So in class we've been discussing what happens when people don't get enough social interaction. The extreme cases are that of feral children who act more like animals than humans. While it's unfortunate that these kids were abused or neglected, it shows how important interaction with others is. A lot of the kids who were discovered began to show improvement after being exposed to social situations. We've also discussed children who live in orphanages and how these kids don't get enough social interaction which causes them to be less successful than those who do get social interaction. I thought the article we read about human nature was really interesting. Especially the part that talked about children in orphanages being separated, some being put in the care of mentally ill adults and others left in the orphanage. Those who were cared for by the mentally ill adults ended up being more successful than those who were left in the orphanage. Any kind of positive social interaction leads to children becoming more successful adults, it doesn't matter who the attention comes from.

What's Wrong With Doing Nothing??

We've recently been discussing how Americans don't accept doing nothing. Every moment of your day has to be filled with activity. It's socially unacceptable to do nothing. When I tried doing nothing, I did it at school when I was sitting with all my friends. Because I was sitting with my friends, nobody really noticed that I was doing nothing. It just looked like I was following along with the conversation going on between the people I was sitting with. While I didn't really experience the social stigmatism of doing nothing, I did have the chance to reflect on what was going on around me. People are kind of set on auto-pilot. They just do what they do without really thinking about it. Sometimes it's nice to step back and really consider where you're headed. Are you doing something because it's what everyone else is doing and because it's socially accepted or are you doing something because it's what you actually want to do. A lot of people go through their lives without asking themselves that question. I think this connects a lot to the movie we watched in class, Tuesdays With Morrie. I think Morrie would agree that people don't really pay attention to what's going on around them. They don't stop to enjoy the simple things, but the simple things in life are what bring you the most pleasure.

American Culture

This week in class, we've been studying culture. More specifically, American Culture. We dicussed whether or not America had its own unique culture, or if it was more a mix of all the cultures living in America. We used what we had learned in the previous week about culture (norms, folkways, mores) to prove whether or not we thought America had its own distinct culture. I believe that America doesn't really have its own culture. There are too many people living in this country that come from different cultures, there's no way that all of these cultures could mesh into one. Even in different regions of the U.S, we have different cultures. The South has a lot of different values than the North. We don't even speak with the same accents. The other day, we read an article that stated America has 13 aspects that make up its culture and that every American abided by those values. While reading the article, I found that I had some similar values as the article stated, but I didn't value all of the things the article mentioned. Your values really depend on what your cultural background is and since this is a country of immigrants each person has a different set of values.

Culture

For the past week in class, we've been discussing culture. We've referenced the term culture shock a lot. We did an activity involving culture shock in which we played a card game as a class, but everyone got different rules. Because we weren't allowed to speak, it made it more difficult to understand why the other people in your group weren't following the rules. I remember thinking during the game why are my group members playing wrong? Didn't they learn the rules? It never occurred to me that we all learned different rules. These sorts of issues are seen between different cultures around the world. A lot of times, one culture assumes that another is incorrect in their customs when in reality they aren't. They all learned a different set of rules growing up and we don't always realize that because of our ethnocentrism. When I went to France, I experienced this a lot. One night, me and the french family I was staying with had pizza for dinner. I hadn't thought that there would be anything different about eating pizza, but it turns out the french put mayonnaise on their pizza instead of tomato sauce. I was really confused at first. I couldn't figure out why they would put mayo on a pizza. That's not how pizza was made. In this situation, I experienced that same culture shock as I did when we played the card game in class. It's important to be aware of other cultures and realize that just because something may seem bizarre to you and your culture doesn't mean its wrong.

Categories

The other day in sociology, we read a poem called, "The Cookie Thief." It doesn't seem like this poem would relate to sociology, but it actually does. The lady in the poem was quick to judge and believed that the man she was sitting next to was eating all of her cookies. At the end of the poem, we find out that in reality the cookies the lady was eating belonged to the man and the cookies the lady bought were in her bag the entire time. In this situation, the lady was quick to judge somebody and it turn it made her look foolish. This poem suggests that maybe we shouldn't be so judging of others, especially if we just met them. A lot of times, we find out something that we were unaware of that completely changes our perspective of somebody. I've dealt with being judged incorrectly before and it's really annoying. My family is Russian and my parents speak with Russian accents. A lot of times people automatically assume that my parents don't understand any English and end up speaking to us really slowly. In actuality my family and I have been living here for more than 12 years and we understand English just fine. I don't really face this stereotype because I don't have an accent, but I've witnessed my parents be stereotyped multiple times. People assume ridiculous things about my parents. One lady actually thought that they didn't know what cell phones were because of where we came from. People are always going to categorize others, but they need to do it in an intelligent way.

Gang Leader for A Day

In the novel, Gang Leader for A Day, the author sets out to study how it feels to be black and poor. After realizing that asking the residents of these neighberhoods general interview question wasn't working, the author decided it'd be better to  hang out with the gangs in order to understand them better. Quantitative surveying is important when gathering data, but qualitative surverying allows sociologists to experience firsthand whatever it is they're studying. This is how the author of Gang Leader for A Day gathered most of his research. By spending time with the gang, the author made himself seem more relatable to them. Asking interview questions distanced himself from the people he was trying to study. The first approach the author used clearly set himself apart from the gangs. The second approach, however, allowed the author to be a part of the gang, which in turn gave him more information on their lives than interview questions ever would. If someone wanted to study our school, they should look at quantitative data like drop-out rate and percent of students who go on to college. They should also gather some qualitative data by speaking with students about the school. In addition to speaking to students, you might want to speak with some other groups, like the teachers. What is their opinion of the school? What kind of students go there? These different types of gathering information are playing very important roles in my life right now. I'm in the process of applying to colleges and in order to decide which school is best for me I'm looking not only at quantitative data, (rank of the school, percent that get employed after graduation) but I'm also looking at qualitative data (talking to students who go to the school, visiting the campus).

Freaks and Geeks

So in class the other day, we watched the pilot episode of a TV series called Freaks and Geeks. It was actually a really funny show and I don't really understand why the NBC network chose to cancel it after only one season. I think it could have been a really big hit. The show definitely hit on some of the sociological theories we talked about in class. According to the functional theory by Emile Durkheim, people are always a part of different groups. The show Freaks and Geeks really stressed the many different cliques at a high school and which people are part of them. There was a group of nerds (Sam and his friends), and a group of smokers (Daniel and his friends). These groups interacted positively with one another. Each gave the people in the group an opportunity to find a zone in which they are most comfortable. Also the conflict theory by Marx was mentioned in the episode. The teachers, counselors, and parents had power over the students/children. They had the power because they provide for their students/children, and if the students or children disobey them they can punish them by stopping providing them with an education or a home. Finally, symbolic interaction was also discussed in the episode. The main character, Lindsey, wears an army jacket that is meant to represent her new found rebellion against what her parents and teachers expect of her. I can definitely relate to an object symbolizing something about myself. My car represents that I'm independent and no longer have to count on my parents to drive me everywhere.