The network of friends and acquaintances we have is a clear proof of our being a social entity. As we grow old, our life extends farther and farther that we cannot avoid but relate and interact with more and more people. From our associations to our own families, we begin to gain friends and interact with our neighbors. By the age of six or seven, our lives span wider by being friends not only with other kids in the community, but also with our schoolmates and classmates in pre-school or day care. We also begin to interact with people way older than us. Our pre-school teachers and our friends' parents are the most immediate adults we interact with. Come elementary and high school, the expansion of our network becomes even faster and bigger. We become a member of a club or a team at school, we play for community sports, we get involved in so many activities wherein we interact with many other people. We really can't deny the fact that we are always a part of a group -- that we are social beings.



Our being social entities goes farther than the concept we have about it. As members of a society, our identities and personalities are largely shaped by different social factors. As we age and become more involved in social interactions, socialization process sets in our systems. Socialization includes assumption of roles, observation and adherence to rules and regulations, adoption and practice of others' values and beliefs, and many others. As we grow older and expand our lives wider, the process of socialization intensifies as well. It is through the process of socialization that we acquire a large part of our values system, world views, and ideologies.

Understanding the entirety of human social interaction is a very important matter. Movements, conflicts, and other undertakings happening among small and large groups of people largely define and influence politics, economics, and education of countries and nations. This world-wide recognition led to the institutionalization of the study of social interactions as an academic discipline. The discipline is formally called Sociology. Although its emergence as a formal academic discipline began only in the early years of the 19th century, the curiosity to understand the nature and relationships of social groups had already began in ancient Greece. Auguste Comte was the first man to use the term sociology in his attempt to unify disciplines concerning mankind. Today, sociology is one of the most interesting field in the realm of social sciences. More and more universities and colleges all over the world are offering bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in sociology. Also, several books, publications, and studies have emerged since the inception of Sociology as a formal academic discipline. As a result, there are now a lot of promising individuals who are believed to put the discipline in a higher level.

In response to the growing interest of many people to take a course or obtain a full degree on sociology, various institutions have made their Sociology courses available online. Through online education, a student from the region of Asia can now obtain a sociology degree from a European or American university. In Indiana University, for instance, the Online and Distance Education Program (www.iu.edu/~iuonline/index.html) gives students the opportunity to enroll on individual subjects that when already taken altogether can be credited as a bachelor's degree. As a college course online, the student who obtains the degree will have the same bachelor's title as with those who went to regular schooling.

Internet, specifically online education, in itself is a clear proof of the inevitability to connect and relate to other people. The technology of the internet is an evidence of how human social activities are becoming more complex each day. Good thing that the discipline of sociology is around to help us comprehend our social dynamics.