Objective:  Students should be able to identify how agents of..

Objective:  Students should be able to identify how agents of..

Objective:

Students should be able to identify how agents of socialization work to teach individuals culture. Students should identify how new technology makes it difficult for agents of socialization to teach appropriate cultural values and norms. Students should also think about how agents of socialization should be socializing people on the proper use of social media.

New technology is often threatening to a society and oftentimes causes a moral panic. A moral panic happens when worry over a certain societal change or event creates worry beyond the extent it is actually a threat. Video games, the internet, radio, television, and cell phones were all condemned as harmful to society by some social commentators when they were newly introduced.

You have probably heard similar narratives concerning online social media. Many people fear several aspects of social media are having negative affects on society including: making face to face interaction obsolete, the lack of inhibitions in online interactions, cyber bullying, and social media addiction. Society sometimes sees new technology as threatening because agents of socialization don’t know how to approach socializing the upcoming generation in the context of the new technology. In fact, important agents of socialization—family, education, media, peer groups, work—likely do not yet know how to socialize young people on the values, norms, and beliefs about using social media.

Instructions: I want you to think about the types of norms and values that agents of socialization should be teaching members of a society in regards to social media use.

1. Make a post with two paragraphs:
2. In the first paragraph address how you were socialized by your family, the education system, peer groups, or the workplace in terms of social media use (just focus on one agent of socialization). In other words, what values, norms, and beliefs have these agents of socialization established in terms of social media use? For example: My parents had very clear guidelines on social media use etc…
3. In the second paragraph opine on how these agents of socialization can better prepare people for proper use of social media. For example: I think workplaces need to exert stricter control of social media use by employees to protect the image of the company etc….