Reference no: EM132311044

1. What toys did you have as a child that you think of as agents of socialization?

This question brings too many good memories, so many that I wish I could go back in time. I grew up by the beach, among my favorite games was to play banker, barbies, hide and seek, and ride my bike with my friends. As kids you are less to judge, you don't really care the way someone looks, what they do for living, where they live or if they are not the same race, all you care is to have fun and make more friends so your group of friends gets bigger because that would mean more fun.

2. How did you use toys to understand relationships, or prepare for new ones?

When we played banker, we would use fake money and sell or buy things that we labeled. We learned the value of money and had an idea of what we could buy with it, we practice division, multiplication, subtraction and addition while playing. "Social environment, then, is a crucial part of an individual's socialization" (Kendall, 2016, P. 69). Playing hide and seek, or riding bikes, helped us be competitive, also taught us how to be considered with those friends that were scare of going too fast, were just learning how to ride their bikes, or weren't fast runners. These different experiences helped me to become more aware of my own and my friends feelings, helped us understand that not everyone has the same personality, and that the beauty of it was that even we disagreed sometimes, it didn't last long before we were playing again.

3. What specific theoretical perspectives on socialization from this week's reading (symbolic interactionist, functionalist and/or conflict theoretical perspectives) best help you understand your childhood toys as agents of socialization and why?

I think symbolic interactionist perspective helps me understand my childhood games the most, because as little kids we were, we adjusted like we were a small community and change rules of the games multiple times so others can play, and everyone can win. Overall, I feel that this type of socialization was a very important part of my childhood, not only I made some long-time friends, but also our parents became friends, and some even helped each other out when needed. Something interesting about this is that when you get to know your parents' friends, you understand why your friends are the way they are, or why they behave like they do. (Journal of Marketing Thought, 2019)

References:

Kendall, D. E. (2018). Sociology in our times: The Essentials. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Shin, J. H., & Chi, Y. C. (2019). Journal of Marketing Thought. 9-14. Retrieved February, 2019.