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I have a really hard time understanding taxes, bonds, or anything to do with economics. I know everything is connected so it's really hard for me to understand one contempt without understanding the other. While I understood the overall gist of this module I still don’t understand concepts like Inflation. I truly just don't understand how inflation happens so that makes it somewhat difficult to understand little points in this module. However, one thing that I do know is that because certain policies have been put into place it allows wealthy families to stay wealthy. Middle and low-class families have a much harder time gaining wealth compared to wealthy families. It was interesting to learn about this because while I believe it to be true it doesn't align with my personal experiences. Living in the Bay Area I have had exposure to wealthy families. The majority of wealthy families I know, have grown their wealth. They all have started from the bottom and as they grow older they have gained a fair amount of wealth. While they may not be billionaires they are wealthy enough to be able to purchase a second home, old cars, and so on. I think that if I lived in other areas of the Bay area I could have a different experience because I would imagine that other areas would have much wealthier families than the ones I know. There is a good chance that those wealthy families have gained their wealth from generations ago.

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As we learned about sexuality in this module and how millennials are much more likely to be a part of the LGBTQ community. It made me think about why a larger percentage of Gen Z are members of LGBTQ compared to millennials. In my life experience, it's so common to meet gay, lesbian or bisexual people, especially people that are my age. As the reading “Millennials, Sex, and the Economy: The Sociological Imagination in Action” stated, Millennials have been much more likely to be members of LGBTQ because of their exposure to other members. Growing up when social media and the internet were becoming more normal allowed them much more exposure to learn about LGBTQ. This makes me think there must be a much higher population of Gen Z that are members of LGBTQ because of the internet and social media are even more prevalent to Gen Zs growing up. Parents can hand their 1-year-old an iPad to watch endless YouTube videos. This means Gen Z has significantly more exposure to the internet than Millennials do. I think it's so special that because of the media people feel more free to be themselves. It's frustrating to hear people angry that more and more people are coming out LGBTQ. I think some people feel that there is almost a pressure on society to come out. However I strongly disagree with that belief, I think that it’s more that society is finally shifting to accept people no matter what their sexuality is.

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In this module, I learned a little bit about the history of skin colors. Specifically, I am talking about the history of why skin colors vary. If I ever thought about it I could have figured it out but it was never something that ever came to my attention to think about. Different geographical regions have different climates and over time the people that originated from specific regions developed skin pigments that would benefit them. Skin color is a protection from solar radiation, otherwise known as melanin. Descendant of people who lived closer to the equator that you got the darker skin pigment. While descendants of people who live much farther north where the solar radiation is much less intense tend to have much more fair skin pigment. I think it's important for people to remember this when thinking about the differences between people's skin color. Another aspect of this concept is the difference in body types within different races of people. We all have different body types and physiological structures that give us disadvantages or advantages to different sports. I also learned about different policies that targeted African Americans put into place in the 1930s, such as redlining. The FHA created redlining in efforts to contain African Americans in their low-income neighborhoods. No loans were allowed on properties that were located in a neighborhood that was or could become populated by black people. It's important that people learn about the history of segregation, there are so many reasons why inequality is still a major factor in today's society. It's because policies like that create a cycle of African-American families unable to escape poverty. This is why there are still so many low-income neighborhoods with high African American populations.

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I think the concepts between the differences and overlapping sex and gender are quite interesting. There is so much that goes into what people define sex and gender are. How I see it is that biology does influence the characteristics of gender. One thing that always comes to mind when thinking about these concepts is the girly factor of being female. Throughout time society has placed females as the gender that is less than and weak. In a way, this concept of females being weaker has stemmed into many other parts of society. The fact is that women are supposed to be the ones to stay home and cook while the man is out doing dirty work. Or the fact that men are drafted into wars, not females. Or the fact that women are thought of as more vulnerable, which some people see as a weakness. To me, all these facts stem from the biological fact that typically a male is born with stronger muscles, and a woman is born weaker. If biology was different and women were the ones born with bigger muscles I think these societal roles would be switched around quite a bit. Another aspect of this that's interesting to me is the recent knowledge that has surfaced in society. It's interesting to look at the statistics of transgender people because there has been a major increase in the number of transgender people. I think part of this is the recent awareness there is in society about transgender. While it's not perfect, the amount of people open to accepting transgender people is far greater than the amount of people there might have been 70 years ago. That being said, there are so many people being so open and accepting to transgender people have increased the amount of people coming out as transgender.

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I had a hard time connecting with this week's module, I didn't have a ton of interest in the topic. It just felt extremely structured and I felt myself losing interest a lot of the time I was doing my school work. However, I acknowledge that everything discussed is a very important aspect of sociology. Throughout my life, I always struggled in different aspects of school, almost all the aspects besides art class. I think the reason is that school is so structured in a way that you need to do the work in the specific way they teach you to do. However, in my more recent years of college, I have felt a sense of relief because most subjects catch actual attention and don’t feel very structured. As I said most subjects, meaning this are not a part of the subjects that catch my attention. Now we haven't done any actual research assignments so I am curious to know how I would do if actually being told to do my research as shown in this module. Going through the specific steps that were given for a research process might make me feel differently about this structured concept. I am somewhat excited to move forward with my sociology major so that I can put these research concepts into use. I think in the past when I have done any sort of research I end up getting sidetracked halfway through the research process so it turns into a giant mess of information. While I know I have a hard time with structure, I also think that this research process could help me in the future. I also feel like the more I practice it the more comfortable I will get with it. On the other hand, I really enjoy looking at statistical research questions. I enjoyed looking at the GSS data explorer and I found a lot of interesting questions that were asked of people. It's interesting to me to see the trends in how people answer questions and being able to compare different answers. There might have been something going on in the world at that point in time that influenced people to answer the questions in the way that they did.

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I never knew that crime was a normal part of a healthy society. Crime is just a collective feeling about what is right or wrong. If all crime was eliminated, new types of crimes would rise. This is because in society there will always be an opinion on what is right and wrong. Durkheim's theory is that crime is normal, which is the opposite of what society usually says. Every society has different definitions of what crime is. Every individual person has had a different upbringing; they have different takes on life, meaning they have different opinions on crime. Functionalism is like the organs of society, and crime is one of those organs. It helps society evolve and change because people's feelings change laws to determine what is right and wrong. I also learned more about the recent change in thought about medicalization. Previously illnesses like ADHD or addiction were considered an individual's issues and choices. Now they are more considered a sickness and there are solutions that can help solve their sicknesses. This has shifted the act of punishment into treatment. Which I wouldn't think would be problematic but after this module I learned why it is problematic. While the individual isn't being punished they are still being recognized as an individual with an illness. There is no concentration on the structure of the society and why that might be affecting the individual's sickness. It's difficult to pinpoint the science behind people being overweight. It's difficult to see the effects that social class has on the types of foods people eat and on people's ability to exercise, which affects their obesity.

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As talked about in the module, values are an essential part of sociology's culture. One essential value in society is education. There is a cultural path that society guides people to take when it comes to education. That is to go to school for 12 years, then go to college for 4 years. While there are many different educational paths to take, this is the one society implants people to follow. This evokes some feelings of stress for me. It's something I've figured out and overcome over the years but it brings back some anxious feelings. After highschool, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I knew I wasn't going to a 4 year college but I also didn't know if I even wanted to go to community college. When in social situations I often felt ashamed that I didn't know what I wanted to do. Society has shaped this path and it's implanted in people's brains that you will fail in life if you don't follow this path. So many people I talked to tried to convince me what I was doing was the wrong way to go about life. It all boils down to the values society has. Most people follow these values society has created. So when there are people who don't follow the exact values of society they are often overlooked and looked down upon. When so many people made me feel like I was taking the wrong path it made me so self-conscious, and anxious about what I was going to do with my life. Over the years I have figured things out and I'm only able to look back at this period of my life and reflect. I can reflect that these anxious feelings I was feeling stem from the paths society has made regarding people's education.

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As said in the module, often times when big life changes accure we often feel lost. This is because our established social structure position might have changed, which results in our social life patterns changing as well. The beginning of the pandemic hit when I was a junior in high school. One week I was as happy as one could be. I had an established good group of friends, I had a new relationship, and I was just generally so happy. In the blink of an eye, it all disappeared. I wasn't allowed to see my significant other, it was hard to keep in touch with my friends, and I suddenly felt so lost. While I knew there were people in the world that could relate to my situation it seemed like the people I was associated with were doing just fine. New friends were made because as far as I knew they were all allowed to be around each other. As for me, I was having a really hard time because my life had completely changed. I felt like I lost every social relationship that I ever had. I had a settled position in many social structures and systems that gave my life meaning. All of a sudden I had no social systems to participate in. It was frustrating to move from my situation where I didn't have to worry about what felt like a thing in the world. To suddenly have my world flip upside down and everything was taken away. It felt like my life had no purpose anymore, but over time I got used to it. Years later not much has changed for me. While I’m not in that relationship anymore, I am still not close to the friends I had lost. Any opportunity I had to be close with any of my friends again went out the door when they all moved away to college. I haven't really had an opportunity to make any new friends since I chose to go to an online community college while I work an almost full-time job. While what my life looked like at one point made me feel so alone, it now is my normal life and I’m fine with it.

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I feel like I connected to the idea of the looking-glass shelf. This idea is that we are going to adjust our performance to align with the person we are interacting with. We are imagining their judgments of us. The person's response and interaction make our thoughts and actions different in the future. We are constantly performing and evaluating. This idea is something that I've always recognized. I just didn't connect it with sociology. I always thought of these instances as me overthinking overreacting or being insincere. It was a feeling of relief after learning about this module because it made me realize I’m not alone. It's okay to adjust the way I act when I'm around certain people because every human does it. Not only that, but it's also okay for me to think about other people's interactions with me. I never considered how much other people's interactions with me shaped so much of me. A good example of a time I was in a situation that shows proof of this idea was the first time I asked for time off from work. My boss is very vocal about her judgments and opinions. So when asking her for time off I needed to filter myself in a way that she wouldn't judge me very much. I explain why I want the time off and so on. With her somewhat passive-aggressive response, it makes me rethink everything. It makes me wonder if I should even take the time off, maybe I'm being lazy. instances like this then add to the overthinking that goes through my head. When being surrounded by judgmental people, I often want to avoid any judgment there might be about me. This makes my normal actions look a little different than normal, and it makes the thoughts go through my head a little bit faster.  In conclusion, this Module evoked an emotion of relief for me.

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Before this module I didn't know anything about human ecology. I think it’s important to understand human ecology because it shapes the environment around us, and in turn that comes right back to us and shapes our interactions. If we are more aware of human ecology we will be able to understand and recognize why certain behaviors and cultures are the way they are. Just like how I knew nothing about the impact of shade in areas of the world. The impact shade has had on Los Angeles has shaped LA to be the way it is today in so many ways. It has way more impact than we would have ever imagined it to have. Which is once again important for us humans to recognize the impact our environment has on certain elements of society.

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Before taking this class I knew nothing about the power elite, nor did I know the views people had about the power elite. I think the power elite is important because it is what shapes so many things in our society. While we may not always realize it, it's important to recognize it. I also think it's important to understand the different views and opinions there are on the power elite. Most importantly being that the power elite doesn't always realize the significant power they hold. As people in society, it's essential for us not to put blame on the power elite for certain things being the way they are. If the power elite knew the influence that had on society the decisions and power they have might look a little different and might work as a better bit for some people.