week 17

i know racism is still present today no matter how hard we try to say racism is a thing of the past. i know personally that racism is still alive because of the jokes people tell each other, some jokes involve demeaning people just by their race. i have take then Harvard test thing before for AP psychology it told me that i have a slight tendency toward white people , i had to do 2 other tests that i forgot the results of. i personally don't see myself as a racist person but i guess i have been taught by society to judge people of other races even if i don't know them. though racism is still apparent in the world today i think it is a lot less then earl yer years. we have all heard the story of Emmit Till who was brutally killed and his body dumped in a river all because of racial tensions, today you don't hear of such extreme cases of racism yet it still has an effect on our society that few realize.

week 16

playing monopoly this week was a really good way to get across the point that people really don't move up in social classes, while sometimes they can move down. i was the upper upper class, and the game was boring for me i started with about 4000 and all the railroads and last 2 places i more than doubled my total wealth by the end of the game, for the upper class i think the game was more average they made some wealth but not enough to make it to my position, middle class ended up making about the same amount of wealth that they came into the game with, lower middle class went on welfare b/c he kept landing on my spots, and working poor was in jail for 3/4 of the game. i think the main part of monopoly that showed the class diference was the jail, i was able to use a get out of jail free card while other people like the working poor never where able to leave b/c it was nearly impossibul to get out. i really seams like playing through this game people kept their positions they started out with and the rich got richer, much like the world we live in.

week 15

i don't think different social classes interact much at all, while people tend to think that at sporting events work place or other major activity's the classes are more mixed, but they really are not. At sport events upper class people have sky boxes or front row seats, while most average Joe people sit in the "nose bleed" section or don't get tickets at all. As one guy said int he movie i thought if i work hard i could accomplish anything, he didn't realize that most wealthy people don't work very hard and still make more money because they where raised that way, wealthy people in a business often own the company or are ceo's or other management positions, and the majority of workers are working at minimum wage or slightly higher. while Americans try to say that we don't have a class system in our nation, they are partly right because people can move up (or down) but for the most part a social class system does exist, the rich make up a small % of our nation and most working people who make very little money are the majority of our country. while people can try to belong to a social class that they are not in, they will eventually be discovered that they don't belong for instance the woman in the movie will most likely not find a husband because he would eventually realize she is of a lower class and break up with her. Social classes do exist in America and they affect our lives more they we think they do.

week 14

Learning about our prison system has been really eye opening, i never knew that prison was so overcrowded and how many people are repeat offenders or mentally handicapped and sent to prison for random things. the video about 30 days in prison had a lot of cool statistics and helped to show me how different prison is. in the video a lot of the people who where in jail had been in there previously, some had drug addictions, and some had mental handicaps that should have been in a mental institution. all these facts really surprised me that prison really isn't helping to stop crime as much as it should. if our society helped inmates to become a better member of society and actually turn their life's around lots of peoples lives could be better off. while not all people will be reformed it may help reduce the overall crowding and other problems with our prison system.

week 13

i thought the possitive deviance story was very interesting how a person was able to take a dangerous scenerio and make the attacker see the error of his ways without any conflict and probably better the attackers life. it is much like the ikido fighting style that you dont want to hurt people you just want them to stop their negative ways without huring you so you take a nonviolent approach to others violence. I also think that everyone performs many random acts of kindness every day and dont realize it, like paying for a friends meal if they dont have money on them at that time.

week 12

many men in America are constantly pummeled with thing like aggression violence and brutality are normal for men and those men who fail to fall into this average man persona are usually left behind. this is very similar with women in society. at a young age many young male boys watch wrestling and it only progresses from their throughout life, to violent movies,etc. Violence effects all those in a society so we need to alter our views of masculinity to hopefully prevent future violence, I'm not really sure how this can be accomplished because our views of masculinity have been around for a long time.

week 11

Media today holds a lot of power that few people realize. Media has shaped how women and men act and how they are viewed. Women have to be thin, beautiful, sexy,and much much more in the eyes of people, media has formed these views. Media has created "beautiful women" by taking women putting makeup on them to look pretty, but that isn't enough, they also photo shop the picture to make things look thinner or pop more. This makes beauty that people expect unobtainable. Makeup products attempt to fix these problems presented by media, and with the common message of if you don't look like a model then something is wrong with you and you need to fix it. When women are bombarded by these images of what beauty should be and hey don't measure up their self esteem can be crushed.

week 10

i think religion is one of the biggest agent "s". religion has created laws with little to no discussion, thow shall not kill has become a major law in the world that if someone is killed they receive severe punishment sometimes even death themselves. thow shall not steal has also become a major law with die consequences for those who break that law. myself am not a religious person,but i still need to follow the rules that religion has created because they have passed beyond ideals and into laws. i only know they 10 commandments, not other religions ideals but mot religious ideals have affected our society.

week 9

the video on sal's blog was really able to help prove the point in class that society shapes who we are, and that if you don't have a society when growing up like Genie then you really cant function well. baby's are so helpless when they are little, and if they don't receive attention, they can never know the basics of life, like how to walk,talk,eat,etc. i know that my parents affect me every day both consciously and subconsciously. the things we learn as a baby teach us what we know today, if you parents tell you not to touch the stove you probably wont and you still wouldn't today. we also learn life lessons from our parents. without the basic teaching of our parents and society at a young age we really cant function later in our lives.

week 8

dependency is a odd concept, as Morrie says we are dependent on people when we are born and when we die, but in the middle we are even more dependent on others. For some reason when we grow up we think being dependent on others is a taboo thing. For instance some people when they lose their job they refuse to get unemployment gov. payments. I think the main reason we think dependency is taboo is because as amricans we believe we can acomplish anything, and we don't need others help to acomplish our goals. American values like pride and individualism make us think that dependency is an awful thing.

week 7

Time is a very different cultural idea. In our minds when we say a time we mean that exact time. Where in different cultures you can show up 30min to 1 hour later and that would be acceptable. without a strict time schedule most American would think our way of life would collapse, but in other countries that's just how they see things. if you are going to apply for a job and you show up 10 minutes late who most likely wont get that job. But in different cultures that would be considered on time, as we have learned in class it's very hard to look at our own culture (our own fishbowl) from inside of it, but when we are pulled away from our culture we can look at it differently and see how odd our "normal" culture is.

week 6

This week was very interesting with all the different cultural norms, and how if different cultures things we think are weird are normal. The toilets in Japan are greatly different from the toilets in America, and from the perspective of either culture the other is odd. It was funny to see how crossing he road was so different in different places, from dodging cars to walking a steady pace.Overall this week was very eye opening to how sociology can be related in real life situations, and how important it is to be sociologically mindful.

week 5

I think C belongs to many groups hroughout the movie. C is a son (in 2 ways), a part of his family, a friend, a gangster, a lover, student, and many more. As C progresses throughout the movie his master status changes. As the story starts C is a loyal son to his father, but as he progresses throughout his life he pulls away from that master status. C becomes more of a son to Sunny then to his real father. Overal I think C's master status is being a son, though he changes fathers quite frequently. C has many minor statuses hat change his life dreasticly, being a gangster and lover mainly. The groups that C surrounds himself with ultimatly help to define his life.

week 4

I thought the activity we did in class where we had to create groups that we where a part off really helped me to see my life in a new way and the lifes of others in a new way. It helped me to see what prioritys i had in my life right now. It also helped me to see what other people value in life, some things i dont think are important may greatly define other peoples existance. The main thing that my life is based around is my family where others it may be religion, even though i don't care for religion it can be the sole reason that one may go on from day to day. If you are mindful of others you can prevent judgeing people based on our perspective.

week 3

sorry Mr.Salituro for taking so long to post this week i am traveling this weekend to my cousins wedding so i haven't had a internet connection to post till now, the abandon ship activity was interesting / predictable, before we began the activity i guessed who would be kicked off the boat and i picked exactly the same people that would get kicked off. It was interesting to see how people where kicked off the boat, due to physical capabilities, strength, and abilitys that could be useful both on the boat and after they are saved. The techniques that people used to kick the others off was funny to watch, most arguments didn't make sense, people where ganged up on or just realized that they where of no help to the others and left. I think the main reasons people where kicked off is just based on our social norms, in some cultures the eldest would have survived, or the scenario would play out differently.

Week 1 blog post

This will be my second time doing community service. The last time i did community service was in Enright's freshman english class. I worked with another person in the class to do 10 hours worth. It was a fun experience and it helped open my eyes to the world around me. Hopefully this second time around of doing community service will be as much if not better and will help me see the world in a different view.

Who am i?

Hi, my name is Kyle interests in my life are my dogs, video games, hockey, and spending time with my friends. My purpose in life is to be successful. The biggest influence in my life is my family. I think silence isn't awkward i think it's just not the norm and people fear things that isn't the norm. Awkward silence happens to almost everyone.