Socialization Versus Awareness of Self

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Socialization versus Awareness of Self When human beings are born, they know nothing about the world. However, after being nurtured, a human being becomes a social being, who behaves as similarly as the majority in the society in general. The process of being nurtured is referred as “socialization”, which is continuous and life-long for all beings as a part of the society. Through socialization, people acquire knowledge, social skills and moral values. Also, in most of the cases, people readily conform to customs, social norms and ideologies. In this essay, the process of socialization will be analyzed and illustrated by daily examples at different positions of life so as to find out more about it. The first life position is in one’s own family. Parents are a crucial socialization agent to prepare their children for membership of society. Parental education starts from zero, and from simple to complicated as well, for example, parents teach toddlers to say the first word and later on, their first language. After learning some elementary words, parents teach toddlers basic manners like saying “thank you”, “sorry” and “please” under different situations. When toddles are capable of simple communication, parents may also start to set some ground rules for them, such as a fixed time for bed, maintenance of hygiene and queuing as a social practice. In the process, toddlers are being socialized about what to do and what not to do and start to build their values, which are the foundation of their personality. The process of socialization keeps going throughout one’s life, and the second life position is at school. Teachers and peers are the essential socialization agents for individuals from childhood to teenage period. Undeniably, school is the prototype of society and the first social circle they have. At school, students acquire knowledge from teachers, who act
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