Jamie Beeman

12/12/2019
Sellers-1&2
Influences of Socialization

Throughout our lives we are surrounded by people who teach us to be a certain way in
order to fit into society. It usually begins with our families and expands to more things. But once
we have been taught that this is how we are supposed to be. We tend to try to change ourselves
into the image of other people and will do many things to achieve it. Things that have socialized
me are the media,my friends, and religion.

Ways social media has socialized me are mainly through music, Youtube, and Instagram.
Music has socialized me in a positive way because it allows me to listen to different genres and
songs that fit my mood. But, when it comes to our society music may be negatively impactful
because of the judgement that comes with the type of music you listen to. Moving onto
Instagram, most people get social media by the time they are in middle school, and through the
media there has always been this sense of envy. I personally have experienced this because you
see people like the Kardashians, or famous models, that are ​perfect​. Society influences that the
way to achieve this ​perfection​ is to be skinny with a slim waist, round hips, big butt and breasts.
Another thing that is seen as being ​perfect​ is to always have a full face of makeup on, having
what people call good eyebrows, having a small nose and big lips, as well as trendy clothing.
Seeing this everyday when ever you go on Instagram starts to make you feel worse about
yourself because you don't have this body type that so many people want you to have. I would
say that youtube has mostly socialized me in a positive way. I have been watching youtube since
I was in 4th grade and I think the main reason why I watch it is because it’s so entertaining. The
good part about Youtube is it includes all things like gaming, beauty, many different types of
challenges, just different things.There are so many people to watch. For example, most of the
Youtubers I watch are not just funny, but in a way they are kind of inspiring because they have
made a whole career off of making videos and they have grown so much and gotten really cool
opportunities that celebrities would get. For example, David Dobrik. He started on Vine and
transitioned to Youtube, becoming one of the most popular vloggers on Youtube. He makes a lot
of money for what he does. Although he is very funny and seems to have a lot of fun with his
friends he incorporates good things into his videos. Like he has paid for many of his fans’
college tuition, he has bought a couple of his fans and friends new cars. But where there is good
there is also bad most of the negative things that I see on Youtube is just drama. There are
several Youtube channels that just spread drama and start rumors about other Youtubers. I think
that social media is a pretty negative environment but there are also really great things on the
media.
I think friendships are something that have especially socialized me throughout my life. In
elementary school I don't remember there being all kinds of friend groups mainly because I went
to a small school where everyone knew everyone. Middle school is when you start to feel this
certain pressure of having enough friends, and being cool enough. That's when the gossip and
rumors start. Then there is a high school which is similar to middle school but I think it's time
when you start branching out to more people. You may get a boyfriend/girlfriend, you might
start doing drugs/ drinking for some teens this starts during middle school but a majority of teens
start doing drugs for either the fun of it or peer pressure. For me, friends have been some of the
most negative people in my life but at the same time I have also had many friends that were the
only positive influences in my life. This is because I thought that I could trust my friends enough
to tell them about personal things and they ended up telling other people. But other friends have
helped me get through a lot of things that I felt I couldn't tell my parents or siblings.

Religion is something that I grew up on. I grew up going to a Baptist Church, I would
would go to Sunday school but never really paid attention to what they taught us. When I started
school I attended a catholic school so religion was kind of a big deal we had a whole class period
dedicated to theology then on fridays we had mass. Once my parents got divorced we stopped
attending church, and then once my dad met my stepmom we went to different churches. I
believe it was around 4th grade when I finally got baptized at the same baptist church except for
now, it was a cowboy church. We became members of the church but I always thought the
church I went to was weird because everyone wore cowboy boots and hats. The summer after
my mom died, my parents decided that I would go to a church camp and that was the first time I
ever actually read the bible. My whole life I never questioned my faith because that is what I
have always known but everytime I around a christian they always say that god spoke to them
and I still don't understand what they mean by that. I mean obviously god isn't physically talking
to them but the more I read about how god made miracles happen, he made a blind man see, he
brought someone back to life. The more I started to question my own beliefs but I still continue
to live with these thoughts and questions because people have to me that it's bad if you have to
question your faith. Even though we are constantly shown that this is the norm. I personally don't
think that it's healthy for anyone to have to change themselves in order to feel accepted. But,
when you have been exposed to this way of living since day one you just continue to fake it.

Social media, friends and religion are all really important factors in my life that have
influenced me. Even though I have been taught my whole life that being like everyone else is a
good thing. I don't think that it is a good thing at all because you are living you life in the image
of everyone around you. You should not have to fake being somebody to please other people just
to be considered normal.