Culture

This week in sociology, we were introduced to culture. After playing a card game in class, we were introduced to three new terms called culture shock, ethnocentrism, and culture relativity. Culture shock is when someone is kind of taken back by the fact that other cultures do things differently and it's hard for them to adjust. Ethnocentrism is when a person is very centered on their own culture. Culture relativity is when a person respects other cultures. It was interesting to read the article about the lady from Denmark who left her child outside while she ate at a restaurant in New York City. It was surprising to me that a person would do that, but to her it is just a normal everyday thing, so it was cool to see how other culture does things that I would consider completely weird.

A Bronx Tale

This week in sociology, we watched A Bronx Tale. What stood out to me the most, was the importance of in-groups and out-groups. The main character, C, was italian along with everyone else he associated with. To him and his peers, being an italian was an in-group. If a non-italian were to come to the neighborhood, they would be part of the out-group. An example of this would be when the biker gang came to the bar, and they were really out of place. Since the biker gang was technically an out-group, they were automatically stereotyped and treated differently, and eventually beat up.

Discrimination

This week in class, we watched a video on discrimination. This video was about separating 3rd graders by eye color. One group was more superior than the other group, so they treated the minorities poorly. This video was really important to me, because when I was in 3rd grade, I also did this experiment. I was a part of the minority group, so the memory of it really stuck with me. I was unable to do the same things as the other group and I was treated very poorly and discriminated against, which was something I wasn't used to. The fact that it has such a big impact on me even today as a senior in high school, I realize how important it is not to judge someone so quickly. Just because a person has a different skin color, or is from a different area than you, or does different things than you, or acts a different way than you, it doesn't mean that they are not a good person and that you should treat them poorly. As cliche as it sounds, I have learned to treat everyone, no matter what they look like, the way you want to be treated, unless they give you a reason not to.

Social Construction of Reality

This week in class, we focused on the meaning of the social construction of reality. We did an activity of looking at the difference between spit and saliva. When you have saliva in your mouth, it's a normal thing, but the second it exits your mouth, it's known to be a "gross" thing. Why do we say its gross? This is because the creation is what is affecting out minds, when in reality..it's all the same spit and nothing has changed about it. So it was cool to look at how we just automatically judge things based on how we've always looked at it.

Sociological imagination vs. sociological mindfulness

This week in class, we talked about the difference between sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness. Sociological imagination is when a person is influenced by where and when they live. Sociological mindfulness is seeing and appreciating the unique qualities and also being aware and paying attention to a person. I feel these are very important things to discuss because being a teenager living in the north shore, I look at things differently than people from other areas might. We tend to be more spoiled in our area, so I think it is important to look at the less fortunate areas and look at things from a different perspective. This ties into how community service is important, because it makes you look at how good you really have it and it's a good feeling to help the community.