Social Class

Throughout this week I have gained greater knowledge on the different social classes, and what goes on. We watched a video on the different social classes. It talked about how the different classes view each other and how they are perceived by others. Two things that really stood out to me was the way the upper class guy spoke. He made himself seem like he was on top of the world, better than everyone, smarter, prettier, and he sounded so ignorant. Then after watching him we see these young kids whose parents have lost their jobs and homes, and all their belongings. One girl was saying how they took all their toys, family photos, and clothing. Hearing these kids talk really upset me because they don't need this, but a lot of neighbors helped out these families which I can relate to because someone my dad knows recently has lost his job, and he didn't have anywhere to go. So we decided that is the right thing to do because if that were us we would need help to, so we took him in a gave him in. Relating back to video that little boy said he doesn't want to go to the bathroom at night because he is scared to wake the people. I don't know how the man feels staying with us, because he has a room in the basement with his own bathroom, but I am sure it is still hard. I learned a lot and know how fortunate I am and for those who are unfortunate more people should learn to help them out because they didn't ask for that, and no one should feel they are better than one another just because they have a ton of money.

Positive Deviance

For my act of positive deviance I did something I would never have thought I'd ever do. I babysit for a really close family friend and they have a daughter who is 6 and a son who is 9, and another son but he is much older, and not around. I watch them quiet often so they share a lot with me. The kids told me that they don't feel their dad cares about them, or loves them and that all he really cares about is work, and other things. This really upset me because those are young kids hurt. I decided maybe to step out of my comfort zone and change this situation by using a little positive deviance to try and fix things. I decided when the father got home that I would say something to him before I left, and I was really nervous my palms were sweating because I normally don't say much, and especially because I don't have a kid so what right do I have telling one how to raise their kids. I knew this could go wrong, but I took the risk. I said I need to speak to you and it was awkward, but after me talking to him for awhile about how his children felt he had that reality check. He thanked me and was so grateful, and I even felt closer with him. He told me that he is sorry he didn't get involved in his kids lives the way he should and I think maybe when his older son comes home he can spend quality time with him too knowing that he felt the same way towards his father. Now he can have his second chance at becoming closer with his kids. It made me feel so good because I felt that was positive deviance and I made a dad happy. Also, the kids can all be happy and maybe their family will be much closer now.

Gender Roles

Learning the difference between sex and gender was interesting because most people think they mean the same thing. They actually don't. Sex means male, or female and gender is what society says you should be. One assignment was to bring in a toy that either a girl would only play with, or a boy would only play with. Looking at the dividing lines between girl toys and boys toys was different. On the boys side you saw cars, baseball, or action figures. On the girls side there were barbies, and dolls. The boys toys were smaller and less bright in color, and more of objects. The girls toys were bigger, brighter and more "human-like." Seeing them side by side we were asked why there weren't any barbies, or dolls on the boys side, and thats a good question. The reason is because society says thats not okay, and that boys can't play barbies, and dolls. Thats wrong and we shouldn't do that because once someone see's a boy playing with a barbie you automatically think "oh, he isn't straight" but that isn't the case. Especially, because the kids playing with these toys are young, so who cares? We have let society tell us that boys can't do that, but how come if a girl picks up a baseball its not as bad? Those questions we need to ask ourselves and understand that you can come out of your gender box because its okay and then you will have so much more experience out in the world and maybe if we did that we could understand each other a lot better. Words that are hurtful and used in the wrong way wouldn't be said as much if we all could make that okay in our society between different gender roles.

Fitting In...

I learned this week in sociology that we all try to fit in by adapting to new surroundings, and we sometimes change ourselves to fit in with a group of peers. I really do feel that goes on especially in high school during your freshman year. Your young and you want friends because high school is an important time in your life. Wanting to fit in can cause issues like we saw in Freaks and Geeks because Lindsey wants to be in the "cool" group she decides to throw a party just because the guy she likes wants to do that. She acts like she is okay with having one and she is trying to be really cool about it just so those kids like her. That is true because so many people do that just to have one night with the "cool" crew but I am sure there is more than that. Another example is with kids drinking and stuff people are more bound to do it because they see other kids doing it and if your at a party and then you see some kids doing it your more likely to do it to because you see them doing it and you want to fit in. It really is wrong how people do that to fit it because I am sure if everyone was their real self we could learn a whole lot more than someone pretending. Though that is a part of maturing and becoming older and more aware, and also just knowing more about yourself in general because I know I have learned more about myself and things I want to do from when I walked into high school as a freshman.

American Values

This week in class we discussed a lot about the values americans have. We read an article "The Values Americans Live By" by: L. Robert Kohls. In this article he mentioned 13 topics which he thought americans valued and discussed a little bit about each one. Three of them that really stood out that we spent most time on was change, time, and materialism. During our class discussion we talked about how people always are just going and doing things and looking for what is the next big thing. Which is true I agree with that because I feel that americans have basically made up this value system, and we hope that everyone will just live by it. For some people they don't need to live by this and they live their life more freely, but some are so stuck in the technology around them that they don't really know what is going on in the world. Especially with apple products they come out with a new iphone, or an ipad and you already have one, but you need the new one once it comes out. Because of this value system that we somehow made it makes people forget about what is going on now. We focus more on what we have to do next or in 3 days and it makes people so stressed out because your so worried about what time it is because your on some schedule that you need to get done in X amount of time. People begin to forget and they become so unappreciated about the things that actually matter, like relationships, and family. I think that if we all let go of this so called value system that really doesn't exist we would be able to accept more culture in our world and people.

Right or Wrong?

This week in sociology class we discussed two incidents the first was Britney Spears decided that it was a good idea to drive with her small child on her lap. Britney claimed she was getting away from the paparazzi. When we look at this situation we say this is wrong because it is putting a baby in danger. In her mindset she probably thought differently and was raised differently, so we judge people by the things they do. I personally think no matter what she is wrong because you must be in a car seat until a certain age, and that is the law. The second story was a women from Denmark, and her husband who was from New York. One day they went into a coffee shop to have lunch and they left their child in the stroller outside the cafe while they went inside. People walking by couldn't believe what they were seeing because this is so dangerous especially in New York. Little did they know in Denmark when you go into a restaurant you leave your baby outside because they need fresh air. It was because no one knew her culture and background. Instead everyone was quick to judge and say what a bad parent she is. Now she should be called a bad mother, but in my opinion she was wrong to leave her baby outside especially because her husband is from New York, and its a much dangerous place than Denmark because there this is normal. This relates to the term ethnocentrism which means judging other cultures by the standard of your own. Our standard is bring your baby inside because something bad could happen. This is something we should all overcome and I believe that learning different cultures and hearing about their experiences could help teach us and help us understand why other people do things we might not do.

Theory of LOVE

This week in sociology class we did an activity on valentines day about the word love. The activity we did involved looking at the "meaning" in a macro and micro perspective. Then we also took a survey and after taking this survey it made me think do I really know what it means? I think back in the day people were able to really know what love is and feel love and it was able to be defined more than it is today. Back then they did not have these dramatized shows on TV, or cosmo magazines. Today, love is thrown around and said about anything. For example, I could say "I love this shirt", but in reality I probably won't love it forever because something new and better will come out next week. That activity was fun because it was cool to hear what people think about the word because it is a good discussion topic since we don't really understand the meaning as a society and you can only make up your own opinion on it because it will never have a true meaning that can be defined because it is so complex.