Sociology: 2nd Set of Blogs

All blogs were not dated, but all completed were late.

Blog: Appendix (JCB)–Advertising/Research Methods

Blog: Doing Sociological Research (H)

Blog: Would You Hire an Ex-Convict?

This topic is something I think about a lot (although nothing that has too much depth). Once I started to get older (middle school, high school), multiple discussions came up on the topics of prisons. Mainly, why the U.S. prison system was so bad. The part that concerned me the most was ex-cons re-integrating back into society. There wasn’t (aren’t) any programs or help groups to help them get back into everyday life and, unfortunately, the title of being an ex-con carries so much weight that it prevents them making normal relations. By being an ex-con, people are inevitably going to make judgements and assumptions about you and there’s nothing you can do. Whether those judgements are true or not, it can be incredibly detrimental to the ex-con. What if they really did learn their lesson why in jail? What is they really got the rehab they needed? No one would know unless they asked, but once hearing that they’re an ex-con, people would walk away (at least this is what I assume would happen). The scary bit is maybe ex-cons truly got better (or at least learned from their mistakes), but as soon as they get back out into normal, everyday society they get rejected and that rejection could reverse the effects of that progress (if that’s even how it works). Or maybe the ex-con was working on being better, but the rejection from society collapses any progress and then it becomes even harder for the ex-con to improve. The rejection could then lead the ex-con to isolate themselves (since they may feel they were shunned from society). Since humans are social beings, isolation is never great. It creates another cycle. The ex-con is isolated and is left no choice, but to revert to illegal ways to sustain their life (perhaps it’s severe that they need to because they can’t hold a job or get money, or they may just no longer see the point to obey the law). With that, eventually they’re just going to go back into prison and when they get out (if they do), the cycle repeats. It’s a cruel cycle. Especially with people who were perhaps falsely convicted (although I don’t know the statistic on that possibility). This is just a long spew of what I think about when I think about ex-cons, and while reading this article, the author highlights similar points. The study that Pager discusses introduces the issue of the racial differences of ex-cons which is also a huge part when talking about the prison system. It reminds me of a documentary I watched in high school about the prison system of a particular state (I forget which). The neighborhood of focus was primarily made up of low income African Americans. It focused on the kids–around ages 10 to 17 years old. These kids would be sent to juvie (eventually prison) for smaller offenses where, in other neighborhoods, would normally just be a “slap on the wrist” type of deal. Most kids were students and if they missed way too much school they were immediately taken in to jail (truancy is a concern, however, to the rate that these kids were going?). Most kids of the local schools were in and out of juvie/jail and most had at least one (if not both) of their parents currently in prison. The topic of the documentary was that the members of this community were being unnecessarily scrutinized. The kids even talked about how they felt it was expected of them to commit crimes (truancy, theft, etc) and that expectation was so heavy that they did it anyway. It got to the point where the state were throwing away millions of dollars annually to maintain the overflowing prisons they had, since almost everyone was going to jail. It’s utterly insane how this is happening.

Required Entry Blog: Coffee Shop Ethnography (JCB)

An older woman in a pink sweater sits in a chair about 6 feet away from me. Her back is leaning against a wall and her position is relaxed. Her arms are spread holding open a newspaper and her eyes flicker across the page until they land on something that supposedly catches her eye. A man around the same age with a black paperboy hat and a blue sweater rounds the corner. Once he’s in sight, the woman hastily folds up her newspaper and leans over the table. Her right elbow pressing into the small round table and her chin resting in her right hand. As the man sits down, she gives him her undivided attention. With calm gestures, he begins to explain something. His back is to me but occasionally he’ll bounce his right leg rapidly before stopping. From time to time, the woman comments on what he says, leaning back in her chair as she does so. After about 10minutes of their conversation, the woman slowly gets up. With her left hand she lifts her small black purse over her shoulders (a crossbody) and picks up a book that was left to the side. She bids her goodbye and walks away, lifting her eye glasses off her face to rest on top of her hair. The man remains sitting and instead looks down (supposedly a book or a phone).

There’s another man in my peripheral vision. He’s sitting alone at a round table. The seat across from him holds is black backpack. Resting on the table is a laptop which is the focus of his attention. There’s a couple of loose items resting on the table as well—a few napkins, something wrapped in foil, and another snack. He’s hunched over the table, a burgundy beanie placed securely on his head. His right arm is propped on the table—elbow on the table and his hand raised up. He’s rubbing his fingers together, as if trying to get food residue off of it. He’s chewing, loudly, so no doubt he was eating a snack. From time to time he’ll let out a chuckle or laugh from whatever is on his screen—leaning back slightly as he did so. Now, his arms are loosely crossed and resting on the table. He’s still chewing, and coughs a bit. He’ll reach to whatever is in the foil with his right hand and lightly toss it into his mouth. 

On the other side of the cafe, there’s a girl and a boy sitting together at another round table. There’s white books spread across the table. In her right rand, the girl is holding an orange highlighter. Her right elbow is pressed against the table with her hand raised. She’s shaking the highlighter gently as she’s staring. Down at the textbook in front of her. She’s slightly bunched over. Occasionally she’ll glance up at the boy and ask him questions. The boy is wearing a black hoodie and both of his elbows are resting on the table. His hands are clapped together and raised. He rests his chin firmly on his clasped hands as he observes the girl in front of him and the textbooks. Occasionally one or both of his legs will jiggle up and down. When explaining, he’ll unclasp his hands and wave his hands around in light gestures (most of the time his right hand moves more than his left). 

Most of the people seem around young adults to middle aged individuals. The space is decently friendly. Unless you came with someone else, most people were left to their own devices with not much other communication between people. Despite that, the space was still friendly enough that if you had tried to talk to someone else (someone you didn’t come with) they’d probably respond well (perhaps after giving you a weird, confused, frazzled sort of look–a look I know I would give if someone tried talk to me unexpectedly). There was a variety of race–whites, asians, blacks, etc. Also, it was hard to tell which people were of which class (that isn’t really an easy thing to tell off the bat, is it?), but I would assume somewhere around middle class.

Blog: Chapter 10–Branding/The Self and Social Interaction (JCB)

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Blog: Goffman–The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life (H)

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Blog: Thompson–Handling the Stigma of Handling the Dead (H)

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Blog: Chapter 5–Shopping/Social Order (JCB)

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Blog: Meyer–If Hitler Asked You… (H)

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Required Entry Blog: Shopping for “we-ness” (JCB)

Had I purchased something just to fit in to a group? Probably, but I don’t really remember a specific time. I think I would have bought it if I would fit in if I bought and if I actually like the object in question. For example, everyone, for a time, had selfie-sticks and carried them around. Although I could see the usefulness of them, I didn’t particularly like them or didn’t like them enough to buy one and carry around. When I was in elementary school (a time where I was very naive), there were a company that sold yo-yo’s that came once a year to do presentations on yo-yo’s and try to sell them (horribly overpriced too–like $20 for a yo-yo). When they came to our school, all the kids wanted yo-yo’s. Instead of playing basketball or going on the monkey bars, kids just wanted to practice yo-yo tricks with their friends. If I think about it, I can’t figure out if I actually liked yo-yo’s or if I just liked them because everyone else liked them (honestly, probably the latter because after the yo-yo people left I stopped using them). Either way, I ended up buying around three yo-yo’s, but barely used them (I think they broke fairly easily as well). Similar to the yo-yo’s, I was influenced by my peers to like certain other things that I also could buy. Since I blurred the lines between what I actually liked and what my peers said were acceptable to like, I’m not really sure of another example. Other times, it wasn’t so much about membership into the group, but it was more like not wanting to stand out? If that’s the same thing or better connected with something else? For example, if my friends and I decided to go hang out at a coffee shop or a cafe, I would probably end up buying something even if I originally had no intention of buying something. One time I bought a boba tea drink (even though I knew I disliked boba and tea) and really it was only because all my friends bought one (if not the same or similar drinks). I regretted the decision after buying it, but it wasn’t till I was older that I started to not care so much what people thought of what I bought (even if I was in a group of 10 friends and they all bought boba drinks, confessing their love to it, I wouldn’t buy it just to fit in).

Blog: Chapter 3– Fast Food/Work and Economy (JCB)

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Blog: Ehrenreich–Nickeled and Dimed (H)

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Blog: Leidner–Over the Counter at McDonald’s (H)

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Blog: Wishard–Caught Between the Ages (H)

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Required Entry Blog: Corporate Ideologies (JCB)

The first corporate brand that comes to mind is Target. Everyone goes to Target all the time in my family. Everything seems to be available at target and all somewhere around good, average prices. Also my mom used to work at Target, so it’s normally her go-to stop. The target audience for Target is undoubtedly adult women. Most of the products and advertising are family oriented or female oriented. There’s much more advertisements for women’s clothes and kids’ clothes than there are for guy’s clothes (despite that being a section). Additionally, there’s a lot fo advertising for family packs–family pack of ziplock bags, family pack of paper plates, family sized chip bags, etc. All the mothers of families go to Target and they’re being bombarded with kinds of things they or their family should have. Anyway, it seems like Target is a constant reminder of family and how everything is seemingly family oriented. My mom for many years used to work at Target. A huge portion of kids from my high school got a part time job at Target at least some point in their life. Target was always the go-to part time place since people got paid roughly $12 an hour or so (I’m not too sure the wages). Most of the senior members of the staff (there were few since majority of the staff were part time young adults or high schoolers) got paid a bit more (closer to $20 an hour). I suppose it’s borderline a hegemony that the senior staff members got paid more even though they hadn’t really increased their work load (potentially dropped their work load). Most part-timers I knew were always doing something–stocking, organizing, running the register, packaging, etc. I’d assume that senior members of staff would more or less supervise and would be less likely to do as much as the new part timers. Given this, it seems reversed. Shouldn’t the part timers who are doing actively more work be paid more than what they are? This is the same for other jobs across different fields. Everyone accepts it and I suppose it does make sense.

Required Entry Blog: Fight for $15 (JCB)

I think the fast-food campaign demands for a $15-hour minimum wage and the right to unionize is a good idea. For some, working at a fast-food place is their only source of income. That fact that the minimum wage wouldn’t be enough for them to earn what they need to sustain themselves is scary since that could be anyone. Dozens of people are stuck in that system where no matter how many jobs, how many hours they work, etc. they won’t make enough money to simply live. On top of not being able to support themselves, they don’t even have benefits. If they needed to go to the doctors, they wouldn’t be able to, since they don’t have health insurance and they aren’t making enough to pay for any fees. Health care is especially important (certainly now with the coronavirus spread) for every member of society and once one person doesn’t have adequate access to health care then everyone is compromised. Not having health insurance is only one type of benefit that workers aren’t receiving though. Unions seem like good ideas because they provide an external support system for the worker and their rights. That support could encourage fast-food workers to unionize. I think a discouraging factor would be the time of employment. Although not always the case, most fast food workers are working temporarily. Most people (at least I assume) aren’t planning to stay working at a fast food place for long (whether they do as they planned or not is another discussion). Since they don’t plan on staying too long, they may not see the point to form a union. This has a negative impact on those workers who aren’t just part timers and that fast food job is their main source of income. This difference in what people want out of the job creates a separation between fast food workers in which it doesn’t exactly benefit anyone.

Required Entry Blog: Does Good Teaching Mean Better Learning?

I do think good teaching means better learning. On Weber’s value free teaching, the idea is that teachers would state facts (free from values) and the students would make their own judgements/evaluations. This seems excellent although some teachers may disregard this (knowingly or not). I had professor last semester that mainly taught in lectures based off the readings. When someone asked a question, instead of making a statement in his viewpoint he used the viewpoint of the person he was talking about. For example, if a student asked a question about solving an issue/problem the professor would say, “well, so-and-so would…” and he would answer accordingly. Throughout the entire semester, the professor wouldn’t state his opinions (unless asked him directly and outside of class–office hours discussions) and no one knew what he agreed and disagreed on. He simply fought from the perspectives of the people we were studying. I really like learning like this since it was engaging and felt more comprehensible. Surely it wasn’t perfect and it was hard to get to that point of understanding, but it felt as if you were talking with the scientists/philosophers/etc themselves. This is what I think of when I think value free teaching. It’s great, but at the same time nerve wracking. Constantly, I found myself thinking well what if my opinion is wrong? What if I should agree with this person and not the other? I wouldn’t know until I talked with someone on what their thoughts were, but it was too nerve wracking. I constantly thought about what society would deem as acceptable opinions. Once again, the need to belonging came back and it was hard to think about things for myself since I was in a lot of fear for being “wrong.” Alas, I did learn a lot from that class and from other classes with similar teaching methods. In that sense, I suppose it means better learning.

Required Entry Blog: How Does Role Strain and Role Conflict Operate in Your Life?

An example of role strain in my life is with my role of being a student. To be a student, one wants to learn. They engage and participate in class in forms of questions or contributing to discussions. I have social anxiety that makes me nervous to even have one-on-one conversations with people so it, at times, can be incredibly nerve-wracking for me to talk in class. I try to hide it a lot, but internally I freak out. In that sense, my role as a student is being strained because I’m not doing as a student should (acting as a poor student). An example of role conflict in my life with me being a sister and a student. I have four sisters–three younger and one older. Most of my younger siblings go to me for anything really–advice, food, homework help (mainly help on homework). Sometimes when I’m trying to study and focus as a student, one of my sisters comes along needing help. With my role as a sister, I’m supposed to support them and help them out, but there’s the role of a student coming into play as well. Which do I focus more on? The other day, I was filling my role as a good sister since I helped my sister all night with an essay. The next day, I couldn’t fulfill my role as a good student (listens, takes notes, engages in class) since I was too tired to even remember what my teacher was saying.

Required Entry Blog: Globalization–Where Are 10 Items of Your Belongings Made and What Is The Impact of That?

Ten of my belongings are: watch (China), bedding (China), pencil case (China), candle (hand poured in the U.S.), sketchbook (U.S.), blouse (Vietnam), another blouse (China), sweater (China), dress (Indonesia), and jeans (Bangladesh). Most of my belongings were from Asian countries (namely China). I’m not really surprised by this, but I still find it really depressing. I know how bad globalization is with all the out-sourcing and sweat shops and impacts on the environment and more. Most of my belongings will have terrible impacts on people and the environment. Most of my clothes and other items were probably made in a sweat shop by an under-paid overworked employee. Those items also probably took tons of water, artificial dye, and unethically sourced materials to make. By making the decision to buy these items, I’m contributing to a complexly interwoven and international system of negativity and unethical-ness. That really disgusts and terrifies me. I get really guilty about things like this (and other issues), since I’m making a choice to be a part of this (I’m purchasing these goods to support these companies) and it has become so normalized in society that it’s everywhere (there’s seemingly no escape). I also really dislike how the system is designed to be that way. People aren’t getting paid enough money to make a living, so for some items (essentials) the cheaper the better. If winter is coming up and you don’t have any jackets while working only part time minimum wage, you would probably find the cheapest and warmest jacket you could find. That jacket, although suitable for you, could have come from a sweat shop in China and be supporting a global unethical brand that continues to abuse laborers and negatively impact the environment. Whether that issue is known or not, it still happens. Even now that I’m aware of it, I still sometimes buy the “cheap” jacket (mainly because I can’t afford ethical products and my parents raised me to be super cautious with money–after the yo-yo experience) and it makes me feel really bad. Every time I buy something, it’s on the back of my head. I do try to buy secondhand (cheaper and recycling clothes, in particular), but with all the other pushes it’s hard (new fashion trends, what peers say is acceptable clothing, etc). There’s probably a lot of other people who think the same, but still give in even though it’s bad. Overall, globalization just makes me really sad. I try to think of how to fix this, but it’s not entirely a problem I want to fix myself (which sounds even worse). I want people to have worker rights and companies to have restrictions on their materials and the environmental impacts, but it’s not my calling to solver this issue. I feel really bad about that too. For the workers, sometimes working in horrible conditions due to outsourcing is their only job. They know they aren’t getting treated right, but they feel powerless since the need the job (the money) and the companies are too powerful to rebel against. This helplessness makes me incredibly sad. What were to happen if the companies stopped outsourcing in a particular community? It would be good since it stops unethical working conditions, however, sometimes that community relies heavily on the economic support of that company. What were to happen to that society then? Where would those workers earn money? Would new jobs be created or no? The possibilities go on, but it’s upsetting that the system is so interwoven that it’s seemingly too complex to turn back around.