2.6 Social Media as Socialization Agent: The Social Dilemma

 The rise of Social Media as a Socialization Agent

For decades, television was a dominant force of socialization.  Myriad research shows how dominant television, especially advertising has been and you can see more at this older post of mine here.  However, over the last 10 years, online social media has increasingly played an increasing and incredible role in influencing people.  For our next agent of socialization, we will examine social media and its role in socializing people.

Social media arguably has both positive and negative effects on society.  Whether you want to focus on either of those, it is clear that social media has had a transformational effect on American society and it is a strong agent of socialization.

Positive Effects

One of the positive effects of social media is detailed in this research by Miller, et. al. about how social media provides an outlet for non-whites experiencing racial discrimination.  From the introduction (full article here),

Racial coping can be understood through three main approaches: racial and ethnic identity development, social support, and confrontation and anger expression (Brondolo et al. 2009). We argue that social media allow these approaches to be carried on in the online sphere as a way to cope with both online and offline forms of discrimination. Thus, social media can be a site of expression for racial identity, a place where Black Americans and other communities come together to air grievances, seek support, and denounce those who oppress them. This is exactly what drives our research question: do those who experience higher levels of discrimination use more social media?

We argue that social media may be an additional outlet for coping with the negative effects of racial discrimination, as social media allows all aforementioned forms of coping, racial and ethnic identity development, social support, and confrontation and anger expression.

Social Dilemma

To explore the increasingly influential role that social media has, we will watch a documentary called The Social Dilemma.  The Social Dilemma, available on Netflix and Youtube as well as across the web so you may be able to watch it on vimeo or watchdocumentaries.com or other places in case you didn't get to see it in class or you would like to watch it again.

As you watch, think about the dynamic between nature and nurture and how social media interacts with that.  Look for ways that society is shaped by social media.

 

Film Summary

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama that explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and aiding groups such as flat-earthers.

A Note About Film Structure
There are three distinct settings in the documentary:

• Real people from tech industry discussing social media and their first-hand knowledge/experience.
• A drama used to show an average family and how social media affects them.
• A dark room with three people which simulates the artificial intelligence at play behind the scenes.

Resources 

Here is the website for the documentary.

Here is a full unedited transcript of the documentary from the website "scraps from the loft"

Here is my viewing guide which includes how to watch the documentary, what to do about it and the transcript edited down to important parts.

Here is a trailer available on Youtube, embedded below:

2.5v3 The "Self" and Agents of Socialization

 Open the  Twenty Statements Test and fill in 20 responses to the question, "Who am I?" 

Try to fill in all 20 statements about yourself.   Work quickly and individually.

The "self"

The Twenty Statements Test is a survey that has been used in various studies for over 50 years. (Note: this lesson is based on Rusty Schnellinger's lesson) It is a qualitative measurement of how people think about themselves, or who they are as a person.   This conscious understanding of who we are as individuals is an example of what sociologists call a "self."  Similar to metacognition and how people think about thinking, a "self" is how individuals consciously think about who they are as an individual.  

Coding your responses.
When conducting qualitative data analysis, sometimes sociologists will code the responses to make sense of the data.  Code your responses to the Twenty Statements Test:

A mode responses: Physical characteristics.   

Ex. I am blonde, I am short, I am strong.

B mode responses: Socially defined statuses that associate you relative to a group.   

Ex. I am a student, I am Catholic, I am a quarterback, I am a daughter, I am a store clerk.

C mode responses:  Personal traits, styles of behavior or emotional states. 

Ex. I am a happy person, I am competitive, I am loud. I am tired.

D mode responses: General, more abstract or existential responses.   

Ex. I am me, I am part of the universe, I am human, I am alive.

After you code your responses, answer the following questions on your notes page:

1.  Individually:  Which did you have the most of?  

Culture And your Sense of Self

Without reading any further, hypothesize how these responses might have changed over time.  How might culture shape your responses to these? 

As Peter Kaufman explains in A Sociology Experiment (2019),

In summary, culture shapes how we think about what is important and what we value; culture may influence us to think about our "self" in certain ways.

Erving Goffman's Dramaturgy

2.  Choose one of your responses that is from B.  Which one did you choose? How do you express yourself to fit into this response?  In other words, how do you dress, talk and act in order to be like _______ (B)?

Discussion:  What were some examples for your answer to number two? For number two, this is exemplifying a sociological theory called Dramaturgy by Erving Goffman. Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life which theorized that people present themselves to the world based on their ideas about their "self". They create an image of how they want to be perceived. It is like being in a play - when you go on stage you are dressed up to play your role. Goffman's theory in the form of an extended metaphor is known as dramaturgy. How do these fit into Goffman’s theory?

Agents of socialization

3.  Regarding your answer to number 2 above, what are some of the places that you have learned to talk/dress/act/ like this?

Discussion: Examples of where?

These are examples of agents of socialization, the most important groups that shape an individual's sense of self. (especially: family, school, peers/friends, media).  

Charles Horton Cooley's Looking Glass Self

4.  Can you think of a time when one of your responses to B was received positively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?
Can you think of a time when one of your responses to B was received negatively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?

These are examples of Charles Horton Cooley’s theory called the “Looking Glass”.  By “Looking Glass” he is referring to a mirror.  His theory is that we learn to act a certain way because of our interactions with others and how they react to us.

In Sum

People look at themselves in the mirror and see themself in a particular way.  However, what we don't see is all of the messages that have been told to us through the most significant groups in our lives.  These groups are called agents of socialization.  All of them exist within a culture as well. 

Family; The Most Influential Agent of Socialization

Family is the most important agent of socialization. Family shapes our self-concept first and before we are even conscious of it.  Human brain development happens most rapidly and greatly in the first few years after birth.  Much growth and development happens in the earliest years of human life so our first caregivers have an enormous impact on who we become.

Some of the influences from family are intentional.  Sociologists call direct lessons that are consciously taught manifest lessons.  Conversely, latent lessons are lessons that you learn unconsciously.  An anecdotal example from my own life is about my dad smoking.

Manifest - Don't smoke.

Latent - Stand this way.

Answer individually:
What are some ways that you are similar to your family? Is this latent or manifest?  Why?


Evidence for Family Socialization 

There is much evidence for how individuals are socialized to think about their "self" by their families.  One bit of research that I have found transformational is Carolyn' Dweck's research presented in her book, Mindset.

Carol Dweck explains how parents, and eventually schools, both work to create a fixed mindset that actually prevents learning.  See the first chapter of her book here.

This Atlantic article the latest update to Dweck's research which shows that praise cannot be empty.  It must be directed in specific nuanced ways to promote growth.

This NPR review of the book includes an excerpt and an interview.

This NY Magazine article explains how to apply Dweck's research to parenting and talking to kids.

Brain Pickings review of Dweck's Research provides a thorough explanation and a few quotes from the book.

Dweck explains her work on this TED Talk

and she explains how we can teach a growth mindset in this talk from Stanford U.

 

How is Dweck's research an example of family's influence on "self"?

Explain how you have been shaped by parents to have either a "growth mindset" or a "fixed mindset"?  

2.5 continued ... School

 The Importance of School as a Socialization Agent in the U.S.

School is mandated in the U.S. until age 16 and most students attend until 18.  And while enrolled in school, students are there for approximately 8 hours per day for 12 years of their lives.  Some of the functions of school are to teach manifest lessons; the most obvious being to teach reading, writing, math, history and science.  However, schools also influence students in more subtle, implicit ways, or latent lessons.  

Schools and Latent Lessons

Liberal Values?
Schools have been criticized for latently teaching students progressive values since at least 1974.   Three sociologists wanted to research if teachers indoctrinated their students with "liberal" values and what values those were.  Brint, Contreras and Matthews (2001) observed elementary school teachers and they coded the messages that teachers relayed to students.  They observed over 1000 interactions between teachers and students.


2.  Individually Take a guess - brainstorm what you think the messages were that teachers relayed to students most frequently?

DO NOT SCROLL FORWARD UNTIL AFTER ANSWERING #2

Sociologists Brint, Contreras and Matthews observed elementary school teachers and they coded the messages that teachers relayed to students. They observed over 1000 interactions between teachers and students.

They found that the most common references that teachers reinforced to students were:

• Be orderly.
• Work hard.
• Show respect and consideration.
• Participate.
• Be in charge of yourself.
• Cooperate.
• Justice/fairness.
• Responsibility.
• Self-control.

3.  How many of these did you guess in #2? List the messages that you guessed in #2 that were the same as those above.

4. Now, using the list above, decide what % each of those references were out of 100%.  (The total should add up to 100.)

[ANSWER #3 and 4 BEFORE MOVING FORWARD]

Here are the actual totals:

College and Latent Political Attitudes

Campbell and Horowitz (2016) studied whether liberal values were a product of higher education.  They focused on civil liberties, gender egalitarianism and political party affiliation.  They found that college seems to affect the belief in civil liberties and gender egalitarianism but that political party affiliation was more likely influenced by family background.

2.5 continued part 2...Peers

 Peers as an Agent of Socialization

Friends/Peer Groups
Friends and peer groups are very influential for Americans.  There is evidence that the most important factor in statistically predicting whether a teen will take up a particular deviant behavior (such as smoking or crime) is the presence or absence of peers who also engage in that behavior.  Here are some important conclusions that sociologists have claimed about the influence of friends/peers:

• Peer groups tend to be influenced by homophily, or the tendency for people to be around others who are similar to themselves.  
• Peer influence starts especially because of school and cohort groups, and becomes significant by adolescence, sometimes more intense and more influential than family.  
• Adolescents spend more time with each other in age-related cohorts than with parents or anyone else. This leads to an adolescent subculture.    

Friend Groups and Influence on Choice of Study

This 2019 article from the journal Sociology of Education shows that your friends will influence the likelihood of you being in STEM classes or not. From the article,

     We find strong evidence that students adjust their preferences to those of their friends (friend influence). Moreover, girls tend to retain their STEM preferences when other girls in their classroom also like STEM (peer exposure). We conclude that these mechanisms amplify preexisting preferences and thereby contribute to the observed dramatic widening of the STEM gender gap....Homophily, the tendency for friends to be similar in multiple regards (e.g., in their gender or sex category, age, attitudes, and cultural taste) is widely documented (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001). This can be due to friend selection, that is, the tendency to befriend others who are similar, but, in the case of changeable characteristics, it can also be due to social influence....

     First, both boys and girls are influenced to like what their friends like. Because students mostly have same-sex friends, gender-specific tendencies of influence will emerge. Boys, who have higher probabilities to like STEM to begin with (in our observed time period), are likely to be further influenced toward STEM because their friends are likely to be boys, who are, again, more likely to have pre-existing STEM preferences. Girls, having lower probabilities to like STEM already, are likely further influenced by other girls, who are also less likely to prefer STEM. However, these are just general tendencies. Depending on the particular friends one might have, individual implications can also be different (e.g., cases where girls are friends with more boys than with girls, or with girls who like STEM). 

     Second, regarding STEM subjects, other girls’ preferences in the classroom matter. Having other female students in a class who prefer STEM can protect girls from being discouraged from STEM subjects. This implies that along with friends’ subject preferences, the negotiation of gender politics in the classroom is also important for girls’ STEM preferences. Our findings suggest the STEM pipeline model should be conceived as a social pipeline model, in which effects of peer exposure and friend influence are considered important factors in female dropout from STEM careers.

2.  Are you in STEM?  Are your friends?  Is this article's conclusion true for you?

Friends with Academic Benefits:  Friend Network Structure and Influence on College Success 

First, the article in Contexts called "Friends with Academic Benefits by Janice McCabe from Dartmouth Sociology Department, analyzes three different structures of friend groups for college students.  I will summarize the article's findings below, but the full article is linked above.  Try to read my summary below and answer question 1, but if you need more context or if you are interested in the rest of the article, see the link above.

McCabe analyzes the structure of peer networks, the type of friends in the network and differences between race and class.  She finds 3 different structures of friend networks.  She calls these three structures "tight-knitters, compartmentalizers, and samplers....tight-knitters’ networks resemble a ball of yarn, compartmentalizers’ a bow-tie, and samplers’ a daisy."

Tightknitters  

Tight-knitters have one densely woven friendship group in which nearly all their friends are friends with one another.... Most tight-knitters were students of color who found the social  support of their network helpful in navigating a predominantly White campus. Some tight-knitters had friendship networks that helped them academically in multiple ways. Tight-knit networks, however, did not always pull students up academically. They pulled some tight-knitters down, helping to reproduce race- and class-based inequalities.  About half of the 22 tight-knitters in my sample were ... surrounded by friends who pulled them away from academics. Nearly all students discussed friends distracting them from academics, but for lower-achieving tight-knitters who did not graduate from MU or who graduated but with low GPAs and in more than four years, friends were a constant distraction. All behaviors—negative and positive—were quite contagious within tight-knit networks. Consequently, all tight-knitters who described their friends as providing academic support and motivation graduated; only half of the tight-knitters who felt they lacked this support graduated.  

Compartmentalizers 

Compartmentalizers’ friends form two to four clusters, where friends know each other within clusters but rarely across them.  Compartmentalized networks look like a bow-tie, with distinct clusters of friends. Students’ friends within each of the 2-4 clusters were connected to each other, but friends were not connected across clusters. Like Betsy, most compartmentalizers were White and middle-class. They typically had one socially oriented cluster and one academically oriented cluster. She felt her two clusters of friends enabled her to balance schoolwork and friendly fun, and she graduated in four years. Students with more than two clusters of friends felt pressure—on their time and identity—in keeping up with multiple friendship groups. The clusters provided a sense of belonging, but maintaining ties can be demanding, and these demands escalated with each additional cluster.  All compartmentalizers had separate academic and social clusters of friends.  In general, compartmentalizers came from more advantaged backgrounds, experienced greater ease on campus, and succeeded in college with less support from friends as compared to those with other network types. Friendships among students from more advantaged backgrounds helped to reproduce their advantages. 

 

 

Samplers

Samplers make a friend or two from a variety of places, but the friends remain unconnected to each other. Students of color frequently described experiencing race-based isolation on campus regardless of their network type; samplers, however, remained isolated. They rarely discussed isolating experiences with friends, and samplers were ambivalent at best about whether their friends provided social support or whether they needed social support.  Samplers are academically successful in spite of their friends. Their friends provide little academic help or engagement, but they don’t pull the samplers down academically either. Negative behaviors that were contagious within tight-knitters’ networks did not spread within samplers’ networks due to lack of ties among friends. In other words, their network structure shielded samplers from friends’ negative influences. While samplers demonstrate that friends are not necessary for academic success, one can’t help but wonder if they might be even more successful if they allowed or encouraged their friends to become friends with academic benefits.

3.  Do you have friends with academic benefits or do your friends influence you to be less successful academically? Can you identify your own social network structure based on the models in the article?

College Roommates and Risky Behavior

This article from the Journal of Health and Behavior examines whether college roommates will influence each other to be more aggressive, smoke, or be sexually active.  READ CAREFULLY - the findings are not as simple as most students assume they will be.  Remember to read the abstract first, then the conclusion/discussion section.

What did the researchers conclude about having college roommates that engage in risky behavior?