Sociology has taught me about who i am as a person and about other people in general. I have learned to see from different a point of view and i have a better understanding of people who i dont usually come in contact with.
Silence:
Before sociology, I never had any thoughts on silence. I had the idea silence was awkward and it had to be avoided. Soc has made me think about why we fill silence. We fill silence because we are so used to hearing people talk and noises that silence has become negative, but silence should be enjoyable and not out of the ordinary.
Are You Gonna Eat That?:
Before sociology, if i were to be asked to eat a human beings body i would refuse no matter what. After talking about it in class i would eat the bodies if i were in the circumstances that the survivors were in. But soc has not only taught me that i should do what i need to to survive, but ive learned to think of things from a different view point. I was so set into my own world before that other options seemed out of reach. i have to be willing to think of things differently and outside of my norms to figure out the solutions i need.
Identity Molecule:
Before sociology, i would have thought my only place in society was my social class, but after talking about it in class, i recognize that everything we do makes us part of a group. those groups shape who we are and who we communicate with. it is important to be apart of a lot of groups to get a perspective of different people
Cards:
Before sociology, all i thought about was the way i did things. Soc has taught me that my way isn't the correct way, its just the way i know how to do things. each individual has their own way to do things and we need to take into consideration what other people do in order to fit into society.
Jails
Before sociology, i pictured jails as places with bars and prisoners had to sit in their cell all day and they werent aloud out. Sociology has not only taught me what jails really are, it has taught me how wrong jails treat the prisoners. I had the idea that prisoners are people who did illegal things and needed to sit in a jail cell. Prisoners do illegal things for reasons such as mental problems or drugs abuse and they cant control themselves. i realize how i should look down upon them becuase they have problems just liek all of us but they deal with them in different ways.
The Average Girl:
Before sociology, I saw those magazine ads and beleived them. i though all the girls in the magazines truly looked perfect. i knew they used make up, but i didnt realize all the computer engineering they put into making these girls looks perfect. I think that our society has put stress on girls and guys to look a certain way but looking at it with a sociological point of view, i realize that things like looking flawless arent important, its what you do that makes you who you are not the way you look.
Deviance:
Before sociology, i looked at people doing different things in public as strange or creepy. i would see someone standing in a public place doing literally nothing and think they were creepy and doing soemthing wrong. sociologically, people have differnt ideas of what is normal and judging one on things they do out of the ordinary is wrong.
Racism:
Before sociology, i saw people who have dark skin as black and brown skin as indian, asian looking people as chinese. i didnt differentiate bewteen different kind of people. calling a japanese man chinese is like calling a jewish person catholic. japanese and chinese are 2 different people. Sociology has taught me that judging who someone is by skin color is giving me the wrong idea of who people are. it is important to ignore the color of skin someone has and even more important to get to know someone by who they are.
OVERALL:
Soc has taught me a lot about life and i really enjoyed the class. Thank you Sal you were an awsome teacher!!!
sociology
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Racism
Racism is created by people in society judging other on the color of their skin. I believe the measures we take to avoid racism create more racism. Colleges accept people partly based on the color or their skin because they want a more diverse campus. I think since there are expectations that there will be diversity, it creates more racism. College acceptance should be based on you skill in school. Also, jobs look for people who are diverse because they don't want to get in trouble and be considered racist because the majority of their workers are white. The extremes we go to in order to create diversity divides up people into groups even more. Also, when statistics show what percent of a community is black or mexican it seperates them into being different than the whites in the community. It is much easier to say the number of people in the community and ignore the specifics because the specifics make it seem as if the other skin colors are different from the majority.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
CRASH
We watched Crash in class this week and it was the first time I had seen the movie. It is now one of my favorite movies. The scene that sticks out the most to me was when the upper class white woman was complaining about different races. She was blaming the cleaners which were most likely Asian, her house cleaner who was Mexican, and the guy who changed her locks for her. She blamed them for doing their jobs wrong, however, if it had been a white person doing the job the same way she would have thought they were doing a perfect job. Our society assumes that a job is to be done by a certain race and it is unusual for a white person to do these jobs. I was reading something on a website the other day about a Mexican man mowing his lawn. He was upper class and he was outside of his house in a nice neighborhood. A neighbor drove by who hadn't met him yet. She asked him if he was looking for more jobs and because she needed her lawn mowed. He was a Mexican mowing a lawn in a nice neighborhood so she assumed that was his job and she wouldn't think that he could live in the same neighborhood as her. If it was a white man mowing the lawn outside the house, she would never have stopped and asked if he could mow her lawn because she would assume he lived there. The preconceived ideas out society has creates racism and we need to realize that anyone can be in any social position before we assume their place in society.
Monday, May 4, 2009
family social class
My parents both grew up in similar social classes. My mom grew up in Bay City, Michigan. Her dad owned a scrap yard and her mom was a teacher. They were middle class, had a nice house and my mom and her sister had the opportunity to go to good schools to prosper in their futures. My dad grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois. His dad worked in the auto industry and his mom was a teacher. They were middle class, had a nice house and my dad, his sister, and his brother were able to go to good schools inorder to prosper in their futures. They were both in the middle middle class and i think now my family would be considered upper middle class. My parents both work hard inorder to grow from where they started from. It's hard to say if my grandparents were in the same social class becuase times have changed so much that it's hard to tell what was middle class now may be lower class now. The school that i go to and plan on going to for college and my goal as a career hopefully will land be in the same social class i am in now. since i grew up this way it is hard to imagine not being in this class and not having children in this class. especially after watching the videos and reading the stories about the people in such poor conditions becuase their families didnt have money. i am motivated to be in the upper middle class when i get older and hopefully my motivation will get me somewhere.
High School & Social Class
In high school, kids social class is determind by their parents. The jobs their parents have place them into a certain social class. Most students at stevenson are in the upper middle class becuase our parents work hard and live in the area in order to send us to stevenson. i dont think the social class your in effects your friends inside the school becuase most of us are in the same class, the friends we make inside school just so happen to be the same as us. however, friends from outside of school do depend of social class becuase usually outside friends are made doing soemthing of interest. for example, you may belong to a nice country club and the people who belong there also have a lot of money, and are in the same social class as you. someone of a lower social class wouldnt belong to a country club. also friends that are made from a sporting team usually are in the same class. the wealthy play sports like polo with other wealthy people and lower class people wouldnt be playing polo. this summer i went on a community service trip in hawaii. the trip was a lot of money and all of the kids on the trip were from the east coast like new york city and long island besides me and my friend from chicago. someone who didnt have a lot of money wouldnt not have been able to go on the trip, there fore social classes have similar interests and have the opportunity to do the same things.
to move down in a social class would be a lot harder to adjust to than moving up. moving down forces you to make changes to cut back on things where as moving up a social class allows you to have more opportunities to do more things.
Marrying someone in a different class would be tough. your interests wouldnt be the same and your backgrounds would be different. your friends and family would be interested in somethings and your spouses friends and family would be interested in others.
to move down in a social class would be a lot harder to adjust to than moving up. moving down forces you to make changes to cut back on things where as moving up a social class allows you to have more opportunities to do more things.
Marrying someone in a different class would be tough. your interests wouldnt be the same and your backgrounds would be different. your friends and family would be interested in somethings and your spouses friends and family would be interested in others.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Deviance
In class, we defined 'deviance' as something that breaks social norms. Standing in public for a short period of time would break social norms, or doing something nice for a complete stranger. Things that are caring or nice to someone else is so out of what our society is used to becuase most people are so absorbed into themselves that they dont take the time to help strangers for no reason. i took the train down town this weekend with my friends and when we got on the train it was almost full. there was a lot of us and we all wanted to sit near eachother so we walked up and downt he whole train looking for somewhere to sit. when we finall decided that we would all sit seperately, a couple stood up and told us to take their seats becuase there were enough empty ones around that seat for us all to sit. we were confused of why they were willing to do this. we had never met them before and we didnt do anything to help them but they were willing to give up their seats for complete strangers. it was just 2 nice people doing something good, but in our society its out of the norm to do so. i tried to think of a reason of why they did this for us. i realize now that there was no reason for it, they saw that we were having trouble finding a seat and they were willing to give us theirs out of the kindness of their hearts.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Average Girl...
girls in magazines and on tv today are potrayed as perfect, beautiful, and skinny. Girls in the real world, especially teenagers, think they need to look like these girls on tv so they harm themselves in order to get the perfect image. i think our society needs to lighten up on the pressure we put on girls. no one should think the way the look is wrong. the girls in the media arent real people. they are average looking people who are made up to look perfect. i watched a show the other day called toddlers and tiaras. little girls from less than a year old to around 5 years old are made up to win a beautfy competition. it sends the girls a terrible message from a young age that looks will help you get ahead. i think its rediculous that our society puts so much into the way we look and it effects our lives in every aspect.
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