Socialization is a core concept of social sciences, especially sociology and psychology, as it is a part of fundamental human behavior. Socialization is a process through which all individuals learn the values, attitudes and norms of their culture or the society they are born in. The importance of socialization is that through socialization that we learn how to act, think, feel, behave in various social contexts. It helps us relate with each other at an individual and social level, learn about social responsibility, social self control and how to be effective members of our societies. It plays its role in all areas of life, manifesting at an individual and social level such as political attitudes, education, parenting, defined gender roles, social responsibility, ethics, morals, emotional regulation, development of a self-concept etc.
Simply put it is the process of learning to relate to our social norms and society as a whole.
Significance for Society
Socialization is important for both societies and individuals to prevail. It is the ultimate expression of the fact how interlinked our personal and social worlds are. Without people socializing, learning the norms and values of their cultures and societies the societies might cease to exist. It is through this process that all the essential distinguishing aspects of a culture are passed down within generations and societies endure the test of time.
Significance at Individual Level
At an individual level, everything we learn, about ourselves and our society is through socialization. We form parts of our self-concept based on the feedback we get from others. The language we speak, the way we have to behave in a certain social context, the norms, value systems we establish as individuals, how to eat, how to speak, how to express and regulate emotions, how we see the world entirely everything that makes us who we are is influenced in one way or the other from our society or culture. This is how we belong to our society, by interacting with it,l earning consciously and unconsciously about it.
Socialization helps in language development and learning communication skills; the more you engage with your surroundings the more learning occurs.
It helps build your self-confidence. When you are socializing and meeting with people, you develop social relationships with realize how much you are liked and loved by people it builds your confidence and makes you feel like you belong. In addition to that it’s through socializing that you form strong, long-term, reliable relationships. Such relationships provide you support both physically and emotionally in the times of need.
Socializing is positively influential on your mental health, it helps in bringing a change in the daily routine, gives you the exposure of different activities, experiences that make you feel better and has a positive impact on your mood. If you are having a bad day you know just one call or meetup with a right person will lighten your mood and make your day. Similarly, when your people need you and you are there for them it helps you feel good too that you matter and you make a difference.
In addition to this research has shown numerous benefits of socializing.It helps boosting the mood, increasing self-esteem, sense of joy and happiness. Balanced level of socializing is helpful in decreasing stress levels, psychological distress and enhancing overall emotional well-being of individuals. It also increases motivation to engage in healthier lifestyle and choices. It has been observed that people who are more social are more physically active, smoke less and consciously make healthier decisions for themselves. Engaging in socialization has it’s known benefits on cognitive functioning of humans, it refines cognitive functioning and memory, it reduces the risk of cognitive decline among people such as developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease in later life. With all these holistic positive effects it effectively reduces the risk of developing chronic illness. Research has established that the level of social support a person has is strongly associated with their mental health, it reduces the depression among people by changing how their perceive the stresses in their lives.
Hence, to sum it up, socialization is a fundamental part of being a human. It is the process of relating and fitting in our societies, it helps us learn, grow and become healthy positive individuals. It is the element that lets us all interlaced with each other connected in a way that we flourish as a whole. As famously known human beings are social creatures and thrive on social interactions.
References
Martino, J., Pegg, J., & Frates, E. P. (2015). The Connection Prescription: Using the Power of Social Interactions and the Deep Desire for Connectedness to Empower Health and Wellness. American journal of lifestyle medicine, 11(6), 466–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827615608788
