Whether or not someone believes society pulls their strings and severely impacts how they live it's happening. We don't have to believe in this for it to be true. So many of the roles we play and decisions we make are thrust upon us by societal norms. We are completely unaware of how insidiously these messages are sent to us. The idea of the nuclear family is not humans natural state at all. People didn't live in single family homes with their spouse and kids until the idea was sold to us because it had economic advantage. We all like to believe we are free and make all our own choices but reality is much different than our perceptions allow us to see.