out. This is a prime example of how social status is important, especially to adolescent girls, and they are willing to conform to whatever in order to be accepted.

**﻿Click Image to view scene from Mean Girls to support my reasoning behind peer pressure **

Steinberg, Laurence. (1996). //Beyond the Classroom, Why School Reform has failed and what Parents Need to Do//. “**The Power of Peers**”. New York, NY