Alana's Intro to Sociology Reflections by

alanab910 — 2024-06-13 21:08:42 UTC

Module 1 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-06-13 22:49:35 UTC

Prompt 2: Personal Experience

I want to focus more on the path of least resistance. When starting college, I was nervous about starting a new life. That meant having to start over and find a new group of people but I was afraid that I would not fit in with others. I decided that the best choice was to change my personality so that everyone would like me. If I did not change it, it could lead to nobody liking me, or so I believed. I could have chosen to be myself and start making friends there but I went straight to the option of not wanting to be judged on how I behave around others. I feel that I choose this path constantly because I don't usually put my trust in others as easily as I should. When making new friendships, it takes time for me to get more comfortable with who I am so that I can change my path in the future. In the reading "The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing", the other defines the path of resistance as what you are supposed to do if you want to feel that you belong. I chose to change my personality so that I can "fit in" with others as I believed that it was the best option to feel like I belonged.

Module 2 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-01 02:12:44 UTC

In module 2, we focused on what culture is in sociology. In culture, there are several elements that are inside of it which are: symbols, beliefs, values, norms and attitudes. I have a lot of personal experiences to beliefs especially with the fact that someone can have a belief but that does not actually mean that it is the truth. Growing up, I grew up with the traditional beliefs of how a girl and boy should act. My mom always tried to give me dolls always wear dresses even though I soon began feeling uncomfortable with that type of stuff. I began feeling really interested in what my brother was doing which was playing hockey and video games. I always wanted to be just like my brother and do whatever he did. If I am being honest, he was the one who taught me all of the curse words. When my mom heard me curse in front of me she responded to me with "that is not very lady like". I responded with asking her why it isn't lady like as it is just a belief that women should never curse. I have heard women around me curse, so I always questioned why it was a problem that I said it but not others. After more years, those beliefs my mom started to go away, she was more understanding when picking out dresses and with my choice in what I wear and I have always never cursed in front of her just to avoid the conversation.

Module 3 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-01 03:04:21 UTC

In Module 3, we focused on how status affects the social structure. We learned that people can hold multiple statuses for example, I am a daughter, sister, student, and counselor. With our statuses comes roles which are expectations on what we need to do with our status. For me being a counselor, I am expected to watch over a group of kids making sure that everyone is safe and has fun throughout the week. To ensure that I followed my role I had to be trained in multiple criteria. I was first given modules to follow with tasks to complete. I had to provide my fingerprints as well as be trained to become a mandated reporter. After completing my modules I would then be able to shadow in person with the rest of the camp so that I can understand how to work with kids properly. I am able to pursue my role as a counselor but also include more statuses as a friend and employee. With my job, no one is put above others and we are treated fairly with everyone. I have also seen a lot with the power elite as those who have members in their family that are associated with that elite are given more advantages than others. For example, those who have family members in the military have specific programs at universities that are dedicated to the soldiers that fight for the country. Some in the power elite can do more than those who are not.

Module 4 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-01 06:24:05 UTC

In the reading Population and Human Ecology: People, Place, and Space, it is stated that to reinforce power and status, those with higher statuses sit above those with lower statuses. I don't fully agree with this but I also do not disagree with it. When comparing both jobs I have had, they go in both ways. When working at Shake Shack, I did feel a difference in status between those I worked around. I feel it could also be because there were a wide range of ages that worked there but there was definite that we were clearly coworkers. Now did make friends throughout the times I worked there, but I would have to go through those friends with a higher position to get what I want. In my current job as a summer camp counselor, I do not feel that our different positions make us better than others. We are all at a similar age range and enjoy working with kids as well as being around each other. Our boss or director never uses his higher power to boss us around, in fact, he always asks what our opinion giving us a voice instead of dismissing what we believe. At this job there has been no discriminating against as we are all working together to have a good time.

Module 5 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-01 06:40:48 UTC

In Module 5, we focused a lot on the looking-glass self, which was changing self based on the interactions of others. When meeting new people, I have realized how different people react with other people. But mainly I see it in myself. Mostly, me basing myself on the judgement of others comes when asking for help from teachers. I would be in a class and I would be stuck on a specific topic we talked about in class. I knew that the best choice that I needed to do was go to my teachers office hours and ask for help. But there was a apart of me telling me that my question was too easy to answer and that I should already know it. I still went to the teacher for help. When I asked her the question that I needed, it was responded with asking me if I read the whole question. Of course I ended up not reading the whole thing which made me feel embarrassed. I assumed that my teacher thought I was stupid and that I never read the whole thing even though it was probably a small detail that went over my head. When asking me if I had anymore questions, I just lied saying that I understood and left to hide my embarrassment. Another example would be going to the tutoring center and having to ask what I assumed were obvious question so when I was told that I would have to try the other problems on my own I felt like they assumed I depended on them when working on my homework when I was just confused on how to start it.

Module 7 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 04:48:38 UTC

In Module 7, we learned about how there needs to be crime in order for a society to be function. My feelings on that is that I completely agree with that statement. There will always be a way for something to be considered a crime in a society. We have grown up with the statement that "nobody is perfect" and I believe that this is the best we can describe our society. We have never seen a "perfect society" because most would consider a society without crime would be perfect in our eyes. But there is always a way that upsets the citizens even if there is no crime happening in the city. I especially want to focus on the idea of the panopticon which according to the reading Panopticism is where people feel completely visible so that they can control themselves. I believe that with this idea of never being invisible, it provides some way to control reinsuring that crime does not occur as often. As well it provides superiority in society with the officers being placed in the middle of the cell. When crime occurs we cannot base those actions on a sole individual but we should focus on the society and how it has affected crime occuring.

Module 8 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 05:45:02 UTC

In Module 8 we learned about the difference between sex and gender but also focused on transgender rights especially with the bathroom bills. Growing up I never really thought about how sex and gender would be different from each other. Later in my years I was exposed to more information about what sex and gender is and how to differentiate them from each other. I became friends with kids in my school who were able to help me understand how sex is a biological factor and gender is a social factor. I especially began to hear more about being transgender as there were many stories about how other thought about those who did not feel comfortable with the gender. Many of those who argued about sharing bathrooms with transgenders made excuses about protecting their children but would completely disregard the humanity in others. They would argue with "anyone with a penis is considered a predator", adding a stereotype towards them just for trying to use the bathroom.

Module 9 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 06:00:03 UTC

Focusing on sexuality, I wanted to talk about the reading of "How Sex Became Fun" and more specifically how in the reading it talks about how more girls would prefer hookups as they are "more liberating". There has been a saying going around called "hookup culture" where girl would promote being with multiple people but never committing to an actual relationship. I would agree with the idea that teenagers believe that sex is fun as it is a topic people argue about a lot in college. I mean to be honest it is the time people find themselves in proper relationships but there have been many people who are not looking for commitment just looking to have fun. To add on, there has not been many talk about what teenagers talk about when you talk to a millennial. As the reading said, millennials were more likely to wait longer until the first time they had sex but also they avoided hookup culture because of their "lack of resources to support these relationships". Being relationship is not just easy work, so there is a bunch needed to maintain a relationship which millennials could not provide.

Module 10 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 06:13:33 UTC

Module 10 we focused on race and ethnicity which was the module I felt I would know a lot about. I have to admit that I tend to make my personality about where my family is from. But I have been able to see the inequality through my dad sometimes especially with my other side of the family. Usually it is through insensitive comments about immigration but they never focused on the achievements my dad has received or the fact that he is a citizen of the country. I learned a lot through the policies of segregation for Mini Assignment Five where they explained more about redlining and how the government was able to segregate between whites and African-Americans. In redlining, houses owned by Africa-American families were lowered in price, with that idea most real estate agents would not want to work with those buyers so they would need to look for more affordable areas based on where the area lays on the map. Or seperating mixed neighborhoods through closing schools for African-Americans so that they would move to a specific neighborhood. In my experience I have not seen much of it but I have noticed sections in my neighborhood dominated by a specific race.

Module 11 Reflection

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 06:22:13 UTC

I wanted to focus on the idea of Meritocracy for this module reflection. Meritocracy is the idea that everyone has the same chances in life but it is based more on skill and effort. Looking at jobs in the country, most people start at the beginning but end up using their talent and skills to promote themselves and move up on the work social class. That work social class being the higher the position, the higher the power you have on others. In my first job that was clear when trying to achieve the next level. I was not properly trained and was constantly fixed on my expectations that I was finally able to understand the proper way to mange things around my workplace. I began to train new employees on my new findings so that they can do the same with others. I felt that I qualified to move up in positions so that I can also earn more money to support myself but to move up you had to pass a test about your training you received in the specific station. Obviously, I was not trained to know the facts on the test, so for the rest of the time I stayed in the same position since my skills were not enough according to management. Meritocracy was used a lot on my first job and in a lot of other jobs in the country.

alanab910 — 2024-07-20 06:33:34 UTC