Charley Cooley Theory

In “Impression Management in a Networked Setting”, the reading focuses on how people and mainly adolescents project a type of fade on social media sites. The author states how many young people today are sad, but when on Facebook only take happy looking selfies and hide their true feelings, so they can get more likes from friends. And even how your social media profile page can make a good, or bad impression for a future employer; forcing teens to be more warry about what pictures, videos and reshares that are on their profile page. In the book, it goes into the scenario that teenagers

Hilary Stout’s a writer of The New York Times is expressing her opinions on how social media affects teenagers by not getting experience and develop empathy for others, understand different emotions, and recognizing others facial expressions and body language in her article “Antisocial Networking?”. In my opinion Stout's argument is wrong because teens today have more experiences on social media because it is an easy and powerful way to connect with people.

“Social media is something that we could realistically attack because we are a part of it and we notice that. We notice it in the schools. We notice it in our classes. We notice that people, instead of interacting with one another, as soon as you walk into the classroom, you sit down and don’t even say ‘Hi’ to each other sometimes,” said Chacko, “We wanted to find out why that was, and we wanted to find out if we could find a way to bring that social interaction back.”

The first idea of sociology is that of norms and deviance themselves. A norm is a guide that is unspoken in society, and the act of deviance is the breaking of a norm. Norms can differ person-to-person, though there are cultural norms that are unspoken within a whole culture. This led me to the topic of gender roles in our society, and it led me to the conclusion that it is uncommon that a person will regularly compliment someone, much that someone of the opposite sex. Doing this experiment made me uncomfortable, and that to me to George Herbert Mead’s idea of self, and how our personalities are based on self- awareness, and self-image. I was then exposed to Cooley’s “looking-glass self”, and the idea that we see ourselves based on how other people see us. This assignment helped me connect the ideas of sociology with real-life

Teens look to peers’ social media feeds as an outlet to perceive their faults and differences, further convincing themselves to strive to be “one of the crowd.” If a teen suspects they will be become a social pariah if they don’t agree with their peers, they feel pressurized to conform. In addition, many teens find themselves aspiring to become as perfect as social media ‘influencers’ who often plan each post to target a specific demographic or social group. As a result, teens desperately chase after an unattainable goal—perfection. As an article in The Atlantic observes, “[...] social media exacerbate[s] the age-old teen concern about being left out.” Teens are constantly concerned about being shunned and social media just highlights this concern. In consequence, social media has not only become an avenue for isolation, but an ideal of the

According to a recent study by the United Nations, 23% of social media users ignore how others view them. Can you believe that a quarter of the people around the globe ignore others’ perspectives of them? This is absurd! The way others see us is a necessity in the world we live in. Especially with the problems we face in modern-day society, we need to address how other people view us. Others' perceptions of us ensue positive results because they motivate us, increase our self-confidence, and create lifelong relationships.

People are social beings. From the moment we are born, we are raised to socialize with an incredible amount of people. These people influence our day-to-day lives just as much as we affect the lives of others. Social psychology searches to understand these interactions. What complicates these interactions is that they do not even need to be real, as long as they are perceived interactions. The idea is that people are a combination of their own personality plus the people they interact with on a regular basis.

Labelling theory has also been used to apply the interactionist theory to society; the theory, like Mead, emphasises the importance of symbols and situations in which they are used. The main interactionist concepts are the definition of the situation – if we believe in something then it could affect the way in which we behave. The looking glass –self – this was created by Cooley who argues that we see ourselves in a way in which we think others see us. These concepts have been useful in explaining why people act in certain ways in certain situations; therefore, the labelling theory is effective in the study of society.

Symbolic interactionism is associated with two main theorists, one of these is George Mead and another is Charles Cooley (1864 – 1929). Cooley is known for the ‘looking glass self’ concept where people define themselves and others by the way that other people judge through real and imagined views. Whilst George Mead was a philosopher he is regarded as a sociologist since he influenced many of the best sociologists. He was very keen to ensure that theories would be used to solve real-life problems. Mead used the term social behaviourism to contrast his approach from more orthodox sociology.

It wasn't until after my second child was born, when it came to my attention, I didn't actually know my “real self.” This came as a bit of a surprise, as it often does to most. Uncovering layers of the psyche, is not exactly pleasant, but the freedom that comes with it, is undeniably worth the effort. Charles Horton Cooley's theory, the looking-glass self, “could be summed up as, we see ourselves as others see us.” (Farley, Flota, 2012, p. 67). In other words, be believe the stories we make up in our heads, rewrite the script based on our perceived interpretation, and adopt the story as truth. As an agent of socialization, this theory lead to a deeper inquiry of not only my own authenticity, but what is potentially being projected (consciously or unconsciously) onto my children and students. Closer examination of the social institutions and the roles parents and teachers play if regards to Cooley's theory, is explored below.

Robin Henig and Maria Konnikova separately researched and wrote about the “millennial generation” and how different aspects are playing into the decline of maturation from adolescence into adulthood. Society around us changes every day which means the things you have to go through are different versus what other generations had to overcome. The world needs to take into account all of the ongoing norms that keep altering in generations today. Consequently, the technological world’s easy access to social media is what really needs to be focused on. Although social networking allows for great connections and even potentially expands your friend group, it is only causing a decline in social interaction around the world and in my opinion leading us as humans to more judgement, ridicule, and bullying. Moreover these acts of bullying are affecting Gen Y's adult years more than people are realizing, as it potentially results in psychological problems, wrong decisions, and even alters social interactions with others.

Humans are born with the ability to develop a self, but this self must be socially constructed through social interaction. Socialization, which initiates at birth, prolongs throughout the life course; at each stage the person must regulate to a new set of social expectations and it also controls how we express our emotions and what emotions we feel. Charles H. Cooley, George H. Mead, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud and Lawrence Kohlberg provided insights into the social development of human beings. In my opinion, I believe the trio of presented the most useful insights into the development of the self with his Charles H. Cooley, George H. Mead, and Jean Piaget definitions and explanations of socialization and self. This essay will incorporate the comparison of insights in socialization of all five (5) theorists and focus exclusively at most useful insights.

This perspective proposes that a person's view was based on how language, meaning and symbols are interpreted and understood by individuals in certain ways (Giddens, 2001). "People see themselves through the eyes of others" (Cook & Douglas, 1998). It follows that social role behaviour in social positions is a response to others' expectations. Herbert Mead (1934), a contributor to symbolic interaction theory, considered the person of the self as an "I" and a "me." It is also considered that "individuals give meaning to the world by defining and interpreting it in certain ways" (Herbert Mead, 1934). Cooley (1902), another contributor to symbolic interaction theory, developed his "looking glass self" through the observation that individuals react in response to other's expectations. Social workers try to apply this concept to service users by helping them to understand the behaviour

A proper human society forms when different selves come together and interact and the prominent concept of self in sociology derives from the idea of George Mead.He believed that the self consists two aspects: ‘I ’ and the ‘Me’ (Scott. et al.2015), while the former is the subject which ‘emphasise the immediate spontaneous and impulsive aspect of conduct’(Hewitt.,2007, p72), the latter ‘labels the object phase of the process, in which people respond to themselves as objects in their situation '(Hewitt.,2007, p72). In other words, people act towards the situation they are involved, they take others attitude into consideration and tailor their behaviour to a desirable status. Therefore, the way the others think has a great influence on ones’

The child who is born, grow successively through the stages of childhood, and adolescence to reach adulthood and continues his path until his last breath. Throughout this process, the individual lives with people who in one way or another influence him. He operates in a variety of environments where his personality can impact positively or negatively and be impacted. At each stage of his life, he experimented different types of socialization that make forge his own personality. This is what Charles Cooley made clear through this passage: « A self is an essential part of how society makes us human. He said that our sense of self develops from interaction with others».