Being human

We focused a lot in class this week about how we, as humans, are affected by both our nature and nurture in our lives. Nature consists of our genes, emotions, instincts. Nurture is basically just our social environment, society, and interactions/relationships we have with other people. Both nature and nurture play off each other to create the person that we are now. All my life I've been in such a positive environment. My parents always played with me when I was little. I had siblings. I went to school. I had friends. I was healthy. My parents always told me how much they loved me. It was actually pretty surprising me to in class when we learned of the feral children and how they were raised in isolation and basically stripped from both nature and nurture, like how could I take everything I have for granted when there are actual cases out there where kids never got what I did? The one story of a young girl named Dani really stuck with me. Her mother basically kept her in a room for six years, until the police arrested her for child neglect. The young girl had no human interraction and had the mental capacity of an infant. This girl, who should have been in first grade, can't speak, can't play, can't write, can't do anything due to her lack of nature and nurture. After learning of these feral children, I don't think I'll ever get mad at my parents for little things anymore.

Nothing

Last week in class our teacher gave us an assignment that we had to do nothing. We basically had to stand in a crowded area and just do nothing. We couldn't talk, or pretend to be waiting or looking around for something, we just had to stand there and "see what we see", and then reflect back on the process after ten minutes. I chose to do this assignment when I was at an airport when I was visiting Alabama. At first I thought an airport was a good place to do this because I thought people stand around doing nothing and no one notices but also because it was a really crowded place. I felt really awkward and uncomfortable at first. i'm not used to just standing around doing nothing. I always have to be doing something. I guess that's what the point of the assignment was--to prove that in our society, we're taught that it's awkward to just be standing around doing nothing. I noticed that everyone was running around like crazy (or maybe that's because they were missing their flights! i'm not sure..) and no one really took the time to just stand still and relax. From now on when my life gets really crazy busy, I'm going to make sure to take time and do nothing--it really did relax me!

Dependency -- Tuesdays With Morrie..

For the past few days in class, we've watched the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie" I've never seen this movie before but from what I have seen, I'm trying to analyze through a sociological perspective. The main character, Mitch, is obsessed with work, and keeps himself busy and detatched from the real world (his social life, like his girlfriend, and his old teacher Morrie). Mitch WANTS to be independent, although he becomes more and more dependent on the people he loves later on in the movie.

I think a lot of people are afraid of being so dependent on others is because you can lose the people around you. Mitch knows that Morrie is going to die; Morrie is sick and he's getting worse with every tuesday visit Mitch has. I think it's hard sometimes to get too close to someone you know you are going to lose. Or maybe it's just the thought of losing them that makes you so afraid of getting close in the first place?

I depend a lot on my friends, family and parents. Whether it's for support, advice, or just to talk and listen to each other, I need these people in my life. My parents have helped me a lot. When I was younger, I depended on them for rides. But now I have a license and a car, but sometimes I still ask them to drive me!! I also depend on my parents for starting college, having a place to stay, clothes, food, etc. I need my friends and family a lot for advice, or just to hang out. It doesn't really bother me being somewhat dependent on these people. If I was completely independent, I'd feel alone. I like having my friends and family around when I need them.

Alabama--subculture

We've been talking a lot in class about culture and subculture. Our teacher emphasized our social norms, and how other countries have their own cultures--and sometimes each country has their on subculture within. We learned how culture can depend on a lot of things: materialistic things  (clothes, phones, cars, etc..), resources, and even religion.

Last weekend my mom and I went to look at a college in Alabama. When I told all my friends that I was looking at schools there for next fall they all made fun of me saying I'd be the only jew. I thought it was soo weird that it was even a big deal that I'd be going there; being jewish is a part of me because everyone in my family is, but I've never really payed attention to my religion. When I went to visit Alabama, I met up with an old friend I have that goes there, and she introduced me to her friends, and they were asking me all about being jewish. Like they had never met anyone jewish before.. it was really strange and uncomfortable!!

Although Alabama is in the US, it felt like a completely different culture to me, even though it's a subculture. In Chicago people drive so fast and everyone is always in a hurry, but in Alabama I noticed that people even drive like 15 miles under the speed limit, and they take their time and go really slow with everything. I've seen Illinois colleges before, and Alabama college was so different also. I don't know if it was just the town or particular school, but there were a million churches, and no materialistic stores on the campus.

I think it's possible to evolve with whatever culture you're surrounded by, but visiting Alabama and comparing it to Illinois (even the people were so different there!) was so surprising to me!! Everyone says the south is different from the midwest and it really is true!!

(a photo I took in Tuscaloosa, Alabama...a few minutes past the college campus)

Culture shock definitely came into play for me when I visited Alabama. Not only were the people so different in the south than in Illinois, but the town (from what I saw) and some of their regular day customs were so different. I drove 5 minutes past the college campus, and was shocked when I saw the tornado damage in Tuscaloosa (left over from when the tornados hit in April just past the campus). It was horrific and I had never seen anything like it!! It was really shocking to see that such a beautiful campus where nothing looked wrong at all, had immense damage just a few minutes past the school. I was so shocked to see this.

Fish out of the water

This week in class, we played a card game where each table learned a set of rules, and played their game accordingly, and then when it was time, the loser of each game had to move to a different table. When I sat down at the other table, I was really confused because that new group I was with played the game completely different than how I had learned it. I immediately started questioning everything they were doing, but just conformed to how they played the game because I didn't know what else to do. Our teacher told us that this was an example of culture shock.

We focused a lot on "fish out of the water" and culture shock this week, which I thought was a really interesting concept. I applied to a lot of colleges in the south, and am considering going to Alabama. Most people I know, however, stick more in the midwest, and tell me that the south is such a culture shock. It's so hard for me to picture Alabama having a different culture than we do, since it's only a two hour flight and short drive, but I'm so intrigued on seeing what it's like there. I've just heard that the customs in the south are much different than here, and am really experience what it'll be like. I think my family is pretty easy going...we're not religious or anything, but I know in the south religion might be really important to some people. It'll take a while for me to adjust (or maybe I won't be able to), just like it did with the card game example, but I'm really excited to see what it's like! I'll be a fish out of the water if I go to school in the south..

The ID Molecule of a "Bronx Tale"

Our surroundings affect us as an individual. That's a fact. But it's more than just our surroundings that shape who we are; it's our parents and how they raised us, it's our friends what we have in common, it's our social norms, it's our work, our role-models, our "groups" that we are involved in. It's our groups that shape who we are, and it's our groups that separate us from everyone else.

This week in class we watched a movie called "A Bronx Tale". I've seen the movie before, but after learning last week about all of my personal groups that create who I am, I started thinking about Calogero and all the groups that shaped who he was. I would say that Calogero had three main groups: his parents, Sonny & his group, and Calogero's friends.

 Calogero loves his parents very much, and he wants his parents to be proud of him. He respects them. But he also respects Sonny, and almost looks up to him as another father figure in his life. Calogero is almost stuck between Sonny and his real parents; almost like he had to hide one group in order to remain in the other. But Calogero also has his group of friends, which in a way, he starts to lead (like Sonny leads his group), and they mimic actions that Sonny does. I think Calogero tries to balance his master status between Sonny and his parents. His allegiance to one side would be bad for the other side. A good example of this is when Calogero went to a boxing match with his dad and had to decide where he wanted to sit--with his father or with Sonny. Personally, my master status will ALWAYS be with my family, because they mean everything to me; but Calogero considers both his parents and Sonny his family. So he's stuck.

I can relate this group to my life because having learned that idea of sociologically mindfulness and imagination, I now know that every little thing that surrounds my life daily shapes who I am as a person, just like how Calogero is shaped by the groups he is surrounded by.

Should we generalize?

This week in class, we were assigned to read Charon's "Should We Generalize about People?" I read this article once quickly, and then re-read the article to annotate and take notes. I really thought it was interesting, and so true when the author pointed out that everyone is guilty of categorizing and generalizing other people.

Why do we feel the tendency to generalize as human beings? "A much better question is: how can we develop accurate generalizations about people? I agree with Charon and his article; as people, we act as individuals, but that doesn't change the fact that we categorize others and generalize them.

I read this really interesting article of this family that had a baby named Storm. The family wanted their child to be free from generalizations or classifications, so they decided they'd hide the child's gender for as long as they could. You can read more about this article Gender-free Baby. The family wanted to prove to society that their child (whether it was a boy or a girl) would be treated differently based on their gender, so for as long as they could, they plan on keeping the sex a secret. They wanted their child to be treated the same if it were a boy or a girl. I think this is so interesting. If baby Storm wanted to play with trucks, don't assume the baby's a boy; if baby Storm wanted to play with dolls, that doesn't mean the baby's a girl.

Although I'd love to think of myself as unbiased and free from stereotyping and generalizing those around me, it's human nature to assume someone is the way they are based on how they look, or how they act. In my life, I categorize those around me by their groups of friends. I'm not really judgemental, and I always have been friends with people in different "cliques" or groups. We only see what one chooses to show. Being in sociology has really opened my mind to the human thought process and tendency to generalize, and as of now, I am trying my best to steer clear of label casting.