Last Social Class Blog:Wealth

Wealth gives people endless privileges in life that people of middle class could never get. Wealthy people drive this country and influence important decisions on it. While playing Monopoly, I was the poorest in our group...during the game I lost almost all my money until I went into debt..the person who started out with the most money in our group kept buying houses, and he kept on getting richer and richer. What I learned after playing Monopoly is that in real life, people who are born poor will most likely grow up poor and not make it to the middle class. People who are born into a rich family will most likely be rich...So, whatever class your family is, you will most likely achieve the same status. What I also learned from Monopoly is that wealthy people can afford to make mistakes, whereas if you are poor and you make a mistake...your done. Three privileges wealth gives people include a better education, better networking opportunities, and more toys. People who have wealth are able to get the top of the line education because they don't have to worry about loans, they can go to the best colleges, and have the best professors in the country. All because they have money, and they might find a loop hole by paying extra money under the table to get into the school. Secondly, wealthy people are able to network more often. For example, in the movie, "People Like Us," you saw all those people at that convention thingy outside where they were all networking with each other, giving their names and friends they knew who could help them out with a business related issue. (Having money allows you to network with people in your class, and gives you advantages that other people of different classes can't.) Finally, having wealth allows you to enjoy life more greatly by having more toys, such as huge houses, luxurious cars, expensive jewelry, and personal chefs. Having these lets you live life easier and more rewarding. I think that the rich should be taxed more so they aren't controlling this country as much as they are...it is ridiculous how some wealthy people use their money whereas it should be spread across the nation to people who need the money.

Class and People Like Us...

This quote has a lot of meanings in it. I think the quote means that what a man does reflects his character and values and what he's all about and believes in. His actions and what he does depends on his circumstances. This means his actions are defined through what is around him being his circumstances. Ex) Where he lives. How much money he makes. His morals/values. These are all circumstances that define people's actions. "The characteristics that ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another." This means that issues that bring down a man in one class, will make him flourish in another. When comparing the idea of an aggressive real estate agent vs. an aggressive sanitation worker, the qualities of each are way different. The qualities of a real estate agent are that they want to get as much money as possible through houses, where as a sanitation worker needs to clean businesses to get enough money to survive. This has to do with certain classes too. The real estate agent is at a higher class, whereas the sanitation worker is at the poor class.

Deviance

Deviance is defined as an act or actions that seriously or repeatedly violates social norms. It is created by the society that you live in. Deviance of Class revolves around place, time, and perception. Deviance can either be positive or negative. I believe that punishable deviance is a societal construct. If a person does something bad or against the law they should go to jail. The short movie that we watched in class, "30 Days" depicts the overcrowdedness of jail. In our jail system, there are just too many people in jails. Average of 3 people per room. Most people in jail are in there for drugs or drug related altercations. And once they get out, ex) George and Travis, they usually end up getting thrown back in jail within a couple of months because nothing in jail helps them overcome their addiction. I think that instead of sending drug addicts back to jail, we should send them to a camp to overcome their addiction with drugs. This would reduce the number of people in jail a ton and the country would save a bunch of money. The jail system tells us sociologists that the punishment doesn't always fit the crime. If someone is busted on the streets for having marijuana on them, I don't believe that they should face a harsh jail sentence...they should just be fined and be sent to a drug rehabilitation camp. Drug users are usually the ones who are arrested and convicted and then sentenced to jail. The main concern is what we do with the deviants once they're in jail. In our penitentiary system today, the people who need the most help such as drug abusers are almost ignored and allowed to do whatever they want during their free time. That's where it's wrong...These people with less serious crimes need help, and they shouldn't be ignored by staff. They should be sent away for addiction help....

Final Blog for 2nd Six Weeks

Throughout this past six weeks, I have learned a truck load about socialization and adolescence. First, I have learned the difference between nature and nurture. Nature is what a person is born with, compared to nurture, which is the environment you live in as you grow. I believe nurture affects what you wear, and what sporting activities you are involved in. Take today for example, today I wore an aeropostale sweatshirt. This is the type of clothing that I prefer to wear. I was not born liking any brand. I developed what I like in the environment that I grew up in. I also think that the sports people play is from nurture. At a young age, my friends and I would start playing basketball and baseball for fun. This was the environment I grew up in...But what sports people play could be from nature too. For example, my neighbors dad played baseball in college. As his kids grew up he forced them to play sports. This would be nature because when the kids were born, they were born into playing sports with really no choice to if they wanted to participate in them. In my future profession, I want to go into business. My dad is in the business field, so this would be like nature...something I was born into. All in all, nature and nurture balance each other.

Adolescent social power is very important and consuming to adolescents. Social power to teens is what we have. We are limited to what we have through the restrictions from our parents. We are not able to fully make our own decisions until we are in college...or out. Teens social power is defined as who we hang out with, what clothes we wear, and what kind of music we listen to. Social status power to a teen is almost like their rank within their friends. Most teens feel that they need to be cool in their crowd. Teens may feel afraid that if they don't follow a certain trend, their peers may start to ignore them...because they aren't following the social norm, That's why most adolescents feel that social status power is important. And it's consuming because it takes a lot of time for adolescents to fit in a certain group.

The socialization process for children is a lot different today than in most previous generations. In the current generation, teens are brought up through technology. They are surrounded by gadgets such as phones, computers, television, gaming consoles, etc. As where in the past, children were more disciplined towards life. As studies have proved, today, children talk to their parents for approximately one hour each day. That is an astounding number!! Compared to in the 1950's or so children would be playing around the house with their mothers present. So there was more family time. The gap for the socialization process I believe is due to technology and mothers not being stay at home mom's anymore. They would get a job and little Johnny would have to stay home and find something else to do with no one around. That's where the technology come in. A concern with this change in the socialization process is children are starting to become less social due to technology. Little Johnny will start texting people instead of having face to face conversations with them. Or Johnny will start to stay in on weekends playing xbox instead of interacting with actual human-beings. This is a concern to our nation because people will start to lose skills that they need to succeed in order to make the country better.

We are surrounded by gender differences in socialization. It starts the second we are born; We are given a teddy bear, and depending on the color, whether its pink or blue, determines why we set a border between genders at a young age. We are programed to alter our activities based on gender. For example, lets say a girl wants to play football when she's in grade school, and she really feels a passion for the sport finds out that she will be playing with all boys. She will probably quit because the gender differences in socialization teach genders to divide a line in the things that they participate in. As a child to now I have played several sports including baseball and basketball. These have had a great impact in my life and they have taught me a lot of lessons. If our society wasn't brought up by our gender differences, we would see an increase in the number of the opposite gender participating in the other genders activities. Ex)More girls playing guys sports. This would be a good thing to provide a variety of people to divide this gender line that our society has created.

NATURE & NURTURE

Nature is defined as what a person is born with, and nurture is defined as the environment a person grows up in. Both are essential for socialization, the process and factors that create the social animal in the existence at that moment.

I am like my family in several ways. First, I am very organized. I like to keep all my belongings in order. Secondly, I am similar to my family in which we all have our minds focused on happiness, ability to be successful, and having good relationships with the people around us. I am like my friends by mostly having the same sense of humor and interests. I was not born being like my family and friends, and it is because of nurture that I am who I am today.

My parents first realized I had an unique personality when I was a few days old. My parents noticed that I was much louder than my sisters were...I had more "ummff". My parents also noticed that I was easy going and happy as an infant. I do not want to be like my parents in the sense that they are really bad with technology. I believe it is possible to work against both nature and nurture and to be different if a person "looks outside the box" and at other cultures in order to adapt the agents of socialization within that culture.

The most significant groups in my life that have affected my self-concept, attitudes, behaviors, and other orientations toward life would have to be the neighborhood I live in, sports I participate in,and school. I am fortune enough to live in a neighborhood where everyone is connected. If one of my neighbors need help with something, I will usually help them...this has affected my attitudes towards people in my life. My neighborhood relationships will help guide me to a successful life because I know how to help people in need. Sports have also affected my self-concept in a good way. Throughout my life, sports have taught me to be a team player. To help the bigger cause instead of your personal accomplishments. Finally, I have been fortunate enough to have attended the schools I have went to, which have been rich in education. I have learned so much from school, in that it has made me a better person, and it has made my self-concept, attitudes, and behaviors on life better on the community. On the flip side, someone going to school in the inner city may have a totally different outlook on life, because the agents of socialization in their community is different. Nature and Nurture have a huge impact on children as they grow up to be adults in society.

The Significance of Water in My Life

1.There are several unique examples of water in my life. Water is defined as culture and the way it affects our behaviors. An example of water in my life is school. I've gone to school my whole life, it surrounds me, and sometimes I don't notice it, because it's a daily routine. Just as culture surrounds us humans is to how water surrounds fish. The culture that we live in around the Stevenson area is to perform to your best abilities to achieve greatness. School affects my behavior greatly, because I take my grades seriously, as in other cultures, people may not care about there grades and just drop out of school, and get involved in crime. So different cultures around the globe view school differently. In the Stevenson High School District, your grades are the most important, and you are pressured to do well. If we do good enough in school, we will go to college. This is the college mindset in our culture, that everyone is going to leave high school and go straight to college, and become successful. This is the culture that we live in. But, in other cultures, their view on schooling is different than ours. For example, in some foreign countries, after a certain amount of years in school, you may just be thrown out into the real world either working a low paying job or joining the military, rather than going to college. As where in our culture, we go to college. School is a good example of water in my life, and depending on your culture, you will view the world differently.
2. As I am surrounded by water, I am able to navigate through water by looking at the different cultures around me, and studying their culture, and then trying to understand my culture. This is challenging, because when you look at your own culture and who you are, it is hard to figure out. This is because you are like a fish in the water trying to figure out the significance of water to you. Culture is a humans water. To behaviorally adjust to the cultural forces going around me, I stay open-minded to new ideas, but I also have to keep my morals in my mind and not go against them. I also think for myself and not let other people influence my decisions. I try new things, but if I do not agree with what I'm doing, then I won't do it again. An example of staying open-minded but not going against your morals would be if I was peer pressured into doing something illegal, and I was thinking of doing it, I am staying open minded. But if it is against my morals, which it would be because it is illegal, then I won't participate because I don't agree with it and its against my cultural behavior.
3. Personal values that I embrace are Education and Choice. I embrace education because it is the foundation to success. I have to stay in school and get good grades in order follow my career plan for the future. I also embrace choice because I am in control of my life. I can make any choices I want to to direct my life path. Both Education and Choice will lead me to happiness. An example of how I embrace Educaton is that I am planning on going to college, from getting good grades 1-12th, and trying me best. An example of how people embrace choice would be portrayed in the movie Tuesday's With Morrie. The main character(I forget his name-The Journalist) see's on the news that his college professor is dying from a disease. At first he is hesitant to see Morrie. But after his first visit, he is amazed by all the good talks him and Morrie will have to come. So therefore, because of the American value of choice, The Journalist was sad before he met up with Morrie, but when he finally took that first step to seeing him, he lived a happy life, and understood what life was all about because of Morrie's words of wisdom on life to him. The last example of choice is assisted suicide. It is hard to believe that in the world we are living in today, it is legal for a doctor to help kill you. So if I was faced with a decision like this I would decide to keep living unpeacefully because nothing beats life. I would not want to have someone help kill me, even if I would die more peacefully, because I don't want to take the easy way out. If my personal values are different than those of America's values, than I will adjust them through America's trends and traditions, so then my values may change over time, because I may change them here and there.

First Day of Class

I thought the first day of sociology was interesting. I expected to be greeted at the door and go sit down and wait for class to start and that's what happened. I wasn't expecting a handshake from Mr. Smith. When class started it was dead silent for about five minutes. It was pretty awkward. Everyone in the class was surprised that Mr. Smith was dead silent, staring at us for five minutes.