We live in a society and society is defined
as a web of social relationships. Social
awareness refers to the maintenance of these relationships effectively. It is a philosophy of live and let live. We need to respect the thoughts, feelings,
and perceptions of others so that we can sustain these relationships.
Rights and Duties
As
citizens of this country, we have our rights and duties. We need to learn them thoroughly so that we
do not come in the way of others’ rights and at the same time ensure that we
are allowed by others to do our duty.
Interference or non-adherence causes friction in the environment and
thereby our existence gets threatened regularly.
Some
people tend to only adhere to rights without bothering about their duties. We
can fight for our rights only when we have done our duties.
Rules and Regulations
Why
are rules necessary? With rules and
regulations, everyone is aware of what to do and what not to do. Without rules, there will be chaos. Following the rules is not a question of right
but a duty towards our citizenship.
We
are born into this world asocial.
However, once birth takes place, we become members of our society. Each society has its norms and taboos or dos
and don’ts. Learning these takes a long
time but following them becomes a necessary condition for our co-existence. It
is not enough if we are legally right. We have to be morally right, too.
Social Relationships
Once
we are born, we are a son or daughter to our parents, brother or sister to our
elderly siblings, nephew or niece to our uncles and aunts, and so on. The number of relationships that can exist is
infinite. As we grow older, we start
making friends and once we join school we have classmates, schoolmates,
etc. There are playmates around our
house and there are peers at every level of our development. The older we are the greater are the number
of relationships.
Our
membership to different groups, institutions, and associations keeps
increasing, too. For instance, the
moment we are born, we become a member of our family. Because our family members are part of a
community, we also become a member of that community. In addition, as all of us are part of
society, even we are also a member of society.
Gradually, we keep adding our membership to the school, peer group,
cultural group, etc. How well we
interact with these groups determines our social awareness.
Social Skills
To sustain these relationships, we need to develop several social skills. How do we talk to another person, how do we treat the other person, how do we respond to social situations, how do we play our role in society, how do we resolve conflict, how do we regulate our behavior – all these are part of our social skills. Learning these skills is a perennial process but the objective is to develop social maturity so that our social awareness helps us in dealing with the environment around us effectively.
Thus,
our social awareness is centered around how well we understand and follow the
rules and regulations. In addition, we have to be conscious of our rights and
duties as citizens of a country. We have to develop and continue social
relationships and to do this we should cultivate social skills.
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