Social Class

In class this week we learned about prison and how the increasing population of prisons relates to social class and income. The Henry Horner homes in Chicago are filled with violence and drugs and people from that area are constantly taken away to jail by the police, without question. Kids from Naperville were found in that area buying heroin and when caught, their licenses pended suspension and the police called their parents. Why is it that the poor are taken to jail almost immediately, but the rich get away with the same act and little consequences?

When reading Courtroom 302, the author successfully shows the reader the general population of these jailhouses: low-income minorities. These people weren't even charged with anything yet, they were in jail waiting for their court date. Low-income citizens are being dragged to jail for anything they can be charged with because the police know that they cannot afford their own lawyer to free them, unlike the rich. Someone who has been in prison before is likely to end up there again so the poor people are being caught in this constant cycle and cannot build their lives. We claim we don't believe in social class in America and that everyone is free but what is actually happening is that the poor are getting more miserable, acquiring help from no one, while the rich are having the road to freedom paved for them.

Act of Deviance

For class this week, we were assigned to take part in a positive act of deviance. Deviance is when someone goes against social norms or what is expected, either in a negative or a positive way. I went against what was expected of me when I helped an old man walk around the store I work at, picking out every item on his shopping list for him and offering coupons with those items. He asked if I was getting commission for what I was doing and I laughed, thinking he was kidding. He was serious.

When people do something outside of what is expected, especially if it's a good thing, people around them get confused. They aren't used to these acts and don't know how to respond. I try to be really friendly to every customer by smiling, asking how they are doing, or how their day is going. I always get responses like "why are you so happy?", "why are you smiling?", or "what's going on". It's so strange to me that they don't expect people to be friendly, but once I started paying more attention, I noticed that people are usually minding their own business and shopping on their own. If someone helps them or tries talking to them, they think that that person wants something, that there's something in it for them. If people commit more kind acts of deviance, our world will be a friendlier one where people don't think strangers buying them coffee for no reason is odd, wishing them a good day is strange, or giving a stranger a hug to brighten his/her day is not normal.

Parent-Teen Conflicts

This week in class we were asked to read an article about parent-teen conflicts. It made me realize a lot about issues that blossom between teenagers and their parents; differences in society and economics have a huge impacts on relationships, parent-teen relationships specifically. Teens are expected to act more responsibly, more like an adult but they are treated like children more and more each day.

Back during our parents' generation, teenagers had specific places they could meet and hang out at. Teenagers these days don't really have that and the media portrays us as "troublemakers", so finding teens a place to hang out isn't really important to anyone. Also, back then, males could drop out of school during their teenage years and support their family while working a tough job with coworkers that were older than them. I work at a clothing store now and everyone who works there, besides the managers, are around my age. We are all asked to do easy work and I feel like not much is expected from us; it would be impossible for us to try supporting our families on that job and we don't really have anyone there to be our mentors. However, at my other job, I feel lucky to be the youngest worker there. I receive advice regularly from all my coworkers, even those that are only a few years older than me, and it's extremely helpful. I learn from their mistakes and I feel more comfortable making decisions on my own at college because of all the advice they have given me.

More teenagers should understand that our parents lived through a different era, where different things were expected of them and society labeled them differently. They had more mentors that helped them become adults, helped them become more independent. Hopefully, more teenagers can find these mentors and adjust to adulthood more comfortably.

Media's Portrayal of the Perfect Human

As we learned in class this week, each person is exposed to about 20,000 ads per year. Even though we may say these ads have no affect on us, they do. They make us unconsciously shape a picture of the ideal body for both men and women, a body everyone must strive for. However, what some people don't understand is that these bodies aren't real. The bodies of supermodels, no matter how thin or beautiful, go through edit after edit to create the best, flawless product. Magazines publish pictures of pencil-thin girls with large breasts that are over sexualized, when in reality their bodies are impossible to have naturally. The media is creating this self-conscious society where no one is proud of what they have. If you're skinny, you can always become skinnier. If your breasts are large, you can always make them larger. If your muscles are huge, they can always get bigger. Thousands and thousands of dollars are being spent by people on plastic surgery to create this material body that isn't theirs; a body they didn't even want until the media made them think they wanted it.


Shows and movies add to the drop in self confidence and also add to the stereotypical gender roles. They portray the perfect man to be tall, muscular, confident, and not afraid of using violence when necessary. If a man shows a feminine side, they're labeled as "fag", "gay", or "girly". Thousands of kids who don't fit this "ideal" masculine man are bullied to the point where they fight back to gain their manliness. In the article by Kimmel, it even said this boy's dad labeled him as "gay" and "queer" for not fitting this body type. What hope do you have when even your family is putting you down? A good example of these images about masculinity and stereotypes about women are Disney Movies. Disney movies portray a great man as tall, masculine and a bully such as Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Also, in a scene we watched from Beauty and the Beast, girls are portrayed as weak and are supposed to be worshipping a masculine man, like Gaston. In AP Psychology class my teacher made a good point when she said that mothers aren't involved in Disney movies. The only Disney movie I can think of, where the character has a mother, is Bambi and the mother eventually gets shot in the middle of the film. Disney sends out a message that women aren't important.


If these messages are continuously sent to people, drowning their daily lives, our society will only be going downhill from here. No one will learn to accept themselves and others for who they are, what they look like, or comprehend that everyone is different. Being a skinny girl is just a body type and so is being muscular male; just because you have that body doesn't mean you're a better person. People need to start thinking about what is more important in life, rather than these fake looks that we're exposed to all the time.

Is Television Really Entertainment?

Television is a huge part of the American Lifestyle. We watch tv while doing housework or homework, we watch tv with friends, we even use it as a way to bond with our families. According to Nielsenwire, "82% of homes have more than 1 television set"; Americans even have multiple television sets in our houses so everyone can watch their own show.

This week we talked about television and we were asked to watch TV while counting the technical events, watch the news without the sound, watch someone else watching TV, and then watch the TV set without it being turned on. The results were interesting. 

A TV set is just another inanimate object, but what's on it is what entrances us to keep watching it. We even label it as a form of entertainment even though all we do when we watch TV is sit there and just stare. The sports games, the talk shows, the reality tv shows, and all the other shows we enjoy watching trick us into being interested by adding many technical events such as voice overs, fade ins/outs, zoom ins/outs, and cuts to different scenes. This way, there is so much going on that you don't even realize what you're watching really isn't that exciting. You just sit there and stare at a screen, mesmerized by all the "exciting" things going on before you. 

Thrive!

In class this week, we were assigned a reading on thriving, focusing on happiness. Buettner, the author of this novel, claims that six factors will determine whether you thrive or not; your community, workplace, social life, financial life, home, and self. Limiting the work week and shopping hours and adding on vacation time and taking a maternity leave will help you become more social. Doing so, helps you create stronger interactions and connections with other people, leading you to that happy life you've always dreamed of. Finding the right job for you, one that you are passionate about, will help you become satisfied with the life you are living, as well. So many people choose their career due to the salary they will earn, but most of those people quickly lose interest and gain a confusion of their role in life.
I was relieved to find that, even though he talks about financial life being important, Buettner never says that money equals happiness. He mentions that "individuals who thrive tend to possess enough money to cover their basic needs, but rather than striving for more cash, they focus their time and energy on developing a caring group of healthy friends, working at meaningful jobs, engaging in enriching hobbies" (210). In America, even if we have enough money and materials to live, we want more and more...and more. Instead of doing so, we need to realize that the gaining bonds with the people around us is more important.
Overall, he talks about how we should reach out to different types of people, prioritize what's most important to them and value that, and get involved in their community/environment actively. Americans could learn a lot from this, and following these rules would be ideal, but we are shaped by our surroundings to want more, to have that desire for instant gratification, and do what the media and money tells us to do instead of what we want to do. These factors are great and beneficial, but the most important thing that can determine what "thrive" means to you and your life is where you live.

Hard work, Achievement, and Success

In the movie Tuesdays with Morrie, the values consuming Mitch's life are hard work, achievement, and success. He is always going from state to state, rushing to cover the latest sports news and rushing to meet every deadline. He wants his work to shout "perfection" and his values lead him to ignore everything else in his life. Not only is it true for my parents and myself, but I believe these three things are values our whole country finds important. Even if some people don't act on the hard work and achievement and never reach success, they like the idea of achieving something through hard work and may even envy those who have succeeded in something. I believe we learn to glorify hard work, achievement, and success at an early age. In Elementary school, we start learning to spell and eventually are given the choice of working our hardest and competing in the Spelling Bee. My teacher persuaded my whole class to do so. The winner of the Bee ended up receiving all kinds of medals and recognition for his success; he became the coolest kid in school. From then on, my classmates and I were programmed work hard to get what we want, whether it be receiving a reward, being recognized by others, or just having the ability to know we can succeed at something. This message has never gone away. The goal has just changed, though. It used to be the Spelling Bee, now it's getting into college, and later it will be landing a stable job in our field of work. There are a lot of different types of success, though; success doesn't always have to lead to a good, well-paying job. You can succeed in love, putting others before yourself, being kind to everyone, and being loyal to your family and/or significant other. You can succeed in understanding, knowing that different cultures have different values, being open-minded, and never judging others. Of course there are more, and sometimes they may overlap, but I believe school only teaches us how to succeed in graduating school. Sure, that's what their job is. However, these other things we can succeed in may give us the ability to achieve all we can achieve. For example, lack of success in love can lead to mistreatment of others and potentially ruin our success in school and success in getting a job because of that. Learning how to succeed in areas other than getting a job can help our society become a well-rounded, more understanding generation and lead us to more accomplishments.