Blog for Friday Oct 28 socialization

I didn't get to go on the field trip because I was already on one that day. However, regarding what impacts me the most I would say my parents and peers socialize me the most. My parents have taught me my morals and attitudes. They've let me grow up by learning from my mistakes and to recognize when I'm in a good or bad situation. My peers also influence me because there actions can start to become normal. I know i've been in situations where people are making bad decisions and, though, I'm never outright told to follow them, it seems as if the only natural thing to do is follow along. Thankfully, those morals my parents enforced upon me when I was younger prevented me from making a mistake. I think it works almost like a "checks and balance system" because I'm gravitated to act like my friends but I have a voice of reason in the back of my mind telling me what's right thanks to my parents. I think now by my senior year of high school, I've learned what type of friends I want to be around and to trust. Now my friends impact can be a positive thing because we encourage each other to keep up our grades and get into a great college. I think all factors around us help to socialize us, but as long as I circle myself around positive people and follow my parents teachings, this socialization is actually a good thing.
     I thought the movie we watched on media showed how our values are influenced even when we are young. The fact that so much time and effort goes into researching children is actually really creepy. I think it stops kids from growing up slowly or interacting "naturally" since children are being marketed to what's the cool instead of what they want. The more children are exposed the more they will find value in money and owning lots of material items. I think the movie showed how socialization works in media-especially how powerful it can be at a younger age.

Interview with my parents!

The main expectations my family had for me, before i was born, was to have good life skills such as being tidy and organized. They also planned for me to be smart and studious so that i would get into a good college. They expected me to be the best that I could possibly be. The lessons, values, and ideas they tried the hardest to teach me was Honesty. They truly beleived that "honesty is the best policy" and won't respect anyone who cheats their way to the top. The most important tradition in my family are that we always have to spend holidays together, especially christmas and thanksgiving. For these days, our immediate family is always together. It doesn't matter where we go or what we do but we have to spend that time with each other. When trying to figure out how to raise me, my parents never had a specific disiplinary idea but they decided that I always had to learn from my mistakes. If I ever got in trouble, I would have to reflect on what I did, apologize, and than learn from the experience. Habits that I have that are similar to my family are that I'm sometimes messy like my father but I can be really organized with very specific things like my mother. For example, my mom and I like to organize our closets the same exact way. Parts of my personality that are also like my parents are that I always try my hardest and will put 100% effort into whatever it is that I do.

Reflecting on the interview, what shocked me the most was all the different ideas that my parents had actually planned to install on me. I never knew that they talked about having an educated daughter or that they had always wanted me to go to a good college before I was even born. I learned that a lot of my thoughts actually, originally, come from my parents. For example, I cheerish honesty which was what they said was one of the most important values to them. I think that I try my best and put effort into everything I do, which were traits I must have picked up from my parents. I, also, learned that my family is very goal-orientated and driven. As well, we all value and enjoy spending time together!

Ted Talk Glog

Link to my Glog!
http://abach31.edu.glogster.com/gender-differences/

Material vs. Symbolic culture

A material culture is all things realated to a given culture like clothes or food while a a symbolic culture is based off of a nonmaterial culture whose central components are symbols like gestures and language. The movie god grew tired of us which we were shown in class, serves as an example of these cultures. The different clothing styles in africa, for example, is different from what typical culture is back in America. It's so hot in sudan that the people there are used to wearing less clothing than someone from America would be used to wearing. Another material culture example is the difference between how those eat in america and in sudan. The lost boys, for example, had never even heard of potato chips before they came to the US. Here, however, potato chips are a very commonly consumed product. Americans, also, are almost always used to having a full stomach while in a war torn country like sudan the boys had less food and smaller portions making them more prone to starvation. Some symbollic culture shown in the movie was the different in langauge. Here in the US we grow up naturally speaking english. The lost boys, though, had to go to specific school in Kukama where they had to be taught english. The lost boys also were exposed to differnt american gestures that they wouldn't have known back in africa like the way americans wave hello or gesture with their hands.
Theres a relationship between symbolic and material culture becuase we use both to make up one specific culture. For example, in my own life, I know I have a very different culture than one of my friends, summer, who lives in england. Our difference in material cultre can be seen by the differnt clothes, jewlery, and even food we eat. For example, she would think fish and chips put together is normal while I think that combining the food together is just werid and gross. The symbollic culture could be any nonmaterial thing that serves as a symbol of our culture such as langague. An example of this could also be how english use the word "chips" to mean "fries" when saying fish and chips. Therefore, we use different aspects of our symbolic and material culture to create our own natural environment that would be different from those not used to it!

Ethnocentrism

   This summer, while I was at summer camp, for one of the activities we went to help out on the south side of chicago. We visited Garfield Ridge which is made up of mostly African Americans and was very run down. When we first got there we were being stared at and stood out since my camp was made up of mostly caucasian kids. I felt out of my element and was scared that I was in danger just because it was such a different type of town than the north suburbs of chicago. It surprised me how different the south and north side of chicago are despite only being so little miles apart. I realized, though, that I couldn't feel unsafe just because the people dressed and acted differently. After meeting some of the children and helping out in the park I saw that the people were just as nice as anyone I would meet in the suburbs where I live. I also found myself judging the town because so many people were in the street and I thought that everyone was just lazy instead of working. However, after talking to the people I saw how little the job market was especially for the people who didn't have as good as an education. I was being ethnocentric for assuming that the people didn't want to work instead of realizing most of the people didn't have a choice. There was so much work to be done in the town and with such poverty it's impossible for the town to be able to fix itself. I was grateful for the chance to go to Garfield Ridge because it showed me that just because it's different from where I'm from, it doesn't mean that I'm in "some dangerous ghetto". Now, I'm actually very interested in going back to the south side and volunteering again.

Unit One Post!

    The sociological imagination has to do with personal problems being connected to the public into a greater good and history. For example, currently, I am stressed about keeping up my grades and still finding time to apply to colleges. Though I'm still in my senior year of high school, Competition for colleges has been increasing so it's imperative I keep up my good grades. I think students around the nation are feeling more and more stress and pressure about applying and getting accepted into that dream college. Not only do I feel like i have to spend countless hours finishing schoolwork and balancing activities, but all my other friends, who live right by me or across the country, also complain about not always being able to handle the pressure of keeping up in school. I think that compared to a century ago or even a decade ago, the requirements for getting into a good college and well paying job have been increasing, making everyone feel like they have to work harder, especially in this economy and bad job market.
    The social constructionism of reality is a general idea that is maintained by a society that all agree that it exists. This idea relates to the concept we did at the beginning of Sociology, when we had a classmate spit into a cup. The class recognized spit as much grosser than saliva. By using this general concept of social constructionism i can apply it to my understanding of the world. I think that generally everyone wants to work to be the best that they can be and their motivated by their chance of success. By using social construction, you can see how everyone accepts the idea that certain schools like Yale or Harvard are considered to be more "respected" or the "ultimate school to go to" since they are Ivy League. I think people recognize these types of schools exist and thats why people try so hard in school. We want to better ourselves, and are motivated by the idea that we can reach our highest potential at these colleges. The generally accepted idea that everyone should work for a "bright future"pushes everyone to be the best that they can be whether it's students working for college or just a person working to improve their future conditions.
     Social Mindfulness is tuning in to see how our social world works. It's being able to learn and accept our society and just paying attention. I think to be truly socially mindful people need to contribute to society by volunteer work. In helping their community, volunteers are exposed to how others live. community service prevents ignorance because it shows all different aspects of society, not only the glamours parts. For me, community service has made me so much more aware of my own society and how thankful I am for my values, family, and health.

First weeks blog about what society values

 I thought the "abandon ship" assignment we did earlier this week was really insightful in showing what society places value in. By placing 16 different stereotypical people on a ship and having to choose to "kill off" 7 people it quickly showed what our class finds value in. For example, it was obvious our class thinks youth is a necessary trait in survival since some of the first people to be killed off were the elderly couple while the younger characters such as the football player and cheerleader got to stay. Other values that our class took into consideration was intelligence (particularly to science over arts), usefulness, patriotism, morality, individuality, and control. I think our class might be somewhat biased, since its a room full of teenagers, therefore we'd favor certain traits such as youth over experience or wisdom. However, i feel like the traits that our class found important would still reflect a common americans perspective. We put much more value into strength, youth, and a person's ability to survive or usefulness in a deadly situation. This connects to my own life because i have family members that are disabled and elderly and it makes me wonder what i would do if i was in a situation in which i had to kill off one of my own family members. Even though they might not be young and in "full health" i would still be able to find value in my relatives and wouldn't be able to justify kicking them off the ship. I really enjoyed the ship activity because it made me aware of my own values and made me question what i would do if i was in that situation. I would probably follow the common ideal that society values on youth and strength however i think i would feel guilty for kicking the "weaker" off of the ship.