Mask Reflection
Socialization is the process by which an individual is shaped around society and it’s norms, and affects all of us whether we realise it or not. For example, I have experienced socialization in my life when my parents told me that money is not the most important thing in the world and I should focus on balancing other things as well as money. Socialization has had a massive impact on society over many years, but it can be broken down to this simple cycle:
The father tells his son that a man of another color is unequal to him then in turn the son will tell that to his son, and this will be a continuous cycle of socialization.
On the other hand,
The father tells his son that everyone is equal and the son will carry that on to his son and so on and so forth. Thus creating a positive cycle of socialization.
In conclusion, this is how socialization has affected me and the society that we all thrive in.
Animas has a different way of presenting projects like these than most other schools and through explaining this you can see the significance of the mask project. The students who entered this project had no previous experience with socialization much less how it has affected them. We started by learning about socialization in such ways as the Stanford prison experiment and even found examples of socialization in the movie, “Mean Girls”. After this we began our essay’s and looking back on our own lives to find examples of socialization. Once we had a solid 2nd draft of our essay’s we began work on our masks and trying to come up with designs that related to our essay’s. We continued to pump out drafts doing both teacher and peer critiques to better our essay’s. In the end everyone was successful and had a lot of fun and a good exhibition.
During this project I took a very specific process to finish this essay and the mask. I started by making an outline of my essay and a thesis to use in my introductory paragraph this was a very basic step in my process, but it was crucial. After that I took some time to refine my thesis and create my introduction paragraph instead of going directly into the body paragraph. Once I had finished that I started work on the body of my paragraph and took some time to gather research for the second and third paragraphs in my essay. This is the time that I took aside to start working on my mask designs then applied some paint to the mask itself. I decided to use my mask to represent my first body paragraph which was about economic class. After that I finished the final peer critique and got ready for the exhibition which was very fun to take part in after working so hard on my essay and my mask. Through this process I learned that revision is necessary to doing anything well. In conclusion, this is the process by which I finished my mask project.
Mask Essay
The Dictator
By Dylan King October 8th
Present throughout society is the overwhelming gloom of enforcements and regularity, the dictator that controls everyone. That dictator is socialization. Socialization, the silent dictatorship surrounding us at all times, and the way in which an individual is shaped to understand societal and cultural norms. In my life I’ve been both socialized both positively and negatively. Socialization is the process by which people get taught to stereotype others based on others beliefs and what society tells them. I’ve been positively socialized by my economic class I am in. On the other side, I have been negatively socialized by the world around me. These are three ways in which socialization has affected me.
In a basic sense socialization is a continuous process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms and values along with social skills appropriate to his or her social position. To cover socialization we will take a look at it’s different classes of belief and the positive and negative impacts it has. Socialization has both positive and negative influences on society. A negative influence is racism which the human race has prominently shown until recently. When a father tells his son that someone of a different color is lower or worse than a non colored man, the son will believe it and carry it on to his son. This creates a negative cycle of socialization. On the other hand when a father tells his son that all men are equal then the son will carry that on to his son and thus begins a positive cycle of socialization. This is an example of both positive and negative socialization and it’ affects on society.
*There are two different points of view on socialization, the functionalist and the conflict theorist. Functionalists look at each part of society as a whole. For example the government provides jobs for the community and in turn the community pays taxes to the government this is a never ending cycle that contributes to the world as a whole. Conflict theory introduces the idea that power produces social order. For example, conflict theorist are attuned to the unequal distribution of wealth in a community.Most people side with either of these groups, but their are many other sub groups of belief in society. In conclusion, this has been a brief introduction to socialization and it’s affect on the world.*
I have been positively socialized based on my economic class, I’ve experienced the full reach of the middle class and how its life styles differ. My family moved to durango Colorado in Nov. of 2005, at the time we were still paying for our last house so we could only afford a small 2 person apartment, but our family of four made it work. After about two and a half years of living in the cramped apartment our family decided it was time to move into an actual house. By this time my mom was making a decent amount and we were experiencing what life is like in the “middle” of the middle class. My dad ended up needing a back surgery shortly after we moved, this made money tight but afterwards he started to consider working again. After a year to recover from his surgery my dad started to work again and that helped give our family more money that we could use to take vacations and help us pay for extra stuff. Throughout the time that this was taking place I have learned the importance of money and how to value possessing it. This has positively socialized me and now I respect money and never waste it. After conversing with my family I discovered this is exactly what they wanted of me to be; a, “Person who respects money and can make important financial decisions in my life”{summarized from actual conversation.} In conclusion, this is how my economic class and the life that I have experienced and how my family has taught me to value money has positively socialized me.
I have been negatively socialized by the media to believe certain stereotypes. An example is the way a childrens television show makes a subtle reference about girls being less than boys. At this point in my life I had no comprehension that a television show could be wrong or have a negative message.So, influenced by the television show my young mind now believed in that stereotype, and the next day I got a bunch of kids to pick on one girl about how she was worse than us boys once the teacher heard she broke it up and had a conversation about how everyone was equal. I was very confused because the television has socialized me to think that girls were less than boys, but the teacher told us how to respect one another as equals. After looking over this I decided to research how many kids had my same problem; the website,tvtropes.com, states:
"If it says it on television, It Must Be True!"
{ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVNeverLies, 3/14/99.} After reading this article I realized just how many people, kids in particular, are negatively socialized by what the television shows them. Another example of the televisions socialization is something that I was firsthand witness to and continue to be. As a baby sitter I am used to working with kids, but this was something different; at the time I was 12 and was working a solid week for 4 to 6 hours a day and during this time I became aware of the violence and foul language that children are socialized to be comfortable around. During my time working with the kids it only got worse as they began to swear and display many violent behaviors towards myself and other kids.When I asked why they behaved in such a way the response was that its what their favorite tv show characters or cool video games did. After experiencing these children I looked up how a violent TV show can harm kids , (http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/Facts_for_amilies_Pages/Children_And_TV_Violence_13.aspx , 3/11/2011)
American children watch an average of four hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:
- become "immune" or numb to the horror of violence
- gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems
One more way I’ve been negatively socialized is directly from the older generations and what they call, “wisdom” which enforced negative stereotypes upon me. One day in fourth grade, a few years after our previous incident, I was with my family walking downtown. This is when I heard an old man protesting with some people, they all shouted and yelled about how Mexicans are stealing our jobs and don’t belong in America. Being someone who was taught by their parents to respect our elders and their beliefs I assumed that what he was saying right. After being negatively stereotyped this way I went to school and told one of my Mexican classmates that she didn’t belong in the school and she had to go away. The girl started to cry and I found myself, once again, getting lectured by an adult about what I had said was wrong and how everyone was equal. And once again I found myself thinking how am I wrong? I only drew from the information that someone of the older generation had presented me with; and I should not be led to think that someone of the older generation is wrong because that is what my parents socialized me to believe when I was a younger boy. After I had heard what the teacher said I decided to believe that everyone is equal despite the multiple people that have socialized me to believe otherwise . All in all, this is another example of how society has negatively socialized me.
In the end, in my life I’ve been socialized, positively,negatively, to believe in televisions stereotypes, other peoples negative lies, and what my family has taught me, and to discard everything else; but having been through all of these experiences I have learned that socialization is something that is around everyone and the negativity within it can not be escaped but you can fight back against the dictator and his invocative beliefs by choosing what you want to believe in and you can do so, without the consent of the dictator.