Paper & Pen?

Pen and paper use to be a must for anyone who was working or going to school. You needed to write things down so you would not forget and keep track of all your records. Pen and paper has been around for a long time and now every day the pen and paper are being used fewer and fewer times. Society’s norms are forever changing and adapting to the different ways of doing things that are considered “easier” than the original way.

That is why the pen and paper are dying out and the computer and cell phone are taking over. When you go to class there are usually more and more students each semester that put their binders away and just bring their laptop to school. This is changing the way we learn in a society, the teachers no longer write board after board of notes they have already prepared slides for each class. These slides are posted on a website and you can only view them from your computer. So unless you take note for note of the slides you better get a computer because that is how you are going to see that material again.

Obviously you will need to write down little note and reminders if you have a computer or not. This was always a paper and pen thing but now with society have such advanced cell phones you can place all your important reminders in your cell phone. The cell phone will even notice you the day of the event to remind you, just in case you forgot, paper and pen cannot do that. Society’s norms for what you need for learning and school are changing. Sooner or later paper and pen will have no use and will become a rarity in society.

Interpretation of a musician

Description

This is the singer to the band "Strangers" from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Sociological Interpretation

This picture displays an action shot of the intense live performance being put on by this band. This type of music being played is considered hardcore/metal music. Hardcore/Metal music is not something the average person listens too, making it unacceptable to majority of society. Societies social norms make up what is common, normal and accepted. Since the singer's style of music is not common, is is seen as different and unacceptable. Although the music is mainly a difference of opinions and taste, Hardcore/Metal music may be frowned up because of society's social norms.

The singer's tattoo's are widely on display, with a cut off shirt proudly showing them off. Tattoo's are traditionally seen as a form of social deviance. Stereotypical "proper" people are not often seen with tattoos. Although society is constantly changing, tattoo's still fall into the category of being socially deviant. The fact that the singer's tattoos are proudly displayed shows the singer showing no concern of being labelled socially deviant, and breaking traditional social norms.

Although not everyone attending this show can be seen, the one fan also displays tattoo's on his arms. Many of the people in attendance show similar style, and have complete different social norms than mainstream society. Although this singer may be seen as socially deviant to majority of society, he is looked up to in this hardcore/metal scene. Many of the fans will imitate these bands styles, making their smaller subculture have it's own social norms to abide by.

Marijuana and Alchohol

Description: A picture of the marijuana leaf.

Sociological Imagination:

Marijuana has been around for hundreds of years, although only highly popular since the 70's where huge numbers of people that smoke it, some people think of it as God's herb, some people see it as just another harmful drug. When people smoke marijuana is it too rebel against society, or is it for personal reasons that are unkown? The are are thousands of people in jail in the United States for possesion or trafiking marijuana. When thousands and thousands of people are in jail for marijuana it is no longer just a personal issue, but a societal issue , a global issue.

Social changes make marijuana a social drug, where at one point in time or another, you will be pressured to try it. Some people do it for an activity, for something to do, others for beliefs, instituions or simply a way of life. Does this make them in the rebellious stage of deviance, to rebel against society and do drugs, it is one of the biggest contributors to the rebelism of teens. To go outside the social norms and become a "stoner", wear baggy clothes, sporting tye dye bandanas, shirts, etc. Alchohol is way worse for your body, your brain , pretty much in every aspect, but alchohol has been accepted in society for hundreds of years, a social norm. At even the fanciest of parties, there is always alchohol present. Alchoholism has been in my family for a couple generations, ruining lives, being a nuisance to society, and alchoholism is of course not just a personal problem, but a problem in society. The people with these problems must look inside themselves and connect the problems they face in your biography to social institutions and locate yourself in history as said by Mills.

Is marijuana used only for coping with feelings and reality or is it part of a bigger social structure, a way of life, considered a social norm in some social structures, whether it be a group of friends, or something larger than that like the city of Amsterdam where it is "illegal, but not punishable" to buy marijuana in shops and smoke it there, while drawing over 5 million tourists a year solely for that reason.

Overprotection = Problems

Description: This is a picture of a modern day playstructure. It is made mostly of plastic. It is also in the middle of an empty play ground on a lovely day.

Interpretation: Society has changed. Ten years ago when I was a young child I would have rushed out the door to play on a day such as the one depcited in the photo above. The play structure would have likely been crawling with children as would the play ground surrounding.

In today's society a parent's worst fear is lurking around every corner. A child could fall and break a limb or be abducted by a stranger hiding in the dark corners of the play ground and cause immediate panic and worry. Ideas such as these cause us to think twice about sending our children out to play on a lovely day. Often parents are concerned about letting their child play much farther than their front yard without constant supervision. By doing this have we created an epidemic?

Childhood obeisety today is a major issue within society. Children are spending more time indoors playing video games and using the internet than they are outdoors ... being children. Have we as a society created this epidemic through our desire to overprotect?

By overprotecting from either percieved or real danger parents have created an actual danger to their children's health... OBESITY!

Society tries to make up for this over protection by creating video games that supply our children with the exercise they would normally be getting outside. By doing this we shelter our children from the opportunities that outdoor exploration can offer. Our children are now more likely to be come video game creators than "bug hunters."

Can we reverse this situation or has it progressed beyond any chance of being reigned in?

Mass Media

Description

This is a picture of the Regina LeaderPost newspaper representing a form of advertisement and mass media.

Sociological Interpretation

We live in a world saturated by media, that bombards us with images through advertising. Mass media can be described as a large scale organization that uses such means as print, radio, television, and the internet to communicate to large numbers of people. In sociology, the function of mass media can be explained through a functionalist perspective. Mass media and advertisement function in society as means of surveillance, socialization and entertainment. Media becomes the pathway of inspecting our world by providing warnings of dangers, news, setting social agendas, and calling attention to certain issues of importance. Though surveillance functions to benefit society, it can also be harmful. By providing news of imminent danger it can produce widespread panic and anxiety. Media also broadcasts norms and values, that assists in social cohesiveness by giving people a sense of belonging from sharing the same values and norms. The socialization function of mass communication can produce a mass society in which everyone leads a totally predictable but colourless life. The third function of media is for the leisure of entertainment, yet it can excessively cloud people from reality and reduce social activity.

Specifically, we can look at different issues that are portrayed in media and their impacts on society. There has been a long debate about the effect of violence in media. The issue is whether media violence causes societal violence and whether there should be censorship to protect children, especially. On the other hand there are those who believe censorship is a smokescreen in hiding the root causes of violence in society. The culture of violence normalizes aggression and decreases the lack of empathy in our society. We can see that though violence in media may not be the core cause for aggressive behaviours, it does have an influence on increasing the likelihood of aggressive tendencies and provoking aggressive responses. Gender role socialization also occurs through media. Sets of behaviour, expectations and perceptions are learned and definitions of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man is established. For example, provocative images of partly clothed or naked women are especially prevalent in advertising. Women’s bodies are sexualized in advertisements in order to grab the viewer’s attention. Women become sexual objects when their bodies and their sexuality are linked to products that are bought and sold. This reinforces the message that women are objects rather than whole human beings. The presence of misinformation and media stereotypes, directs young people to turn to media for information about sex and sexuality. In a more broad perspective, we can examine the selectivity of what we focus on in our daily lives as mass communication provides us with basic information about current events. Do we watch television and movies, read magazines and newspapers, and play video games for entertainment, or to be better informed, or to escape life? None the less, the reality of our world is while we are doing all these things, we are also being socialized—learning about roles, behaviours, values, modes of conduct, possibilities and solutions to life’s daily stresses and dilemmas.

Socialization and Gender Roles

Description

Gifts presented to little kids in their teens.

Sociological Interpretation

The pictures above best understood is a form of primary socialization, which is the "acquisition of a basic knowledge of a society’s values, norms, folkways, and mores and thus including learning things like language, eating practices, everyday rules of conduct, and etiquette”, (Knuttila, 97). Through a myriad of actions and activities knowingly or unknowingly, children are socialized and taught what it is means to be a boy or a girl in the society.

In our western society, we determine our future expectations of teens with the type of gifts and cultural practices we expose them to, in their early years of life. Such gifts are differential toys like we see above: the boy child presented with a truck and the girl child, a Barbie doll. These gifts and many others are socializing agents, thus informing the child what cultural practices his or her gender stereotype demands and permits within the social structure.

The girl child presented with a Barbie doll and other gifts such as miniature cooking pot, irons, and lipstick is been taught that her beauty is paramount in her life. She has to be a replication of the doll in shape, height and clothing style. She is also been socialized to her domestic department in the house, where in she has to do the cooking, laundry and more. Her room is also most often painted pink, a color which have been ascribed a feminine tag by society, and as such reflects her salient position. On the other hand, the boy child presented with a truck and other gifts such as football and working tools is been socialized to his expected roles. He is taught to be strong, powerful, intelligent, skilled and rich in order that he should control and maintain the beauty of the woman, because he is the head of the woman. His role in the house is also been taught as to more of maintenance chores such as, painting and mowing the lawn. This assignment of household tasks by gender then leads children to link certain types of work with gender.

As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by other elements in their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood and on into adolescence (Martin, Wood, & Little, 1990). The girl child goes on maintaining her beauty by application of several body adoring lotion and oil and more especially, she keeps slim and trendy. The domestic chores become her preoccupation at home. And the boy on the other hand is seen becoming more muscular, doing his maintenance chores and always do things that shows off his masculinity over the girl child.

The parents of children are the primary influence on their gender role development and other social actors in the social structure do also play a vital role by re-emphasizing those expected norms and values. Through all these socialization agents, children learn gender stereotyped behavior. As children develop, these gender stereotypes become firmly entrenched beliefs and thus, are a part of the child's self concept.

Weight Loss

Description

This is a picture of a Jenny Craig weight loss ad

Sociological Interpretation

In our society today, we see many ads for losing weight. The term Mass Communication is defined as "various modes of communication(all print and electronic forms from radio to the internet) that are produced and presented in an effort to communication some messages to mass audiences"(Knuttila 299). This picture is an advertisment for a weight loss program called Jenny Craig. The women in the photo is celebrity Queen Latifha saying how she has lost 20 pounds while using this program.

In society, there is a certain body image of what women are supposed to look like. There is an image of what the "ideal" is. Society has created this image by television and magazine advertisments showing young girls that they should be skinny, tanned and have long blonde hair in order to be accepted into society. Advertisments like this tell girls that if they are a few pounds overweight that they need to lose weight in order to be happy with themselves.

By putting a celebrity into this ad, it shows girls that if Queen Latifah can lose weight than so can they. This also helps for the producers to sell their products if the person in the ad is someone that people know rather than an ordinary stranger. This tells us that in order to feel beautiful and healthy that we must lose weight by taking pills, drinking weight lose drinks and even joining these programs. Society has grilled this image of beauty into our minds that it has caused some girls to go to extremes to lose weight. Some girls have developed eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in order to fit into this image of the ideal woman.

It is a horrible thing that society consistently reminds girls that they need to be skinny in order to be beautiful. Girls of all shapes and sizes are beautiful and our society needs to start accepting people for what they look like rather than by the ideal image that our society has created.