Secondary Socialization
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most recent events that are reconfiguring how societies interact. The pandemic primarily spreads through socialization, which means that the most effective response is to limit social contacts. Other measures such as self-isolation and quarantine can be considered extreme because they eliminate all forms of physical interactions between people. Therefore, COVID-19 can be deemed to be representing the topic of secondary socialization, which can be defined as that type of socialization occurring outside the first closely-knit settings (Hearns-Branaman, 2018). In other words, secondary socialization entails learning new and appropriate behaviors as a member of a smaller group. A person’s deeds are modified by interacting with other people.
Socialization is a critical aspect of human growth and the pandemic presents it with a serious threat. The teenagers have had to reorganize themselves into new groups and redefine how they mingle. An article in The Conversation by Chang and Dunn (2020) explains that teenagers are requesting COVID-19 advice which offers them a means to mix and not just mere rules regarding what they cannot do. This article is evidence of secondary socialization among youths. The youths find themselves in new environments created by the pandemic and one which requires them to learn the most appropriate ways to contact each other.
As mentioned above, the current regulations impose restrictions on physical interaction. Therefore, teenagers spending time together in places such as their neighborhoods will need to adapt to safety precautions to protect themselves and their peers. Universities are open and students are back in session. The current event regarding this request by teenagers involves the University of Michigan where a survey was conducted to establish how the youth feel about the new socialization rules. The article by Chang and Dunn (2020) is the link to this event. However, it is argued here that the event is part of a broader social change caused by COVID-19.
Financial Inequality
Financial inequality is visible when a few people have financial wealth and the majority are deprived. In other words, it describes a scenario where financial wealth is unevenly distributed across the population. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has unearthed the true extent of financial inequality across the world. A report by Oxfam explains that the ten richest people have witnessed a combined increase in their wealth by over USD 540 billion while billions of people across the planet are hard-hit by poverty resulting from the pandemic. The basic movements in the monetary status of the global population are indicators of financial inequality.
The situation is made worse by examining how the financial endowment of these few individuals can do to reverse the outcomes of COVID-19. The Oxfam report explains that their funds are more than enough to pay for the COVID-19 vaccines for all people in the world and to reverse the rising poverty levels emanating from the crisis (Berkhout et al., 2021). COVID-19 has since been labeled an ‘inequality virus’ because it causes further rifts due to the opposite movements in riches.
In addition to rising wealth, aid to poorer countries is diminishing alongside social support for those in poverty within countries. This case has been observed in the UK and represents the entire world. The Oxfam report also highlights that measures such as far taxation have not been implemented, which results in the wealthy paying fewer taxes and the poor people paying more. Such a situation is responsible for the growing financial inequality in the UK and globally. The link to this event is the Oxfam report cited in this paper.
Social Status/Social Mobility
Mass job losses and rising unemployment has disrupted social mobility across the world, especially for the families and societies struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This event, as is the case with the two discussed above, is caused by the pandemic and the restrictions put in place to prevent its spread. Businesses have had to close down and, in the process, lay off workers. As a result, the lost incomes and high costs of living make it impossible for people to achieve a better status. In many cases, however, the fired employees have had their status fall from financially stable to struggling individuals. For poor families, especially those with inadequate incomes, the growing unemployment makes causes their current status to persist longer without the hope of improving.
The changes in employment which are referred to in this event are those that started upon the onset of the pandemic. The events have been documented by Song (2020) who expresses that social mobility has been stable for the past five decades. With COVID-19, however, disruptions emerged, including lay-offs, job losses, higher costs of living, and the health of the population. The recently borne children will experience less upward social mobility, which will be the case even for the healthy populace. The link between job losses and social mobility manifests itself in the form of incomes and their influence on upward mobility.
References
Berkhout, E., Galasso, N., Lawson, M., Morales, P., Taneja, A., & Pimentel, D. (2021). The Inequality Virus: Bringing together a world torn apart by coronavirus through a fair, just and sustainable economy. Oxfam.
Chang, T., & Dunn, M. (2020). Teens want COVID-19 advice that gives them safe ways to socialize – not just rules for what they can’t do. Web.
Hearns-Branaman, J. (2018). What the propaganda model can learn from the sociology of journalism. In J. Pedro-Carañana, D. Broudy, & J. Klaehn (Eds), The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness (pp. 25-36). University of Westminster Press.
Song, X. (2020). Looking at Covid-19 through models of social mobility and social change. Web.