Knowledge as a social construct
Knowledge as a social construct
We begin life learning from and communicating with family. In school we associate with new people and learn new things. By the time we're in high school we've usually collected a set of peers or perhaps several sets of peers. As adults we associate with fellow employees and learn to communicate with them. With each group of associates we share slightly different ideas and use slightly different language.

Social groups influence our breadth of our knowledge. If these groups are intellectually diverse we're likely to become more intellectually diverse. Broadening one's social relationships is a good way to stretch one's intellect.

In addtion to social relationships, reading and media influence our breadth of knowledge. These interact with social relationships and either broaden or narrow our perspectives.