Youth and Socialization

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Socialization takes place during one's entire life; it is the process that one learns the physical, mental and social skills one needs to survive in their culture. It is important for one's well-being and it is also important for the protection and constancy of one's society (Watt, ). Two major forces that socialization depends on are heredity and the environment. Heredity determines one's physical make-up, while environment affects how one develops and behaves. Development is obtained by interacting with people. It strongly influences what kind of person one becomes, and it begins in very early childhood. The most important agents of socialization are family, peers and the media.

The family probably has the strongest influence on a person's life. It is a primary agent of socialization. Family is the grounds by which an individual learns most of the basic or primary norms and values of society, such as the difference between right and wrong, social manners and proper behavior and gender roles (Watt, ). Individuals are socialized by praise or punishment or by direct orders and commands, such as, "Don't do that!" or "You have been bad so no dessert for you." Also, by telling or reading stories, parents are able to convey society's norms and values to their children. An example of this is the Nineteenth century British culture's The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It teaches children the bad outcomes that can arise from disobeying their parents. Other ways parents enforce socialization is by seeking out playmates for their children, joining play groups, or joining organizations such as Brownies. They do this because they usually want their preschool children to learn how to interact with adults and children outside of their family.

Another important agent of socialization is peers. This is a very important secondary agent that grows in importance to a child as they mature into adolescence and then declines sharply after school graduation

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(Watt, 5). Peer groups serve as reference groups. A reference group is a group of people one mentally refers to when needing a solution to a problem. An example of this is when one is considering a particular action or deciding how to behave in a certain situation. Peer groups teach individuals how to share, handle conflict, participate with others, and see how capable their mental, physical and social abilities are. Peers help as adolescents go through their identity problems when they are not sure what they are doing and who exactly they are. The way people dress, behave and their attitudes are encouraged by peers, while others will be ridiculed, rejected, or modified by them (Watt, 7). Erik Erikson believes that most adolescents achieve a sense of identity by their early twenties, and that is when peers fade as a socializing agent.

The last crucial agent of socialization is one of controversial issue. It is clear that the media has become a major agent of socialization. This is precisely because people realize that the media is a powerful socializing agent, but they are unsure about how influential it is and if it is harmful (Watt, 8). Starting at the age of 1, an average child watches 17,000 hours of television by their high school graduation; while they only spend 11,000 in school (CBC Research). Television wins the popularity contest hands down among other forms of media, such as radio, magazines and newspapers. Reasons why television is more popular are the continuous rapid movements and loud sounds which cause the viewer to be completely oriented to the screen, the interactions between people and events that are vivid and short causing several senses to be stimulated by the bombardment of sights and sounds. The media as an agent of socialization is unlike the others. Unlike family and peers where people are able to communicate verbally or physically by having a two-way conversation where the interaction elicits a response from the two involved conversations, television is a one-sided process in which the individual cannot interact with the agent, so the agent just sends the viewer a message. But the viewer can not influence the message being delivered.

Another way television influences children is because they have not developed the capacity to distinguish fantasy from reality, they are unable to distinguish between a story line and a commercial, and they do not know what is true and what is fictional (Watt, ). Too much violence in children's programs is a concern because children may come to believe that the fantasy violence they see on T.V is commonplace and acceptable in order to resolve problems in society. Media also has been guilty at times for stereotyping racial minorities, as well as young people and old people, among other groups. Thus, young children may think it is okay to discriminate and demonstrate/exhibit prejudice. Marketers are also guilty of often using the media as a way to sell their product because they can brainwash children to want their products and create a fantasy for them.

To avoid falling into confusion and disorder, societies must have ground rules that most of its members will accept without question. Waiting one's turn in a line-up at a store, and saying, "please," and "thank you", are society's social norms and values that people must be willing to obey. Thus, this is why it is important that individuals learn how to socialize appropriately .They can establish this with family, peers and the media.

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