Is peer pressure good or bad? Is it intentional, or mostly unspoken?
Those were some of the opening questions at my first Practical Philosophers meetup.
About a dozen of us gathered and sat with the topic for a while. The conversation moved easily… looping, circling, deepening—as different perspectives surfaced.
A few moments got tense, especially when one person kept swatting down other people’s ideas instead of engaging them. Still, the friction felt… real.
Human.
I could’ve had this same debate online. Arguing anonymously and dropping memes to argue points of view. Instead, we were in the same room. Looking at each other. Feeling the weight of our words land in real time.
That part mattered.
Lately, I’ve noticed myself pulling away from online group chats and gravitating toward face-to-face conversations. Less noise. More presence. Fewer performative takes, more actual listening.
I can’t help but feel I’m not the only one craving that shift.
