Socialization Agents.

I am making this post up for the one I missed a while ago. Throughout everyones life, every human is shaped by the world in which they live in. This process is called Socialization, but this week in class we learned about the different agents of socialization. The definition of an agent of socialization is a group or people that influence the behaviors of an individual by making them think or act a certain way. Some examples of agents of socialization is your family, friends, religion, or even your gender. I would think that your family is the most important agent of socialization. Our family teaches us the core way to act towards things and determines peoples attitudes towards religion and ways of thinking. For example, my family has taught me to be a Catholic and reinforced it by taking me to church from a young age. I also think that education is an important agent of socialization. It teaches us from a young age particular skills and certain values in society by teaching us the greater function of society.

Does she really look like that?

This week in sociology, we learned more in depth about how the media affects females And males. The media is a huge part of everyones live nd we rarely realize how much it actually impacts our decisions. We are bombarded with about 2,000 ads every day, and a good percentage of this ads are perceiving each gender negatively. For example, they make women seem vulnerable and weak against men. Also making them be seen as they way society wants them to be seen like the "perfect" woman. The media manipulates models on Photoshop, constantly changing every inch of their body; changing their body size, lengthening their necks and legs, making eyes bigger, hair fuller, perfect complexion and so much more words cannot describe. When women see these photos, they look at themselves as ugly, fat and not what society expects them be like. They develop mental problems, become self-conscious and develop eating disorders. A personal example is when I realized how weirdly "perfect" these women were on television, and how much I wanted to look like them. I dyed my hair, wanted to be as skinny and thin like them, but I realized that I could never be like that, and no one ever will look like that. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and should not compare themselves to the fake women on ads, because they don't even look like that.

Teachings of Life

This week in Sociology, we learned about the ways we live in our culture and our potentials. We watched a documentary on a Sociology teacher named Morrie. The narrator used to be one of favorite students and he wanted to say goodbye to him the right way. While he was constantly over at his house, Morrie would teach him the meanings of life every Tuesday. Morrie teaches him that our culture remourses death. Morrie quotes "When we were infants we needed others to live, when we are dying we need others to live, but here's the secret - in between we need others even more." I completely agree with this quote because we don't realize how much we need others while we live, which causes the sense of individualism and isolation. I feel like also distrusting plays a role into individualism because we do not like to rely on others because we learned not to trust anyone but yourself in this society. For example, when given a choice in class to work with a partner for an assignment, I choose to be alone because more than likely I'll be stuck with all the work.

What is this...?

Everyone knows that awkward and uncomfortable feeling they get when they experience something new to them. Just like when someone moves from their homeland, for example like Kenya, and move to the United States. They experience something called Culture Shock. In class, we watched a documentary called "God Grew Tired of Us." It was about a group of Africans moving to America to have an opportunity to escape the war and experience privileges that Americans experience that their home country does not. They were very confused with the different culture and had many questions. For example, they did not know what a shower was or how to use it. They also didn't understand electricity or our stores and foods. They experienced culture shock. Also in class, we learned about American values that we follow. Just like how important time is to Americans. Americans are very concerned with getting things on time and done in detail and precision. Time is so valued because one can accomplish more goals than those who do not. Time=money. For example, my parents need to work a certain amount of hours per week, and if they do not achieve that goal, they'll get fired. It's not worth the stress of being jobless then to do what your supposed too, on time.

In n' Out-Groups

What groups are you in? Imagine all the different groups that you are a part of. Friends, family, race, gender, school, sports, religion, culture, and many more. Many people don't realize how many in-groups they are a part of. An in-group is a group that an individual feels as though they belong, like a member, due to common interests and hobbies. An out-group are basically a group that an individual is not a part of, maybe even takes complete opposite opinion on them. Members of an in-group immediately get along due to their common interests, and also develop favoritism and judgements against groups that are not "them". For example, we did an activity in class where our teacher split us up into 2 groups depending on the color shirt you were wearing, black or colored shirt. A leader in each group was to right down ideas on why the other group was wearing a shirt that was not same colored as theirs. When the whole class got together again, the leaders shared their lists. To surprise, much of the list were judgements that probably weren't true. The groups assumed things about the other group without a logic reason, just "because". A personal example was when I was involved in a sport. Whenever we had competitions, our team would make mean remarks about the others performance, but we don't really know their issue. Maybe they had a migraine that day, or sprained their ankle and tried their best but couldn't do their best. People should treat others the way they want to be treated.

Social Groups

This week in Sociology was very short due to Odyssey, a fine arts exploration that the whole school takes part in. It showed me that everyone can work together to create something bigger and took me out of my 'bubble' to discover new things. We also did an activity in class called "Abandon Ship" where we had 16 members on a boat, and 7 of them had to be thrown overboard. Since I was an old woman, I knew that I was not going to stay on the boat since I had no use and was very weak and could not hold onto expectations. This proved that in our society we view strength and youth as more valuable, then the old and wise. When I made a list of all the groups I was apart of, it was strange to see that II had an influence on many people in my life and I didn't really realize it. It was very interesting to view that I am one person involved in many different things with many different people. 

Social Creation

This week, we learned about how our society affects the way that we see certain things and how we perceive them, which is called Social Construction of Reality. An example of Social Construction of Reality is the way society perceives saliva and spit. It's considered 'weird' if someone spits onto a spoon and puts it back in their mouth, (if they were to do that), but it was just in their mouth, so what's so weird about it? The activity in class really helped me understand what this term meant. It's not considered right because society made everyone think that it's just not normal. This really helps me understand how much of an impact society really has on me and everyone around me. An example that connects to my life is how all of the students at my high school have a high tech cell phone, like the newest iPhone, and if someone doesn't have a touch screen, or a QWERTY keyboard, then they wouldn't accept it and find it odd. This week in class truly showed me how big of an impact society has on everyone.