Nature AND Nurture...

The other day in class, we talked about nature and nurture and how they affect socialization of humans. It's not a matter of nature vs. nurture; they work together to make us human-like. Without our human instincts like the sucking instinct and without nurture and social interactions with other humans, we would not be humans. But what I was more intrigued with was the feral children and children who grew up in isolation. This was so disturbing to me. It was amazing to see what looked like almost normal people act unlike humans by so much. I guess I always thought that I acted like a human because I was born a human. But now I realize that that is not all true. The social environment that we experience when we are babies allow for our development into human beings. That is basically what socialization is -- the development of humans. Also, the agents of socialization or what influences us to become who we are is very relatable. I see what influenced and still influences my life today. My family instilled my values and priorities. My friends taught me how to be myself in a group of your peers. My religion taught me how to be part of a community. My work taught me how to interact with all different types of people. It is so interesting to me to learn about socialization and what influences us because this goes on every second of our lives, and I didn't realize it was going on or what was happening until now.