Symbolic Interactionism is viewing how people's actions are influenced by symbolic meaning that people develop in social interaction and socialization. An example of a symbol could be ripped jeans. Wearing jeans with the knees ripped up is a symbol of being cool for reasons like not caring or being tough (Belk, Tian & Paavola). People's behaviors that create these "symbols" are based on subjective interpretation rather than objective fact.
Functionalism is the sociological theory that looks at the involved social institutions such as government, businesses, religion, etc. and how they work together to maintain the structure of society. For example, in a situation where a company is profiting through questionable means a functionalist would ask questions like "What other social institutions are involved here." Perhaps the government is benefitting by overlooking the situation or a second company is shielding the first.
In recent years, it seems that no one will go anywhere without their trusty smart phone. In particular, young teens appear to be glued to their phones. In all of this one phone stands out above the rest. The iPhone started showing up as a symbol of being "hip" and being "down with the new trends." The phone itself is not the only symbol of "coolness," the apps that you own are also symbols of being stylish (Fitton, Horton, Read, Little & Toth, 2012). The fact is that the apps themselves, being symbols of "awesomeness," serve a major function for the company that manufactured the phone and applications. The apps allow the company to release new content on a regular basis without having to manufacture and market new iPhone models all the time and to still keep setting trends.
In conclusion, the fact that the iPhone is both a useful tool and a symbol of being special provides a massive financial asset to the Apple company resulting in making them millions. The addictions to these apps can end up being dysfunctional to the people who take them to the extreme as seen in the video above. The iPhone like all other smart phones is very useful for everyday things, like email and text. It mainly differs by having the "cool kid" label attached.
Do you find iPhones to be symbolically cool?
Do smart phones play a functional role in your life?
Belk, R., Tian, K., & Paavola, H. Consuming cool: Behind the unemotional mask. (12th ed.).
Fitton, D., Horton, M., Read, J., Little, L., & Toth, N. (2012). Climbing the cool wall: exploring teenage preferences of cool. New York, NY, USA:
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Why Do People Pursue Higher Education?
When it's getting close to the end of your senior year of high
school, all you can think about is what you're going to wear to the all night
party, what vacations you're going on over the summer, which friends you will
be spending the most time with; but what about college? But it's not just
high school students that are thinking about higher education. Teachers
who decide they want a masters degree might go back to college, or someone who
recently lost their job needs higher education to get a good job now.
How do we know that going to college is a growing phenomenon?
"The projected number of students enrolled in the nation's colleges
and universities for the fall of 2011 was 19.7 million. This is up from
14.4 million twenty years ago." (Statistical Abstract of the United
States: 2011). Also, 16% of
all college students were 35 and older in October 2009.” ( Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2009). This
means that students of all ages are now pursuing a higher education. But why?
The need for a higher degree in our society is
what drives people to get one. Twenty years ago when our parents were
graduating high school, you could get just about any job with just a high
school degree, but now, most of the jobs our parents have require you to have
at least a two-year college degree. Even McDonald's is requiring some
kind of college attendance in order to become a manager now. I think that
this is the main reason people decide to go to college.
The need for a
higher degree in our society is what drives people to get one. Twenty years ago
when our parents were graduating high school, you could get just about any job
with just a high school degree, but now, most of the jobs our parents have
require you to have at least a two-year college degree. Even McDonald's
is requiring some kind of college attendance in order to become a manager now.
I think that this is the main reason people decide to go to college.
Also,
college is super functional for our society.
College collects tons of money for our economy. Buying books, paying for classes, students
rent houses in the area, buy food at the grocery store and restaurants. College towns collect way more money than
they would without a college in their area.
In
terms of pursuing a higher education though, it is functional for each
individual that attends college. Each
person with a college degree has a much better shot at having a successful
career and being able to provide for themselves and their family for the rest
of their life.
Pursuing
a higher education can also be related to conflict theory based on the class
system. If someone comes from a low
class family, and knows that they want to change their lifestyle for their
family in the future, that could be a big reason to seek a college degree.
Not
everyone has the money or the ability to receive higher education, but I
believe it is becoming more and more necessary every day because of the
pressures from society. In order to have
a high paying career, you must obtain a college degree, therefore most people
these days are extremely driven to do so.
cliques
Cliques
By Emily Tatum
Cliques
happen all over the world, to me it’s something kids do automatically, we like
to hang out with people who are similar to us, and this is what cliques are to
me. For example if I play basketball then I think it would be fun to hang out
with other people who like basketball, but also hang out with other people as
well. For the conflict theory part I think it is inevitable that the classes
would mainly hang out with the classes. For example, the really wealthy kids are
put into schools with the wealthy, and make friends with about the same kinds
of people, just as the UN wealthy do. This is another reason for why people do
not marry outside of their class for the most part. We talked about this in
class and how it is so uncommon to do so. “The wealthy stay with the wealthy,
the poor stay with the poor. Unless a strange phenomenon occurs that’s just how
it works.” (C. bell Pg. 2). This supports the idea that normally social classes
clique off into their social classes. Another sociological factor is functionalism,
this relates to cliques because people teach who to hang out with by what
surrounds them. For example churches, schools, clubs, sports, and organized classes.
These all contribute to the making of cliques. “By recognizing their own unique
developmental and psychosocial needs teens can understand the reasons cliques
exist, and learn to make positive decisions about the clique with which they
want to click.” (B. freedson pg. 1). This shows that kids need cliques to grow up,
people need people to interact with, and those people are cliques.
Sources.
Binge Drinking
According to the center for disease control defines binge
drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol
concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above” (2013). For men this would be around five or more
drinks and for women four or more drinks in about two hours.
These numbers made me curious if people really knew what was
considered binge drinking so I asked around. Many said around seven to ten
drink in two hour, some even said fifteen. A symbolic interactionist might
explain that binge drinking is happening because people do not know what binge drinking is.
Many people also do not know the problems that binge drinking may cause like
damages to your health, self-esteem, and unplanned pregnancy. In schools the focus is more on the affects of drugs than alcohol.
The CDC also found that most people who binge drink are not alcohol
dependent and that it is most common in young adults 18-34. Also that most underage drinkers are binge drinkers (2013). A functionalist
might say the reason that young adults drink is to relax and a party and maybe
fit in more. College students are especially prone to this because they are
thrown into an environment where they no longer have any supervision and where partying
is very prevalent.
This video from ABC news describes the dangers of binge drinking and the traditional college spring break. It gives good examples of the different causes and
consequences of what can happen when binge drinking. It also gives examples of
the different theories like functionalism and how most teens drink to fit in. This video also warns people of the real life consequences of binge drinking. Binge drinking is not an abstract concept, but a real life problem that affects many and has become a college social norm.
Facebook and The Mobile Monster
Facebook and The Mobile Monster
Social Networks and Cell phones have both evolved from their raw base form and taken on new potential in the last decade. I remember when I got my first phone back in the eighth grade because I walked to and from school everyday and my parents wanted to know that I had gotten to school safely, I also remember entering the social network scene a year later when Facebook emerged and all my friends were getting them and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. Back then with cellphones the technology was super simple they were designed to be durable, make calls and texts and take really crappy pictures.
Facebook was something that everyone was hearing about at the time of my freshman to sophomore year of high school. It was the new thing to jump on board with. It started out as a place to post statuses and photos about what was going on in your life.
The thing about mobile phones and social networks like facebook is that facebook is dependant upon the mobile phone industry to have people download their app from the Apple store or the Google play market and what happens is that they are solicited from company's that want to advertise on the facebook app, so the company's pay facebook to advertise their product. This is functionalism because it works for both the advertising party because they get advertising and facebook builds their revenue.
An excerpt from a case study called How Facebook Slew the Mobile Monster " Behind the scenes, though, Facebook was already finding its footing. From near zero last May, revenue from ads on mobile devices rocketed to $305 million in the last three months of 2012. That figure amounted to 23 percent of overall ad sales and helped lift shares back above $30 in January. "We are a mobile-first advertising company now" says Gokul Rajaram, Face-books product director for ads.
Social Networks and Cell phones have both evolved from their raw base form and taken on new potential in the last decade. I remember when I got my first phone back in the eighth grade because I walked to and from school everyday and my parents wanted to know that I had gotten to school safely, I also remember entering the social network scene a year later when Facebook emerged and all my friends were getting them and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. Back then with cellphones the technology was super simple they were designed to be durable, make calls and texts and take really crappy pictures.
Facebook was something that everyone was hearing about at the time of my freshman to sophomore year of high school. It was the new thing to jump on board with. It started out as a place to post statuses and photos about what was going on in your life.
The thing about mobile phones and social networks like facebook is that facebook is dependant upon the mobile phone industry to have people download their app from the Apple store or the Google play market and what happens is that they are solicited from company's that want to advertise on the facebook app, so the company's pay facebook to advertise their product. This is functionalism because it works for both the advertising party because they get advertising and facebook builds their revenue.
An excerpt from a case study called How Facebook Slew the Mobile Monster " Behind the scenes, though, Facebook was already finding its footing. From near zero last May, revenue from ads on mobile devices rocketed to $305 million in the last three months of 2012. That figure amounted to 23 percent of overall ad sales and helped lift shares back above $30 in January. "We are a mobile-first advertising company now" says Gokul Rajaram, Face-books product director for ads.
That remains debatable, but Facebook's experience provides a lesson for anyone trying to cope with the mass migration of computer users to mobile phones and tablets. What Facebook discovered is that integrating ads directly into a user's flow of natural activities -- in Facebook's case, the main feed where people view updates from friends -- works far better than banners and pop-up ads. While these so-called native ads might be controversial, they look like advertising's most successful adaptation yet to mobile computing.
A year ago, Facebook faced all the usual problems: small screens, fewer technologies to target potential customers, and gaps in marketers' ability to measure theimpact of mobile ads. These factors made ads look far less effective on mobile devices, and marketers less willing to pay for them.
Facebook's advertising team was also too preoccupied with pushing a new kind of desktop Web ad, called Sponsored Stories, to pay much attention to mobile. These ads are actions by a Facebook member, such as "liking" a page or checking in at a store, that marketers can then promote, for a fee, to the member's friends. Zuckerberg viewed these ads as the nature of Facebook advertising because real posts from friends were less likely to be ignored.
By early 2012, Facebook was ready to start running them not just in the right-hand section reserved for ads but also on its prime real estate: the news feed, where people spend most of their time on the social network. Executives knew it was a risky step -- especially when they extended the same type of ads to mobile as well. What if the ads really annoyed people?
Far from it. Sponsored Stories got more clicks. But it was the mobile versions that really took off. They got twice as many clicks and commanded nearly three times as much from advertisers as those on the desktop, according to a subsequent study by advertising agency TBG Digital. By July, the mobile ads were grossing $500,000 a day".
Societies Effects on Eating Disorders
What is considered “pretty” in America? Something
people would commonly relate to attractiveness would be how thin or a skinny a
person is. The image of an overweight person does not usually cross someone’s
mind when they are thinking of a person who is “attractive.” This social stigma
is something that creates a lot of standards for how people “should” look. Is
this really how people should look? No. But a lot of people believe that they
are not pretty or attractive if they do not fit into that social standard. A
lot of people do unnecessary things just to fit in and feel attractive. This is
where eating disorders begin to take effect.
Some
may think that an eating disorder is an individual problem that a person may
have and it is not caused by outside sources. This, however, is not true. There
are a lot of social factors that play into what caused an eating disorder. But
first of all what are eating disorders? They are the act of either starving one’s
self or attempting to gain the look of being “thin” in unhealthy ways like
making themselves throw up after eating. These actions are usually done to shape
their body into thin and, according to them, “attractive” looking bodies. Some
actions may be refusing to eat or having an obsession with exercising (Causes
of Eating Disorders). 
Another view or theory is functionalism. This is how an idea or some sort of behavior is functional for groups of people. In the media it is always shown that people should be thin. In commercials on TV and even in books and magazines the idea of being thin comes up way more than being overweight. The problem with this idea of “thin” is that it is not the same idea as being at a healthy weight. Models who are photographed to advertise clothing or some type of product constantly struggle with their appearance. They have to be considered “thin” for them to keep their jobs but it is not the same type of thin that should be considered normal. Many models end up having eating disorders because they are told that they are not attractive enough with their weight and appearance, when they are physically thin. So for people, it is considered functional to be really skinny because they believe that they can keep their jobs and appear more attractive to outsiders who do not know them. With these things they can advance and either earn more money or not be lonely in their lives.
The idea of a “normal” and “attractive” person is molded by society and what they think is considered the ideal body. So many people base their lives off of this mold that they would do anything to be in the socially accepted group. Some people may just exercise and try to eat healthier but for some they think it is not enough and resort to eating disorders. The idea of being “thin” overpowers so many people and it can really damage the upbringing of children and the lives of so many men and women.
Citation:
Polivy , J., & Herman, C. P. (2002). Causes of Eating Disorders. 27.
Technology and kids
Recently technology has
increased to the point where people in this day and age have grown to be
dependent on it. Back before all of the well-known electronics that we use
today came in to play, kids used to play outside. Children used to play
hop-scotch and other outdoor activities. Now-a-days children are being
introduced to technology at the young age of 8, in some cases younger.
I see kids sit in their
house, and all they do is play games. I have cousins that are addicted to
games, and when I offer them to go beach or something to get out of the house,
they don’t want to do it because of technology. I feel that technology has corrupted
this generation and all of the generations to come along next. If we were to
reduce the amount of electronics in the world today, or even the amount of time
spent using electronics, we could reduce the percent of obese children, and we
could help the kids that are socially awkward develop more people skills if
they were to play with other children.
On a different note, I have
a younger brother that owns an ipad. He’s only 8 years old, and he brings it
with him all the time. So when we go to a party, he I just playing on his Ipad
instead of conversing with the other kids. At parties, there are usually different
kinds of games, tattoos, and even balloons to play with but all he wants to do
is play his Ipad. To me, it seems that technology is forcing kids to be dependent
on it rather than to grow socially with other kids like I used to do when I was
growing up.
I feel as if technology is
ruining the social interactions of kids because they are addicted to such machine
in their hand. They rather play with the machine instead of interacting with
kids. Before I was introduced technology, I would always go out with my friends
and just hangout outside, even though there was nothing to do. I would ride my
bike the farthest I could and just adventure with friends and get into trouble.
Having that thrill taken away from kids because of technology ruins their
childhood.
A functionalist would
explain why technology would be useful, and technology nowadays is really
useful because everyone uses it for everything. It could be used to check the
weather for a week, or printing out a 3d picture of a unborn baby. Why we use
technology is because it makes life easier for us, and it being brought to the
world, I don’t think we can just shut it down.
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