Forever huh?

Forever huh?

 

            One thing I noticed with my social imagination is that there is no such thing as “forever” when it comes to popular themes or hit TV shows. Like Twilight for example. During high school (for me) it was like the biggest thing in the world for a lot of people. Bigger then Obama even. Most teenage girls were going goo goo gaga over Edward and Jacob and would think of them as either the guy I wanna date or the guy that will turn me into something else. For example, teenage girls that think life is too hard and want an escape tend to want to go vampire, while teenage girls that just want to be free and live the way they want tend to go towards werewolves. Or they just go with whoever they think looks better and even try to do both werewolves and vampires if at all possible. Guys did not seem to care one way or the other and if they did they were sick of all the crap they get from their girlfriends about want them to be more like Edward, James, Jacob, etc. Would not be suprised if there were some break ups due to it.  Vampires are a thing and will always be a thing right with werewolves and Frankenstein. However the “Twilight Series” died painfully.

            Now a days people are going crazy for stuff like the “Hunger Games” and “Vikings”.  I asked some people around Tech if they were still big fans of “Twilight” (Including some people I actually knew) Most would say they are over it or they still like it, but not so much as something else. In other words Twilight was just a fad that people got over with. Just like with a bunch of other stuff throughout time. Its sad, like really sad, but true. I miss "The Sopranos"!

(Please note that this post is from my personal experiences and research, its not ment to offend anyone and if it does I am sorry in advance. Hope you have a nice day!) 

Bargain Shopping

Something that I found very interesting while using my sociological imagination is that in the high school that I went to the cool thing was to have really nice and expensive clothes. Where as in college I have found out that the majority of college kids that don’t have a ton of money, which let’s face it that is a lot of college kids, think it’s cool to be a bargain shopper. When I talked to college students around campus the average answer was that they would at least go once a month to the goodwill or pawn shops to try and find some cool clothes for cheap. They all said that it felt like a treasure hunt and when they found something it made them feel like they found gold. The most interesting thing about this is that all kinds of people from deferent social classes thought the same thing about bargain shopping.    

American Dream?

For many years American’s have believed they are the greatest nation on the face of the Earth and continue to believe this to this day. This belief is also shared by many others as people continue to come to America in pursuit of the American Dream. These beliefs have been rooted strongly in our non-material culture for many years and can also be considered culture universals. However the great nation of the United Sates of America my not be as great as many of us have been taught to believe. In fact there is hardly any evidence that says we are the greatest nation anymore. The USA racks 115th in Linguistic Diversity, 14th in Education, 44th in Health Care Efficiency, 66th in Religious Diversity, 26th in Child Well Being, 23 in Gender Equality and 101st in Peace. Some of these statistics are hard to believe but even harder to believe is that the USA ranks in the top 2 in only two categories, these include Ignorance and Number of Incarcerations. With the numbers stacked so strongly against us how can we possible believe we are still the greatest nation? I guess we’ll just stick to what we’re good at, which is ignorance, and continue to stick to our cultural beliefs.

                                                                  racism and cities 

When looking for a pattern to talk about I thought about life in and around large cities. Generally white people get the good jobs in the cities however most of them decide not to live there instead they live in the suburbs outside the city leaving the inner cities for the minority’s this would be okay except for the fact that because the people that have the high paying jobs don’t live in the city the city gets none of the taxes from this work. This leads to a fall in the quality of education and several other things within the city. The people outside the city are leaching of its jobs and resources. Using my sociological imagination I came to the conclusion that this is an example of structural racism. The system is set up against minorities. Some communities have even gotten in legal trouble because they were discouraging and making it harder for minority’s to live in these suburbs 

Community Style Living

Over my past three years at Tech I have come to notice some unfair stereotypes placed on the community style housing that tie in with the social class system. A majority of people, students and parents alike, believe the community style housing is just flat out gross. I too was one of those people until I started to work in one of the “old school dorms”. Like a majority of the students and parents, I used to think community housing was filthy, inside and out. They are all old, nasty buildings, where the space is very confined and you have to share personal space including the restrooms and showers. Of course because the bathrooms are shared with other students there is no telling what kind of filthy diseases are growing in these places. These stereotypes were also associated with lower class people who live in these buildings. These beliefs were not only reinforced by people I talked to but by social medias and society as well. These negative stereotypes not only ruin the reputation of community style living but it also carries on the unjust treatment of the lower class people that live there. Unbeknownst to most, community style housing is actually super clean. Each building has it’s own cleaning crew that cleans the facility daily. There also is so much more to community style housing than most give it credit for. The community style buildings have a very strong sense of community and unity, and in tern there seem to be more personal, life long relationships produced in these types of buildings than other types of housing. Community style buildings also seem to have more activities and student interaction the the lobby or common areas of the buildings. These positive qualities of community style housing make it very “homey” and really makes the experience of staying there enjoyable. This too is true of lower class people. As we saw in the video presented in class, People Like Us, many times there is so much more to a person than we give them credit for. We as a society get so caught up in the outside appearance, social classification, and what we have been told that we don’t treat one another as an equal and actually find out what is true for ourselves. 

Different Styles

Recently I have noticed how simple it is to spot the difference of a sorority girl and a non sorority girl just by the way they dress. Sorority girls typically dress up as often as they can, they hardly ever take a day off. Other girls don't usually have a problem throwing their hair up and wearing whatever they wore to bed to class.
I feel like the average girl doesn't have a care in the world. She is usually very confident in her natural beauty. She doesn't have to wear all of the make up or have all of the fancy clothes. Its admirable how they can wear whatever they want and just go about their day. No worries.
Sorority girls, on the other hand, have the pressure of representing their sorority well all of the time. They are highly encouraged to always look their best due to the fact that they are always representing their sorority chapter. After dressing nice for a while when they go out without all of the make up and nice clothing they look rough. Then dressing nice not only is a representative thing but also confidence thing.

Society's Opinion on Domestic Abuse

D. T. was in an abusive relationship. On February 5 of 2013, her boyfriend at the time broke her ankle while her daughter watched. D said, “I mouthed off and he started to hit me. I ended up like this.” [Gets on her knees and covers her head] “He grabbed my ponytail and began to pull me across the floor. My ankle snapped when he threw me across the room.” D.T. had to have 13 screws and a metal plate put into her leg to fix her ankle.

Our society makes it difficult for both men and women to leave an abusive relationship. One of many reasons that men find it difficult to leave is that men who are abused are wrongfully seen as weak and pathetic for not standing up for themselves.  Men who leave the relationship because of abuse are shamed by society for not being able to control ‘his woman’. Women have a difficult time leaving abusive relationships for several reasons as well. One of these reasons is not being able to support themselves financially. Society views women who are abused as deserving of the abuse. 

 People also treat domestic abuse as a joke. “I saw a waitress with a black eye. I told her my order slowly because she obviously doesn't listen.” -overheard from a passing stranger

Keep Calm and Return Fire

Men and women are treated differently, even when no one realizes it. This hoodie, with the words “Keep calm and return fire” is a good example of this.  I asked two people to visit various places in Russellville wearing the hoodie, and report back with people’s reactions.

When it is worn by R (pictured left), people who remark on the hoodie say positive things such as, “Wow, that’s a cool jacket!” and “Nice hoodie, man!”

When B (Pictured right) wore the hoodie, she reported people saying negative things, such as, “That’s scary.” , “Are you a cop?” and “Why are you wearing that?”

We have been socialized to view such slogans as a masculine thing. Men are encouraged to say or wear violent things, while the same behavior is frowned upon in women.

Gender Eating Habits

Since I have started attending school at Arkansas Tech University and started eating at Chambers Cafeteria I have noticed a pattern in the different eating habits of the male and female students. Typically a males eating pattern goes like this; he piles as much food on one plate as he can, he then tends to go and eat all of his food in a quick manner, when finished he leaves his plate on the table and gets a new plate and starts the process all over again. As he goes throughout his meal the dishes stack up, he is unashamed of how much he has eaten. Girls, however, are complete opposites. They tend to get one plate and only put a small amount of food on it. After eating that food if they want seconds a girl will typically go and put her plate up before getting a new one. A girl also tends to eat slowly and is far more self conscious about her eating habits. In conclusion if you walk into the cafeteria and look at a table you can take a pretty good guess of what gender is eating there.

Seasonal Trends

As the seasons change the types of products available change which seems to have a correlation with what people buy and the demand for those products that change with the seasons. When snow cones first appear in the spring time when it warms up people flock to all of the snow cone stands. Why? My best guess is that it is ingrained within human nature that new things or changes are good and they must get it before it runs out. Another idea on this subject is that when the new season rolls around and people grab some seasonal item is that it brings back memories from their childhood or them raising their own children. It isn’t just snow cones either, every year when McDonald’s brings back the McRib everyone goes crazy for it, but when McDonald’s had the McRib out year round the sales were horrible. Is it human nature, is it just trying to rekindle old memories, or is it something else entirely?

Other ways of communicating still exist

Whether we want to admit it or not, electronic devices and the social media apps encrypted into them are ruining the lives of so many people in the world. There are so many new ways to communicate with others such as: Facebook, twitter, facetime, instagram, snapchat and etc.. for example: in the 21st century it is possible to fall in love with someone without ever seeing each other face to face. This is dangerous but reality.
Our electronic devices are taking away from people communicating and connecting to each face to face like in the good ole days. Sitting down communication with peers having a good time hardly exist now days. Society is so hypnotized by internet connection and a text messages, the use of spoken words are no longer needed.
As I'm walking to class everyday, the majority of people are looking down into their phone not even paying attention to the surroundings. We as a society would rather say good morning through a text message than actually looking up at someone and verbally saying the words.

Stay or Leave

During the week the parking lot is full of all types of cars (shown in the picture above). When Friday afternoon approaches only two Full rows are occupied, more than half of the students in this area on campus leave. The only students who stay on campus during weekends are those who have jobs in the area , are too far from home, or don't have a car of their own. Why is it that students rather not stay on campus during the weekends? Most students on Tech campus go home during the weekends due to there being nothing sociable to do on campus or even in Russellville. Students would rather go home and spend time with family and friend than sit around their dorm all day lounging. If there were more activates on campus during the weekend our campus wouldn't be so dead Friday-Sunday.

Social differences between weddings is also between traditions with a white dress or not. In these pictures are two weddings with bridesmaids and grooms. Also one bride is wearing traditional colors and the other is backwards. Of course my sister is wearing white and I'm wearing orange. I like to be different but I also did not want to want to have a traditional wedding. Although she wore heels, something blue, and had a formal wedding; I chose to wear no shoes, although my necklace was blue, and just a regular evening dress does not make my wedding any less of one. I chose an outside wedding at a park rather than a church and my husband did not wear a suit. My bridesmaids wore white (backwards for the norm) and her bridesmaids wore red (way society sees how weddings are done) does not make any difference in my world. Many brides wants their wedding to be different from everyone else's weddings, they may choose to do something different about theirs. whether it is having it indoors, outdoors, at a barn, or where ever its still a wedding if you have a justice of the peace and a wedding license.

Everything is Online

Ever since I have started going to college, I have noticed that it is nothing like high school ever was. Yeah all the high school teachers had to post our grades online by the end of the semester and year, but we always got take home report cards and grades on our assignments we turned in that we get back. Now, in college, we do not get back any assignments we do with our grades posted on the top of them. Most of our homework is online anyways. I have hardly touched my pen and paper other than taking notes or writing rough drafts for Comp. Everything I do homework wise is online, all of our grades are posted on blackboard, and if our professors have an announcement to make, they don't tell us in class, they post it on blackboard.

Gender Dorm Room Differences

Since I have started attending Arkansas Tech University in the fall, and living on campus myself during spring semester, I have noticed a substantial difference in the way women and men set up and treat their dorm space. I have noticed that women (for the most part) usually have their dorm space more organized, clean, and even smelling better than men's. Our beds are usually made, our laundry is usually folded and put up, and our dirty laundry in a hamper, our books stacked nicely and put away and our shelves and desk space is usually cleared of any trash. Men's dorm rooms on the other hand, are not as nice and as organized as ours are. I have noticed that men tend to just jump out of bed without making it in the mornings, when they change they just throw their dirty clothes around, and are just messy without a doubt.

Rough Starts

 

    This is a picture of my parents home and my grandparents home in the background. Most people who live below the best of situations financially and have children that live in below the best of financial situations as well. Why? Using my sociological imagination, I would guess that if one's parents do not have enough money to do better for themselves before they had children, then after they have children they are still in a rough financial spot. That leads to the children growing up with minimal education from the lack of money and/or prestige than that of parents that were financially stable with prestige. The exceptions to the pattern are those children who are able to pay for their education due to loans and scholarships but that does not make it easy for the children it just allows them to try to better their situations.

The Rain

    Ladies tend to use umbrellas more than guys. But why? Are some ladies allergic to rain? No. What it could be is that men are supposed to be able to not be phased by anything especially not a little water. While society places a lot of emphasis on ladies' bodies so they are more worried about their cloths, hair, make-up. So in a light rain men tend to ignore it and continue on their day, while women plan around the rain to protect their appearances. Using my sociological imagination I think society forces men to try to shrug everything off as if it was nothing even when there is an easy solution that doesn't involve getting soaked.

I have noticed a pattern between the colder and warmer months, even though some people love being out side in nature, their is a cut off at temperature. It is more likely for a person to be outside chilling in a hammocks when it is above 65 degrees, which seems to be the average temperature for people to enjoy the outside. I makes me wonder, if you love the outside why would it matter if it was cold outside or not? Temperature and people wanting to send time outside usually go hand in hand with the pattern of people go inside while it is cold and people play outside when it is hot. Why is that? Because people in this environment are use to warmer weather and not use to cold weather, but in say Antarctica people there figure the normal temp is lower than our normal temp. This shows the pattern that warmer weather is consistently more appealing to spend time out in than cold weather here in this environment.

In college life I have noticed that men and women differ in many ways, there are many patterns when it come to men and many patterns when it comes to women. I have noticed that men are less likely to decorate their dorm room to make it more homely, but that also might be what is comfortable for them. But, women, on the other hand, are more likely to put canvases on their wall or stringing lights around their rooms. This seems to be an ongoing pattern I have noticed, though it is not a definite, this still seems to be a typical pattern between the typical man and typical woman.  Men are more likely to keep is simple and do less decorating rather than making their room unique. Why is this? It is because decorating your room and putting things on the wall and synchronizing colors with their room mate is seen as more of a feminine thing rather than tough an manly which is what a majority of men want to be. Why is it more feminine? Because society has made it the social norm to be a woman's thing rather than a mans. This is an ongoing pattern I have observed throughout my first year of college.

Assigned Seats

Something I find very funny when I used my sociological imagination this semester was that in all my classes everyone seems to have an assigned seat after the first day of class even though in every class there weren't any assigned seats.  After realizing this I thought back over the three years I’ve gone to school here and it’s been the same in every class every semester. But the part that I found funny was when my teacher last year told the class that we had to find a different seat and we weren’t aloud to be sitting next to anyone we were before. Every one in the class was kind of up set about it because the seat they were in was where they felt comfortable in class. But what I learned from this is that by giving our selves an “assigned seat” doesn’t allow us to get out of our comfort zone and meet someone we may not have talked to any where else. In the class that my teacher moved us half way through the semester it has been the only class that I have had that has had good in depth conversations because we all knew each other and felt comfortable anywhere in the class.

Servers

 
Being a worker in the food industry I know how a server should act to a table, even if they do not think that they will tip well. It is usually always the same process as to if they want to serve that table, or if they want to give it to another server. If it is a girl server, they tend to choose tables with more guys at it because they will tip better. sadly this is how it works in most cases, people of the opposite sex tips better because of what I think is attraction. Because of different genders, the attraction between them makes them tip more, or no attraction ends up making them tip less. than deserved.  

Studying Habits of Men and Women

     Most people don't realize the differences between the study habits of guys and girls; studying is studying, right? The way people study goes far beyond their own personal preferences, and is highly influenced by societies expectations.
     Gender may not seem like a determining factor for studying patterns, but it is, perhaps, one of the most important. Women in American society are looked upon as dependent and unintelligent. Seeing a group of girls studying together is normal; we don't even think to question it. However, seeing a group of guys studying together raises questions. Men in our

society are expected to be intellectually superior and independent; they do not need the extra help of a group setting like women are seen as requiring. Even if a man is struggling and wants the help, asking for it would be seen as weak, and men in our society detest being seen as such as it is considered "unmanly". Women are encouraged to study in groups and ask for help frequently, displaying their "inferiority". Both sexes are expected to follow these unspoken rules and are punished if they do not.
     Even the minor task of studying is influenced by society. The illusion that men are above women is on display constantly, with the pressures to comply increasing. These societal expectations are hurting and limiting our youth, pushing girls to excel academically and ridiculing boys who try to do the same. They are noted for being superior athletes and this is not because all men are able-bodied, but because that is what society expects. These silent limitations instill a corrupt mindset about both sexes, and if gender discrimination is due to stop, then these ideals must stop first.

Technology

Technology has changed the way people communicate and keep in touch in present day.  Use to in the past people would make plans to catch up with each other, but in today's time people do not usually meet in person due to technology. Because of today's technology people are not comfortable talking in person even if they know them very well. Today people are so dependent on computers and smart phones that we do not know how to hold an actual conversation with people. This has had a huge impact on the way we socialize, which we do not do much of that these days.  Smart phones and computers tend to make it so this generation is too shy or scared to talk, because we grew up hiding behind a screen. Having a cell phone makes it so we do not have to reply at that moment in time unlike how we would have to do in person.

The Differences between playing with Cards and Books

In public gaming, one thing that seems to unite most people is the idea that we can all help each other, to the point that we are all having fun even if we are in the middle of a battle.
Above are two separate groups playing two separate games, with the main difference between the two being that one is played with an expensive and extensive deck of cards and the other with an expensive but not yet quite extensive book and pencil.
For each different group of gamer's i have seen throughout my time playing at the store i frequent to participate in the game that is being played in the top picture, I have always seen as the ones with the cards as the loud infrequent participant in a game where most people just play to participate in tournaments in order to get money.
But using my sociological imagination, and a bit of research, I took a step back to watch them as they played, only to truly see the group's of people playing as almost as exactly being similar to our group. Someone cast a spell that got blocked, another sliced some nameless minion in two, but the only difference again was the medium in which we played. As we let our miniature represent us on the map and our pencils right down how much damage we've taken and the last time I'd used the magical javelin to rain down lighting. They were just using cards to represent the magic and spells, laughing and sniping at each other whenever one's plan to invade the enemy castle failed because he... set off a trap?
I may not know much about Magic: The Gathering as a player or a gamer, other than that I know people spend about as much money as a house payment on most of the cards, but I've caught most of peoples games to realize that it is just as fun and enjoyable to the people playing as Dungeons and Dragons can be. Exploding wizards and beheaded dragons non-withstanding.
We're all people, nerds, a few jocks, a cop or a biker, who just want to get together and test our skill and will against others or a prepared plot by blasting it to oblivion and a magic wand or a suddenly materializing giant tower. We all want to do crazy shenanigans because we can, and we want to see everyone around us laugh at the outcome of the poor nameless mook that that rockslide just fell on top of.
I may not get into Magic: The Gathering as much as Dungeons and Dragons in the future, but at least i won't see them in a different light whenever they start breaking out in shouts whenever their counterspell war continues on. I'll just seem this as about as annoying as us and tell them to quiet down all the same, just without as much scorn.

Judging Social Class By Weight

Have you ever looked at someone and was quick to judge someone on determining what social status they belong to? Let's just say a majority of people in today's generation have, because let's face it, how we look determines a whole lot about ourselves. For example, a slim, fit male is not going to be taken as a male who is broke and can not provide for themselves. The strong male is going to look like he has his life on track, works out, and eats healthy. As for the male who is not is not in the best condition, people in this generation look at him as if he can not afford a gym membership and eats mainly fast food typically because it is cheaper than food that the strong fit man would eat.
                                        
As for the two females, upper class women are all about who is wearing the most expensive clothing and who looks the best in it. That being said, upper class women are not going to be caught dead looking no bigger than a toothpick. You will mostly see women who are in poverty or in the middle class as women who are bigger. Why is that? Here's why, these bigger women are the women who are always on the go. They are the ones who work throughout the day to provide for their children, then after work go and take their children to their practices, which they are most likely to pick up something to go from a fast food restaurant just like the male who is bigger would do. I would consider weight to play a huge factor in what people basis their decisions on when determining a                                              person social status on first impressions.

Weekend Getaway

Using my sociological imagination, I have decided to post about two different people lifestyle's on a typical weekend. In the first image I presented you can see two people kayaking down a river, which most people in the middle class status would consider an eventful weekend activity. However, in the second image I presented you can see an airplane that has just boarded and is about to takeoff to Hawaii, which is considered a typical weekend for someone who is living the lifestyle of someone who is in the upper class. In sociology I have learned about the social class structure and learned the differences in the lifestyles of people who are in lower, middle, and upper class. A kayaking trip is considered a middle class activity because it is affordable and something you can do outdoors. You wouldn't see someone in the upper class going on a kayaking trip because it is an activity that doesn't require that much money, and it also requires work while you maneuver down the river. A trip to Hawaii on a weekend is considered a upper class weekend activity because it requires money and it's a relaxing get away. Which you would not see someone in a lower or middle class taking a trip to Hawaii on a weekend because it is not in their budget, and most likely these people have a job and do not have the time to just get out the state.