With the surge of substance abuse and violence in the recent years, it's no mystery how the caution against peer-pressure has become such a prominent subject of discussion, and of fear-mongering; just as it should. The concern is not the focus placed on peer-pressure, (never, will you see me say a word against it), no, the issue is in the cultivation of it.
The society in which we live is dynamic and vivacious, unlike anything that we've witnessed in our world's history, but what sets us apart from every other generation, is our idealism. The progression of human advancement has, at its very core, been the gradual evasion of the focus on survival, and the increased effort put into the pursuit of happiness, and of sanctity. It follows this thinking then that at the pinnacle of human development, we would have effectuated a society built entirely upon empathy. Perhaps at the realization of divinity, we would, but divinity, is, by its very definition, unobtainable. In our vehement pursuance of indefatigable morality, we have, partially, disregarded the value in bitter truth. If this philosophy continues to be fostered, our culture will continue to decline into the same quandaries that obliterated Classical Cynicism.
Our call to reach an empathetically oriented community has bred the idea that social distance is pitiable, and something to be remedied. Thus we have created the fear of solitude, despite the desires of the person in question- designing a culture that romanticizes dependancy on others. We have inadvertently developed a people who view seclusion as the epitome of contempt, so much so that we observe a society that dreads being declared a social outcast so astonishingly much, that they will go to almost any extreme to prevent that accusation; hence, peer-pressure has gained such an impressively massive effect on the people of our world. If we maintain a culture that frowns so ardently upon isolation, we will ascertain the lengths people going to in order to achieve social status becoming more and more destructive; what was born of the want of prosperity will destroy us.