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FIRST POST: Why are you taking this class?

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FIRST POST: Why are you taking this class?

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I’m taking this class because I want to find the deeper meaning to life including the social constructs that surround it + the people that conform to it.

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I'm not sure what I want for the future, much less a career. I know that I want to do something fulfilling. But I believe that studying sociology is important for any career because it offers a broader perspective of what you might be interested in. Want to become an actor? Society plays a role in what classifies as good acting. Sociology can help anybody navigate the difficulties and hardships of life but also offer insight on your's and other people's mentality.

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Tattoos have been very popular in regard to pop culture. Many people get tattoos to commemorate an important event/person/interest or simply for ornamental purposes, which is what is commonly seen nowadays. As for cultural relativism, tattoos can be controversial. Just as the video stated, sometimes people will get tattoos of foreign languages without really knowing what it means or get tattoos native to a certain culture-and most of the time it eventually leads to others getting upset of behalf of said culture. In terms of social norms, although it is relatively common to see people with tattoos, its not very lucrative when it comes to, say, job hunting because many professional jobs don't allow visible tattoos. As someone who grew up in a Japanese family, I was scared of the idea of tattoos. Tattoos in my culture signify gang affiliation and delinquency. Though I would never get one myself, I think a lot of tattoos are beautiful. I believe if someone were to get a tattoo it should hold some kind of significant meaning; and if someone were to get a tattoo not native to their culture, they should do a good amount of research before getting inked. But I also don't really care either way because others' decisions are not my responsibility and whatever repercussions they receive in response is not my problem. We leave are bodies-inked or not-when we die so do what you feel is best.

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Flashing colors of red, green, and blue illuminated in my face and spread all over the walls. There is a mild hum reaching through the holes of this metal box, and a window showing the innards of this mechanical monster. It feeds on money and takes an enormous byte of my savings every month.

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Questions I would ask to measure good teaching and better learning. 9/11

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Questions I would ask to measure good teaching and better learning. 9/11

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What does your syllabus consist of? How many years have you been teaching? Have you ever received constructive criticism regarding your teaching methods? What percentage does engagement and participation take up in a student's grade? How do you encourage your students to be active in the class?

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I sat down at a table adjacent to Java Jitters. It wasn’t a perfect view but I could see everyone who walked in. I keep my eyes down to avoid awkward eye contact, flashing a tiny smile at anyone I accidentally locked eyes with. My attention is drawn to a girl sitting at the table in front of me. The empty table I was sitting at provided an unobstructed view of her. She donned a burgundy babydoll hollister top and her sunglasses rested comfortably on her head which sprouted long blonde hair— hair that was so dark, it could almost be considered brown. In front of her sat a grey HP laptop and to her left was an opened blue binder. I could only assume she was taking notes or doing homework, but I couldn’t be sure since she was distracted by her phone.

I decided to shift my focus to the group next to her; three guys who occasionally hollered, blasted phone audio, and pushed each other around. All three of them wore black shirts and black pants, the only wardrobe difference being that the one sitting closest to the girl had a gold chain wrapped around his neck.

Before I could finish my thoughts on the group, two girls sat at my table. Accompanied by venti lattes and food from Java Jitters, they chitchat about the Netflix shows they were watching last night. The air is immediately filled with the smell of pumpkin spice and chicken sandwiches. I carefully turned my gaze towards them, and coincidentally they were also looking at me. The girl on the left brought a manicured hand to her mouth and whispered something to her friend while they side eyed me. In hushed unison, they giggled.

I am interrupted again by a girl who sits in the seat directly in front of me. I accidentally bumped the table but she remained unbothered, only readjusting her black RealTek headphones. I glanced at her yellow water bottle which was covered from top to bottom in haikyuu stickers.

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How does role strain or conflict operate in your life?

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How does role strain or conflict operate in your life?

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Role strain is an every day part of my life. I work at a food place, and because it's a small business, I'm the only person who works at the front. My job is to refill sauces, answer phone calls, make drinks, take orders, bag items, and translate (I'm the only one who speaks fluent English). This includes dealing with angry customers and impatient Doordash drivers--every day and all by myself. Juggling my job, student life, and family obligations is extremely overwhelming.

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How has group conformity affected your behavior?

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How has group conformity affected your behavior?

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I saw a labubu on TikTok and I thought it looked very odd, but I also noticed that a lot of my friends started getting them so I planned on buying one too. Normally, I would not buy anything I didn't want or need but seeing that I was the outlier in the group, I didn't want my friends to see another reason why I was the odd one out.

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Where is the stuff I'm wearing made?  What does that tell you about the future?

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Where is the stuff I'm wearing made?  What does that tell you about the future?

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1. Jeans - China

2. Shirt - China

3. Sweater - China

4. Scrunchie - China

5. Socks - China

6. Hat - Japan

7. Shoes - Vietnam

8. Makeup - China

9. Backpack - China

10. Tank top - China

If the United States goes to war with other countries it would lose so much more than it gained.

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How have your interactions with various agents of socialization affected your decision to be in college?  What messages did you receive about going to college?  Be sure to discuss the effects of multiple agents of socialization.

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How have your interactions with various agents of socialization affected your decision to be in college?  What messages did you receive about going to college?  Be sure to discuss the effects of multiple agents of socialization.

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My decision to be in college was up to my parents. I didn't care whether or not I went to college, but they wanted me to have aspirations. My friends encouraged me to go to college because "campuses were beautiful" but I thought, "why would spend $50K a year just for a pretty view? Sounds stupid." Now that I'm in Delta I feel like I'm being swarmed with information that I should care about but I can't bring myself to do that. There are some clubs that actively try to recruit me by following me around campus which I find irritating, but that's not going to stop me from attending classes. I don't have a positive nor negative view of college but it's beneficial because if I get my associates degree -> bachelors degree then I won't have to keep working at my current job that doesn't pay me overtime.

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The federal minimum wage is $7.25.  Around the country, many are fighting to increase that to $15, $20, or higher.  How do you feel about the issue?  Should all full-time jobs pay a living wage that would cover all of life’s expenses?

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The federal minimum wage is $7.25.  Around the country, many are fighting to increase that to $15, $20, or higher.  How do you feel about the issue?  Should all full-time jobs pay a living wage that would cover all of life’s expenses?

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I would run around on all fours and bark like a dog for $20 an hour. I would sit in a room full of NYC rats for $20 an hour. I would eat the plastic wrap on wrapped food items for $20 an hour. I 100% believe that the wage full-time jobs should cover living expenses. People get jobs because they want to be independent and continue forward in life, but there's no way to do that if they're stuck at $16.50 an hour - much less $7.25. Wages haven't kept up with inflation is part of the reason why so many people living in poverty.

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After watching this video I'm not entirely surprised or feel any extreme emotion in particular. The poor getting poorer and rich getting richer is nothing new and the government doesn't really want to do anything about it. So many people demonize socialism because they can't bear the thought of people with less opportunities to work making the same amount of money as them.

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Me:

1. I'm Asian

2. My family is from Japan which is in Eastern Asia.

3. The first time I've ever paid attention to race was in elementary school, second grade when we were learning about slavery and the teacher pointed out all the kids who would've been slaves. She didn't point at me, but I asked her what I would've been and she said something along the lines of "Oh, you're not white or black so you wouldn't really have been anything." and that's when I realized that someone could be categorized as something other than white or black.

4. I usually decide which race someone is judging my their skin color, hair texture, facial features, and sometimes mannerisms. Example: I could tell one of my classmates was Asian mixed because of how he said the word "the". I was right.

5. People decide my race based on my slanted eyes, hair, and name. Example: Somebody immediately guessed I was Japanese because my name is in a popular anime.

Andrew Gutierrez:

1. Hispanic

2. I know because the rest of my fam ily is hispanic.

3. My family told me and then others noticedd it as well.

4. When people tell me what they are.

5. They guess from my skin color.

Gabriel Maldonado

1. I am white ecuadorian

2. I decided that when I realized my mom is white and my dad is Ecuadorian.

3. I learned what race I was when people started saying I looked black, then realized my dark skin was because of my Ecuadorian dad.

4. Based off their parents, life if a person has parents who have a background of being Asian, their kid is gonna be Asian.

5. People decide my race based on my curly hair and mixed skin tone, calling me a lightskin.

Ray Dylan Cruz

1. Asian

2. I look like it and attribute my heritage to the person I am today.

3. Through talking with my classmates about it.

4. I don't

5. People look at my eyes or accent.

Peter Luan

1. Asian

2. My entire family is from China.

3. I've always known.

4. I can tell because of how they look or when I see their parents.

5. They decide when they see my slanted eyes and hear my accent.

Race is a social construct to divide and categorize.

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I went on Pinterest too look at it's version of beauty. I don't see too many differences in beauty standards for race, but I see standards for weight and size, sex, etc. There's a lot of makeup tutorials for women and "What I eat in a day" and "Glow up tips that actually work" and "How to prevent chopification" featuring a before and after of two differently sized women. For men I'm seeing a lot of razors and outfit tutorials. There are also some gym videos of guys being upset and saying "all women are the same". I think when people see these videos when they look for glow up help, they develop a warped view of what's considered beautiful. You can have the skinniest waist in existence but will it really be worth it having severe malnutrition? Or you can have the best build at the gym but what happens if you stop? All that muscle's going to turn into fat. I've always thought that people's idea of self worth would've become less extreme had they not owned a mirror.

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The most recent family centered show I've watched is Bob's Burgers. Bob and Linda are always busy running the family restaurant and make the kids help. In every episode they're always busy but are still able to make time for kids. Bob spends more time with Tina and Louise and Linda spends more time with Gene. Louise is Bob's favorite child and Gene is Linda's favorite. Tina is awkward and doesn't really fit in with the family even though she's the eldest. The family tries to include everyone in every activity but personally it looks like Tina is always somewhat left behind. I think family tv more or less portrays the same family dynamic. Parents with a semi dysfunctional marriage with 2+ kids, at least one of the parents is super laid back/doesn't care and just wants to have fun, and there is at least one child that's socially inept. Realistically, I don't think any of that is desirable but only portrayed for the sake of television.

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During that week I actually did notice a few "weird" things.

I have a classmate that dresses "scene"-- bright colors, studded belts, kandi jewelry, apparel from 2003, etc. However, it's apparent that this person is either new to scene or is shy about it because they do not coordinate their pieces correctly nor do they do scene makeup correctly. I don't think social status plays a role in this situation. I suppose that wearing very generic scene pieces makes it easier to take off since they're at school for only 2 hours a day. I have dressed similarly back in 2023 but I didn't consider myself crazy because it was only for cosplay conventions. Otherwise I might've been reluctant to dress scene. I consider that classmate as a shy and clumsy individual. The way they present themself as a scene kid, a very loud and visual genre of style, but are timid about it makes me feel like they're a poser.