Friday September 21st 2018

In class today we watched a video about different cultures and we did an in class quiz. In the first video we watched was about the Australian Aboriginals. The Aboriginal people believe that the earth and everything in it was made by their ancestral spirits. They called this Dreamtime. It was a time when the rivers, mountains, rocks, deserts and plants were made. The Dreamtime stories are an important part of the Aboriginal culture. One thing I found particularly interesting was the food. The grub is the most important insect food of the desert and has historically been a staple in the diets of Aboriginal Australians. The different larvae are said to taste to taste similar they are edible either raw or lightly cooked in hot ashes. They are sought out as a high-protein food by the indigenous Australians. The Witchetty grub tastes similar to almonds, and when cooked, the skin becomes crisp like roast chicken, while the inside becomes light yellow, like a fried egg.

Part of our homework is to read chapter 5-socialization. Within the first part of the chapter they discussed childhood isolation. It was heartbreaking! The studies of childhood isolation teaches us that it is absolutely critical that a child socialized in order to grow and develop. Three terms that caught my attention are:

Self: a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self-awareness and self-image.

Looking-glass self: the idea that self-image is based on how others respond to us.

Total institutions: settings in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff.

https://youtu.be/WbBm_YLwowc

 This video is about what makes you… you? How did you get to be that way? Today we’re talking about social development, starting with the role of nature and nurture in influencing a person’s development. We’ll discuss socialization, the importance of care & human interaction, as well as theories of development from a range of theorists.

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to encourage my children to be more social on a physical note rather than on social media.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to disregard the warnings of social media.

Society could affect me in a positive way if there were more opportunities for a single mom with kids to socialize.

Society could influence me in a negative way if I had to do online schooling.

Tuesday September 18th 2018

In class today we went over chapter 3-culture. We talked about how are culture differs on a large scale and also a small scale. Li-Chin brought up the Amish and a court case regarding fire alarms in the house. My parents live in Augusta and they also own a milk plant in Augusta that only receives milk from Amish patrons. I remember my parents talking about this in detail. Now I understand that the Amish don’t live off of electricity. But fire alarms work on batteries and the Amish use flashlights that also work on batteries…So what’s the big deal? The Amish also will use their neighbors phone but they won’t own their own. Again…what’s the big deal? So to me, none of it makes any logical sense. But they must have some reason that makes sense to them in order to make that decision. These are just a couple of examples of how are culture shapes our thinking.

Three terms that caught my attention in chapter 3-culture are

High Culture: cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite.

Popular Culture: cultural patterns that are widespread among society’s population.

Counterculture: cultural patters that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society.

https://youtu.be/RV50AV7-Iwc

This video shows what is culture? How do we define it and how does it change? We’ll explore different categories of culture, like low culture, high culture, and sub-cultures. We'll also revisit our founding theories to consider both a structural functionalist and a conflict theory perspective on what cultures mean for society.

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be willing to accept different cultures.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way is to be resistant to different cultures.

Society could affect me in a positive way if there were a more diverse population in my area.

Society could influence me in a negative way if racism becomes more prevalent.

Friday September 14th 2018

Today in class we watched a video about sociological investigation.

Li-Chin gave us these examples: In the academic research world, people with integrity want to make a issue or problem more objective. When you do research for example how are college students using social media? You can conduct a literature review, you go to a four year college your professor will tell you to do your literature review! Literature review is a very important step. When you go to find a job you research the company you are applying for what kind of reputation and what types of promotion do they have and what type of culture does the company have?

Three terms
Interpretive Sociology:The study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world.
Critical Sociology:The study of society that focuses on the need for social change.
Experiment:Research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled condition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwhK-iEyXYA
Today we’re talking about how we actually DO sociology. Nicole explains the research method: form a question and a hypothesis, collect data, and analyze that data to contribute to our theories about society.

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be more consciously aware of what I post on Facebook and what effect it may have.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to promote or post things on Facebook that could have a negative on society such as fake news.

Society could affect me in a positive way if the news presented more positive stories.

Society could influence me in a negative way if the new stayed on track with its fear based stories.

Cultural Experience

In 2007 I went to Italy for the entire month of August. At the time I was dating a person that was born  and raised in Sicily. He moved to the united states when he was 19. He had a very heavy accent. There were many cultural differences. I loved it. The society there is very relaxed. They don’t take certain things so seriously such as working 40 hours a week. When I was there you would wake up and eat a small breakfast and you would go about your day until about 1 pm and you would go home and relax, maybe take a nap and then about 4pm you go back and continue your day. Everything is in military time so I got to learn that. The cars and the roads are tiny! Some of their roads look more like sidewalks! The society there is very rich in Catholicism and very family oriented.

Tuesday September 11th 2018

So today in class we talked more about social media. Being as though September is Suicide Awareness month I thought that it would be important to talk about cyber-bullying and how that can drive someone to end their own life. When I was in middle school or high school the internet didn’t exist yet and certainly Facebook was just a figment in someone’s mind. I remember times where I was bullied in school, on the playground or on the bus ride home but when I got home that bullying stopped. I mean yes the torment stuck with me but the person that bullied me was gone at least until the next day when school resumed. Now there is a whole wide world of social media that never stops, never shuts off and is ever relentless.

Here are some facts that I found interesting. 1/3 of young people between the ages of eleven and fifteen have been victims of cyber-bullying. A larger share of girls(41%) that boys (29%) report this experience. 15% of young people report engaging in this behavior.

81% of children under two currently have some kind of digital dossier of footprint, with images of them posted online.

In Canada, 34% of children have a digital footprint before they are born.

Children reach the age of “social media maturity “ at about age 11.

Should we teach our children as though they have two lives, or one?

The complexities of identity pose a serious threat to the well-being of our youth and there is little being done systematically to educate students around these topics.

Three terms
Androcentricity. Androcentricity (literally, “focus on the male”) refers to approaching an issue from a male perspective. 
Overgeneralizing. This problem occurs when researchers use data drawn from people of only one sex to support conclusions about “humanity” or “society.”
Gender blindness. Failing to consider gender at all is known as gender blindness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wFZ5Dbj8DA
How do the groups that you're part of affect you? How do you, in turn, affect those groups? Today we are talking about how people in society come together with a look at social groups. We’ll look at what social groups are, the different kinds of groups that exist, group dynamics, leadership, conformity, networks and mor

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be more consciously aware of what I post on Facebook and what effect it may have.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to promote or post things on Facebook that could have a negative on society such as fake news.

Society could affect me in a positive way if the news presented more positive stories.

Society could influence me in a negative way if the new stayed on track with its fear based stories.

Friday September 7th 2018

Today in class Li-Chin talked more about the three big Sociological Theories Structural-Functional Theory, Social Conflict Theory and Symbolic interaction Theory.

Li-Chin introduced dramaturgical theory to us in class today. Eriving Goffman wrote “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. Goffman states that we have a “Front Stage” and a “Back Stage”. Front Stage is not an improvisation but rather a carefully crafted representation of the self to others-it is a manipulation of the audience by the actor. Back stage is where we go to practice the techniques of impression management; the actor relaxes here and the front is dropped. Goffman said that we are “social con-artist”.

Structural-Functional sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Some individuals that were involved in the development of this approach include Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer. Structural-Function is guided by social structures and each social structure has social functions or consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Robert Merton introduced three concepts related to social function-Manifest functions: the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern. Latent functions: largely unrecognized and unintended consequences. Social dysfunctions: undesirable consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society.

Social conflict sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change. Key individuals within this practice are Karl Marx, Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, and WEB DuBois. An important type of conflict is gender-conflict which is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between males and females. Another type of social-conflict is race-conflict which is a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic groups.

Symbolic-interaction is a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals. Symbolic-interactionism has a micro-level orientation which focuses on patterns of social interaction in specific settings.

https://youtu.be/UUukBV82P9A

This video shows how do sociologists study and understand social interaction? Today we’ll explain the language sociologists use to discuss how we interact with the social world. What are statuses and roles? How are they different? How do you acquire them? We’ll talk about why these things matter by exploring the socially constructed nature of reality. We’ll also discuss the theory of dramaturgical analysis and how we can understand social interaction as in terms of theatrical performance

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be more consciously aware of what I post on Facebook and what effect it may have.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to promote or post things on Facebook that could have a negative on society such as fake news.

Society could affect me in a positive way if the news presented more positive stories.

Society could influence me in a negative way if the new stayed on track with its fear based stories.

Tuesday September 4th 2018

Today in class we watched Jenna’s YouTube video of “Man” and we listened to Gavin’s recap of class last Friday. We also got to spend some time doing our first peer review on our first book entry. Li-Chin expressed the importance that each student needs to come prepared for class and to not develop “excusitis”. I would like to share that technically “excusitis” is not a word. But according to Urban Dictionary the official definition for excusitis is-the tendency/disease/regular behavior of making an excuse for every poor performance. In simpler words, giving excuses for everything and trying to back their faults. I found this to be quite amusing! So…get your shit together people! She also explained the social force that affects people can be as small as not showing up to class and as big as the laws passed by the supreme court. 

We learned that the French social thinker Auguste Comte coined the term sociology in 1838. Comte was interested in how society could be improved, but his main objective was to learn how society actually operates. We also discussed how education can change the world, how society should be more transparent. For example, internet censorship in China is among the highest in the world. What I take away from that is the Chines government doesn’t want any citizen to really understand how they run their government. That way no citizen will show any resistance or disagree with how the Chinese government runs their country. It’s how they control their society. Knowledge is power and the Chinese take away that power by restricting knowledge. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! (in my opinion!)

One of the areas that I am most excited to learn about is the sociological theories. Li-Chin explained that learning these will help your mind-eyes to open.

·         Seeing the general in the particular

·         Seeing the strange in the familiar

·         Seeing society in our everyday lives-seeing personal life choices from the social context

·         Seeing sociologically: Marginality and Crisis

Our reading assignment is Chapter 7 Mass Media and Social Media. It explained how social media has brought change to the workplace, transformed politics, and has given new life and power to social movements.

I would like to talk about my experience with mass media and social media. I was born in the early 80’s, so I grew up without the internet and without cell phones. I didn’t own a cell phone or have a computer in my home until I was 18. I wonder what my high school experience would have been like if social media was around such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. Hmm…

I enjoyed reading about the history of newspapers which were the first medium of mass communication. Newspapers use what is called “sensationalism”, this tactic involves selecting stories and making use of graphic language and images to inflame public interest with the goal of selling more papers. I also like learning that German physicist Heinrich Hertz was the first to transmit sound waves without wires (wireless) and the term “Hertz” is used as a measure of radio; even the speed of today’s computer processors is measured in “Hertz”. How cool is that?!?      

 https://youtu.be/ZIwyNIdgJBE

In this video they go over what puts the “science” in social science? Today we’ll explore positivist sociology and how sociologists use empirical evidence to explore questions about the social world. We’ll also introduce two alternatives: interpretative sociology and critical sociology.

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to be more consciously aware of what I post on Facebook and what effect it may have.

One thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be to promote or post things on Facebook that could have a negative on society such as fake news.

Society could affect me in a positive way if the news presented more positive stories.

Society could influence me in a negative way if the new stayed on track with its fear based stories.

Friday August 31st 2018

Week one of sociology has been a very eye-opening experience for me. My instructor, Li-Chin, is from Taiwan, she brought with her to class her enthusiasm and love for sociology. She stressed that every person in the world is important and plays a role in society. She also talked about how we take care of ourselves and how a person's health affects society. I never really thought about how my health affects society...but now I do. I mostly just thought of how my health affects my family, especially my children. I know how important my self-care is and how it affects my children. Now I am beginning to see just how much I contribute to and influence society.

In class we had to come up with a positive and a negative of our society. The positive that I thought of was our society becoming more and more accepting of different cultures. On the flip side of that there are some societies that are very resistant and unwilling to accept a culture other than their own.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” was presented and discussed. The “Allegory of the Cave” is an analogy of an individual's reality and how they perceive their world. It really made me think of how society on a global scale needs to improve. There are people all over the world that live in horrible conditions and experience inhumane treatment. While the people who are privileged enough to have never experienced such conditions, go on living their life as though nothing is wrong with the world. Their eyes are only open so far, so they can only see and perceive what they allow themselves to.

For someone like me, who is learning the importance of a global perspective and how to apply the sociological perspective in my daily life, leaves me at an advantage. I can use what I learn here in sociology to improve myself and in turn contribute to society in a positive manner.

I read about racial-conflict theory and how William Edward Burghardt Du Bois believed that sociologists should not just learn about society's problems but also try to solve them. He dedicated his life to help his colleagues and people everywhere to see the deep racial divide in the United States. Du Bois had hope for change and pushed for public action against racial separation. At the end of his life he was disappointed and he believed very little had changed-he died in 1963. I think if he were alive today he would see that there has been improvement in racial inequality, but there is still much work to be done.

https://youtu.be/YnCJU6PaCio

This video is a crash Course Sociology by explaining what exactly sociology is. We’ll introduce the sociological perspective and discuss how sociology differentiates itself from the other social sciences. We’ll also explore what sociology can do, and how a concern with social problems was at the center of sociology's beginnings

One thing I can do to benefit myself and society is to take care of my health and wellbeing.

I am a recovering drug addict so one thing that I could do to affect myself and society in a negative way would be for me to relapse and go back to using drugs.

Society could affect me in a positive way if I were to be more involved in my community. I think it would increase my sense of belonging, which is something everyone yearns for.

Society could influence me in a negative way if the government stopped providing assistance to low income families. I am on a housing assistance program and if they removed it I would no longer have a home and I would have to quit school and get a full time job. My education would go to the wayside. My children and I also receive free health care and food stamps. I am not ashamed to be on government assistance. I believe government assistant should be a temporary solution to improve the lives of the less fortunate. Without government assistant I would not be able to pursue my education and my economic status would not improve.

I feel as though one solution to improve society is to increase community involvement in all social classes. I feel as though when a person has social ties to the community it improves society.