No one is self-made. I am a son, a classmate, and a member of a congregation, shaped by the circles I belong to. Sociology calls them groups and organizations, and this discussion showed me they are not merely where we spend our time but how we become who we are.
When people go together
Before a society has institutions, it has groups, the people we identify with and act alongside. They are split into two: primary groups (small, personal, and lasting, including my family, close friends, and fellow choir members) and secondary groups (larger and gathered around a particular goal, like coworkers).
This discussion made me realize that we should watch how these groups shape the way we think. We should be careful not to give in to the standards of a crowd if they are no longer aligned with our values. For example, groups can fall into groupthink, where reasonable solutions are set aside for conformity. We should also be mindful of sorting the world between an in-group and an out-group. This “us-versus-them” group dynamic often leads to radicalization, bullying, and divisions that pervade society today.
Groups harden into formal organizations. Sociology gives them categories based on why people join. According to Amitai Etzioni, utilitarian organizations provide income, such as companies and workplaces. We join normative organizations for a moral cause, like serving in the Church. There are also coercive organizations, such as the prison system.
The “rationalization of society” and bureaucracy
As someone who loves studying the history of tech companies, civilizations, and religious movements, I was struck by Max Weber’s concept of “rationalization of society.” He decried the condition of “modern life” at the turn of the 20th century. Weber saw traditional and spiritual principles being replaced by rigid, calculated efficiency and scientific reasoning. This is the drift towards specialization, hierarchies, measured competence, impersonal treatment, and everything in writing. As a software engineer who worked in global corporations, I know that this is ideal for managers and executives. However, for the rest of us, this spells trouble.
Even back in his time, Weber taught that this dehumanizes people. Bureaucratic alienation stops an organization from serving people; instead, people start serving the organization. Officials ritualize and cling so blindly to the rules that they forget their essence and original goals. So much has happened in the century after Weber’s death that reflects the “rationalization of society” back then: the ruthless, “scientific” social engineering of the Soviet Union, the industrial murders during the Holocaust, and the mega-corporations that, if left unchecked, would have treated workers like pawns and tools to please stakeholders and management. That went too dark too quickly, yet it shows the sinister power of groupthink and the delusions that “pure rationality” can breed.
McDonaldization: I’m not lovin’ it
Efficiency, predictability, uniformity, and control. As a data scientist and software engineer, these core dimensions usually serve as system goals and professional standards. However, they can take a sinister turn in education and society.
If people and the environment are compromised in the name of fast-food-level principles (hence the name McDonaldization), it can lead to the “irrationality of rationality.” I saw this happen in schools. Teachers follow standardized procedures and learning plans instead of innovating toward unique classroom experiences. Students and educators have no freedom, and the failures of the Philippine education system worsen this. The result: jaded teachers who raised students who study to pass tests without the innate curiosity and drive to learn.
As an Educational Technology major, I will always keep McDonaldization at the back of my mind as a horror scenario. Whether I am developing educational software or adopting it in the classroom, I will prioritize the students over the technology.
Deviance and self-fulfilling prophecies
“Situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences.” While we discussed how people are treated the way they were labeled, I could not help but think: how many young people have been sabotaged because grown-ups mischaracterized them? How many students were called “slow,” treated that way, and ended up believing themselves to be dull, just because the system could not accommodate their learning style?
And then there are deviants, people who violate cultural norms. From children throwing tantrums to seasoned criminals, the duality of conformity and deviance is one of the controversial aspects of social order. The sociological frameworks we discussed are relevant in understanding it. Structural-functional theory says that by defining and punishing deviance, society sets its moral boundaries. Symbolic-interaction theory states that norms are a socially constructed reality, so deviance is not inherent but conferred; it exists once people label something deviant. We also explored theories that emphasize social power and inequality, such as Social-Conflict, Race-Conflict, and Feminist theories.
Learning sociology is a gift and a responsibility
Cliché but true: “No man is an island.” My learning experience so far in Educational Sociology deepens that. I did not build my identity myself. Even before a child gets a say in his future, the groups and organizations have already said it for him long before he realizes it. I might have chosen which parts to accept or reject, but the choices laid before me were placed by my family, society, the Church, and the organizations I have joined and left.
Groups can serve and lift people up, or they can grind them down. Organizations can dehumanize, but they too can protect, elevate, and bring happiness to their members. But long before there was even civilization, our ancestors huddled in tribes to survive the harsh and bitter realities of the prehistoric world. When their groups provided them security, we can imagine them having the chance to look beyond the predations of day-to-day life and imagine what lies beyond the stars. Millennia later, many governments, religions, and corporations, for better or for worse, have brought us to where we are.
That is the burden and the gift of understanding this. I can no longer pretend I did not notice. As an aspiring builder of educational technology, I will hold levers that decide whether a system serves people or the other way around. I want to keep the human being at the center, even when efficiency begs otherwise. If society is something we are all answerable for, then this is my answer: to use whatever authority I am given not to process people, but to help them become who they were meant to be.