This is a blog based around Sal's period 4 Sociology class.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Media affecting us

This week we talked about how the media affects men and women in America today. Women in t.v and movies are always tall, thin and beautiful and men are always muscular and "tough" guys. When people watch t.v, many start to question their own appearance and notice more imperfections. People try all these different products to make them look a certain way when they don't understand that half the time people are airbrushed and not even real, or they starve themselves to death to look a certain way making them unhealthy. I don't think it's fair to have a little girl watch tv and already start to question the way she looks because of what her favorite character on tv looks like. Recently, Dove came out with their new campaign to promote self esteem and use models that were normal women. If they had workshops and campaigns like this a long time ago I think the media would not be as bad as it is today. Also, the stereotypes now used for men and women in media are completely unrealistic. Guys supposedly have to be "macho" and like all sports and aggressive, while girls can be bad at math and science or "ditzy" and used as sex objects. Most of the time, people will see those projected characters in the media and think that's how it is suppose to be. It's not fair. It's not realistic, and it needs to be.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

UN-TV

So far in sociology I've learned that it is not your typical academic study in school. It makes you think outside the box and do things that you would never do unless it was given to you as an assignment. Last week we had to "do nothing" which I blogged about as being one of the hardest things I had to do, but this experiment we had to do this week was hard as well. The Un-TV experiment had a few steps: Watch any show and look at the technical effects, watch a show in silence, watch the news in silence, watch someone else watching tv, and watch the tv without turning it on. After doing the whole experiment it showed how much tv has an impact on our lives. We literally turn into zombies. The amount of our blinking even decreases. When the sound is off, I did find that you become more aware of the show because you want to know what is going on. It was a great challenge, and another way to learn sociology hands on.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Just DO nothing

I think I got the most challenging assignment ever this week. In class we were told we had to literally "do nothing". I thought it was a joke at first because I didn't understand it exactly. It was basically zoning out, but still being aware of surroundings. I decided to do nothing at my homecoming after party. It took me forever to decide how I was going to take on the experiment. I stood against a wall kind of in a corner where it wasn't really noticeable, and just stood there. I kept thinking "why am I doing this?" I couldn't get myself to concentrate for at least 5 minutes. Finally I started to do nothing. It was weird just standing there, watching and listening to what people were saying. I got stares from people, weird faces, people asking each other questions if I was okay, and people that didn't even notice. It was so hard not to be able to stop and tell them what was going on. I could have told everyone for ten minutes I was just going to stand there, but then I would not have gotten the full experience of people looking at me like I was crazy. It was a great experience to step out of the real life for a second and just view the teenage culture/society.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Tuesdays with Morrie

In Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch values hard work by getting his articles done by the set deadlines, he travels all over the place to report the latest in sports, and committed his life to his job. As he starts to spend more time with Morrie, he starts to learn that achievement and success aren't necessarily related to how well you do in a career, it's how well you do in life. Morrie told Mitch that he wanted to become a teacher because he didn't want a job that would make him walk all over people. He wanted to do something that would make a difference, and it shows that he did make a difference because Mitch was a former student, and Morrie was a big impact in his life. Mitch learns that commitment to work is not everything, and success is having Janine in his life, and proposing to her shows they'll be happy together, and he said he wanted to start a family, which in a lot of people's minds including my own, makes you successful. I think successful means to be happy. If someone is making millions of dollars and they are lonely and miserable, I don't think they're successful when you look at their life as a whole. Yes they're successful in making money, but someone once said "money doesn't buy you happiness" and it's so true. My parents always talk about how they wish their parents pushed them harder in college to go in the field they loved. My dad would have gone to Loyola University to become a writer, and instead went to Columbia College and works for a big corporation always saying how he wished he became a writer. I think once you are in high school or get your first job, you start to value hard work and success. In school, I always take my work seriously, and when I first became a camp counselor, I valued hard work and success from the beginning because I was once a camper at the camp i work at, and I knew the campers wanted a counselor that cares, and at the end of the summer when they are crying and hugging you not wanting to let go, you know you were successful for making that child's summer the best it could be.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Being an American

When we were asked to prepare an outline for what it means to be an American, I thought it was going to be really easy. I later had the paper sitting in front of me and had no idea what to write. I tried to think like I was one of my cousins from London. I thought about what they thought about how we dress, talk, act, and then I knew what I was going to write. I've never been to London yet, but whenever my cousins come here, I'm always able to pick out what they do differently, and it would seem like they were weird, but that's what they were use to. When my cousins try to do an "American accent", it always comes out sounding like they are from the south. Even though they know they have family in Chicago, they think of Texas and the south when they think of America. Whenever we would go out to eat they would never order anything else besides a hamburger or steak. The food is another thing when they think of America that comes to mind. They all eat sooooo much when they're here it's crazy! Even if they were walking somewhere they would take the time, never hurry up, and someone in my family would ask them to pick up the pace. Thinking like I was my cousins helped me with this assignment. It showed that even though my uncle was originally from here and moved to London where he started a family, he no longer really remembers how to be American after he has been there for so long. I never realized how different we look to other countries, but I guess I haven't really been out of my fishbowl.