submitted by Maria Figueras
You've just baked a batch of cookies and you're taking them out of the oven to cool. As your eyes wander over the perfectly cut shapes, you notice one or two cookies which didn't quite come out right. Instead of a perfect cutout, you're stuck with an odd-shaped lump of pastry. You quickly stick these cookies at the bottom of the plate, hiding them under all the other cookies that came out like they were supposed to.
Society is not that much different. There are thousands of different molds out there, each one different depending on your circumstances (class, race, gender, etc). We are born and start off as just a blob of cookie dough, waiting to be cut into our perfect shapes by the demands of society. This is what is called socialization. Socialization is the process in which we learn what values we are to have, what social norms we are to follow, and how to behave depending on our position in society. We are socialized through school, media, our peers, family, and religion.
Let's look at education for example. We are told from a young age to excel in school and that some day we will graduate from a good college with a degree that will enable us to have a living. They don't mention things like trade school to an elementary student. We are socialized by our teachers and schools to believe that college is the way to go. Take a year off, or decide to work at McDonald's and society will write you off as a bum.
The same applies for your friends, your family, your religious group, and the media that surrounds us every day. We learn that we can act a certain way with our friends that we simply cannot with our families. We learn to comply with the rules of our faith and to be living representations of our religion's values. We are learn we have to be skinny, to be clear-skinned, to be fashionable, to roll out of bed looking like we're going to a photo shoot. We are socialized by all of these agents until we fit society's perfect cookie mold. Through socialization, we are taught the only way to be a respectable member of society is to follow its norms and values. We come to see those who differ from these values as outcasts. We may often distance ourselves from them, shun them, or smack them with a label --"a problem to society". And in this way, we are hiding these misshaped cookies at the bottom, keeping them out of view.
In conclusion, socialization is something we all face and deal with uniquely. It touches us all in some way- whether it be through our education or through the friends we hang out with. To be part of a society, we learn to fit the cookie mold that has been laid out for us, and hope for the best.
You've just baked a batch of cookies and you're taking them out of the oven to cool. As your eyes wander over the perfectly cut shapes, you notice one or two cookies which didn't quite come out right. Instead of a perfect cutout, you're stuck with an odd-shaped lump of pastry. You quickly stick these cookies at the bottom of the plate, hiding them under all the other cookies that came out like they were supposed to.
Society is not that much different. There are thousands of different molds out there, each one different depending on your circumstances (class, race, gender, etc). We are born and start off as just a blob of cookie dough, waiting to be cut into our perfect shapes by the demands of society. This is what is called socialization. Socialization is the process in which we learn what values we are to have, what social norms we are to follow, and how to behave depending on our position in society. We are socialized through school, media, our peers, family, and religion.
Let's look at education for example. We are told from a young age to excel in school and that some day we will graduate from a good college with a degree that will enable us to have a living. They don't mention things like trade school to an elementary student. We are socialized by our teachers and schools to believe that college is the way to go. Take a year off, or decide to work at McDonald's and society will write you off as a bum.
The same applies for your friends, your family, your religious group, and the media that surrounds us every day. We learn that we can act a certain way with our friends that we simply cannot with our families. We learn to comply with the rules of our faith and to be living representations of our religion's values. We are learn we have to be skinny, to be clear-skinned, to be fashionable, to roll out of bed looking like we're going to a photo shoot. We are socialized by all of these agents until we fit society's perfect cookie mold. Through socialization, we are taught the only way to be a respectable member of society is to follow its norms and values. We come to see those who differ from these values as outcasts. We may often distance ourselves from them, shun them, or smack them with a label --"a problem to society". And in this way, we are hiding these misshaped cookies at the bottom, keeping them out of view.
In conclusion, socialization is something we all face and deal with uniquely. It touches us all in some way- whether it be through our education or through the friends we hang out with. To be part of a society, we learn to fit the cookie mold that has been laid out for us, and hope for the best.
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