Social Bases Of Addiction Essay

Offering someone an alcoholic beverage at an event or party is one thing, but making them feel as if they must participate in something they do not want to is two different things. This shows that individuals make it close to impossible to differentiate, or deviate from the social norm. The social bases of addiction, is when a person is exposed to their first time participating in an activity that is exposing you to the beginning of a long and dark road to obsession. Which is something they do not warn you beforehand about, they just urge you into it. Society’s social norms over the years have vastly gotten so horrendous. Teens getting addicted to such damaging substances (such as marijuana, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) at a young age is atrocious. Often, teens are exposed to addictive substances at their first party, the adolescent will see all the popular people dancing, smoking, drinking and participating in activities that you would not take part in. Seeing them doing it though makes you feel pressured to doing things you normally would not do so, you would not feel out of place, this is an example of normative social influence (Myers, 2012). Normative social influence is the suggestion that we follow the actions of someone around us so we do not feel out of place (Myers, …show more content…
Addressing this situation in a way that does not make it seem like we should prohibit it but it is something that can be helped, by filtering ads, not making a person feel pressured into doing something they know is morally wrong, and to get it out there tobacco and alcohol should only be used in moderation. This mentally challenging illness can consume a person’s life at an unstoppable rate and you should not want to participate in. The social bases of addiction however, is an entity that is a vast problem, because of how opinionated people can be towards