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.