Race!!

This past week we talked about race. I thought it was interesting how there is explicit and implicit racism. The explicit one is something we notice and don't always think of ourselves as racists, but the matter of fact is we are all judgmental and prejudice. It is the way we grew up and psychologically and sociologically think because of where we grew up and with who.In class we also watched the movie crash. This movie showed so much prejudice in our society; the sad part is it is realistic and there is so much hatred and racism. I always see myself as accepting to all. My goal is to constantly be thinking about those around me and the racism people face. I am going to try to pay attention to my implicit racism. I want to make sure I am not rude unconsciously.

Community Service!! Feed My starving Children!!

On May 5th 7-10pm  I got to go to Feed My Starving Children Organization in Schamburg.

It was such a great experience. This organization helps feed millions of children in several countries.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ6SuCzSt7w&feature=player_embedded#at=23 

This video along with others is very touching. On this page there are more videos http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=535 

After watching this video it reminded me of when we were talking about social class. We are born into a certain social class and it is very hard and almost unrealistic to move up in social class. It is said knowing this especially after watching how these children have been affected by the social class they were born into. I was so touched by the video and the impact I could make on these children. When You first arrive they show a video and we were able to see a little boy named Toussaint who was near death when he started receiving these meals. He was 14 months old, but he looked like a little infant that was born early.  It was amazing to see this difference; after one month of eating these meals he was thriving and looked like a healthy little boy.  This was my sixth or seventh time doing feed my starving children. It is so much fun and always makes me feel better knowing that by spending three hours of my day I was able to save so many lives. My favorite part is in the end when they count up all the boxes that you did and tell you how many children you saved. This time when I was there we were able to package 44 boxes. Creating 9,504 meals which feed 26 kids for an entire year! That is amazing to me knowing that I could help 26 kids by giving up just a few hours of my time. Community service is such a great way for us to help our community. I love being able to go there and help out. I would much rather spend my time at an amazing organization like this than sitting at home on the computer or watching TV. I love how even though we aren't able to actually interact with those we are affecting it was nice to be able to see the pictures and the changes we made. I can't wait to go back again and hear how many kids I can help by doing so little.

The Social Class Ladder!!

In class we talked about the social class and how the rich are getting richer; yet the poor are getting poorer. The gap between the high and the low classes have increased phenomenally. In class we each were given six pennies and we were coin tossing to see how many pennies everyone in the class would end up with. In the beginning the class all guessed that the amount of pennies  people would be half and half(half would have way more and half would have very little). The game rules are that there is a 50, 50 chance, yet in the end it always turns out the same way. At the end there were very few on top, a couple in the middle, and a ton on the bottom.We are put into our classes based on how much money we make. When in a social class it is hard to change it because that is what we grew up knowing. Yes we say that the people in lower classes could change it if they really wanted to have a better life, but the fact is it is hard to change it once you are there because yes they are given opportunities to get an education. If they are in poverty or lower class then it is harder because they aren't able to pay for as good of schooling. Also if they are starting of in working class they are probably helping support the family so they don't have time to go get more schooling. I don't come from a super wealthy family, but I would say that I am middle class. I have seen the differences in classes throughout High school. One of my friends gets whatever she wants using daddy's credit card, while one of my other friends have to work consistently because they don't have as much and are trying to get money so they are able to get the chance to go to college and get a good education. Social class gap is increasing by a large amount from top to bottom.

Jail Time!

After reading courtroom 302 I was astonished and very surprised. Prisoners were treated very badly and as if they weren't human. The police yelled and didn't treat those in jail properly. In this jail they were treated as if they were guilty even though they hadn't even been convicted yet.They were guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty. Yes discipline is important, but being declined help is cruel especially those with medical problems. Those officers were out of bounds and could have been strict and give discipline without being so rude. The justice system isn't so just.

Community Service!!

     Service is such a great opportunity. I have done so many service projects in the past, but this is one of the few ones that I  have done where I actually get to interact and see the people that I am affecting. I thought it was really cool being able to talk to them. I had so much fun and I love being able to give back to the community. It was nice seeing all the other volunteers there as well. The thing about giving is you get back in someway. I think the best thing about community service is being able to give and affect others lives. 

  I got to work at the special Olympics. It was amazing. The people there were so nice and really fun to talk to. I had a blast. I love knowing that I can help and make a difference in people's lives. What may seem so little to us can make a a huge difference in others life. I loved being able to talk to the people there and hearing all their stories. Those short five hours of helping them seemed nothing to me, but it meant a lot to them.

   I also had the opportunity to spend 3 hours reading to children. This was a lot of fun. It was a wonderful chance. Reading to them is something that doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but after talking to some of the kids I realized that the little and simple things can make a big difference. I had so much fun listening to the kids and reading the stories to them.

   

The deviance of drugs!

In class today we were given a variety of unknown drugs and had to rate them based on the description of the drug.We rated it on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 being over the counter drugs, two being prescribed drugs, three being illegal misdemeanor, and four being illegal felony. The results from our class were really interesting. The drugs: alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine got mainly rated 3s or 4s.These are drugs daily used in our society. The drugs that are considered felonies are the ones that got ratings of 1 or 2. This was a shock to me because it was opposite from what everyone would have thought it to be if we were actually given the names of the drugs. I think it is interesting and it makes me curious personally on how they decide the severity or punishment of certain drugs or how it should be controlled.

Deviance!

        Norms are the behavioral standards created by society, ways in which people are supposed to act. Deviance can be described as a violation of these norms. Deviance is a failure to conform with culturally reinforced norms. This definition can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the situation or person. Social norms are different in every culture. Some acts of deviance may be criminal acts, but it can also be positive.

 http://www.positive-deviant.com/positive-deviant-characteristics.html

I found this website that I thought was cool. It described possible characteristics of a person who is positively deviant.  http://nortonbooks.typepad.com/everydaysociology/2010/03/deviance-101.html I was also able to find this blog deviance 101. It has some interesting stories about deviance. I enjoyed reading many different deviant stories, it helped to widen my view. Many people including me would always mainly see being deviant as a negative thing.   

          I have made a bucket list and I have gotten comments like why do you have a bucket list you are still really young. Many see it as odd that i already have one. If I decided to call it a wish list I think it would be more of a norm for someone at my age. On my bucket list I have two things I can think of off the top of my head that can go along with Deviance. I have already crossed them both out. Leaving a 100% tip and paying for a strangers meal. At the time when I was doing this my friends were shocked and were asking why I was doing it. I love hearing how the positive act of defiance can affect someone greatly.Deviant is a departure from normal. It exists outside the prevalent social standard. Deviance defies tradition and challenges conventional wisdom. It is unacceptable.

Barbie

       This week we talked about feminist and masculinity that our society has created. As a teenager the images we are exposed to affect the way we feel about ourselves. So many girls who are skinny consider themselves fat because of the photo shopped images we constantly see of unrealistically skinny people. I have heard plenty of my friends who are definitely not fat say all the time that they need to work out more or go on a diet because they are not skinny enough. I was searching around when I found this. I  was shocked. She is so young, yet she is being put in a pageant where she is to become beyond perfect.

ToyRUs.com/TLC.com

                                       Barbie just can’t seem to get a break, despite celebrating her 50th birthday this month. A West Virginia lawmaker, Democrat Jeff Eldridge, has proposed the Ban Barbie Bill because he believes dolls like this place too much importance on physical beauty, and not enough on intellectual and emotional development. “I just hate the image that we give to our kids that if you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful and you don’t have to be smart,” said Eldridge. Other dolls that are believed to send this message will also be banned if the bill is passed. Eldridge admits some Barbie dolls, like Doctor Barbie and Veterinary Barbie, are better, but would nevertheless be outlawed in West Virginia also. Forget the fact that Eldridge is perpetuating a sexist double standard—action figures teach little boys that aggression, physical prowess, and weapons trump intellect. If he’s looking to place blame for kids thinking beauty is the be all and end all, maybe he should look at the parents in his own state, where mothers enter their daughters in pageants like the “Toddlers & Tiaras”-featured Southern Celebrity Beauty Pageant in Charleston, West Virginia. These mothers primp, bleach, and tan their daughters, as young as six months, into sashaying and dancing living dolls. That’s got to be more damaging than child play. [MSNBC.com]

        Most of those pictures we are seeing have been photo shopped a way to make them more skinny and less flawless according to society. The beauty we see is fake. I remember being showed a picture of what someone would look like if they had Barbies proportions. The result was ridiculous.

        There are so many teenage girls with eating disorders and we wonder why? These images and advertisements are creating ideal people that young women think that they need to become. The images and Barbie Doll's create a ideal women that if not matched by us is lowering self-esteems of many women. There are few women who are truly comfortable with their body. I think it is said that we aren't happy with the way we are. So many people get plastic insurance to try and eliminate flaws.
         I remember playing with barbies when I was little. I always would imagine I was Barbie. My sister, friends, and I would sit and play with Barbies for hours. We would create what we thought to be the perfect life. I remember thinking of how Barbie had the perfect life and how I wanted that. Barbie had her big house, a car, and a beautiful family. She was skinny as well and she always had the perfect hair and she had her make up all done. I remember thinking that I wanted to just wake up and be able to have everything she had. I never even realized or related her  the fact that her image added to our societies view of what women should look like until we talked in class about it.

 

TV and Consumption

We were given the Un-TV Experiment. I was really interested in what I was going to learn from this experiences. After I finished this experience I realized that TV is so pointless.  We are so caught with thinking that watching TV helps us to connect to society.  Most children are already being introduced to all the advertisements.  Children are the gate to consumption and advertisements.  TV makes us lose track in time.  In Today's society we really don't notice how much we sit in front of the TV and do nothing. I realized that there are numerous advertisements on not only TV, but on billboards, and the radio. TV and technology have consumed our society. We are so wrapped up in all the advertisements and are always wanting the new thing. Our society uses TV and technology to socialize and engage with society. We are so wound up in it. I remember when I was Young I would get so caught up in TV and I wouldn't realize how late it was and it be like hours later.  I was always so caught up with the shows and I would act like they are apart of society. As I would talk to friends about the shows and people in them as if they were real people in our society.

Tuesday's With Morrie and Fearing Death?

I think that as Americans we do fear death. We always see death as something negative. Death is often connected with pain and loss. The way we view death has been built upon by our culture and society. People fear death because of not knowing what to expect. Death is feared for their is a sense that control over time or even over yourself is lost. When it comes down to it death tends to be mainly from illness and oldness. We lose a big value of our and we are no longer able to self-help ourselves. Death has become awkward for most to talk about because that's what we have learned from society. In the movie Morrie views death in a positive way. I love how he is so optimistic and looks at as him having known how to live. When he would talk to Mitch he would express that relationships and love never die and will always be there. I have seen many people mourn in pain that have suffered a loss. One of my really close family friends lost someone unexpectedly. I really liked their perspective on it. Yes, of course, they were very sad at their loss, but they saw it as him having lived his life here and completing everything he needed to. When they put together his funeral they said that he had a mission to fulfill not here on the earth, but in heaven. I really liked this because it created a positive outlook on life.

Doing Absoulutely Nothing

We were given a homework assignment in sociology to do absolutely nothing. I decided to go to the mall to do this. As I stood there trying to do the assignment I found it very hard. New and random things were popping in to my head as everyone around me was in motion. I personally had a really hard time clearing my mind of all thoughts. After completing the task I reflected back thinking about all those around me. Everyone was constantly moving and trying to keep busy. We are so focused on always getting something done; that we have a hard time knowing how not to do something. A value we have is having a purpose. We consistently are doing stuff even without thinking about it because even the idea of doing nothing is odd for us. In our society and world doing nothing is seen as a negative, but depending on your view it could easily be just a way of relaxation or meditation and clearing our own minds. It was really interesting to watch people's reactions to me not doing anything. Everyone was giving me weird looks and trying to figure out what it was that I was doing. In class we talked about an experience of a student where they were approached by a police officer. I thought it was very interesting that he asked him to keep moving because doing nothing is not really accepted in our society. We discussed that if you are resting or if you are waiting for someone and stranding around it is okay then to stand; just as long as your doing something. Our society does not really know or accept the concept of doing nothing.

Subculture

We as individuals are all involved in our own subcultures.  There are many subcultures: such as race, ethnicity, sports, religion, and hobbies. At my high school there are so many different subcultures. Sometimes we are part of a subculture and we don't even realize it.  One huge sub-culture that plays a large role in my life is religion. I am a Mormon as most people know us. Most people though don't know that our religion is a branch off of Christianity. Something that people don't know about us is that we don't swear, drink even after age of 21, we don't believe in pre-marital sex. There are many values we have that are important to me and shape me. There are many folkways, symbols, tabboos, language, and values each individual has although they are not always easily spotted or recognized.. A more that is in my life is family is the most important thing in my life and nothing comes between. I  go to church every Sunday and also every morning before school for an hour. A highly valued thing for me is my family. We are very family oriented and are very close even with my extended family.

Traffic Jam or Not?

At first when I was watching the video of how they get through their intersections in India I was shocked. I was watching for a while when Sal pointed out that there weren't any accidents. This is one custom that is very different from ours. If this went on in America there would be numerous car accidents. It shows that because of how we are raised we all learn our own ways and styles of life depending on our culture. Different societies all have their own and unique ways of operating. What looked chaotic to me was something completely different  to them. They have their own system that works. After watching the video Sal gave a great example of how my peers and I are like the vehicles from India where we slowly fit through the cracks of the hallways to get by other people in order to get to our next class. I really liked this example because it was helpful to me to be able to see how their society At first when I was watching the video of how they get through their intersections in India I was shocked. I was watching for a while when Sal pointed out that there weren't any accidents. This is one custom that is very different from ours. If this went on in America there would be numberous car accidents. It shows that because of how we are raised we all learn our own ways and styles of life depending on our culture. Different societies all have their own and unique ways of operating. What looked chaotic to me was something completely different  to them. They have their own system that works. After watching the video Sal gave a great example of how my peers and I are like the vehichles from India where we slowly fit through the cracks of the hallways to get by other people in order to get to our next class. I really liked this example because it was helpful to me to be able to see how their society on the road functions without getting in accidents. What seems like the norm for us is foreign to others. Many times I have seen people cross the street when they are not suppose to. This creates a chaos to those who are use to the norm and causes a interruption in society.