American Government Post #2: Political Socialization

Our opinions and beliefs are said to be branched off from what we’ve heard other people say. We are born influenced by those around us to form what we feel best suits our perspective, our choices, what we feel best suits our life style. People of my age tend to not think about what exactly brought us to believe in certain things. We lack the thought of where exactly our opinions originated. Not to say that everyone has to per say “choose” what we believe based on someone’s belief as much as, create a line of which our opinions and liking suit best. Not to be mistaken for conformity, Political Socialization  is the process in which others form their political ideas and values through social settings. These social settings vary from family, education systems, peers, and media. This is a “lifelong” process due to the fact that our views tend to change based on new information, this can be given by the said influence sources.

Family usually is what starts off our political ideas. Parents tend to not discuss politics with their children especially at such a young age but conversations brought between each other over the dinner table or just around the house can be unintentionally tuned in. What parents don’t know is that when kids over hear their conversations, they tend to take that with them and discuss among their little friends comparing their parents sayings. This drives children to “stick up” for their parents’ view if it doesn’t exactly match with another child’s parents’ opinion.

School being an influence should be self explanatory. Students are exposed to political facts learned through their history course. Children are exposed indirectly to how politics work through little things such as class elections and voting.  The education system encourage students to look more into how the government works thus having them create their own views.

Peer groups tends to affect teenagers and young adults political views the same way peers influence your choices (life style wise).  In psychology you learned that people are generally biased. Which causes us to group each other with people who are a like. You don’t have to like all the exact same things but you have to have a large amount of common grounds. Due to this we are more likely to be friends with those who may share the same political view. Though our friends may not always have the same view as us, they help us see the points of the side they take, which may change how we view the side we tend to represent.

As for the media, mass media is also self explanatory. The media can be anything from newspapers and magazines to the radio, internet and television. The media provides news and analysis that help form public opinion. Though media has the tendency to be biased, things such as the internet can be used find insight such as another person’s opinion.  For more informational facts, all-news outlets have websites where you can read articles on said topics you want to know more about.

Now if these sources do influence one’s political view is another story. I feel they do based on what I have observed from others. My good friend and I were having conversation about political views. She said that her father is a Republican and that her grandfather and great grandfather is too. Because of that, she ended up being a republican as well. She said she was exposed to the Republican view points and actually does agree with what they believe in. I, on the other hand, had not been exposed to politics as much in my childhood. My parents don’t really talk about politics and don’t vote so I didn’t know much about politics until a certain age when they taught it to us in school. I ended up being more of a centrist and not having a house that I side with. I am an independent due to the lack of influence. I believe that under certain circumstances, you could be influenced into your political opinion.