Agents of socialization

673 Words3 Pages
Our society Relies on four major socialization agents, three of which are, family, media, and peers. These three socialization agents have a huge impact/influence on the way a person acts and what he/she believes. They determine what a peson has been or will be in the past, present, and future. Family is the earliest and most influencial agent of socialization. It starts at the moment a child is born and lasts a life time. Family is the strongest during a child's infancy/toddler years. During this a child learns from a family such things as; language abilities, body control, emotional control, rules of society, and moral values. Family also plays a key part in early sex-role socialization, racial/ethnic prejudices, and determining the childs attitude towards religion/culture. The power family has becomes weakened as a child becomes a teenager from the influence he/she has from peer groups and the media. Family, in adult years, gains back some of its power when a person comes in to the role of a maternal partner/parent themselves. Family is the most important socialization agent, what ever a person learns from his/her family may stay with them for life and then one day be passed on to his/her children. Around the age of two/three years old, a child has his/her first encounter with the media in the form of TV. The child encounters socialization through the characters, images, words, and story line. These are found in children shows, cartoons, and commercials. Eventually a child also comes in contact with other forms of media such as radio, movies, books, music, and internet. Today the media seriously challenges other agents of socialization like family. This is because a child/teenager spend just as much to even more time in front of the TV/Internet as they do interacting with his/her family and people around him/her. In teenage years the power of the media
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