Hello audience! This week we learned about nature versus nurture and socialization.
Nature is more like our genetics and DNA, which is part of what makes us ourselves. But nurture is how we're taught to behave. So feral children, children who have been abandoned by their parents and raised by wild animals, behave like the animal that raised them rather than like a human, for example the child who behaves like a dog because she was raised by dogs. But isolated children, or neglected children who had no love or contact with another living animal, behave like an infant because their brains are missing the critical connections and learning that normal babies get. These are sad cases because these children will progress, but not enough to be able to ever live on their own.
We saw a video in class on a rescued isolated child named Danielle who was adopted by loving parents. When they adopted her she couldn't speak, eat solid foods, swallow, or use the toilet, and wanted to be carried everywhere, even though she was about 6 years old or so. She had the mental capacity of an infant. Now, she is mentally about 2 years old. So there's definitely been some improvement, but the damage done to poor Danielle will likely be permanent.
We also read about a study done to discover just how much nurture shapes us. It was done in an orphanage with 25 children followed from infancy to adulthood. 12 of the children were the control group, raised in the orphanage, given the basic needs but never loved, cared for, or played with. The other 13 were given to women in a mental hospital. Each woman was assigned to a baby to love, cherish, care for, and play with. The results were astounding. The control group had a hard time holding down a job, most dropped out of high school, and didn't go to college. Only one of them got married. In the experimental group, all of them flourished. They all graduated from high school, most went to college, and all held down jobs. Most of them got married. So even though they were raised by mentally ill women, they blossomed because they were given the love and attention babies need to build up their brains.
People are also affected by socialization. It tells us how to behave, what's right or wrong, and what to like. Things called agents of socialization are the main sources of our socialization like peers and family. Family raises us to behave a certain way, to have certain values, and to be a certain religion. Peers influence us to like a certain brand or toy, dress a certain way, and talk a certain way. In a vulnerable young child, this can have bad consequences.
What's disturbing is just how vicious and immoral companies will be to enslave the innocent, moldable mind of babies and young children by selling them toys or treats and teaching them what brands to buy. The media is probably the most affective way of socializing a person because we're bombarded with these media images from birth to death. Look in a toy store, the only toys available are from brands children are told to love like Disney, Sesame Street, Barney, etc. In that disturbing video we watched about media socialization of babies and children, they said that they know if they can get a child to buy their products, they will probably have a consumer for life.
Just yesterday when I was at my cousins' house, I noticed a child's birthday party invitation bearing images from "Frozen." Scattered all over the house are brand name toys like "My Little Pony," "My Littlest Pet Shop," "Barbie," etc. When I watched Spongebob with her, the only commercials coming on were for Lunchables, Sketchers, and McDonald's. There are literally no advertisements for non-brand name products, so my little cousin grows up believing what she hears and sees on the TV. She's too young to realize that the companies are trying to scam her.
I would say even my 6 year old cousin's older sisters (9 and almost 11) are too young to understand exactly what the companies want. I don't think I realized what they were doing until I was 13 or even 14. I don't think some adults realize it either. Because we're not taught in school to be smart consumers. We're not taught to think for ourselves and be self-aware. We're taught to conform into mindless zombies. Advertisements are everywhere, even schools. Nowhere is safe. Nothing is sacred. Not the innocent, pure, loving minds of babies and young children, not the education and wellbeing of young people, nothing.
When I was little, growing up in the late 90's and early 2000's, none of my shirts had characters on them. They were all plain, single colored, striped, or other patterned shirts. But now, I go into a store to buy birthday clothes for a little cousin, and I can't buy a single shirt without some character on it, it's impossible.
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