The Purpose of Socialization

Socialization is what we all go through in our lives, and sometimes we go through more than once depending on what conditions you might be living under. Socialization in itself isn’t a bad thing really. We all need to learn how to be a functioning member of society, and we all have to learn what is right and wrong in life. It can be seen as something that is akin to indoctrination, and the loss of the individual, but it really does have a point to it.

Like it or not, you are aren’t going to get far in life unless you know the rules of life. You need to know what the roles of everyone around you are, and you need to know how to get along with them. You might not always agree with the rules of society, and you might even rebel against them from time to time, but you still have to know what those rules are. One day you will see that this is the best for you even if you don’t agree with all of it.

Think about what would happen if you were a guy, and you showed up to work in a skirt. You would probably get laughed at, and people would probably wonder what was wrong with you, or make jokes about you as a person. Nobody wants that, but if no one told you that guys don’t wear skirts, you might not even know what the fuss is. On the surface there wouldn’t seem to be anything wrong with a guy wearing a skirt, but I did see it once, and it certainly looked odd.

You might not enjoy having to live under certain social codes, and under some strict rules. However, as a parent, or as a leader of any kind, you are expected to not only to lead others as you would yourself, but to teach people to conform to society as well. It is human nature to want to pass on our own values to our kids, or to those we are in the command of, and we also teach those values partially on what we are taught by society.

Believe it or not, it is actually a good thing that there are some rules that we all follow. For example, say someone decided to walk naked around town one day. It might be fairly objectionable to some people to see a naked person. Unless they were very attractive, it would not go over well. Fortunately we are taught that, and we keep ourselves out of jail, and protect others from seeing something that they might not want to see.

Socialization is the technique that we use to not only get people prepared for what life is going to be like, but to provide a uniform basis for society as a whole. This is good that we are all living under some of the same rules, because we have so few people that are actually going to teach us, or know what we are doing or thinking. This gives everyone some guidance, and allows us all to live with the same expectations in society.