In class this week, we spent our time discussing sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness, along with the importance of the two. Sociological imagination is recognizing how our surroundings and our relationship can shape us into the people we are today. Reading "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell, I was surprised by the results Wolf, a physician in the town of Roseto, obtained regarding the Rosetans' health. He found out that the death rate of citizens in Roseto was "thirty or thirty five percent lower than it should have been" and that no citizen below the age of 55 acquired heart disease or suffered from heart attack. Normally, this phenomenal result would be due to consistent diet or exercise. However, Wolf found that the lifestyle Rosetans carried out, being kind and caring to everyone in the town, was the reason the death rate was so low. Rosetans were shaped by their environment. If they lived in a town polluted with cruel, ignorant citizens, the death rate may in fact have been higher. It gives us something to think about; Do you think the community you live in and the people you interact with have actively shaped you into the person you are now?
Sociological mindfulness is understanding that our actions have consequences and have a big part in affecting people around us and even affecting us. In the excerpt from Michael Schwalbe's "The Sociologically Examined Life", Schwalbe mentions that sociological mindfulness "is especially important for helping us see that the consequences of our words and deeds often escape our intentions". Basically, he says we need to step back and notice how everything we do/say has an affect on other people, even though we might not mean anything by what we do. By understanding and taking a part in being sociologically mindful, we will learn to become more compassionate people, leading our world to a more peaceful future.
A great example that involves sociological imagination and sociological mindfulness is the movie Mean Girls. Karen, Regina, Cady, and Gretchen are a part of the popular clique, that go by the name "The Plastics". All they do is terrorize other people to make themselves feel superior. In the beginning, Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan, comes to a high school in North Shore as a polite and innocent home-schooled transfer student from Africa. Dared to become friends with The Plastics, she ends up becoming a corrupt, self-absorbed snob due to the people who surrounded her. In the end, after a burn book that her and her friends created gets exposed, she becomes sociologically mindful. Cady thinks about everyone she's hurt since she's been there and apologizes sincerely. By becoming sociologically mindful, she becomes a better person and becomes more aware of her actions when seeing how they directly hurt her peers and how her actions came back to haunt her. She also realizes she's changed as a person because she moved from a place where she was mostly with animals and her family to a place where everyone else in her clique were snobby, shaping her into a snob.
This clip shows how Cady is shaped by the high school "girl world" she is exposed to and this, along with her individual motives, leads her to forgetting about sociological mindfulness. Not being sociological mindful, her actions have the consequence she didn't want and make the situation worse for her.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Is Technology Really Making Us Grow?
People are always mentioning how our society is growing rapidly each day, once a new piece of technology is introduced. There's the phone, made to make long-distance communication easier, but it has made us avoid conversations with people who aren't so far away. There's the internet, giving birth to myspace and facebook and other social networking websites. However, those have just pushed us away from communicating with individuals face-to-face, as well. Why start a meaningful conversation in person when you can just go on your smart phone and post a youtube video on that person's wall to express your feelings?
Recently, in English class, we read an article entitled "The Future of Creativity" by Jeannine Ouellette. The article mentioned how, due to technologic advancements, we are no longer creative and lack a sense of imagination. When there were no computers or television, children voluntarily played outside with other children, inventing their own games and expressing their sense of imagination. Contemporary times portray that as "boring" and inferior to playing a bowling game on the Wii or staying on the couch, watching a movie marathon. We've been brainwashed into having entertainment and technology do all the thinking and imagining for us.
Instead of consuming ourselves in all this technology, we must take a step backwards and put ourselves in the mindset of children, allowing our naturally creative minds to let us grow.
Recently, in English class, we read an article entitled "The Future of Creativity" by Jeannine Ouellette. The article mentioned how, due to technologic advancements, we are no longer creative and lack a sense of imagination. When there were no computers or television, children voluntarily played outside with other children, inventing their own games and expressing their sense of imagination. Contemporary times portray that as "boring" and inferior to playing a bowling game on the Wii or staying on the couch, watching a movie marathon. We've been brainwashed into having entertainment and technology do all the thinking and imagining for us.
Instead of consuming ourselves in all this technology, we must take a step backwards and put ourselves in the mindset of children, allowing our naturally creative minds to let us grow.
About me :)
Everyone has a different definition of what they want in life, that certain image that floods their mind and pushes them to want to leap and grab it so badly. Traveling back and forth between Iran and Italy until age three, life seemed like a breeze. Writing songs about braiding my hair and about how jealous my mom's friends would be not having my messy, braided hair was just about the hardest thing in my life. I moved to the US at age three and life really began from there.
When people ask me about my dad and his death, I really don't know how to respond. I was still a toddler when he passed away and don't have much of memory of it. When someone close to you dies, people expect that stereotypical, dramatic reaction whenever the name of the deceased is even mentioned. However, like it or not, everyone will lose someone they love and care for at least once in his/her life. It's an unfortunate part of life and it hits you hard every time. Even though it sounds cliche, being happy for who you still have and what you still have is all you can do. I'm more than happy to have my mom there for me every single day. I look up to her so much, raising a child single handedly, knowing nothing but broken English during the toughest of times.
I've always loved animals and, after many fish and a golden retriever, my mom brought me home two kittens named "Romeo" and "Juliet". I had them for three years and they had even had kittens of their own. Romeo became very ill one summer and acquired a urethra blockage. The surgery costed more than we could afford so we had to give it up to a no-kill shelter that would pay for his procedure. That was the day I decided I was going to work hard and become a vet. I've never wanted anything more in my life and on the day I graduate Veterinary School, I will give all the credit to my mom for showing me that working hard for what you believe in is worth the drain it first brings.
When people ask me about my dad and his death, I really don't know how to respond. I was still a toddler when he passed away and don't have much of memory of it. When someone close to you dies, people expect that stereotypical, dramatic reaction whenever the name of the deceased is even mentioned. However, like it or not, everyone will lose someone they love and care for at least once in his/her life. It's an unfortunate part of life and it hits you hard every time. Even though it sounds cliche, being happy for who you still have and what you still have is all you can do. I'm more than happy to have my mom there for me every single day. I look up to her so much, raising a child single handedly, knowing nothing but broken English during the toughest of times.
I've always loved animals and, after many fish and a golden retriever, my mom brought me home two kittens named "Romeo" and "Juliet". I had them for three years and they had even had kittens of their own. Romeo became very ill one summer and acquired a urethra blockage. The surgery costed more than we could afford so we had to give it up to a no-kill shelter that would pay for his procedure. That was the day I decided I was going to work hard and become a vet. I've never wanted anything more in my life and on the day I graduate Veterinary School, I will give all the credit to my mom for showing me that working hard for what you believe in is worth the drain it first brings.
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