social environment

American  

noun

Sociology.

1. the environment developed by humans as contrasted with the natural environment; society as a whole, especially in its relation to the individual.

---

Usage

What is a social environment? A person’s social environment is their society and all surroundings influenced in some way by humans. It includes all relationships, institutions, culture, and physical structures. The natural environment is the natural world around us: the ground, the trees, the air. The social environment is, collectively, all of the things that humans have overlaid on top of our world: our personal and societal relationships, our institutions, our cultures, and our physical surroundings—all of the aspects and products of human activity and interaction. Sociologists, health researchers, and others study how the social environment shapes who we are and how we live, especially how individuals are affected by such factors.

Example Sentences

NemoClaw helps OpenClaw agents run safely in an enterprise context using a contained virtual environment, making them “enterprise ready.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

Ultimately, the company’s Horizon Worlds virtual environment was underbaked, while VR headsets and hand controllers remain too cumbersome for everyday use.

From Barron's • Dec. 4, 2025

Pires and colleagues used two-photon microscopy to monitor flies' neurons while the insects walked on an air-levitated ball in a virtual environment.

From Science Daily • Feb. 8, 2024

They fixed the rats atop the treadmill, preventing the animals from freely moving about the virtual environment by running.

From Scientific American • Nov. 2, 2023

In 2021, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to build a "metaverse" - an online world where people can play games, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.

From BBC • Jun. 26, 2023