Wealth in the USA

The wealthy are given so many extra privileges in life. They can buy whatever they want without even thinking about the price. Their stress levels are reduced because there are less worries over money and paying bills. When we played monopoly in class, the wealthy had such a large advantage over everybody else because they owned more properties and money, and they received the most total money from passing go and from rent. Wealth can also give someone more connections in the world to get things done easier and know somebody for whatever needs to be done. Also, the wealthy can have security financially and physically just in case things get bad, so they don't have many worries in the world that most other people worry about everyday. In the movie we watched in class, there was a family who lived in a trailer home, and the mom's car didn't work and she walked miles to work. Wealthy people don't have to walk miles to work, and they may not even have to work much. Lower class people don't always have money either and may have to take out loans that they will pay back the rest of their lives if their income doesn't change, so people usually stay within their own class throughout life. One thing that could be done to make things more fair is to give more federal help to lower class people, but if everything becomes equal, then we would turn into a socialistic society, so there isn't much that can be done besides just to tax the wealthy some more.

Class

This quote is saying that people will view someone by their actions and traits. If someone has bad manners people will view him or her as lower class. Some people will view race as an issue of class too. Also in the quote when he says the characteristics that ruin a man in one class makes him eminent in other, he means that someone who has the traits of a certain class can only stay in that class because he or she wouldn't fit in with any other class. Say someone has the best manners and speaks with the best grammar; this person wouldn't fit in with people who live in the projects or in a trailer park because it just doesn't work that way in society. He is basically saying that there are certain things that each class has and does to make them different so you can look eminent to many people in one class and then shunned by everyone in other classes. An example of behavior that's a virtue in one class and a vice in another is if there is the best construction worker and can construct anything. He may be looked up to in one class in society and then people in a higher class will just see him as a laborer and think better of people who are business executives.

the big house

In society today, many people who enter our penitentiary system go right back to it. This shows how much the system doesn't work very well and there really aren't other alternatives. As sociologists we can look at our penitentiary system as a place where people are around their own kind and not many things change with the criminals. Punishable deviance is part of our society that won't go away because there will always be some people who are willing to deviate in a bad way, but also in a good way. I believe we should regulate punishable deviance by reaching criminals early on and helping them by either having them do community service or setting a guideline for their goals, so they won't have to do criminal acts in the future. When looking at our court and jail systems, it is apparent that people are easily sent to jail in many cases whether the person is a minor or even a small drug charge. The issue some have with our jail system is that it is a big part of our economy, and if there weren't many inmates, then the economy would fall. We need criminals in our society to keep things flowing, and that seems pretty unfair to people who have small acts of punishable deviance. Once the people are in jail, they just wait and are confined to a single area for years usually. This isn't much help because they aren't being taught how to better themselves, just to think, which is why so many people are going back after being let free.

1. Today I wore some jeans and a pretty snazzy t-shirt with the white and black nikes. The clothes I wear are mostly determined by nurture because I will dress like most of my other peers. The thing is, if I look at the clothes I was dressed in when I was little, they were pretty bad, so there isn't a real balance of nature and nurture with the clothes I wear. In the future I want to be a big salesman or marketing exec. I think my ambitions are the result of nature because my mom and dad both have professions dealing with business, so I have always wanted to have a job dealing with business or selling. There isn't much of a balance because my friends and I don't discuss jobs that we want to have, and I haven't been around people who keep talking about future professions. The sport I enjoy is gymnastics because it's what I grew up doing. My mom was on poms in college so there may be a hint of nature driving my gymnastics, but I've been doing it since I was 7, and I'm not competitive with it. I'd say I'm a recreational gymnast because it's fun for me and the nurture aspect doesn't really affect it because a lot of other gymnast are pretty annoying and not fun to be around. None of my friends do gymnastics so the nurture apsect is pretty low.
2. Adolescent social status power is very important because it is basically is the only power adolescents can have, so they need to have the most of it to be the best. If someone is very popular with high social status power, then more people will like them, which gives that person more confidence and an easier adolescence. Then if someone has low social status power, people may look down on them or even shun them from activities. Adolescents are consumed with social status power because it is the main aspect of their lives at the time being.
3. In previous generations, there were more children who were independent and had to work for everything. This gave them an easier time to be independent later in life to help them become more successful. There were less children with things just handed to them, and people weren't so concerned with babying their children. Now, many children are spoon fed and may not survive in the real world or even college. Children may also learn socialization through the television and may think things on TV are how things work in the real world. The concerns for children today are pretty valid, and we should let kids be more independent and socialize through school and sports in order for them to lead good lives.
4. Each gender today is viewed to have different traits. The traditional traits for women are viewed to be shy or passive, and men are stereotyped to be aggressive and "manly." I feel like boys growing up try to be the most manly they can, and they usually end up being fake or just looking like huge tools. I can't say I've seen anything about the impact of what females socialization has been, but when each gender talks to each other, they have different conversations than when talking to the same gender. Guys can talk about sports together, girls can talk about gossip girl, but when they talk to each other, they have to find something that they both have in common, so it is just interesting to think about.

Fight the Power

In teen culture it is necessary to fight for status power everyday. For instance, most teens are trying to have the best style and the coolest clothes. Just like those sweet uggs boots, most teenage girls have them to keep up their status power. Materials are big deciders in someone's status, like if someone has torn up clothes, they are looked down upon, but if someone is looking pretty cool or glamorous, people may look up to him or her. It also depends on what cliques you belong to like the football players are popular and have a high status power, while nerdy kids and punk kids may have low status power in the eyes of teenagers. This affects the development of teens to adults by making it that when when the teens turn into adults they may keep all these concepts of status power and fight for it throughout adulthood. It doesn't have to be this way, but it would be hard to change the way things work in the adolescent world. There isn't really anything else teens can do to obtain power in their lives, so it looks like things are going to stay the way they are.

Nature & Nurture

So I guess I'm like my family because I have the same sense of humor as my dad, and I keep my things in order just like my mom, but not all the time. I also pretty much listen to the same genres of music as my brother. I'm like my long-time friends mostly by having the same sense of humor as them and having the same interests like music and things to do for fun. I asked my mom about when she thought I had a unique personality, and she explained how I was entertaining and noticed around the age of 2. The thing that I don't want to have that my mom does is when she needs everything to be exact and clean everyday, but I don't think there is anything that my dad does that I don't want to do. If someone were to work against nature and nurture, there is no doubt that he or she would be different because those are what define people and if someone has neither, then he or she will be different. I believe the most influential group to my attitudes and behaviors in life is my peer group. When you are with your friends after awhile, you start to have the same types of jokes and senses of humor. Peer groups also tend to have the same areas of interest too, so I have been shaped a lot by my peer group. The music I listen to which is a pretty wide variety is somewhat shaped by my peer group, but mostly just the hip hop genre. This just goes to show how much nurture can shape a person along with nature in the beginning.

My water

A new example of water for me is the music I listen to which is mostly hip hop and a lot of the American culture today listens to hip hop music. It's influencing me by just giving me some sweet beats and i feel better when I listen to music. I can navigate through the water or my music by acquiring different tastes in music and trying out new music genres or styles. Music keeps changing and the culture usually changes with it to keep the world spinning. Just like now, people use hip hop songs to dance to when before it was disco music pretty much. My values that I embrace are to just go with the flow of this and keep up with music in my culture, but there may be some genres that I won't prefer in the future. I could adjust my values for hip hop and maybe change in the future, but I stick with my tunes for now.

Culture is turning us into infants

In the Stevenson culture, we are infantalized every day. We aren't allowed to go off campus until we are juniors and we can't park until we're seniors. We also don't get a full lunch until we're sophomores because of advisory. If we don't follow the rules, then we get the boot, so there isn't much we can do about it. We're supposed to be getting prepped to be more mature, yet there are certain times when we can't use ipods or phones. I can see if you can't use phones in class but outside of class, what harm could be done.

U.S. Culture

In America, we have lots of slang and gestures that other cultures may not understand. For example, there is the hand shake that consists of the hand slide followed by the pound. Other cultures would be baffled at that hand shake. We also have slang terms like yo momma, bank as in money, and fly as in looking good. It would be very hard to try to translate what these mean to other cultures and in other languages, but these things are what make the U.S. unique in so many ways.

Social Contruction of Reality in "A Bronx Tale"

In "A Bronx Tale," the neighborhoods and how things run are very different from the neighborhoods we live in right now. In the movie, it seems like most of the neighborhood runs around Sonny because he is the most powerful guy and people fear him. People will do Sonny favors just so he won't cause them any trouble. One of the unwritten rules put in place was that there was a dress code for the bar, and the bartender wouldn't serve the bikers because they weren't dressed appropriately. The bikers asked nicely but then they started causing trouble and got a mobster beat down. Also, the neighborhood is divided by race with the white italians on one side and then black people on the other. Each race is supposed to stay within their own "racial area" in the neighborhood or else violence occurs.
The construction of people doing things for Sonny came about because Sonny started working some mob things and people found out how powerful he was and they did favors for him, so he could do some favors back. He also helped keep the neighborhood safe from outsiders starting trouble. The construction of the division of races proabably came about because it was around the times of the civil rights movement and people still wanted to be separated because not everyone could get along. So racial attitudes caused the separation of the neighborhoods because violence would occur if everyone mixed because the italian kids tried to burn down the store black people's store where they hang out.

Thug Life

So the reading we had in class really caught my attention because for some reason, gangs are interesting to learn about like the tv show gangland. The main character sounds crazy to just walk into the projects with a pad and ask people how it is to be poor. I feel like that would just make them angry and beat him up or something, but they ended up just keeping him around. T.J. thought he was just dumb coming in their and didn't see him as a threat though. I found it really interesting that they were never caught by the police because it was one of their largest drug dealing headquarters. In the end the sociologist brings them a 6-PACK not a case of beer and they chill for a bit, while he gets a feel for what its like to be in the hood. Its a real different life than mainstream society because most of the people are unemployed and just drug deal, smoke and drink all day...quite the life.

rock the boat

The boat activity we did in class last week was kind of stressful. If I really had to kick people off of a boat, I don't think I could've done it because there were old people, a pregnant woman, a fat guy, an epileptic college student and more. It would be very hard to have to choose over people's lives but you gotta do what you gotta do.

sociological mindfulness

The reading for homework really opened up my mind to how I can live my life. I can analyze it and try to see what is really going on in the world without being judgemental. I think it may not be possible to not be 100% judgemental, but it gives me perspective on how I can look at life. I could also try not to be selfish and do things for others in life that may in turn lead to my personal success in life.

Who I is

Sup girl, this is borgo. I am a senior and i love sociology. I like long walks on the beach and beautiful sunsets. haha jk. I am a gymnast but im not saying that I'm that good. In my free time i like to hang out with my homies and sip on some kool-aid. My biggest influences are my parents because they are successful and don't stop working to provide for my brother and me. My brother is kind of an opposite influence in that he doesn't always make the right decisions so now I know what I shouldn't do. I don't exactly know what i plan on doing with my life but I want to go to IU and go into marketing or business management and move to a career in business. Thanks for reading about my thug life. Peace.