Youth and society.
youth as a group of social companies. The problem of youth self-identification
Each new generation, entering into public life, inherits the already achieved level of development of society and developed a certain way of life. But it can not automatically be included in the life processes of society without their prior development. Therefore, knowledge, abilities, desire to live and act "as it should" in this community are a necessary prerequisite for the entry of young people into society.
Society, taking care of self-preservation and striving to ensure conflict-free life, is trying to give a new generation of group survival skills developed in this community. That is, to form a mechanism of social adaptation of young people, which would turn the new generation into an organic part and likeness of the existing society. Or, in other words, the aim and purpose of socialization is the formation of an individual like himself, living and acting as an element of this community, bearing his signs and having his experience. Responsible and ensuring the preservation and survival of myself as a member of this society and this society as its second, collective, I am in a relationship with other groups.
In addition, as noted by E. Fromm, E. Durkheim and others, if it is possible to adapt the individual to specific social conditions and to form an individual character in accordance with the main features of the dominant social character here, then the person will act with the greatest productivity necessary and useful for society, ie. On the other hand, the transfer in the process of socialization of the experience and knowledge accumulated and retained by a social group over the centuries not only likens the individual to a group of interest, but also allows him to use this capital in his own interests. Therefore, in a pragmatic framework, socialization is also good for the individual, because, mastering the collective experience of survival and effective activity, the individual becomes able to solve a number of problems and can achieve their goals, including their own. For the full personal development of the individual, he needs an organized social space. It is formed and provided by the group or community in which it is inscribed as its element. The personal formation of the individual and his successful integration into society is accompanied by the process of his self-identification, the formation of his social identity. These are subjective feelings and objectively observed quality of personal identity, feeling of unity and continuity with the social environment. Identifying with another person, group, model, realizing himself as part of a community of people, a person shares their values, their ideas about the world and the place of man in it. This helps him to master different activities, to master social roles, to adopt and transform social norms and values. Therefore, the first main problem of youth and socialization, K. Manheim said, is the discovery of one's own "I". This is happening somewhere in 14-16 years. Then begins the self-identification of a young person with an increasing number of social groups by age, occupation, interests, national and ethnic origin, citizenship, class and so on. Man, having organized his activities in social space and time, has historically developed with this society.
In ancient society, not yet grown to the value of individuality, the subject of activity was the genus. The individual did not perceive himself separately from his kind, but opposed one species to another. At the same time, the identity of the members of one group as opposed to the members of another group is important. Without such identification, it is impossible to formalize the relevant relationships between groups.
At first, the specificity of man was separated and opposed to animals and gods. It was operationalized in the historically established norms of subject-practical activity and collective life, customs, traditions, value systems, rituals, techniques, sacred meanings, expressing and formalizing relations with the saving and patronizing forces. These rituals and ceremonies, filled with meaning, elevating man over the usefulness and ordinariness of biological existence, were a means of self-identification. They gave a person a sense of belonging and an experience of unity with the life of their community, self-awareness of themselves unlike others. Later, the specific features and actions in which man conceptualized himself as a special kind of being were supplemented by sociocultural characteristics that distinguished one human society from another.