My Influences

Throughout my life I have had several influences that have molded me in to the person I am today. Whether it was a positive influence or not, these agents of socialization have effected every aspect of my life. However, I believe my family, the military, and the media have had the largest impact in shaping my emotions and character. In this paper I will analyze my influences and how they are connected to several socialization concepts.
I was born in Portland, Oregon on July 20, 1992 and shortly after moved to Milwaukie, Oregon where I was raised. According to Charles Cooley’s theory on social organization, my primary group mainly consists of my Mom, Dad, brother and sister. Growing up I had the typical role of the youngest child. I was the

Basic training was designed to be stressful, chaotic and life changing and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Although most of us had the same general values and beliefs, such as, respect your elders and treat people how you would like to be treated, there was so many different cultures forced together that life during that time was always uncomfortable. At the high school I attended approximately 75-80 percent of the students were Caucasian with a small amount of Latinos and African-Americans. In my basic training class there was approximately 150 people and I was one of the 20 or so white males there. I never considered myself racist, but I was unsure of how to act in a public setting. in fear of saying something that could be considered offensive or rude. For the first time in my life I was considered in the minority. Groups were forming quickly and primarily formed around age, skin color and the regions people were from. Luckily the Army does a great job of emphasizing on the resocialization process. At the beginning of the training I was a white boy from Oregon who bunked with a black man from the Bronx. At the end we were American soldiers with new social norms, such as saying, “Hoah” or “Roger” to questions or walking in step with each other without noticing in a casual setting. Although the resocialization process was difficult and at times uncomfortable, I was now socialized to the military