influence

Adolescence, the Netflix drama series, is the talk of the towns everywhere at the moment.

I watched it in one sitting. It is certainly a thought provoking, conversation starter and worthwhile piece of viewing on TV at the moment. It is particularly worth a watch if you have children, grandchildren or are a professional that works directly or indirectly with children, specifically teens.

It essentially portrays the impact, affect and ultimate behaviour, that can happen with the power of influence.

Influence, generally, can have either a positive or a negative impact, in my opinion. But in order for us to ‘act’ on influence, we first must make the ‘choice’ to.

Something in us, in our character, our attributes, our personality, our free will, makes a decision, a choice on whether or not we will be swayed, one way or another, right?

Sometimes though, we may ‘act’ on impulse, on instinct. Is that impulse or instinct innate, regardless of outside influences. Has it always been there. Were we born with it or did it develop based on our experiences and our environment? Is there any room for choice when it comes to impulse and instinct?

There is a saying which is ‘your gut instinct’. Usually that lets you know if its right or wrong, good or bad, but impulse is a different story. A gut instinct usually allows for some kind of rational thinking or rationale. Impulse is more immediate and often it is a behaviour based on risk.

In the series, we deduce that something infiltrated the teens psyche which had over time, influenced him , his feelings towards the girl in question, maybe other girls too, The social media platform appeared to be the main culprit of this influence.

However, did he set out to do what he did with intention and malice or did he act on impulse, once he confronted her? You could argue, he had the weapon on him, so he was prepared, therefore there was intent.

You could also argue that he had no intention of causing such fatal harm but merely wanted to scare her. That impulse took over his rational thoughts when he was deemed to be scorned or provoked and that part of his personality was such that he would lose control when so aroused.

Nevertheless, regardless of instinct or impulse, it is portrayed that the over riding factor in this case was the power of influence. Therefore, in my opinion, given any set of circumstances, a certain personality trait, and an environmental factor, we are all open to be influenced into or by anything.

I am considered a bit of a shop-a-holic…..it’s kind of true. I do enjoy buying things, if I can afford them. Years ago, I could afford very little, but I was easily influenced and swayed by my bank to get myself a credit card. The bank were giving them out, willy nilly and you only had to pay a minimum payment. Happy days, until it wasn’t ! I had rocked up a nice amount on my first card, because the bank kept upping my limit. They were increasing it because I was paying my minimum payment on time! The more they increased the limit, the more I spent.

I have maxed out and cleared three credit cards in my life because my motto was ,’you only live once and could be dead tomorrow’. However, after clearing the last one in my 40’s I vowed to not get a credit card again. The point I am trying to make is that I am impulsive by nature, and was easily influenced by the magical number that my credit card limit had grown to, and because of my motto ‘you only live once’, I happily kept spending. However, eventually sense came knocking at the door and my gut was telling me to knock the spending on the head, It wasn’t real money, it was just numbers and all I was really doing was accruing a debt that was just not sustainable in the long run.

It was like a pleasure and a pain at the same time. While spending I got a high and when the bank statement landed on the mat, the reality of the debt would hit me hard. I had to rein myself in.

Being a teen, it is very hard to rein yourself in. Your mind is not fully developed, you are still trying to find out who you are. you are changing continually and are full of angst and self esteem issues. Peers are our biggest influence and it is so easy to be swept up and lead by them.

Not all influence is bad or negative. For every negative there is a positive. Influence can be a very happy and positive experience. These days we can be influenced in many different ways by many different people, ideas and ideals. A teacher can be a great influence and inspiration for a pupil, whether young or old.

A tiktok influencer can influence someone to buy certain products, try certain foods, recommend books, holiday hot spots, sell up and travel the world, walk, write, exercise etc to improve mental health etc, etc, etc, the list goes on.

However, I think, it is the internal, intrinsic, innate part of us that will ultimately determine what we do with anything that influences us, how far we will let it lead us, and at what cost. For everything we do, no matter what age, there is a price to pay.