Monthly Archives: July 2012

In American society, marriage is an idea instilled in Americans since birth. Most people grow up in a society that points them towards marriage. Much of the media available to children presents the ideal picture of a family. To achieve this family one must get married. However, what marriage actually signifies and means appears to be changing over the past few decades.

The values of marriage have changed. This video points out that marriage in the 1950’s marked the first step into adulthood, while presently it often occurs well into adulthood. This is because people nowadays often want to be successful on their own before entering into a union with another person. Thus, marriage is an almost final achievement in ones adult life.

Status in sociology is defined as a named social position that people can occupy. Marriage is indicative of achieved status. Such a status is defined as achieved because it is based upon personal accomplishments. The video describes marriage as “almost the last merit badge you earn as an eagle scout, the marriage badge.”

Presently, however, the institution of marriage is suffering with high divorce rates. The video suggests that this can be attributed to marriage being viewed only as a status symbol. This is troublesome because people are only interested in getting married to show that they have “made it” in life and have achieved everything expected of them. This contributes to the high divorce rate because then people are only interested in the acquiring of this “marriage badge,” rather than a married life and end up being unsure of how to live their lives once married.

Americans might need to re-examine the values of marriage if marriages are to be successful. Marriage needs to be less about social status and more about the union of two people in love if it is to be successful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqvnVAL8-1g

Sociological Imagination is a pretty big topic that we are reading now in class. It talks about how society sets standards for us that we must follow and choices that are sometimes out of our hands and control. Few of the examples in the story like Andre who can’t land a job because of a bad economic status are not rare in fact common today. Well maybe less today than in 2004. The clip I chose is a bit unorthodox but it shows the issues we are talking about very well. It is about Wile. E coyote and his quest of catching the roadrunner, his life goal. We can all relate because we are want to pursue something. We are chasing something that might be impossible at the moment. We fail but we keep trying until we get it. Sometimes when we do we are actually surprised and don’t know what to just like Coyote in the clip.

A good example of that view would be let’s say a child in Elementary who is not the brightest decades that he wants to go to Princeton. He will keep trying his hardest, a goal that might be just out of his reach but he does not give up and keeps trying. Along the way he might get influenced by the society and realize that he will never make it because of things like money, social status or even his personal abilities. He becomes discouraged and starts to question his own abilities. Even though his goal might have been achievable he fell victim to everyone around him who said, “ No that is not possible”.

I guess the clip I picked is somewhat similar because it is an endless quest of catching the roadrunner. The quest had its ending decided by the producers and the makers of the cartoon way before Wile. E knew what it is. The coyote was never destined to reach his goal, he will never catch the roadrunner but he still keeps trying. The society being the makers is telling him you will never catch him, it is not possible but the Coyote keeps on going with his futile attempts to reach his goal. We can all relate to that somehow because we all have or had dreams that just did not happen. Those dreams were mostly not achievable because of the society and its effects on us by telling us and influencing our opinions. We all tried to achieve those goals but were troughed by an outside force sometimes that being our parents, friends, teachers or even the media. Going back to the reading people like Andre or Michael who were never at any fault in the end they just fell victim to the grasp that the society has on us and there is nothing we can do.

Observational Learning

We live in a world with other people. In our surrounding, we connect other people everyday, such as family members, classmates, teachers, coworks, bosses and so on. Therefore, to know what type of people we are, and how our images in public which comes from our contact with others. We look at others and may act or react the things and people in our environments as a result of the meaning we attach to them. For example, someone watch his brother studied and how he did in school because he is a older brother.

This video shows how 10 month old kid learn from his brother by observing.The kid learns how to put a football into a basket when he look at how his brother did. Learning from others or observing others is naturally.  Human when they face the things which is uncertain or unknown, may like to observe others and learn from others to know how to response the things.

Moreover, we also do something which would be difference like others did. For example, when you see some bad example,you may not want to follow that, in this case, we may not have some mistakes like others.

Overall, the impact of other people in our everyday lives is very important.Like this video, the kid didn’t know how to play the ball, the only way for him to know how to put the ball into basket is observing. We can see that when people born they didn’t know a lot of things without social influence and they lack the basic information. Therefore, learn from others is a key experience for people to make a functioning human being.

Capitalism Collapse? ‘Cash grab system cannot survive storm’

As we see the video in our class known as, ‘Is Walmart Good For America?’, I was wondering who might be the biggest culprit for the weakening of American economy. American economy was unmatched and unrivaled back in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. However, things are gradually changing and America has a huge competitor in the shape of China. America’s economy is also not in the strongest shape like it was used to be. A lot of expert opinions are blaming big corporations like Walmart and others for outsourcing way too much job to low-wage countries and thus creating this problem. However, I do think we can’t solely blame companies like Walmart for this downfall.

Most of the richest nations around the world have been built with capitalist economic system. It has been very successful for the last one or two centuries. United States is not exceptional in this case; it has embraced capitalism since its introduction. Capitalism might be hugely successful in recent history, but I think that this system has its flaws as well. There are some basic theories about the modern capitalism. United States has become a huge example of corporate capitalism. Some of the characteristics of capitalism that is hurting United States in my opinion is:
1) Capitalism encourages and absolute proliferation of profit, especially corporate capitalism. Thus the system itself creates an atmosphere for the business institutions to be greedy.
2) In a lot of cases, government don’t intervene about the price regulations in a lot of different sectors (specially in retail sector) of business, thus it gives an opportunity to maintain the flow of the market with freedom which might creates monopoly in some business sectors. Walmart always have an opportunity to set their price in a record low level and driving their competitors out of business.
3) Most of the developed countries have gradually improved their standard of living to come to this position. In the process, normally inflation occurs in this country, thus driving the wage of workers high. Comparing the national annual income, US (44000 $) is much higher compared to China (almost 8000$).
4) Capitalism also believes in cheap labor theory (at least in modern day) in order to maximize profit. Thus, a lot of jobs have become easy picking for foreign countries.

I have put a video, where a senior sociology scholar named Emmanuel Wallerstein talks about how ‘Capitalism’ itself becomes the problem and how it plays part for orchestrating a worldwide recession. Personally, I do think that capitalism is a very good economic structure. However, I think that it needs some reforms. Some rules and regulations might be changed in order to make this system credible again.  For example, US government can put an minimum price tag for different retail products. Not only it will create a level playing field for different big corporations, but also restrains this destructive practice from big corporations like Walmart to offer cheap products and driving others out of business. Make no mistake about it, big corporations are somewhat responsible for this current situation, but the biggest liability would definitely fall into the shoulders of this overall economic structure.
I would very much like to know what other people are thinking about this issue. I am very much looking forward to your opinion.

‘Ronan’s Escape’ – Short Film on Bullying [HD]

I think that people from all over the World know what bulling is. Some people being bulled, others were practice bulling and some people were just eyewitnesses. Bullying is an international term and contains a number of social, psychological, legal and pedagogical problems.

“Ronan’s Escape”- Short Film on Bullying written and directed by A.J. Carter tells us a story about 14 years old boy, who became victim of the bullies. The movie became with a scene, where the boy having a lunch in school, but one of the bullies threw the ball at him. The reason was – to make some fun. Then his classmates chose him in their group for the sports competitions and it seems like fate gives him a chance to prove to his peers that he is a worthy guy. However, his opponent (being unnoticed) unleashes boy’s laces. So the guy falls, thus loses the whole team. In the end of the film the boy commits suicide.

Bullying – is a huge social problem: mostly latent process for many people, but the children, who were harassed, receive psychological trauma of varying degrees of severity, which leads to severe consequences up to suicide. And it’s doesn’t matter what kind of bulling took place: physical or psychological, it is always a trauma for any child. As we learned from the video- teachers and parents don’t try to do anything to stop bulling. Parents may be unaware of it, but we saw that teachers knew about the facts of bulling. So, the social institutions (such as family and education) don’t cope with its role of solving the problems. This movie relates to sociology, because it shows specified relationship of person with society, and shows how they interact with each other.

Role Conflict- Police Officer

Role Conflict- frustration that people feel when the demands of one role they are expected to fulfill clash with the demands of another role. Every day we face these challenges in our lives, where we are stressed by so many demands we have to meet in our daily basis. In reality we are only capable of doing so much at a time, but when more is required it creates chaos.

In this video a Henry Waller left his role as a police officer for his role as a husband during Katrina in New Orleans. He has been a cop for eight & half years already a high ranking officer, during the disaster he was one of the few officers to leave. His dilemma caused stressed for himself & his wife, for whom he decided. The officer faced a tough position because when becoming a cop he swears to protect the public but his role as a husband was also really important for him.

When making decisions that puts your roles in conflict I would think people will most likely weight things out and decide for what it most important at that moment. When loved ones are involved the situation creates a burden on the person making the decision.  For Waller he couldn’t leave his wife alone even though he knew his responsibility was other. In cases of disaster people love ones will probably weight way more than the public which is why I understand the decision that Waller made. I would have probably do the same especially since he felt as if he would not be able to get to his family if he went in to help the public.

Price Of Beauty

Society’s image of “beauty” is an ever-changing concept that has tormented women for hundreds of years. In the late 1800’s beauty culture developed in the United States and a woman was considered beautiful if she had a thin waist and a large hairdo. During the early 1900’s “flappers” popularized the idea of showing more skin, thus making women much more self conscious about their figure. Presently, women who are skinny, toned, and muscular are considered females with the “perfect body.” Throughout the decades there has been a constant belief that to be beautiful, you have to weigh less, and look skinny. Isabella Caro started modeling in her last year of high school and decided that it was going to be her career. The moment that sparked the beginning of her anorexia was when a fashion designer told her she had to lose weight if she wants to be in the fashion world. Caro died on November 17, 2010 weighing less than 55 pounds. In the video “The Price of Beauty, Jessica Simpson meets Isabella Caro” you can truly visualize and understand that the idea of having to be skinny to be beautiful has become an issue of society. Models are not the only ones nowadays that are overly concerned that their bodies are not good enough. Today, women all over America are following special diets and strenuous exercise programs to be able to feel like they fit the image of what our society thinks is beautiful and attractive. It is understandable, even in nature we see plants and animals that adapt to present themselves as a better candidate for mating. But is it really acceptable to have a woman like Isabella Caro slip into anorexia because it is what our society thinks is good-looking? People everywhere, male and female, have such a strong feeling of dissatisfaction with how they look  that it is not just an individual problem anymore. If we look at this issue in a micro-level, individuals see billboards and posters of women with skinny waists and men with six-pack abs literally everywhere. Being exposed to all these pictures of people who are considered “better looking” than the average person has led society to be completely unappeased with itself.

Most people do not realize the trouble that they go through in personal life is also a sociological issues. Undoubtedly, social issues are much larger than individual problem because they affect a bigger part of society. From a example of the chapter one which is taking a new look at a familiar world. Andre was a model student who graduated from a college. He loved to join different activities at his own school whenever he was free. His graduates were excellent and made the dean’s list during four years. Andre had a very clear plan for the future and believed he would get success. However, everything did not go what he thought, therefore, he was unable to get a stable job. He began to suspect his own ability. However, Andre’s employ ability was as much as a result of the economic forces operating at the time when he began applying job. most people had the same situation as him. Moreover, unemployment also is a big issue in that time. So that this example is not only a personal problem but also a social issue.

A music video which is “Society – Is Everybody Going Crazy?” that also demonstrates the links between personal troubles and societal issues. The video shows us about people asking money on the street; homeless people sleeping in the corner; people suffering depression; Teenagers using drug breast enhancement; young people doing cosmetic surgery; kids working in the sweatshop; people committing suicide, and so on. A part of the video that shocks me is that parents always fight in front of children that will to some extent cause great shadow in children’s life that effects on children’s emotional and overall health and their relationships with others later in life. On the other side, in the America 50 percent of marriages will end in divorce. All these troubles already from personal problems become social issues. But nobody cares and nobody wants to share issues we face in today’s society. I wish we could change all these issues taht we can have a better environment to live.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20284970/ns/business-future_of_business/t/where-will-jobs-be/

After reading analysis of college graduate Andre, this article also talks about some potential job opportunities for the college students as “Michael Jackson, founder and chairman of Shaping Tomorrow (said), a British research and analysis service focused on the future. A college degree alone won’t be a free pass to employment anymore.” He has the same viewpoint like what our text said. Regarding Andre’s problem, it directly reflects the whole picture of our society. Since ancient human being used to live together and affected with each other. It built up a society. And it decides that if one person wants to approach success and get respect by others, he must adapt the tendency of the society development.

In this article, the author believes that “Hot jobs of the future will focus on health care, science, high-tech,” which Andre is good at high-tech. However, comparing with other competitors, he might not be versatile, such as the bilingual skills. Now, more and more America IT companies move their program development department oversea, such as India or China and involve the international business. In the U.S.A., some positions may open to the leader, such as manager level positions. As a leader of a team, if they could speak over two languages, they will easily deal with multinational issues and fluently communicate with their foreign clients. In addition, high-technology and health care jobs may require some related job experiences. In this situation, those graduates who own leadership skills and have various working experiences may previously stand out. All of above requirement come from changing structure of our society. Even you don’t or might not believe: globalization is a trend among IT or other high-tech filed. Our world becomes smaller and smaller in this way. We are country difference but we are also common in many ways. As a college student like Andre, are you ready to find your positioning globally?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ga2fbim1F0

I introduce this video because that lady on the video also argues if Wal-mart is good for America, which related to the PBS video that we saw in the class. That lady thought Wal-mart is bad because they can pay for their employees insurance, but they don’t do so. They hire the part time employees in order to avoid some benefits, such as health care. Wal-mart leaves that to the government, which the low income people can get the Medicaid or Medicare from the government. Wal-mart, as a highly profitable retailor doesn’t take the social responsibilities, which is bad for society.

In the class, I learned that Wal-mart moves their supplies into China and squashes costs and then lowers their selling price that pushes the local companies into the awkward competitor situation. Those local owners have to lower their price like what Wal-mart does in order to keep their market share. That causes their profits declines. However, that choice made them speed up business dead. Once local businesses dead, the retailors will find more and more resources oversea, some local companies may move a part of their business oversea, which send out some of their high level employees to live and work in the foreign country. That would affect those leaders family directly.

Meanwhile, those blue collars, which have contributed their whole lives for those local companies but when they get old and almost can get their Pension but have to face unemployed or lay off. Some might not to find a new job because of the recession time. Also, most of them don’t have specific skills or strengths that our digit information rich society is looking for. That will also increase the rate of unemployed. Some may still have the abilities but who will pay for the bill of retraining? Probably, the local government should do so. In that situation, Wal-mart brings another social problem to the government, especially when the government is currently struggling with the budget shortage situation.

On the other hand, Wal-Mart’s major target consumers should be the lower or lower middle class, who may those people, which are facing lay off. And I believe that the upper class will never or ever visit Wal-mart because they refer to buy high quality premium products that Wal-mart can’t stand out.

Once consumers lose or decline their buying power and the government faces the double problems that Wal-mart may bring to, I wonder how Wal-mart is good for the America economy booming in this way. If yes, please give me a reason!