Post 7

Sexuality is different to your gender, society has a narrowminded approach when it comes to gender people are put into two boxes and people who do not conform to these norms are seen as stranger or weird. People start using how these people identify themselves as a means to attack them as they are not in the two boxes that society lays out for them.

However, these two boxes are not the only social construct that is a serious issue in our society. Masculinity and femininity are also social constructs. Masculinity severely affect men as they have this standard that they are supposed to live up to in soceity. Things such as you are not allowed to show emotion, if you have a problem you are supposed to solve it through the use of violence. This culture of masculinity has something largely to do with the media and how they portray men because when a man commits a crime media reports on it by using excuses such as "boys will be boys" as if it is our natural instinct to immediately resort to violence for all our issues. Yet through the tough guise film we watched in class it became apparent that all men that commit major crimes such as mass shootings are victims of bullying from there inability to conform to the norms that society lays out on how to be a man and how to masculinity. Men that can not live up to this idea lash out violently to prove that they aren't weak in a last ditch effort to prove themselves that they can live up to this culture.

Agents of socialisation have a major role to play in these ideas as they lay out how we should act to fit into society yet because of this they set strict guidelines which are impossible for all people to follow. The social construct of masculinity and femininity are both negative ones as they cause people to try and be people who they are not.

Post 6

 Everyone is who they are based off of the agents of socialization that they are exposed to things such as nature and nurture. When people are born they are shaped into who they are by their nurture where the nature is what they are born with things such as basic instincts. Your nurture on the other hand is vital if you are deprived of this nurture as a child you become a feral child such as Danielle who was left in a room without any nurture this had a massive effect on her development she was unable to learn to talk in sentences and learn more than two hundred words this shows just how important of a role our nurture has at a young age we learn everything from observing our surrounds and interacting with people. We are not born with these skills. The media has a massive effect on kids from a young age as they learn brands from birth which in turn means this kids hold the values that these companies hold. Major agents of socialization are friends family and media.

Post 5

In American culture I believe that one of the values that Americans hold as one of the highest is that of success and work. In my short time in America this has become known to me that Americans base their opinions on one another off of that persons successes and people generally gravitate to people of success such as movie stars and musicians and hold them as their idols normally off of their achievements in their work. Americans are taught from a young age that in order to be successful in life it is based off of what college you attend and what job you get that is why when Americans meet they normally ask "what do you do" where as in other cultures such as mine from New Zealand we ask "where have you been" as we value experiences over jobs as you can be rich from experience which lasts a lifetime compared to being rich in possessions, as possessions are only fleeting. This is shown in Tuesday's with Morrie where Mitch is so focussed on his success in work he is not realizing what he is pushing away in the process until Morrie opened his eyes to how unhappy he was from this false sense of success. Morrie was successful in his experiences which he held more important when he was looking back on his life. America is obsessed with the value of success in work and people's careers which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Post 4

Culture is different throughout the entire world. My eyes got opened to this when I first moved to America the culture shock was immediate from when you first step out of the plane into the airport everything changes from what I was used to in New Zealand. The first thing I noticed was how the pace of life in America was so much faster, it is part of the American culture that time is of the essence and can not be wasted and everyday you must follow a strict routine. For me this was quite a change in my life as I was used to a much slower pace of life where you take in what is happening around you.

Americans tend to be very ethnocentric as when I explain how how I used to do things in New Zealand which are not the same they tend for find these things weird or wrong because they do not align with the American culture. Another example of being ethnocentric is when we watched the movie God grew tired of where the lost boys thought that it was weird that in America you are only allowed one wife because in the Sudanese culture it is not strange to have more than one.

This unit has really opened my eyes to how we view other people's cultures and beliefs especially if they vary from our own because moving to America has made me more accepting to other counties cultures and also allowed me to take parts of other cultures and make it part of my own individual culture.

Post 3

We all stereotype in one way or another, this also means that we are stereotyped but stereotyping is also different from generalizations. A generalization is when people are educated about a group and use past experiences to adapt to the situation however a stereotype is just an assumption made about a person or a group of people.

No matter where you go someone is always going to make a generalization about you, if this is an educated generalization is can be beneficial. Take me for example whenever someone finds out that I am from New Zealand then they go and make the stereotype that I must play rugby or watch rugby in my case this is true but not every New Zealander on the planet likes or plays rugby. In the reading gang leader for a day by Sudhir venkatesh we find another case of stereotyping because as we read we all make the assumption that the gang members are all uneducated and have no skills to allow them to get a job but later on in the reading we find out that the gang leader is a college graduate but could make more money on the streets than from his degree.

This shows us how dangerous it really is to stereotype and also shown me how many times a day we make generalisations about people, also how generalisations are healthy and are how we understand the world around us however stereotypes are the complete opposite.

Sociological mindfulness

When I think back on my time here in the United States of America I like to feel that I am fortunate. Having the chance to experience two different societies and how these societies differ in major ways such as in America people are in such a rush to grow up they don't get to be a kid by the time they are starting school they are already setting themselves up to figure out what college they are going and they become so focussed on that one thing. Whereas in New Zealand you go through schooling where it is compulsory to play a sport and play an instrument, we use schooling as a way to figure out who we are and to complete this journey we do a gap year this is how we figure out what we truly enjoy, to figure out what degree we want to do at university.

Sociological mindfulness is knowing how you are being influenced and how you are influencing others this got me thinking about how society influences me and how to go about planning my future yet I also realize that the way that I go about my transitions through life whether or not I decide to take a gap year or go straight to university will also impact my two younger brothers. Who will see what I did and follow in my foot steps we have created this sort of sheep mentality of follow the leader without really thinking for ourselves. Schwalbe understood this, he understood the rarity of sociological mindfulness " how our ties to others lead us to think" this really makes you think how much of your thoughts and how you feel has been influenced by society in a major way.

Sociological imagination is realizing that individuals are influenced by the society around them. Sociology class has really opened my eyes two these two important ways of thinking without society I would of never realized how I was being influenced by others and how I was influencing others. Sociology has also shown me that not many people think this way or understand how they are being influenced and how they influence others.

Who am I?

My name is Joel, I am 17 years old and I'm just another kid from New Zealand. I have three brothers two younger and one older but I am not interested in the typical stuff a teenager is in to. I like to live on the adventurous side of things such as scuba diving, white water kayaking and rafting anything to do in the outdoors. Also I am a starter on varsity soccer. You can basically consider me as an adrenalin junkie and sports lover. My life has been influenced by a large majority of people and actions but none more so than my father who shows how to stop being a boy and turn into a man, he influences the way I act and present myself. The actions that have had the biggest influence on my life would have to be travelling half way around the world to live this has had an immense impact on me as I have had to get used to the different way people act and do things but overall I'm just another kid from New Zealand.