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!