Shift Happens

I was pretty shocked to watch the video clip on youtube.com. It was shocking how much size mattered. With 1,300 people like "you" in China and 1,100 people like "you" in India. 25% of China's population with IQ's greater than the total population of North America! It was saddening to see how Nintendo invested over $140 million on research and development one year and the United Stated Federal Government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.Why would we spend so much money on Nintendo than on research in education? Shouldn't we strive to get information on education instead of Nintendo? I was also suprised how the number of texts sent and recieved each day exceeds the population of the planet! I do have to admit, I text a lot, but I didn't think people texted that much. I think our educational system needs to improve to help students learn more. I think all of us in the United States need to really focus on education and to not be so focused on technology as much.

Urban Life

I would have to say that I have lived in Urban areas my whole life. I lived in McLean, VA for 18 years and I have been living in Herndon, VA for the past 2 years. The book talks about more urban industrial areas being developed and that is definitely true. There is always so much construction going on with the roads or new houses. Everytime I get on the highway, there is always some type of construction going on causing traffic to occur. Now I think they are (or will start) to be working on the Metro out near tysons. I think that will get a lot more people to come to that area so that they do not have to waste their gas, since gas is expensive, and the metro is always pretty efficient. I'm kind of glad I have never lived in a rural area. I don't think I would get used to it easily and I feel like I'm more of a city girl.

Who has the Power?

With the theories of who holds the power, I agree with the Democratic Elitism. With nature and limits of modern democracy. It states that direct democracy is impossible as means of regular government in large scale societies, running a complex society demands expertise.
It also says that it needs parties to have different interests and outlooks which is true so we have options to agree or disagree with so its not always hearing only one side. Another thing it says is that political leaders with imagination and courage to escape inertia of bureaucracy with importance of leadership. I definitely agree with that. Political leaders need imagination to come up with new ideas and being able to brainstorm what is right for our country. Leadership is very important!

Is Walmart good for America?

I do think that Walmart is good for America. So many of us shop at Walmart to save some money. I personally by hair dye, and at places like CVS it's probably $14, but at Walmart it's only $3. It is such a big difference when you don't have that much money to be able to spend. They mentioned in the film about $256 billion in sales! It's better than our recent black friday! Walmart has a push to pull production. Where they decide what to provide and retailers tell what to produce and when to produce. Walmart even beat out Rubbermaid, which was a popular retail store. Walmart has been voted the Nations most admired in the past. I think it's good how much money Walmart helps you save so you don't burn a hole in your pocket.

domestic division of labor

I filled out the chart more on, how it used to be in my house. Since my mother is going through cancer and all of her treatment, the roles have reversed tremendously with my father, brother, and I doing the household chores that the mother usually ends up doing.

I found it pretty amusing when I did the chart. Almost all of the work was done by the mother. With the laundry, dishes, cooking, and so forth. Basically all of the household chores/tasks are done by the mother unless she asks the father/spouse/children to do them. The lawn and outside chores/tasks are mostly done by the male in the house. The women really do have a "second shift", with her first job being going out and working/getting money and then coming home to her second job of taking care of her kids and home.

Secularizing society(religion)

I do think that our society is world secularizing. I feel that religion today is not as important as it used to be back in old times. Not many people really fight for their religion like they used to. People don't even really talk about religion these days and if you do, sometimes you are looked at differently from believing in something that someone else doesn't believe in. Since religion is a form of culture, I definitel think that the culture is decreasing as time goes on. In the textbook it says, " Sociologists believed that through alienation, human beings attribute their own culturally created values and norms to alien, or separate, beings because they do not understand their own history." I think that in order for religion to become "more popular" or increase as to say, people need to know more about the past, and how their religion/what they believe in, was in the past and not just the present.

Blog on A Tale of Two

It is pretty crazy how the two stories differed so drastically. To me it seemed like the African American boy (Byron) must work more hard in life than the white boy (Max). It seems like the white boy had everything handed down to him and he didn't have to work as hard for what he wanted in life (including his house, which his parents even helped with the payment for). I feel like i relate more to Byron because my parents are already at a financial problem because my mom is going through cancer and is a therapist; so she has not been able to work for the past 6 months with all of her chemotherapy. I even work two jobs so that I can help out with some bills at home, and Byron seems to have worked hard in his life as well, considering he also helps his parents from time to time with the bills/finances. It was a pretty eye-opening story to read about how different two people's lives from two different cultures can be.

social constuction of gender

My favorite part of this weeks reading was on pages 288-289 on The Political Work of Drag. On a personal note, my best friend is a male (and homosexual) and well, with all honestly, he likes to wear heels and sometimes dress up as a girl. It's quite an interesting sight to see. I think it's definitely very cool to have homosexuals because many of them (male or female), i feel, act differently than you think their gender should. It's nice to have something break the stereotype/male/female roles. This article talked about how the performers were doing political work because "their shows solidify community among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender audience...". It's public sociology because " it stimulates discussion about what it means to be a man or a woman and what it means to be gay or straight in a number of different venues." Three of the drag queens ended up going to UCSB to put on a little act and the students were very impressed and had fun with it. The students even ended up waving dollar bills. It's nice to know that people were so welcoming and outgoing/happy about it; even though it's not a totally common thing in our culture/social norm.

Global Inequality

Global Inequality as the book says refers to the systematic differences in wealth and power among countries. Even the wealthiest of countries have a growing number of poor people. Global inequality effercts everyone from high income countries to low income countries. As it says in the podcast, we should care about global inequality because it effects our everyday life. It deals with the countries dealing with one another and how each country contributes some positive and negative things. Such as brilliant minds, cultural products, hatred, distruption, and poverty. We need to understand and figure out everything about it regaurdless of the negative aspects because it affects our everyday life.

Social Class

I definitely think that social class matters a lot in the United States today. As I was reading the stores by people from “People Like Us” all of them mentioned how their social class mattered. Joe Queenan said that high school will always play a part in his life. He is 50 years old and still worries about what his friends think of his records and stuff like that. He grew up in the working class and now is a successful author. He says that the middle class has a lifelong desire to fit in and impress. Tom Smith said that everyday things display what class you are in. He said that Whole wheat bread is consumed by highly-educated people. It kind of made me laugh, how can bread determine what social class you are in? However, I guess everyone has a different way of thinking/determining things…
Vanessa Rineheart said that she wonders what she is doing wrong that attracts men that don’t have cars and don’t’ have jobs. She said that she tries to associate herself with upper-class people. Another upper-class person (Thomas P) said that he was a member of the privileged Americans. He said he is known for someone who was born with a silver spoon/handed things from an early age. From my readings in the book, it talks about status and how one’s status power derives from the ability to increase one’s own prestige. It talks about class and the life chances that you get to be able to achieve your economic prosperity. The book talks about upper-class, lower-class, middle-class, upper-middle class, lower-middle class, and working class. Lastly it talks about the underclass which is known as the “new urban poor” which includes many African Americans that are trapped in a generation cycle of poverty.

Social Ties

I definitely think that the internet isolated Americans today. Like the book said, people can stay home now and meet others instead of a face-to-face interaction.The internet can definitely be helpful for people that are not as outgoing as others and find it easier to meet people on the internet without having to actually see that person. The internet can definitely take away some of the nervous tensions. People can also take online classes(like we are doing)and it lacks the classroom(social) environment; even though we are talking to one another through the computer it is not the same as in person. Facebook makes it so we can talk to other people and meet new friends; and that isolates us because we are not meeting them in person. I don't think it's something we need to be concerned about because people always go outside to maintain their daily life (ie: get food, go to the movies, ect...), and people survive from others and need to be social.

The criminal justice system

Question : Whether you agree or disagree with the sociological perspective on your chosen topic (and why).

The topic that fascinated me the most was the fact that men commit more crimes than women. The book stated that men are mostly the aggressors and women are mostly the victim. They said that women only mak up 7.1% of the population in prison as of 2004. I found it shocking that it was such a small percentage. However I do agree with the fact that women are found not to be able to protect themselves as easily as men are. I think that a lot of men are in jail because they either raped a woman or killed someone. The rates in 2006 were that 76.2% of the arestees were men. Men commit more "horrible" crimes such as murder. Womens offenses as they say are mostly small scale like shoplifting and prostitution.
In response to what the book said and the statistics I would definitely have to say that I agree with the sociological perspective. I do believe that men commit more crimes than women.

Nature vs Nurture Debate

I do not believe that one is more than the other. I think that they both are equal. As for nature I believe that men are born as men and women are born as women. I definitely believe in gender equality as mentioned in the podcast. However as far as nurture goes I believe that what our parents/friends teach us shape who we are as a person; as well as our environment. There are also some instances where I believe that Nature may not be the side to chose because a small amount of people sometimes believe that they were born as the wrong gender and decide to switch it. I think that Nature and Nurture work in both ways in social outomes/life.

culture- youtube.com

American culture seems too look pretty amusing to to the British audience. Hugh Laurie didn't look to 'clean cut' in his performance. His hair was a mess and he wasn't even dressed well for a performance. The song that he performed was only TWO words and kept repeating the same notes on the piano. It made it look like us in America are not too smart. The audience kept laughing at him because he was only able to sing "America" and "States". He even got punched out during his performance because he was pretty pathetic to watch and the audience burst out into laughter, even though they were laughing throughout the whole performance. The British audience must not think too highly of American culture in this clip.

Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical?

Even though the Stanford Prison Experiment went to the extremes, I do believe that the experiment was ethical. It showed even that good people with a good mental stability can get so much into a role that they will start to believe that it is true reality. The students that had to play the role of the prisoner began to act like a prisoner, and the students that played the role of a gaurd began to act as a gaurd. How do I put this... Instead of playing the role, they ended up becoming the role and thinking that this was reality and there was no way out. The experiment that was supposed to last 2 weeks ended up only going on for less than a week. I think that an experiment like this can help us if anything like this was to happen again, like Abu Ghraib, and so we can prevent and stop it from occuring again.

Wk 1 blog entry: Introduction

Hey everyone! This is my second year at NVCC. I'm majoring in Psychology and I plan to transfer to George Mason. I plan to become a substance abuse counselor when I'm done with school.
For my interests and hobbies, I love playing the piano. I have been playing for about 13 years now. I also love to sing. I've been in chorus since I was in 5th grade and have been in Advanced/Select chorus classes for many years throughout middle and high school. I graduated from Chantilly High School in 2008 and I'm definitely very happy to be out of high school. I love going to the movies, especially horror and comedy. All of my classes this semester are online except for one. I've been busy taking care of my mom who is going through chemotherapy for breast cancer. I always wear pink on her chemo. treatment days.
I'm taking Soc200 because I've always found it fascinating to see how people in groups act and because it was one of the general electives listed that I could take for my major. I look forward to getting to know/work with you guys.

-Kristin Spring