Socialization is how culture is learned and is critical for human existence and survival. Effective mingling is essential for a person to be considered fully human as interaction is a means of human survival. People communicate with each other to express feelings and send requests and information. Communication can be achieved verbally or non-verbally; hence, even people with no verbal ability can communicate using sign language.
Children with severe developmental skills who cannot socialize effectively cannot be considered fully human because they lack essential qualities that define human beings. Normal children use various communication strategies such as crying or laughing to express themselves. Severe developmental abilities impairing children’s communicative ability deny them the basic tenet to be regarded as human.
I have encountered people who have negative attitudes toward ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religious preference, including myself. In particular, I have often resented some spiritual practices that I deem inhuman, such as the prohibition of contraceptives. I firmly believe that humans were created with a superior cognitive ability to invent solutions to a better life. Contraceptive is one such answer that allows people to control reproduction to several children that a person can raise without challenges. I acquired these views through socialization as I learned about these practices from my social networks.
The looking glass self-theory explains how people base their logic on how they believe others interpret them. Using social contact as a mirror, individuals utilize the judgment they acquire from others to gauge their worth (Moskowitz & Dewalele, 2020). Eventually, these people oscillate constantly between their internal and external globes, resulting in skill development in observing, adjusting, and attempting for equilibrium throughout their lives. This concept is applicable in children’s social development as both natural and social elements contribute to human personality. The looking glass concept is a vital subset of personality development, and it begins early in childhood; thus, it can be inferred in the process of child socialization.
The four agents of integration include media, peers, schools, and the family. Media constitutes the internet and connected social networks, peers have friends in social settings, and family involves the close relatives related by blood. The most influential agent of mingling in the family is the amount of time spent with this social unit. Ibáñez-Cubillas et al. (2017) argue that the family, as a primary interaction unit, is the most crucial interaction base. People spend a significant amount of time with family members, and parents are the family’s main interaction agents. Equally, parents are also trusted more by their children; hence, the offspring can easily retain and implement learned concepts.
The media bombards users’ brains with the data, editorials, studies, critical political opinions, news, and other information within a click. The internet provides a platform for various users to interact and share information. In turn, people create friends online and may later extend these links to more personal contacts. Users also interact on social forums such as government posts through comments. Technology has also simplified interpersonal communication, such as WhatsApp, which has allowed people to exchange ideas and socially bond. In this way, media has facilitated interaction by allowing digital contacts and the formation of friendships.
Peers can positively or negatively influence a person’s decision-making process and later outcomes. A memorable personal incident was in 2019 when I was considering buying bitcoins, then changed my mind because of negative peer comments on the possible devaluation of the cryptocurrency. Specifically, a bitcoin was valued at $1500 in 2019, and I was willing to risk and invest in the currency. However, I encountered negative comments from friends indicating that the bitcoin was diminishing; hence, not worth supporting. Unfortunately, the coin quickly appreciated by over $50,000 in 2021, implying that I could make substantial financial gains if I had not believed my associates’ nasty comments in 2019.
A hidden curriculum can be defined as the lessons trained informally and unintentionally within the education system. It may include the behavior attitude and the students’ perspective while in the school compound (Gunawan et al., 2018). I believe there is a hidden curriculum in secondary school, which prepares students for public life. It can be considered a hidden lesson because it does not have a customized syllabus, but its concepts are covered in other units.
The socialization procedure can be conceptualized as primary or secondary interaction in children when they learn and integrate values, attitudes, and actions in their lives. Interaction is a lifelong process that starts in early childhood to death. Therefore, integration does not end until a person is incapacitated and cannot pass or decode messages. The reason is that interactions form an essential element of human survival that, when lost, leads to poor quality of life.
Socialization continues throughout life, and its impacts can either be positive or negative depending on the source, content, and receiver of the communicated details. On a personal level, my behavior has generally improved compared to high school because of my social contacts. The behavior is based on the acquisition of more knowledge in interpreting situations and solving problems. Based on this evaluation, I believe that my behavior will continue to improve because I will acquire and implement more information about life. Moreover, I expect to broaden my cognitive ability and quickly solve life’s problems as they emerge.
A total institution is a particular isolation setting for like-situated people. A boarding school system is an example of an entire institution where people with a common target, students to attain education, assemble to learn for a specific period. I have previously spent some years in a total institution, high school. The institution and programs changed my skills as I learned new knowledge and problem-solving skills.
References
Gunawan, I., Kusumaningrum, D. E., Triwiyanto, T., Zulkarnain, W., & Nurabadi, A. (2018). Hidden curriculum and its relationship with the student character building. 3rd International Conference on Educational Management and Administration (CoEMA 2018), 9-11. Atlantis Press. Web.
Ibáñez-Cubillas, P., Díaz-Martín, C., & Pérez-Torregrosa, A. B. (2017). Social networks and childhood. New agents of socialization. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 237, 64-69. Web.
Moskowitz, S., & Dewaele, J. M. (2020). Through the looking glass of student perception: How foreign language students see teacher trait emotional intelligence and why it matters. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 10(2), 239-256. Web.