Barefooted in Wal-Mart

All of a sudden I thought about sociology when I was walking around Wal-Mart with socks on. Yup, I had no shoes on. Some people that's reading this might say ewww gross. Your reaction is sociologically called ethnocentrism, which is judging another culture based on your belief. I was assigned to break a folkway, a type of norm that lack moral behavior. Anywho, as i was strolling through Wal-Mart I couldn't help but noticed all these random eyes glued to my feet. My initial reaction was man, this is uncomfortable. After awhile I felt at ease. After all, I'm not hurting anyone, however, I was doing something socially unacceptable. On the contrary, outsiders from other parts of the world looking in on my behavior would find this totally normal. In other words, walking barefooted or with socks on is not breaking any social norms. The main idea is when you notice something thats wacky or out of place, just be open minded that we are all different. 

America today

Our flag represents a strong advanced country. When people wear red white and blue they're usually being patriotic.

 This image represents how socially wired we are. all these different social network connects us together when we're fare apart.

 the new cell phone represents how advanced we've become digitally.

 Now a days name brand clothes define what social class you're in.

  American culture today has become so entrenched with the media. Whether we've noticed it or, the media has influenced our lives.

Cultural difference!

 All of a sudden I was thinking about sociology when our class was separated by tow cultural groups, the Hokies and Heelot. Heelots are a private, conservative, non-touchy tribe; however, Hokies are the complete opposite. They are very social and starts every conversation with a hand shake, meanwhile heelots aren't allow to touch people or be touched by others. Apart from that heelots aren't allow to look people in the eye. The difficult part of this assignment was having to communicate with each other. YIKES!! At first both tribe was kind of timid towards each other. We eventually find an alternative way of breaking our cultural barriers. Whew! Finding another means to communicate with each other made our remaining experience so much easier The overall concept of this experience is how society communicates with one another despite cultural differences. We as a whole need to look past our differences and go the extra mile to communicate with each other. It's worth it.  :)

Bemused in America

1. What Stefan find strange is how Americans can watch TV for a long amount of period. Especially how there are camera's in court TV taking close pictures of people, basically exploiting the people just for the sake of entertainment. Stefan was also find it strange that TV shows held special programs on the worst violence crimes.

2. Stefan find this strange because in Munich, Germany, where he's from no cameras are allowed in a courtroom. Also he doesn't see anything entertaining in exploiting people. We Americans go the extra mile just for entertainment purpose. Compare to Germany American culture has less restriction we aren't that conservative. We put things out there in the open whether it's good or bad. This behavior can seem strange outsiders.

3. One American value I can relate this to is how open Americana's are with each other. We like to display things whether good or bad. Inform everybody of what's going on.

Technology Fein

All of sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when i was watching a documentary in media literature about technology. The movie directed its attention on how humans are becoming to so into technology that we miss out on important things in life. People would rather communicate technology wise than face to face. this phenomenon is world wide not just America. One of countries who was part of this documentary was China. The video displayed how technology affected some of the kids life. A 13 year old was evaluated. He was constantly playing video game. This went as far as him no longer being the top 10 kid in class but rather than the bottom 10 academic wise. His mother was greatly concerned, therefore, she enrolled him in a technology free school for about a week. Apart from video games, the producers also shined light on college students using their cell phones and laptops in class. This portion of the film was based on multitasking. study showed that the more the students multi tasked the worse they become at it. Fascinating huh! This relates to sociology because this effects it in many ways. most likely for the worse. People will become so tuned into living their lives online than the real world. By this, our social lives will be messed up. We wouldn't know how to interact with each other face to face.