I do remember how I taught the Senior High School children in sociology class about understanding and respecting the difference of values and norms in people and within their culture. Afterwards to make them understand. I compared my hometown to this beautiful island and told them how much of a culture shock the many new things were. This article explains the different impacts society has on people according to what I saw and heard. It is a short story of how society affects children’s lifes in these villages compared to mine. Society here means the big family, both adults and teenagers of the place you live, and people at school.
I was raised in a family with individuality as a foundation. I lived in an area where society played a small role in my life. In my residential environment, we rarely talk with each other and we live thinking nobody would be there for you if you had a problem. How we see ourselves is more important than what other people see in us. At school, the lack of a sports education combined with my extremely introverted personality made me a person with poor social skills. I failed to understand the importance of social life and how society could help me develop.
In my core family, as my parents got separated when I was a teenager, I experienced the family as a very small group of people isolated from the big family. I ended up seeing them as regular people with no special connection to me or willing to help me should I experience some issues, be that in financial or social respect. In short, I see individuality as something more relevant to my life.
As I got older I started to see many people getting their power and support from society. I also noticed how it plays a huge role in shaping the behavior of children and teenagers. I realized it even more after I came to live here and experienced society’s role and importance first hand. Now, I would to examine its role and significance for people here and hopefully, you can feel some of its impact while reading this article at the other side of the world.
Connectivity – People over here are connected with each other. Everybody knows what someone else is doing. They are always connected and close to each other. At first, someone not from this area would probably think that people just love gossip, but I think it’s more like caring and their way to keep in touch with each other.
Note: According to evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, language has emerged from gossip, and that’s how language also evolved over time. After seeing how important society is in almost all rural and remote areas, I started to think that it might just be true, how gossip is important to keep a society healthy. The downside of this type of society is the risk of someone spreading rumors about people or something because they don’t understand of the situation, and other people believing this information without confirming its validity first.
Help – everyone is willing to help if one of their family members have problems, be it financially, or simply asking for advice. They will join hand in hand to help solve the issue. For example, they will try to fund a child’s education together so that it becomes more affordable. It’s something I often saw in a rural and remote areas, families here have a bigger role compared to families in the big city, but to see it again closely, I can feel its significance for someone’s life and future.
Knowledge transfer – In remote areas such as here, children usually get their abundant knowledge not only from their parents, but almost all the adults around them would also contribute in transferring their knowledge too. I could imagine that when this kind of advantage is combined with the improved literacy level of future parent, there will be a massive increase of the knowledge quality of children in the future. It’s not an exaggeration to say there’s room for them to reach the knowledge level of a big city, but with the additional advantage they already have in terms of their social environment.
Acknowledgement – While the media, social media, school, and family are partly influence the children in my area as one of the biggest source of acknowledgement, the society here act as a replacement of them all. I have not seen the social media act as the tools of acknowledgement, which resulting in a children healthier psyche and mind development.
Note: Even though social influence has a role to shape people behavior in a regular basis. For example, how the majority-held opinions of a group of people are likely to shape the views of the new member to that social group. People sometimes forget the downside of it too. Just like how it influenced over their life, and consequently shaping their behavior too much and how other people think ended up negating what they think over themselves.
In conclusion, either in cultural, knowledge, and development of every child over these villages, the society has its influence over those aspects in a positive way. Those aspects, as I already explained, if also embarks the improvement of literacy and education, it’s not a dream for the next generation of these villages to become an agent of change for their surroundings. To be part of foundation’s team as one of the teacher, I really wish the children could have a better future with whatever society and environment they end up with.