Social Media Technology (SumBlog12)

We began discussing what the changing roles of technology have had on society and the way society interacts with each other. We talked about the internet group called Anonymous.  I think society has made massive advances with technology that many people from society could not live without.  I also think that with these advances came negatives that we could not have prepared for and now don't know how to adjust to. When you think about the ease of posting and furthering your opinions and goals on the internet through social media, I start to wonder when does it end? As people feel the need to be heard and the need to feel important they are more and more willing to post and share information that we used to keep private. 20 years ago if you were depressed and mentally unsound, it would be a private matter with just you, your family, and a doctor. Now it seems like if you are depressed or mentally unsound, the whole internet could know before your parents do. I think this is furthering the feeling of safety and comfort with the internet so that now almost nothing is off limits. This linked with the ease of any information is where negatives can be created. 20 years ago no one knew how to make a bomb or where to get guns. Now a second grader can find anything they want on the internet. Society has changed drastically in 20 years, so I'm not saying that the internet is all bad, there are other factors at play. But I am suggesting maybe some of these advances have allowed negative feelings and actions to become more easily acted upon. I think many social aspects of the internet have taken away the responsibility and accountability of some people's words and actions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQFFh5jznI

This is a funny spin on the idea I'm talking about. We have become so comfortable with the internet that we don't step back and look at our real interactions in life anymore. We don't stop and think about the consequences of thins we say and do, because we are never really interacting with the people we might be hurting.

Globalization (SumBlog11)

We have been discussing globalization and social modernization. Basically we have talked about how each portion of society effects all the other portions of society. There is a seemingly consistent push to shift all societies and cultures to look more and more similar to each other. The documentary we watched is a good example of how western technology is being integrated into third world countries in attempts to help them and ultimately modernize them. There are both positives and negatives to this globalization and modernization processes. I am going to look at a possible negative outcome. Research is showing that while modernization is beneficial for most countries, it also is increasing the level of social and economic equality. Countries as a whole are becoming more modern and equalized. But the people with in those societies are being drastically separated. The rich keep on getting more rich and the poor stay where they are. It also is becoming increasingly difficult for any one to better their social class or economic status. Poorer and lower class citizens are now receiving the opportunity to access and use modern technology, but the gap between them and the upper more wealthy class remains in place.




This image is a perfect visual aid for this concept. We are all running the same race and we all are finishing that race in a quicker and more efficient manner, however the distance between the people running the race stays the same and in most cases is still growing. On the surface it looks like people are become more and more equal due to technology, modernization, and globalization, but in actuality the inequality has never been more prominent.

Fears (SumBlog10)

Discussion today turned to what and how fears, whether justified or not, might dictate the way society behaves. I found this very interesting to think about. Could something that the government, a group of people, or an organization creates have a larger impact on then the truth? Possible suggestions of some fears that may have been created were fear of Muslims/Arabs, fear of unemployment, and fear of teen pregnancy rising. All of these do not have evidence to support them and actually research suggests the opposite of these fears. I want to look at another one that I think is on the rise. I think the fear of everything we are eating is growing. It seems like every day there is a new chemical in the foods we eat that “research now shows” is actually bad for us. This goes hand in hand with the health food craze and fad diets. Media says drink a glass of wine every day, don’t eat red meat, don’t drink anything with aspartame in it, lose weight eating only soy beans, egg yolks are bad for you, avoid BPA, etc…. Granted some of these are probably legitimate, but the sometimes it feels like whatever media say society automatically follows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi1Llch3uqU

This video highlights a relatively new eating disorder called Orthorexia. This disorder basically is people starving to death because they are so afraid to put anything unhealthy into their body. A fear that I believe could be fueled by media and society.  

Media (SumBlog9)

During class we looked at the music video called “Blurred Lines”. We discussed the question of what kinds of message does media like this portray to society. I want to dig a little deeper and ask what message does this portray toward today’s youth. I have worked for almost 5 years with children ranging between 5 and 17. While doing this I have experienced a few examples of the effects of media on young people.  I have two examples to suggest possible outcomes. (Names and places changed)

At summer camp I had a 7 year old that heard the song “Whistle by Flo Rida” while riding the bus out to camp, later that day a bunch of kids where singing the song and talking about it. A couple of the kids, no older than 10, where getting ready to explain to the group what the song was really about. This is when I stepped in and politely redirected there attention to something else. But I talked to some of the other staff later and we discussed how when we were that age we had no idea what some of these songs would have been talking about.

During a teen event where any teens from the community can come and hangout and join in scheduled activities, my second experience occurred. The staff working consisted of male and female college students. One of the female staff (21yrs old) happened to be very attractive. During this event a teenager (14years old) came up to this staff and asked her if he could have her phone number. She declined and we sort of joked about it. About an hour later the same teenager came up to her and asked if he could show her what a real man looks like in bed. At this point the teenager was removed from the event.   Again some of the other staff and I discussed how when we were that age, we would never have even considered saying that to a woman.

These two examples do NOT portray every kid or all of society; however I want to use them to make some suggestive possibilities. The topics and issues that are shown through media today have definitely changed over the last 20 years and will probably continue to do so. Also social norms within society, such as the importance of religion or what can be said on tv and radio, have also changed fairly dramatically. So my question is could media be having a bigger influence on the next generation then we think? Are there topics that used to be taboo that are now becoming accepted?  Are we creating an environment where children hear about and are exposed to everything too young? Is this giving them the idea that their actions are acceptable? Who is responsible for setting expectations now if the media doesn’t have any?

http://www.livescience.com/33205-swear-words-banned-television-fcc.html

This link is a website that talks about how topics and words are determined to be bad for tv or radio. Its interesting that there is no actual list of words. This could explain why topics like sex or rape are be suggested in the media and no one is putting up a fuss.

Socopoly (SumBlog8)

During Monday’s class the activity was Socopoly. Our group was split up into 5 categories by social class. Money and properties were distributed by to give one person more money and properties all the way down to some people (which happened to be me) very little money and no properties. Very quickly the group members playing realized we all did not have the same opportunities. I ended up rolling first and very quickly landed on someone’s property that they had acquired at the start of the game. I handed over what little money I had and just like that I was out of the game.  The example that played out can very easily be correlated to the real world. Sometimes it takes just a little bad luck to push the little, struggling guy out of the game. As the board game continued it mimicked today’s society very well. One by one the poorest and least established player was eliminated and one by one the richest and most established players continued to collect properties and money. Our game did finally end with one man owning most of the properties and taking all the money from each participant. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson#t-857238

I found a Ted Talk about social inequality, which if you have the time (16:54) is extremely interesting! :) This ted talk talked about how the difference between social class among countries might be far less important that the amount of difference between social class within those countries. Basically the amount of distance between the upper class and the lower class could be far more important. Studies showed the social inequalities drastically changed based on level of social class. Prison, mental illness, high school dropouts, social mobility, birth rates, crimes, health, literacy rates, obesity, and addictions all have correlations with what level of social class you fall into. Information shows that the closer countries get to social equality within that country the more there is a decrease in all of these inequalities. This suggests that decreasing the distance between levels of social class could have huge impacts on society. This study goes on to show that tasks that result in changes in self esteem or social class status where someone else could judge you based on your performance, showed off the charts levels of stress like no other activity that was tested.This shows that society has put massive significance to the level of social class you hold and at the same time created a system that makes it very hard to change status. The big question then becomes: How do we begin to change this? Some countries have started taxing social classes in order to equalize them. Countries that have done this saw decreases in the inequalities.

Gender Differences

Gender Differences (SumBlog7)

There are numerous factors that encourage men to share responsibilities with housework. Studies have shown that children drastically benefit, being more motivated, excelling academically, and staying out of trouble when fathers are involved with housework. Studies also show that women are happier, healthier, more productive, and more loving and supportive to their husbands and children when their spouse is involved. Males themselves are also happier, healthier and are more loving and supportive to their wives. It has also been suggested that married couples have more sex when they take on equal roles at home. These are just the start of reasons for the male to be involved. I think they emotional factor might play a very large role. Children see how women are treated, who carries the work load and the amount of affection shown around the house. I think this is essential in the emotionally stable development of young children and young adults. This could explain why more and more relationships and families are struggling. Gender differences very clearly play a large role in relationships. I also had the thought that maybe the children aren't doing enough of the house work. I came from a single mother family and my brother and I did the majority of the house work growing up. Because of that, I see it as extremely important for the man to take on an equal if not heavy work load in a relationship.I also wonder if in today's society families are creating more stress and house work by allowing massive amounts of technology. If the video games weren't sitting right there would family members naturally volunteer to take on work? I think so. I have seen couples make it a competition. Whichever spouse does less work at the end of the week than the other owes them a reward. Motivation to accomplish housework is created! 

This might seem really dumb, but I like the concept. If you need help with housework then find a way to get your family to help you. 1 hour of chores before they turn on the television. No Ipod or video games until a certain chore is completed daily. 

Sum Blog 6

Minimum Wage increase?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct1Moeaa-W8

Whether to raise the minimum wage is a hot topic right now. There are two differing sides. Mainstream media seems to focus on one side. This side is taking a look at the struggling workers who can’t make ends meet. It focuses on the single parents and struggling families that can’t put food on the table for their kids.  This YouTube video brings up an opposing side. The video shows very logically that if the minimum wage is raised, each worker will get more money. In the end however, the most unproductive worker, lowest in the company, and the one’s that need the wage increase the most, are the workers that are going to get hurt. Companies will not be able to afford small increases, much less large increases, so they will have to downsize and let workers go. A large minimum wage increase could actually increase unemployment in the group of people that need work the most.

In class we looked at the videos that romanticized low income and minimum wage jobs, trying to show the need to raise wages.  I do see the view point however I think there are more strings attached than people think.  It is important to look as companies and the economy as a whole as well. A large increase could actually put companies out of business. I run a small construction company. I currently employ only myself, but I crunched some numbers on if I could afford to hire workers. The difference between a $7.25 minimum wage and even a $9 minimum wage would be huge. For 3 employees for one year’s work that change would be a difference of $10,000! As a small business my budget would be gone and I would go out of business almost immediately. I think a wage increase needs to be very slow and maybe needs to be subsidized by the government, since they are the ones that haven’t kept up with inflation. There isn't really a good answer to the current situation.

Sum Blog 4

Part of the class discussion included watching a part of the Radical Islam Documentary.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AediQLpoGGM I found the clip we watched very interesting, so I found the full documentary and will be relating it to this weeks topic of privilege. The documentary took an in-depth look at a radical group of Islamic people. What I found most interesting about this was how easy it was to believe everything that was said, and how easy it was to immediately react to their positions and agree. One of the first lines in the documentary said 'It's important to remember, most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror.' However the next 70 minutes made it seem like all Muslims are violent. I think this shows examples of discrimination and therefor privilege. It was immediately understood that if you are Muslim, you were categorized and treated differently. It also means that if you were not Muslim, you were given a privilege. You were given a privilege to put in a nice group, a group that banded together over all being threaten by the same radical Muslim group. Years down the road after the documentary came out and after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, you can still find examples of the existence of these two groups. Muslims are still profiled in certain scenarios, and most everyone else still has a negative opinion about Islam or at least a hesitation. It seems that once segregations, descriminations, and privileges are created they are extremely difficult to get rid of.


There is discrimination and privileges all around us in society. They are nearly impossible to get away from. This cartoon shows how the United States is trying to fix them. I will leave it up to your comments to determine if the government stepping in and regulating and encouraging society to be more accepting and equal is the best plan of action. What else could be done?

Sum Blog 3

In class this week we discussed religion and some of the heated topics surrounding it. I want to focus on the extremist church, the Westboro Baptist Church. I don't want to talk about the church it self or any other extremist group. I want to ask questions like, Why are other peoples opinions so important within society? The supplemental reading (Chaves) talked about how people are identifying with their religion. This brings up the question, Why are someone else's religion, practices, or beliefs so important to everyone else? I could write endless blogs on my opinions about the Westboro Church, same sex marriage, or abortion... but what does it matter? I am all for a heated discussion about differences in beliefs. I am a conservative Christian and I have lived with strong Catholics, I have had a gay roommate, and I have supported a close friend when they decided to have an abortion. I bring these up to ask another question. What does their belief or actions really change in my life? I believe nothing and that is why I am still good friends with all of them. Today's society is obsessed with labeling and categorizing everyone. It has become the means to defining people and unfortunately the means to segregate and discriminate. I will be the first to recognize that I don't believe or practice the same things as anyone else, but I also try to be the last person to judge them . The reading talked about 'nones' or people that don't identify with a religion. The fact that this 'none' category even exists proves our need to label everyone. My challenge is why does it matter what anyone identifies with? Take some time and figure out what you believe for your life and why you believe that and nothing else should matter. Someone else's beliefs does not have to have any affect on your life or beliefs. For example I can be pro-life and still recognize a friend that is going to need help going through her decision to have an abortion. I think sometimes the fundamental human elements get lost because people are to worried about what group they are a part of or how everyone identifies.
http://www.kgw.com/news/politics/AZ-law-allows-religious-beliefs-for-no-service-to-gays-246539261.html

This link to an article demonstrates my point. They are attempting to pass laws in Arizona that state an organization that claims a religious affiliation has the right to discriminate against homosexuals. This means that a religious hospital or religious based food pantry would leagally be allowed to withhold medical care and food from someone based on what their preference happens to be. Human decency gone. When did what someone believes in matter to their ability to eat and be treated medically?