Hard Mentality. Can peer pressure be mobilized to change behaviour for the better?

I recently read an article in the Times magazine entitled "Hard Mentality. Can peer pressure be mobilized to change behaviour for the better? Basically it is about peer pressure and the immense way it affects us. All people, but especially teenagers, like to fit in. This affects in such great ways that we are exhibiting this behaviour even in our daily lives.

I think that in the first place, we should not even be trying to follow people or supposedly 'fit in' with others. This kind of thinking is called 'sheep thinking' because it is exactly what sheep do. All you have to do to move a herd of sheep is to get a few moving and the rest will then follow. We should not be having this kind of thinking. If we do, then we will just be following one another and have no opinion of our own. Then where is our sense of originality, or creativity? All just gone. This is why we must not have sheep thinking but instead learn how to think independently. We must have our opinions, and go along with them if we think and know that they are correct, even when others do not like our ideas. If our ideas are right but others still disagree with us, it just means that they are morally perverted and are unable to distinguish between wrong and right, not that something is wrong with us.

On the other hand, we must not be easily swayed by others, just in a bid to be cool or hip or just to follow what others are doing. This is because if we are easily swayed, many people, some who are not exactly angels at heart, will come and manipulate us into doing many weird things, some which are not exactly angelic. Some examples are, according to the text, casual sex, drugs, smoking and the like.

So if you want to know why you should not always follow others but instead have your own thinking, there it is in a nutshell.