Culture Shock

This week in sociology we are discussing culture. I think that the whole idea of culture is kind of hidden at times because our culture comes from the things that we are most used to, so we don't always notice it. That's why it is so hard to adjust to another culture. One interesting concept of culture we discussed was culture shock. Often, people get frustrated when they experience culture shock. We played a really interesting game called five tricks. We played the game, without any language, with one group, and with a certain set of rules for a matter of five minutes. Afterwards, we were told to switch groups. While playing the game, little did we know that the new group was playing by a completely different set of rules than we were. It was funny and interesting to see people get angry and frustrated, even though we were only playing for a short amount of time. This was a great way to show how culture shock would feel. When people are used to a certain set of rules, and a certain way of living, it is extremely difficult to adjust to a new set. I experienced culture shock when I went to India a few years ago. Since I was born and raised here in the US, I do not know that many things about Indian culture. Things in India are very different. There are different modes of transportation, they dress differently, they talk differently, and they think differently. For example, one thing is that people there do not usually say "okay" , or "yeah" as often as we do. Whenever i said that, everyone automatically knew that I wasn't from there. Learning about culture shock makes me more aware, and also more understanding and accepting of other peoples culture. Everyone belongs to a culture that is attached to them, and it is very hard to adjust to a new culture.

A Bronx Tale-Groups

This week we watched a really good movie called a Bronx Tale. I really enjoyed this movie alot. Not only was it funny, but it had a really good storyline. Calogero is a part of many different groups in his life. One group that Calogero was a part of, was his family. Another group that he belonged to was with his circle of friends.Calogero felt conflicted with this group. He always felt uneasy when they would do certain things, that he knew he didn't want to do, but he felt like he had to sometimes. I thought that Calogero's master status throughout his life was always being in Sunny's group. These are the people that Calogero spent most of his time with. More importantly, Sunny was the one he spent the most time with. In the movie, Calogero said that Sunny was like a father to him which meant that Calogero had an extremely deep connection to Sunny. When he was young, he looked up to Sunny and spent most of his time at the bar with him. In my life, I consider my master status as being a member of my family. My family is extremely important to me and it always will be. These are the people that I spend most of my time with and I have grown up with. I have considered being a part of my family for ny whole life, and I don't think that it will change.

Gang Leader For A Day

This week in class we read an article called Gang Leader For A Day. This article helped me learn that sociology is studied in two ways. The first method of studying sociology is the quantitative way. In this method, sociologists study data by conducting surveys and collecting data. The second way of studying sociology is the qualitative way. This includes interviews, and actually stepping into the subject's shoes, experiencing and seeing life through their eyes. It was an interesting article because the author did such an unusual thing. He started spending time with the gang members, even though he was told to use the surveys to study them. This article is important because sometimes, studying sociology through survey questions might not always be enough. I know that i usually get frustrated when I am asked such broad questions about something in surveys, because I am never able to fully explain or justify my answer. Questions in surveys are extremely vague and they leave no room for deeper meanings. There is no better kind of learning than to experience something for yourself.

Social Construction of Reality

This week in class we did alot of interesting things. I really enjoyed watching the show Freaks and Geeks alot, however, I was really into the topic of social construction of reality. This lesson was really interesting. I never knew that back in the old days there was no such thing as a “teenager”. It’s very weird to think that back then, 17 year olds were considered adults. At that age, they were already working in factories and having their own families. As a modern day teenager, I would not be able to support myself financially. I think that the spit for saliva activity did a good job of portraying social construction of reality. It’s odd that even though we all produce saliva, we are so trained to think that spit is disgusting, even though it’s the same exact thing. This really helps me understand how much of an impact society really has on me. Society itself created the term teenager. Everything that we do, is created for teenagers. For example, pop culture is mostly for teenagers. For us teenagers today, our lives are completely different from teenagers in previous years.