Culture studies frequently applies the idea of dialectic process to the relationship between individual and society. People often talk about society or culture as if they were independent entities that somehow exist outside of individual human influence. They cannot. Social structures cannot exist without people creating them and supporting them and following them, so we can that society depends on individual human behaviors and actions to make them happen. At the same time, however, it is difficult to deny that every individual human being is strongly influenced and shaped by their society and culture. The society and culture we are born in determine the language we speak, the food we eat and how we form relationships with others. It could seem problematic, then, as to who shapes whom. Do individuals build society or does society create individuals? Dialectical thinking shows us that both are true: society does build individuals while at the same time individuals create social structure. This influence is constantly changing and moving back and forth in both directions-typical of a process.