Socialization - Other Uses

Other Uses

To "socialize" may also mean simply to associate or mingle with people socially. In American English, "socialized" has come to refer, usually in a pejorative sense, to the ownership structure of socialism or to the expansion of the welfare state. Traditionally, socialists and Marxists both used the term "socialization of industry" to refer to the reorganization of institutions so that the workers are all owners (cooperatives) and to refer to the implementation of workplace democracy. Some authors suggest that social interaction helps to exercise people's minds. People reap cognitive benefits from socializing," They speculate that social interaction "exercises" cognitive processes that are measured on intellectual tasks. "It is possible," the authors conclude, "that as people engage socially and mentally with others, they receive relatively immediate cognitive boosts."