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Video Links

Learning Objective: 4.5: Explain how micro- and meso-level agents of socialization influence individuals.

4.1 Socialization: Music and Development

Roger H. Brown, President of Berklee College of Music, discusses the importance of music as a form of communication throughout history for families, groups, and civilizations, and ties this to the ways in which music is central to the social and mental development of very young children.

4.2 Influence of Advertising

FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff examines the tactics, techniques, and cultural ramifications of marketing moguls in “The Merchants of Cool.”

4.3 Aging in US Society

With 35 million elderly people in America, “the old, old”— those over 85— are now considered the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. For millions of Americans, living longer also means serious chronic illness and a protracted physical decline that can require an immense amount of care, often for years and sometimes even decades.

4.4 The Process of Resocialization

This year, hundreds of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illnesses will be released into communities across America, the largest exodus in the nation’s history. FRONTLINE examines what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison and why they return at such alarming rates.

4.5 Socialization and the Media

Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits—from happiness to obesity—can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you do not even know.

4.6 Socialization of Gender in the Media: An Example

CNN’s Ali Velshi shows a clip of a little girl, Riley, who is frustrated by meso-level agents of socialization such as the makers of kid’s toys. This humorous clip shows the power of corporations to socialize children into playing with “gender-appropriate” toys.

 

Audio Links

Learning Objective: 4.4: Describe how we develop a “self” through interacting with others.

4.2 Socialization Throughout the Life Cycle: Reputation

Stories of people trying to recover from damage to their reputations—sometimes caused by others, sometimes self-inflicted.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Explain how micro- and meso-level agents of socialization influence individuals.

4.1 Teen Creates App So Bullied Kids Never Have to Eat Alone

This podcast explores how a 16-year-old has created a new app where children that are bullied no longer have to eat alone during lunchtime.

4.3 Veterans Are Housed Together in Prison

This audio clip explains why a prison implemented a change to keep veterans together. The clip talks about a total institution. In total institutions, people undergo processes of resocialization.

 

Web Resources

Learning Objective: 4.1: Summarize the nature versus nurture debate and the sociological perspective on it.

4.2 Children and Technology

At the San Diego Convention Center in 2014, Hilary Clinton announced the distribution of an early literacy tool kit to help promote the verbal development of young children.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Describe how we develop a “self” through interacting with others.

4.1 Transition to Adulthood

This article from Contexts magazine focuses on the concept of being a grown-up and takes a look at how individuals believe they have reached this stage in their lives.

4.3 Technology and Interaction

In this Contexts article, the author examines how smart phones have impacted social interaction.