Author Archives: sa095420

Over medicating children

Watching the video from PBS about “medicated child” in class gave me weird emotional feeling. I am a parent and the fact the way those children in such early age were diagnosed with bipolar disorder touch my heart. At the beginning, I could not quite understand if I was agreeing with doctors, but as much we went on watching video, I told myself how terrible it was to get those children on these strong medications.

I am sure we all have seen children who throw a tantrum and act little disturbing sometimes. However, children at age 3 or 4 don’t quite realize their behavior and have not much reasoning, so, that’s why they are children. Parents should have some sort of control to restrain them. This type of behavior does not necessarily mean that they have serious problems as bipolar disorder or ADHD. . At least this is how I see it. I also read some comments from parents whose children were diagnosed with similar conditions, but they refused to give their children medications and what was the outcome? Everything is ok after certain time and those children overcame these behaviors.

On this above video child obviously behaves ”not normal”, he looks like he is on drug, or drunk, but why? Because he is on some sort of strong medication. Do we think it is better for that child? I certainly don’t think so. He is probably on some kind of antidepressant. I don’t believe in such early age any child needs to be on antidepressant.

Realizing this issue made me feel really awful; because I felt like entire health system is corrupted. I knew it. The fact that children have to suffer from it is the horrible outcome. It seems like drug industry is so powerful and manipulative that doctors prescribe any medication to any age patient.

Overall, as I looked at this issue it does not seem right. I think children in young age can act strange and different from other children, but time and patience maybe the better help. In most cases it is useful.

Divorce rate rises as economy improves

I was planning to write about the divorce rate and why people get divorced, but could not find any decent video.  Then I stumbled over the above video.  I find it very interesting how economic and financial challenges could influence a couple who decided not to be together any more, to continue living together.  They got divorced but had to stay in the same house because of the housing crash. After spending some time in the same house they got back together and plan to remarry again. This is an exceptional divorce situation in my opinion. But there are many different cases of divorce.

There are many different reasons why people get divorced; it could be financial problems, unfaithfulness to each other, and could be love, which has disappeared in time, lack of sexual relations and many more.

As our text book says, today, 51% of American women are divorced. I think it is very sad but life becomes more complicated every day. I believe if there is an unhealthy relationship then divorce is a better cure of the problem. Better to avoid violence over financial problems or other misunderstandings than keep the relationship together. Divorce is a huge process, where couples have to go through a lot of steps together; separation of wealth and  assets, child custody and many little details related to their relationship.

Financial problems lately have become much of the reason for divorce. People get married for the wrong reasons and that is what causes divorce in many cases. I read another article where someone wanted to get divorced in six months. When the attorney asked why he got married in the first place, he said it was because he wanted to save on car insurance. This to me sounds absurd; it is a most bizarre reason to get married. I don’t think people understand the real meaning of marriage anymore. Marriage is when two people are sure they want to share their lives together, based on love, understanding and respect. If one of these three aspects is missed in the relationship, it will be very hard to keep it together.

In conclusion, it is unfortunate that families have to go thru divorce but better than being in “bad” relationship. Also it becomes not as much problem lately to be divorced then in earlier times when people only whispered or did not even mentioned the situation. But I believe again this is the life we live now, that we are not prevented from future consequences.

Political Socialization

This video is a perfect example of how family and other social institutions influence way our acts and behaviors are constructed. Aim is to make us believe that Society is an “organism”, that each part has the purpose to function and has to work together to make society efficient.  Social institutions make assumptions that individuals are born into certain categories, from religion to political affiliations “we are parroting what our parents are saying” (video),  mass media influences our opinions almost on all social issues that later are shared among peers, constantly we are told how to act in a way that conforms so called general norms. Conclusion from above statement is that social institutions: like government, family, education, religion, media each contribute to the functioning of society, and for each one of them to function appropriately individuals have to adapt and have certain roles to play in it.

In my opinion it is inevitable that humans are shaped throughout their lives, it is part of the socialization process and we cannot deny it. Among others “Family” is central because it socializes us into most roles in all other institutions that later shapes our identity. According to video 95% share the same political views as their families without even knowing on what issues and where each political party stands on, this an example of “political socialization” that creates our “political identity”, unfortunately some think this is the way should be and have no desire to rebel. Yet for many of us it is problematic on two counts: a) normative assumptions built into the frameworks are not based on objective findings, but rather are hegemonic ideals that social institutions promote based on expectations and norms that are enforced in the society, b) they fail to account that those categories are categories of power. The important goal for use to learn is how to move away from language of norms and deviants and embrace the ideals that is not always close to the concept of hegemony.

Wal-Mart bad or good?

It is difficult for me to take one side in this debate. I think there are some good things about Wal-Mart and some bad things.
I understand that when a big Wal-Mart store opens up, it tends to force other ‘Mom and Pop’ shops out of business. This does bother me. This is a very difficult business climate so seeing any family owned business fail is heartbreaking. However, Wal-Mart saves a lot of people a lot of money in a time where disposable income is hard to come by. I agree that it is not a positive thing that all the products are only cheap because they are mostly made in China and may be lower quality. It is unfortunate that companies like Wal-Mart find it cheaper to outsource all of its manufacturing and use overseas suppliers instead of giving American manufacture’s incentive to supply Wal-Mart.  I know there are a lot of complaints about the labor practices Wal-Mart uses such as low wages and mostly part time shifts to avoid paying for benefits but then I hear of stories where a person with no formal education has an opportunity to become a manger and make a very good living. Wal-Mart has created hundreds of thousands of jobs which have to be appreciated.
In an ideal world, Americans here would be willing to produce quality goods for a competitive wage which could supply Wal-Mart and other retail stores but it is just not the case. I agree that there are unfair advantages when you are the size of a  mega corporation like Wal-Mart that have an impact on local communities sometimes negatively but it seems that the consumer has spoken otherwise Wal-Mart would not be thriving the way it as.