Impact of Media in Socialization

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Table of Contents

Effects of the Media
State of the Media
Parental role
Vulnerability to the media
Conclusion
References

Effects of the Media

How can the media teach responsible behaviours such as decision-making? The current and almost inevitable behaviour involves periodical flipping of channels using a remote control to find a suitable program. People learn both beneficial and negative practices from the media. Children learn some languages or slangs from the media, and this end up influencing their communication behaviours even in future undertakings.

The themes and issues such as drama, violence, sex and music are common implications. Children are therefore prone to stereotyping and deceiving information about the world, particularly due to their innocence. People need to realize that socialization is a developmental process whereby the individual encounters others or earthly resources and they enable him/her to be socially acceptable into specific settings.

Social acceptance is a continual and ever dynamic procedure, throughout the entire lifetime. Lack of social control causes personal life to lacks proper meaning.

Surroundings and experiences are the main determinants or the agents of socialization, which are the world’s main influences. These controls depend on exposure, and thus the positive or negative impacts on individuals. The media is one of the agents that have nearly permanent effect on people social lifestyles because of its manipulative style of shaping the society (Nash, 2010).

The media consumes the behavioural pattern of many and mostly the youth. Although not intentional, teenagers easily pick the bad influences from the media in their urge of finding identity in the society.

Sometimes the bad influences include bragging to the peers. When the family setting has a strong foundation on good influences, the teenager has ability to resist media pressure. Peer exposure has great pressure than the family influences, but exposures to the media can cause different experiences, which are both great and influential to proper growth as well as social demolishing.

Exposure to media influences is sociological because it determines if one is in a position to venture into future relationships without considering the experiences, or attracting more negative influences.

State of the Media

The media is dynamic and a revolution that rarely fades away from the social world. The celebrity influence is an example that is a common scenario among the youths since time in memorial. The media is equally expansive, and today it has great influence on everyone in various unique ways, regardless of the personal option or need.

It has formed a big part of the social world, but people need to understand it as a manipulative tool because if one is in a position of thinking from the media point of view or aspired outcome, then understanding the system is easier. This kind of thought reduces the chances of negative influences.

In close relation to Newman’s (2009) writing, childhood is not a biological but a social process of growth. This means that all children are unsecure from the media influences.

Everyone is able to pick one or many aspects that are moral or immoral values of the society. A child does not need to understand the verbal interpretation to understand the description of violence from a television set. The tragic images speak bigger words. The key social values one picks from the media are evident during the socialization process, for instance the commercial implications.

The media is however not set to spread good or negative influence, it acts as a manipulation tool in support of the businesses profit margins, but end up determining how the young child will socialize. The cartoon and animated images are the key determinant of the children’s actions. The media therefore distorts the morals values by influencing on people to take up what it portrays.

Parental role

Do the parents or guardians bother to check on the movie or program ratings? Young people are often curious of negative aspects such as alcohol, and thus the common definition of the teenage years being a time of experimenting and seeking novelty. Conducted survey indicates that scenes of alcohol and tobacco abuse are a common phenomenon in most programs and movies today (Kendall, 2006).

As a result, at least half or more of the teenagers try out alcohol during the teenager stage, and nearly all have tried before reaching the legal age. “These days the youth show higher rates or percentage of alcohol problems as opposed to the older age groups” (Browne, 2009). This is a social problem mainly influenced through the media.

Vulnerability to the media

The brain may be more vulnerable to social pressure or discomforts due to sensitivity. These social effects can bring about pleasurable social experiences such as negative engagement, as one seeks better expectations. The effects of the media on the mind are enormous.

In the studies of media influences by Partrick (2008), characteristically, people have a diminished sensitivity to influences because the hormones also play a vital role in decisions. According to Partrick (2008), “people have novelty to seek and promote competitiveness socially.” The production of hormones promotes human action, because the original occurrences on the media influence their social approvals.

Effects of the media on growth and development

Social, emotional, behavioural, physical and cognitive growths are very important aspects influencing social behaviour. Analysis of some developmental life-span stages indicates the possibility of determining influences brought about by the media. There are unique kind of behavioural pattern to expect after a distinctive episode on the media, thus the need to suggest developmental concerns and appropriate actions.

Human beings have to make decisions based on the challenges at hand. They face many disputes such as inevitable physical changes and parental or peer pressure especially over making decisions on impulsive activities (Kendall, 2006). These transitional issues are of critical concerns regarding identity, choices, self-esteem and emotional development.

Their appearance to others is equally an important issue; because of they believe that everyone has unique problems, and all the public attention focuses particularly upon these issues.

People often face the challenges of discovering their identity in terms of vocation, relationship, sexuality, gender, life interests, personality, culture and most importantly parental background (Kendall, 2006). Abusive media may cause conflicts, because of the need to find a desirable social lifestyle or freedom, especially during the emotionally stressing moments.

Conclusion

Pressure from the media should serve the role of determining and moulding the right character in a person. This is arguably the reason why people mainly mimic their parent’s lifestyles. Parental pressure is more often hard to resist because it is equally very hard to notice. It is therefore important to know that personal choices are very important even when the parental pressure is irresistible.

The strongest predictor and controller of media abuse or negative influence to the social lives, particularly among the youth and children is the parent. The parents assist in defining the usage and warn on the media effects. The parental pressure relates to modelling social lifestyles.

References

Browne, K. (2006). Introducing Sociology for AS Level. Oxford, UK: Polity Publishers

Kendall, D. (2008). Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. Kentucky, KY: Cengage Learning Publishers

Nash, K. (2010). Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics and Power. (Second Ed). Oxford, UK: John Wiley and Sons. Print

Newman, D.M., (2009).Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. Los Angeles, L.A.: Pine Forge Press,

Partrick, B. J. (2008). Adolescents and Risk: Making Sense of Adolescents Psychology. Praeger Publishers

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