The Importance Of Socialization In Western Society

Western society is a very diverse population that has small pockets of different communities within it. One of these smaller communities is university residence where students come from all around the world and live together on campus while they go to school. The majority of these students are first year university students who come to university knowing very few people, feeling all alone in this big new world, and having so much more freedom and responsibility. Most first years participate in orientation week where they are put into teams and play insane games as a way to get to know one another before the school year commences. Most bonds are formed in this week, and groups are determined. For many the first few weeks are the hardest weeks …show more content…
It describes the ways that people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values” (Little 2014, Chapter 5). University residence is considered secondary socialization, which is the part of life that you will learn new rules and how to function properly but may forget later. The agents of socialization that are most prominent in residence are, peers and education, both require the students to learn new social norms and unspoken rules that you are to follow (T. Davidson, personal communications, Oct 4, 2016). Students must learn how to cohabitate with other students they have never met before, they must learn to manage their time, to eat on a regular basis, do laundry, share a washroom with strangers, eat at a cafeteria, sleep on a regular basis, and learn that they will not get much time alone. These are all things that for many will be new and they will need to adjust and learn the rules to be able to fit into their new community. Students are given few rules on how to do the tasks listed above and are required to figure out what the unspoken rules are without any help. This proves to be extremely difficult because if one is not good at picking up social ques then one might struggle with the task of understanding unspoken rules. In residence, the better you can pick up and understand the unspoken rules the more of a chance you have of having a wider range of social interaction with others. Those that struggle with picking up social ques will become more isolated within residence putting them lower on the social scale and making life much harder. Most students learn these social ques and unspoken rules in primary and secondary school, but residence adds an entirely new aspect to it that, as I have found out, has many of the