Society And Individualism: The Power Of Symbol And Language

Society and Individualism Name Institution Society and Individualism I chose the power of symbol and language as a concept from Peter Callero’s book in chapter 2. Symbols are powerful elements that define our social world. According to Callero (2013), “a symbol is a sign that has been intentionally created and has meaning that is shared by a community of symbol users” (41). Symbols are powerful in the sense that they allow human beings to process and remember certain information, and also to understand the meaning of things around us. When Callero says that symbols are intentionally created, it makes sense because different groups of people have come up with different symbols that ease communication between them. However, the same symbol might have different meanings when used by different groups of people. The use of symbols is still important today as certain symbols are used to simplify information. For example, teachers are known to use symbols in classroom to enhance their students’ understanding of concepts and to expand their memory. Communication plays a fundamental role in society and the use of words is the most common way of communicating. According to Callero (2013), words are symbols that ...