This week in class, we talked about social class and how depending on your specific class, you have certain opportunities that others might have. Social class is primarily based on your income. The more money you make the higher the class you are in. One characteristic of class that i think manifest itself is education.
Depending on your social class, you have a better opportunity to receive a better education. There are certain schools which are located in predominantly higher class areas that in my opinion "give" a better education to their students than say a low income area. The reason i think this is because if you do live in a high/middle class area, your school receives more money than say a low income, inner city school. If your school receives lots of money, they can afford to hire more qualified personal and also provide more resources to their students.
This idea of schools receiving more money depending on where you live is not the same for the idea of financial aid. People who live in low income areas will receive more money in financial aid in order to be able to afford college. Although that is fair, i don't think your income (social class) should be the only way of determining financial aid because although the people in the middle class make more money that those in the lower class, they also probably have more bills and things to pay off. When it comes time for college and they don't get as much financial aid because they make too much money, they end up struggling to pay for it.
Fortunately, i live in a middle/high class neighborhood and my school provides an excellent education. My school has two learning centers fully equipped with teachers who specialize in one subject, computers, and extra books. There are many schools out there that can't even afford books in good condition but mine can afford hundres of Ipads. I don't think people take advantage of the many resources their schools provide and i think it is a shame.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Gender
These past two weeks in class, we have talked about gender and how media portrays each gender. Gender is defined as how you define yourself between your ears. To help us understand this, we watched a video called Killing Us Softly. It is about a lady named Jean who talks about how the media (advertisements) mainly portrays woman as sex objects and not as people where as men are always portrayed as these big, strong, tough men.
In my opinion, i believe Jean is wrong and that she takes things out of line. First off, people need to understand that advertisements main objective is to sell their product and that basically everything in them is digitally enhanced or unattainable. Jean says that ads that contain stick thin women are forcing girls to try and look like the ones they see in the ads. I believe it s the girls responsibility to know that the girls they see in the ads are not really that thin in real life and it really to just get peoples attention. Another thing that i disagree with that Jean said was that the government needs to start enforcing rules and regulations against what can be put in ads. If the government were to enforce certain laws, that would cause in my opinion serious controversy. First off, it violates the companies freedom of speech and expression. Also by regulating ads, it will cause a huge problem because then companies will not be able to sell their products efficently and therefore ruin our economy.
The past week, we took a "field trip" in school to listen to a few panelist who were either gay, lesbian, or tans gender. We listened to each one as they each shared their stories about growing up and realizing their sexuality. While listening, it was very sad to hear about all of the panelists stories and how some of their parents weren't accepting. It also really hit when i found out that 3/5 of the panelists had tried to commit suicide.
I think it it really hard for somebody who is not gay or lesbian to really understand what people who are gay or lesbian go through. I know in my life, i use derogatory terms like gay and fag when talking to friends, but when i say it, i'm using it in a kidding way. After listening to the panelist stories and hearing how much it hurts them when they hear the words, i am going to make a effort to not use the terms at all because they are really hurtful to some people.
In my opinion, i believe Jean is wrong and that she takes things out of line. First off, people need to understand that advertisements main objective is to sell their product and that basically everything in them is digitally enhanced or unattainable. Jean says that ads that contain stick thin women are forcing girls to try and look like the ones they see in the ads. I believe it s the girls responsibility to know that the girls they see in the ads are not really that thin in real life and it really to just get peoples attention. Another thing that i disagree with that Jean said was that the government needs to start enforcing rules and regulations against what can be put in ads. If the government were to enforce certain laws, that would cause in my opinion serious controversy. First off, it violates the companies freedom of speech and expression. Also by regulating ads, it will cause a huge problem because then companies will not be able to sell their products efficently and therefore ruin our economy.
The past week, we took a "field trip" in school to listen to a few panelist who were either gay, lesbian, or tans gender. We listened to each one as they each shared their stories about growing up and realizing their sexuality. While listening, it was very sad to hear about all of the panelists stories and how some of their parents weren't accepting. It also really hit when i found out that 3/5 of the panelists had tried to commit suicide.
I think it it really hard for somebody who is not gay or lesbian to really understand what people who are gay or lesbian go through. I know in my life, i use derogatory terms like gay and fag when talking to friends, but when i say it, i'm using it in a kidding way. After listening to the panelist stories and hearing how much it hurts them when they hear the words, i am going to make a effort to not use the terms at all because they are really hurtful to some people.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Agents of Socialization
This week in class, we discussed socialization and the agents of socialization. Socialization is the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society. We get "socialized" by agents of socialization. Agents of socialization can be parents, peers, neighborhood, media; really, they can be anything that forms us into the people we become.
In class, we watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks. In the episode, Lindsay and Sam's parents were going out of town. Lindsay's friends had convinced her to have a party in which there would be alcohol at. In this case, her friends were an agent of socialization. They were forming Lindsay into a person that has parties with alcohol. By doing this, she would be seen as cool. Sam on the other hand did not want Lindsay to have alcohol at the party. He pressured his friend to use his Bar Mitzvah money in order to buy a keg of non-alcholic beer. Sam in this case was an agent of socialization for his friend. He told him by doing this, he could come to Lindsay's party.
This week also happened to be Halloween. Halloween is a time for people to dress up and look funny, dumb, sexy, etc. The way people decide to dress up is based on agents of socialization. One agent of socialization that influences peoples costumes is media. Media is a huge agent of socialization on halloween because people usually dress up as whatever is hot in the world or in the media. I remember going to the halloween store with a couple of friends and looking at masks. They had a hole section dedicated to political officials. This was in my opinion because of the upcoming election and the amount of media coverage of it. Another agent of socialization on halloween are peers. Your peers ultimately help you decide what you are going to be for halloween. You can go anywhere in the world for halloween and see a group of people dressed as the same thing. This is because they all agreed to wear the same thing based on their interest and because they are friends. This year i didn't dress up because my friends decided not to dress up. My friends were an agent of socialization for me. They influenced my choice not to dress up.
In class, we watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks. In the episode, Lindsay and Sam's parents were going out of town. Lindsay's friends had convinced her to have a party in which there would be alcohol at. In this case, her friends were an agent of socialization. They were forming Lindsay into a person that has parties with alcohol. By doing this, she would be seen as cool. Sam on the other hand did not want Lindsay to have alcohol at the party. He pressured his friend to use his Bar Mitzvah money in order to buy a keg of non-alcholic beer. Sam in this case was an agent of socialization for his friend. He told him by doing this, he could come to Lindsay's party.
This week also happened to be Halloween. Halloween is a time for people to dress up and look funny, dumb, sexy, etc. The way people decide to dress up is based on agents of socialization. One agent of socialization that influences peoples costumes is media. Media is a huge agent of socialization on halloween because people usually dress up as whatever is hot in the world or in the media. I remember going to the halloween store with a couple of friends and looking at masks. They had a hole section dedicated to political officials. This was in my opinion because of the upcoming election and the amount of media coverage of it. Another agent of socialization on halloween are peers. Your peers ultimately help you decide what you are going to be for halloween. You can go anywhere in the world for halloween and see a group of people dressed as the same thing. This is because they all agreed to wear the same thing based on their interest and because they are friends. This year i didn't dress up because my friends decided not to dress up. My friends were an agent of socialization for me. They influenced my choice not to dress up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)