The synchronized keyword is about different threads reading and writing to the same variables, objects and resources.
synchronized methods enable a simple strategy for preventing thread interference and memory consistency errors: if an object is visible to more than one thread, all reads or writes to that object's variables are done through synchronized methods.
In a very, very small nutshell: When you have two threads that are reading and writing to the same 'resource', say a variable named foo, you need to ensure that these threads access the variable in an atomic way. Without the synchronized keyword, your thread 1 may not see the change thread 2 made to foo, or worse, it may only be half changed. This would not be what you logically expect.