How free are we?

Whilst I tend to think of myself an an individual and the choices that I make, I make on my own accord, this may not necessarily be the case (Furze et al., 2015. p. 6). Society may be unknowingly playing a part in my decision-making and therefore prohibiting freedom from being obtained by anyone.
In my life, major decisions have been made, for example the choice to continue my schooling at university. The reason that this aspect of my life has been chosen is that I feel as though it makes sense. I felt that I was making my own decision by choosing to go to university. However, looking at the idea of society and the choices we make based on societies values, I believe I made a welcome choice.
At the time I thought that the decision I made was just mine. However, delving further into this concept of real freedom, I now know that my then decision was not made with freedom intact. I realise that there were different social structures that were at work during the making of that decision. These structures being microstructures and macrostructures
(Furze et al., 2015. p. 7). The microstructures refer to my family, friends and my work associations, and the macrostructures refer to the “social relations that lie outside and above your circle of intimates and acquaintances” (Furze et al., 2015. p. 7).
The above social structures were processed consciously. I had no idea that I was going through one at a time ticking off whether each group would approve my choice of university and what they would say to another choice. Being tied to these groups in these ways prevented me from ever being completely free. Freedom is defined by the
Cambridge University Online Dictionary (2016) as being “the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited”. Freedom is not