Peer Group

As a child grows older, the family becomes some­what less important in his or her social develop­ment. Instead, peer groups increasingly assume the role of George Herbert Mead's significant others. Within the peer group, young people as­sociate with others who are approximately their own age and who often enjoy a similar social sta­tus. For example, in her study of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls, sociologist Donna Eder (1985) observed that, at any time, most girls inter­act primarily with members of a single peer group. While each group's composition may change over the three-year period, it is generally a select few peers who are important to girls during this developmental period.

Peer groups, such as friendship cliques, youth gangs, and special-interest clubs, frequently assist adolescents in gaining some degree of independence from parents and other authority Figures. If all of one's friends have successfully battled for the right to stay out until midnight on a Saturday night, it may seem essential to fight for the same privilege. Peer groups also provide for anticipatory sociali­zation into new roles that the young person will later assume.

Teenagers imitate their friends in part because the peer group maintains a meaningful system of rewards and punishments. The group may en­courage a young person to follow pursuits that society considers admirable, as in a school club engaged in volunteer work in hospitals and nurs­ing homes. On the other hand, the group may encourage someone to violate the culture's norms and values by driving recklessly, shoplifting, en­gaging in acts of vandalism, and the like.

Peer groups serve a valuable function by assist­ing the transition to adult responsibilities. At home, parents tend to dominate; at school, the teenager must contend with teachers and admin­istrators. But, within the peer group, each mem­ber can assert himself or herself in a way that may not be possible elsewhere. Nevertheless, almost all adolescents in our culture remain economi­cally dependent on their parents, and most are emotionally dependent as well.

Mass Media

In the last 75 years, such technological innova­tions as radio, motion pictures, and television have become important agents of socialization. Television, in particular, is a critical force in the socialization of American children. Many parents allow the television set to become a child's favorite playmate; consequently, children in our society typically watch over three hours of television per day. Remarkably, between the ages of 6 and 18, the average young person spends more time watching the "tube" (15,000 to 16,000 hours) than working in school (13,000 hours). Apart from sleeping, watching television is the most time-consuming activity of young Americans.

In contrast to other agents of socialization dis­cussed earlier—such as family members, peers, and schools—television has certain distinctive characteristics. It permits imitation and role play­ing but does not encourage more complex forms of learning. Watching television is, above all, a passive experience; one sits back and waits to be entertained. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1970), among others, has expressed concern about the "insidious influence" of television in encouraging children to forsake human interaction for passive viewing.

Critics of television are further alarmed by the programming that children view as they sit for hours in front of a television set. It is generally agreed that children (as well as adults) are ex­posed to a great deal of violence on television. On Saturday morning cartoon programs, there is a violent act presented every two minutes. By the time of high school graduation, a young person has witnessed some 18,000 fictional murders on television. Can watching so much violence have a numbing effect on one's sensibilities and moral values? Experiments document that children do tend to become more aggressive and hyperactive after viewing a violent sequence on television. Unfortunately, such studies measure only brief exposure; there are no conclusive data on the impact of television violence after weeks, months, and literally years of viewing.

Even critics of the medium generally concede that television is not always a negative socializing influence. Creative programming such as Sesame Street can assist children in developing basic skills essential for schooling. In addition, television programs and even commercials expose young people to lifestyles and cultures of which they are unaware. This entails not only American children in general learning about life in "faraway lands," but also inner-city children learning about the lives of farm children and vice versa.

Clearly, television is a powerful agent of sociali­zation in the United States. Parents may need to monitor this aspect of a child's environment just as carefully as they evaluate teachers, playmates, and baby-sitters (Huesmann and Malamuth, 1986; Meyrowitz, 1985).