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.
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.
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