blog post for 12/18

I experienced sociology when I was watching E! news the other night. It was showing the attacks on Prince Charles and Camilla because of the tripled tuition costs. The mobs and riots were very intense. Someone put a stick through the window of the limo they were in! Those were some uphappy college-bound students in the UK this weekend.
When I was watching E! news, I realized that Smelser's 6 factors related to this situation. For one, there was inadequate social control. There was not enough police force to stop these young adults from vandalizing and attacking. There was a precipitating factor, which was the rise is tution costs. There was also growth and spread of a generalized beliefe, which was the unhappiness in the tripled education costs. Heck, I would be angry too!

When It Goes Off

This article was about crazy soccer fans in London, and how intense team rivalries can get. One man was killed in a fight right before a soccer game because of the team he supported.
Smelser's 6 factors can definitley be related to this incident. There was social strain between the two teams. There was a precipitating factor, which was the amout of alchohol that was consumed and the growing tension between the fans of both teams. There was inadequate social control because there was no police force at the fight to stop this man from getting murdered. There also was growth and spread of a generalized belief between the fans on one team- that soccer was so important that having a violent fight that ends up killing someone is perfectly acceptable!

Blog post for 12/6

All of a sudden, I experienced sociology during Thanksgiving. Our family just had a quiet holiday, as it was just my mom, my brothers, and me. I began to think about my family. I am super close with my immediate family, but not with my extended family. We are pretty much only related by blood.
I now realize that my extended family is really only a kinship group. My immediate family is a kinship group and a primary group. I feel very close to them and we spend most of our time together. My status as a daughter and a sister with my immediate family is an ascribed status. I was born into it. My family dynamic is very relatable to our Groups unit.

BLog post for 11/18

It really upset me that when we visited the jails, that most of the prisoners we saw were of minority racial groups. I wish it wasn't that way, that more people in minorites are caught doing whatever crimes that white people are doing also, but unfortunatley that is the way it is. As it says in The Vicious Circle essay, more minority racial groups are in the jails. Most prisoners have commited secondary deviance. They did not just make on estupid mistake when they were young. They have made repeated deviant acts and crimes which have landed them in jail.
I do think prisons are a way of controling criminal behavior to an extent. For murders and rapists yes, I do believe that they should be locked up and away from society. But for others no, I do not think prisons are the answer. Rehabilitiation centers are. That way, secondary deviance can be avoided, and less crime will be commited. Yes, secondary deviance is being seen here because these people have commited their crimes more than one time.

blog post for 11/12

All of a sudden, I found myself experiencing sociology when my mom was telling me about her job. My mom works at a doctors office as a receptionist. She tells me funny stories all the time about the patients that she sees in the waiting room. One story she told me intrested me a lot. I asked her if the waiting room got noisy when it is full. Surprisingly enough, she said no. She said that actually, the more people in the wating room, the quieter it is. People don't want other people to hear their converasations and judge them.
This was very interesting to me. The people in the waiting room would be breaking a folkway is they talked really loud about their personal lives. That would be strange, and people would most likely give them looks and listen to their converstation. My mom said it's actually nosier when just one family is in, because then they can talk about whatever and not have to worry about other people hearing about their personal lives. After my mom told me about this, I told her that I was going to write my next sociology blog post about it. And so I did :)

blog post for 10/28/10

The article Clothes Encounter Provides Poignant Life Lesson For Son was very interesting. It really makes ya think! I think that the parents of their son were excellent parents. They didnt force him to be something he isn't and they let him be himself. They did not worry about how he would make them look, they only worried about his happiness. They treated him with respect and they treated him like an individual. It was very inspiring.
Little kids should be able to wear whatever they want. Wearing a princess dress isn't going to hurt anybody. It is interesting that the little boy was even able to pick up on the fact that boys shouldn't wear dresses. Kids are very intuned to the world around them. I enjoyed reading and thinking about this article :)

blog post for 10/18

All of a sudden, I found myself experiencing sociology when I was at Walgreens yesterday. I had gone to the doctor earlier that day and I found out i have pink eye and needed to pick up a perscription to cure it. I was waiting for the percription that took about twenty mintutes to fill. So I sat down in a chair and started to read a magazine, but I got distracted people-watching. If you ever want to go somewhere to see all different kinds of people, let me tell you, Walgreens at 7 o'clock in the evening on a Sunday is the place to go!
At Walgreens, I saw a worried mother trying to find the right cold medicine for her baby, an old man with a girlfriend who looked about 15 or so years younger than him, some emo teenagers, and a mom with about 6 kids with her. Wierd! I also saw a woman who attracted attention everywhere she went. She was wearing a very revealing tanktop, skin-tight jeans that needed to be pulled up, and some very, very talk black stilleto boots. I'm pretty sure last night I saw my first prostitute! The woman commited a folkway by wearing this scandalous outfit to Walgreens. She got many strange looks from people! But since she wasn't hurting anybody or breaking a law by wearing this outfit, she was only breaking a folkway. What an adventure at Walgreens!

blog post for 1/10

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was at homecoming. My date and I had planned to go to Olive Garden before the dance for some yummy Italian food. We got to the resturant at 6 and it was completley packed! There was going to be a 45-60 minute wait for us to get a table, and the dance started at 7. Ut-oh! We did not know where else to go for dinner. There was the mall across the street! We briefly considered going there, but we ruled it out and ended up going to Portillos. Yummy!
When I look back, I realize that if we did end up going to the mall in our homecoming clothers, me in a fancy shmancy dress and him in a shirt and tie, we would have been breaking a folkway! I mean, come on, who goes to the mall all dressed up? I have seen people going to the mall in their pijamas before. A completley opposite direction! If we did end up going to the mall all dressed up, we may have gotten strange looks from people. And that is what a folkway is. It is breaking a norm in society that really isn't that important and that isn't affecting other people. It's not like, for example, starting a food fight in commons during lunch! :)

Symbols



This is a symbol for WARNING! This could symbolize not to eat, touch, or inhale the olbject that this symbol is on. doing any of the above would be dangerous!



George Bush looks has a very confused look on his face. This could be a symbol for "I completley forgot what my speech!" This look is probually not the best look for our ex-president to have.




This is a symbol for MONEY! Something very important in American society. This symbol mean a lot to many people.



This symbol means STOP! It means stop on the road, but it doesn't need to just mean stop for on the road. It can mean "Stop what you are doing!"



                         This is a thumbs up symbol. It means "good job!" or "yes!". This sign is very well known in American society.



blog post for 9/17/10

All of a sudden, I experienced sociology when I went to the away football game on Friday. The energy level was high in the bleachers, especially where the squad was. Everyone was jumping, cheering, and yelling for our Wego football team. Everyone was feeding off of eachother's energy. I found myself thinking, "Wow, funtionalist theory is at work here!" And it really was.
Functionalist theory emphasizes the contributions of the different parts of society. There were many different parts of the squad that came together to make up the squad. There were the kids that painted themselves with body paint to represent our school colors. There were kids who brought horns and other insturments for noise. There were the kids leading the squad and starting the cheers. And there were the kids who just cheered. The squad is an obvious example of funtionalist thory in work in the real, modern world.

Bemused in America

In Bemused in America, Stefan found it strange that grocery stores are open 24 hours a day. He also found it strange that there are som any extremes. Fat-free milk, yes tons of sweets and chips. And all of the pre-sliced food.
Stefan finds it strange because it is very different in Germany, where he is from. In Germany, stores close at 8 and are not even open on Sundays. All of the "buy one get one free" offers are not in Germany either. What a big culture shock!
Some American values I can relate to this article are obesity, lazyness, and immediate gratification. Obesity in America is an obvious problem because, at grocery stores, cakes and sweets are sold all the time for very cheap. It costs less money to eat unhealthily. Lazyness because the food is pre-sliced. And immediate gratification because we could to go the grocery store anytime of the day and get exactly what we want.

All of a sudden...

All of a sudden I, found myself thinking sociologically when I was working on my sociology expiriment in class. I was trying to think of what I should do for my survery, and how I should collect my data. I realized that when I am going to put my statistics together, I am going to be taking after Emile Durkheime. He was a sociologist who focused on collecting data. It's cool to realize that you are taking after a famous sociologist :)
I also realized that I am also taking after Jane Adams. She was a feminist sociologist who focused on the imbalance of power between the social classes. She was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, and she worked directly with the poor. She worked directly with the people she was sociologically studying. That is what I am doing. I am working directly with the people that I am surverying. It's pretty cool!

Who Am I?

Who am I? I am pacient, organized, and kind of shy. I love animals and I enjoy school. My family is very important to me, as are my friends. My favorite way to spend a weekend is hanging out with my friends, sleeping in, and running errands with my mom. I am kind, and I often help out at my mom's food pantry. I hope to go to college after high school and become a kindergarten teacher.
My biggest influence in my life is probually my mom. She is an independent, loving, and a good teacher, and she is my role model. She has overcome many obstacles in her life with grace and respect. She always puts other people first, which is very admirable. She has always been there for my brothers and I, and that is my my mom is my greatest influence in my life.
My goal in life to is to help others. That why we are here, right? To help other people have the best life they can have. One of the reasons I want to become a kindergarten teacher is to help little kids have a great start to their school experience. This is the first time kids are leaving their house, without their parents. It is a scary experience for a child to have. I hope to make that experience fun, educational, and worthwhile. I want to be able to be there for the kids and parents. I want to help people. I hope I will be able to achieve that.