Studying human behavior is crucial to understanding who we, humans, are. It creates understanding as to what we do and why we do it. To do so, one must first break social sciences into three parts: mass media, social institutions, and cultural diffusion.

Mass media is defined as any news or entertainment source that is open to the masses. This includes magazines, the Internet, and newspapers, amongst others. Publishers and authors of mass media tend to weave bias into their articles, even entertainment. The writer may state that a cause is good or bad, or express positive or negative feelings toward a celebrity, as is the case in gossip-related media. This conglomeration of bias, facts, and opinions influences us greatly. Based on a piece by a certain author, one might be persuaded to think differently than what they are used to. This can, obviously, be good or bad.

Social institutions are simply norms or systems humans have created to appease certain aspects of life. Education, religion, and government are a few examples. They are, for the most part, interconnected in some way. Say the government makes a decision that will shut down schools for a week. This directly impacts the education system, causing aggravation from teachers and loss of learning from students. Some people may, in turn, bring religion into the mix, stating that it is all a twist of fate, and will soon be resolved. Then, families will get involved, and so on. They’re much more intricate than you may think.

Cultural diffusion is the spread of ideas or culture throughout a given area. Influential behaviors stem from this. If a small group of like-minded settlers decide to hunker down in an unfamiliar area populated by a race of different religion, they will inadvertently change the very structure of the natives’ lives. The settlers may try to convert the natives (think Christopher Columbus) or kill them off because they’re not of the same beliefs (also Columbus, partially).

Social change, whether brought on by media or otherwise, is shaping cultures around the world daily. New technologies or beliefs are brought to the foreground, and those that preach them are spreading them around. Human sciences is nothing but a very tight, sometimes confusing and even controversial web we weave around ourselves.