Sociology by Malia Pinlac

2/2 Advertising/ Research Methods

202300576 — 2024-03-10 13:39:03 UTC

Advertising has a great impact on society. It affects society in different ways that have deeper meaning than just annoying you when you are trying to watch your favorite show, movie, video, or scrolling through social media. Some advertisements come with questionnaires or surveys that are used for research purposes or statistics. What I think of advertising is that with people who actually complete the surveys and questionnaires, they take time out of their day because the advertisement actually caught their attention. It's rare that someone would put in time to do something that they think is not interesting in their free time. These give researchers/ sociologists a deep insight into how people may feel about their life. Advertising comes up like getting to know more personal information about individuals but the downside is that the personal information can be bad, it can have underlying signs of depression or any mental/ physical problems. In the book it states how the survey research is used to collect data upon how the advertisement ties into our beliefs. But I also personally realize that my beliefs are heavily influenced by society's new thing or trend. The trend going on in society has definitely shown to have a heavy impact on society and one that is obvious is the way that we dress, in fashion trends the way a person dresses may show parts of their personality and emotion yet you don't know how the person truly is til you meet them. Advertisements also may be biased, guilting other people into something out of their normal if there is a biased statement before the question, this gives users a deeper thought of the question being asked, reading the answer into being more biased. Therefore advertisements can help collect lots of research from people but it comes with biased results or results that the user is not being 100 percent true to.

2/5 Hensil, Doing Sociological Research

202300576 — 2024-03-10 14:11:24 UTC

After reading Doing Sociological Research I learned that sociologists use six different types of ways to collect data. The six ways that they use are surveys, secondary analysis, document, experiments, unobtrusive measures, and participant observation. This ties into a week or two ago when I was in class and the teacher asked the whole class to log onto their computers and follow the link that was posted. We were told to honestly answer the questions being asked as the results will be anonymous to those collecting the data. I personally did not answer the questions honestly because I felt as if it was a trick to get to know information I was not comfortable with sharing to someone I do not know. I know that there was research being studied upon my whole high school but I know peers around me did not necessarily know what was going on. This ties back to my advertisement padlet post that researchers will not always receive a full one hundred percent answer to the question that was being asked of the individuals that answered their questions or responded to statements. I am not saying that conducting research through different platforms is bad but the researchers can not expect a truthful response when it comes to strangers not knowing thus to why they are being asked a out of the blue question they might not get on the daily. In the book it is stated that sociologists go upon research to find and figure out different individuals behavior and attitude that ties into their daily actions and decisions based on the certain answers they receive from the specific questions they ask. This also ties back into a high school class from last semester, my health class. We were asked to complete a survey but came with odd questions on a personality test. Knowing that we were more intrigued with getting to know what kind of personality we have, we were more open and honest in answering the odd questions, while not knowing that with what answer we picked can say a lot about us to researchers because the answer would tie in with a deeper meaning than the actual answer itself.

2/7 Pager, Would You Hire an Ex-Convict

202300576 — 2024-03-10 16:55:07 UTC

After reading this study it has come to my attention that no matter what it could be, that racism is everywhere and really does affect many lives and how they have to live their lives. The study being one was that there were four individuals 2 were black and two were white, out of the two races one of each different race were assigned to be an ex convict on their record when applying for a job. The results came out rather shocking to me. The criminals had less of a chance to get hired but the white individual with a criminal record had a higher chance compared to the black individual without a criminal record. This comes to show that discrimination still has a huge impact on many lives no matter what. It may seem that even with the big changes to the community to stop discrimination there is still underlying discrimination happening. It's sad to say in the world we live in that we are not fully accepted for who we are because of the color of our skin, the way we look, the way we act, the way we dress or speak. But the interaction we encounter with people also affects the way we are treated due to those things. Forty percent of people have experienced racial discrimination in the hiring process. “In fact, 50% of those surveyed report they have experienced age-based discrimination in the job application process, while 40% of workers say that they have experienced racial discrimination in the hiring process”, I have found statistics that were reported on https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/9percent-of-workers-havent-faced-discrimination-expert-on-what-to-do.html#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%2050%25%20of%20the,discrimination%20in%20the%20hiring%20process. After seeing that forty percent of individuals experienced racial discrimination in the hiring process shows that first this isn't even the whole United States but it is a census that was taken of 3,000 employees. So from the book it was more of a problem with the color of their skin rather than the background they had applying to work. This creates bad social interactions because of somebody's race.

2/12 Brand/ The self and social interaction

202300576 — 2024-03-10 17:30:25 UTC

Behind closed doors everyone is different compared to who they are when interacting with people they aren't as close to or live with. In the book it states that individuals can act as multiple identities. I completely agree and connect with this and I would not be surprised with how much it applies to other people. But how I see it is that I would not talk to my teachers the same as students. There are many reasons why but one is because they are older and are helping you set up for your future, compared to students that sometimes can pull you down with negative words or distract you from doing work. Then there are also certain boundaries that should not be crossed when “the doors are closed” even though you live with those people and deal with them everyday there still should be respect for those they are with behind closed doors. The real me is behind closed doors, many people don't see me behind closed doors because sometimes I feel as if I can only truly be myself around them because I have a bond with them like no other. But my social interactions aren't super different outside of those doors because I am still myself but there are just certain things that I would not say to those outside of my comfort zone compared to those in my comfort zone. That's how it is for majority of people, they wouldn't say things that they would say compare to when they are behind those closed doors because they do not want to portray themselves to make people look at them differently or think of them differently because some people can take it in a way that they didn't mean it because they don't understand compared to those that they are comfortable with. Majority of people care about the brand they wear, because they feel as if it is a good way of self expression which is not wrong it is more rather correct but it is quite rare for a person to buy a high costing item that they think someone would admire, people buy clothing to feel confident with themselves but rather than just for themselves they are care about how people view them from the outside. For example, I'd dress up if I start to develop an admiration for a person because I would want them to admire me back. This comes to show that there again the brands you wear are heavily influenced by society.

2/21 Thompson, Handling the Stigma of Handling the Dead

202300576 — 2024-03-10 18:31:03 UTC

The social identity of an individual is taken in by their occupation. Since many people have thoughts on :others occupations they take in the negative aspects of the occupation. Morticians and funeral directors go through that often. They handle many dead bodies. Not only are they surrounded by that but they are surrounded by the stigma that comes with such a job. The workers are mostly aware of the stigma that the job comes with and how they handle it. It doesn't stop the social identity that others give them based on the career that they do. “Within the general theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, the author identifies and examines the symbolic and dramaturgical techniques employed by morticians and funeral directors to neutralize and diminish the stigma associated with their work” from t and f online https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.1991.9967888#:~:text=The%20qualitative%20analysis%20reveals%20that,profiting%20from%20death%20and%20grief found that the worker tend to lessen the stigma of being mortician and funeral director. I can connect this to personal experience of not being a worker in the death service but I attended a funeral of a loved one recently. And I was questioning how working and handling dead bodies makes the workers feel. I realized I was really observing their actions because I was curious on how it may feel like. I can say that I didn't see a single smile from a worker tying back into how your occupation has a major social identity because I was viewing more of the negative sides. Now that I think of it, instead of thinking negatively about them they should be viewed more positively because they are laying loved ones to rest, they take care of the bodies to be rested in the ground.

2/26 Shopping/Social Order

202300576 — 2024-03-10 18:44:47 UTC

Many individuals do not realize how much shopping has a lot of do with our social order. There is more of a deeper meaning behind it then just getting the things that you want or really want. If you realize many people do not buy things that are not trending, those stay on the shelves and tend to be left behind though they can be a very good product. I can connect this back to what I see because I now realize the population in certain products when it is heavily influenced by peers and especially on social media. Tik tok is a very big platform, there are many products that influencers use causing those who are inspired by it start to have the need to try it. When I recommend my mom beauty items or certain clothing she always asks me “Did you find it on tik tok” I respond back now to her no although I know that deep down it is definitely that I found it on tik tok. I even tend to not like other dupes of products just because I want the real thing, I feel as if I don't that I would not fit in with the trend. I am sure I am not the only individual that feels the same way but this reflects back onto the social order that is on shopping. I would realize when a product gets popular that it is sold out in stores and online but then when times passes it gets out of the trend. Then it is fully in stock but then people don't care for it as much as they did when “everyone” had it because there is most likely a new trend or even a product that offers more than the one product. I also experience impulsive buying. I realize it is when I am more in distress or I feel less of myself, then I go and buy things that I feel as if it can give me the feeling of being brighter and happier because some clothing truly does bring memories that I do not enjoy. I feel happier when I get new things, who doesn't.

2/26 Meyer, If Hitler Asked You...

202300576 — 2024-03-10 19:07:00 UTC

After the experiment that was conducted to see if others would go out and complete the tasks that they were given. The results were that many individuals did indeed complete the tasks without any question about what and why they were doing it. This shows how much authority some can have over not just one person. Meyer states that “If Hitler, Asked you to electrocute a stranger, would you”. My answer would be no because I can't hurt someone and live with knowing that I have hurt somebody just because somebody told me too. It is cruel and also will say a lot about the kind of person you are. Many people may say no but also under a very high authority it can change the way people may go about it compared to someone with less authority. If we are being told to do something by the president without a doubt people would follow orders but yet you do not know the different outcomes that may come out of doing those orders. I would not do anything to hurt someone even if they did something terrible to me like embarrass me or even physically harm me, in the world we live in we should not always give into what is told because we do not know the consequences that may come out of it. Thinking about your actions will be very important and should be a skill that is more focused on because it can change many aspects of your life. Therefore “If Hitler Asked You” your response should immediately not because knowing the history of what he has done and the harm he caused that can not be reversed. Society can be another major influence not just the person with a higher authority because you may also be drawn into “following the crowd” it is another thing to look out for.

2/28 Shopping for "we-ness"

202300576 — 2024-03-10 19:17:18 UTC

Shopping to fit in is something that is seen throughout society. In my highschool I can tie into the Shopping for “we-ness” especially this year major of the shoes you can see being worn are uggs. I don't think I have seen so many individuals have the same shoes during the passing period. We buy things to feel like we fit in, it sucks to admit but I do the same but at the same time I have no shame in it because I know that people around me do the same exact thing. This goes into buying popular items, items that are trending and make you cool in the moment but when the trend goes out and then you suddenly decide to buy what was trending back then, then you are late to the trend or you are so old and not original. I experienced this for myself, recently I bought the panda dunks that were trending a year ago. I was not able to buy them a year ago because they were sold out and highly priced since the item was trending and the inventory of the item was running very low. Then when I started to wear then this year I was told “You just now got the dunks”, in ways it made me feel ashamed for being late to buying it but I also did not care because I told myself that at least at the time I was not just following the crowd to fit in, because I genuinely wanted the shoes because it matched a lot of my clothing and I liked the way that they looked.

2/14 Goffman, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life

202300576 — 2024-03-10 20:59:04 UTC

People present themselves how they want to be treated in society. To an extent people will portray themselves how they want to be perceived by individuals around them. For example a way I can connect to the chapter is that in elementary I was always so focused on people liking me and being considered the cool kid. I was too young to realize that not everyone around me will accept me and who I am and I shouldn't need to fake being myself just for people to like me. Now that I am at the age where I can realize and reflect, I learned a lot of self acceptance, that there are somethings that can not be changed about me and the right people in my life will accept me for who I truly am instead of the fake version of myself that I try to portray myself as. I think it is highly important for society to start building self acceptance and be the person they really are instead of hiding and faking away. Social media also has a major impact on how people want to portray themselves because on social media it is rare for someone to show themselves show the more picture perfect version of themselves. This effects the action of individuals everyday lives when they encounter different people because they want to hide their imperfections.

2/7 Coffee Shop Ethnography

202300576 — 2024-03-10 21:27:57 UTC

I had never realized the true environment of a coffee shop. There are many college or highschool students that go to Starbucks to study, especially where I go to school. Afterschool I tend to see a couple of my peers at school having a group study or they are studying individually, I would see many people during work hours like their breaks passing by picking up and ordering and then leaving. There were not many conversations happening between different people but I did realize how nice and welcoming the workers were. There were people that I would see that are regulars and have a nice little bond between the workers and them. The environment becomes very fast paced with a lot of people and movement going around at the busy time especially around lunch time from around the hours twelve to two. The people around me were doing their own thing, it made me feel comfortable but it was also a helpful place to study because I had people around me that I was not familiar with making it easy for me to stay on task compare to during my high school classes where I was familiar and more comfortable with the peers around me especially because they were all around my age. The environment is way different then some people may first think until they sit down and observe the actual environment. Not only has this happened at my normal study spot at Starbucks but when I have gone to other spots and spaces to get out of my comfort zone it appeared to be the same thing. There were people coming and going and then teens coming in to get their drinks and food that are most likely a trend.

3/1 Chapter 3: Fast Food/ Work and Economy

202300576 — 2024-03-11 16:56:50 UTC

People have very negative stigmas held against fast food restaurant workers just like the previous padlet post I was discussing about the negative stigmas that Morticians and funeral directors have. Though many of those that work at fast food restaurants at teens and a few older people that are trying their best to support themselves to pay off bill and buying things they need to keep moving with their life. Perhaps many are in college supporting themselves so they are not so in deep with student loans. It is a given that a fast food restaurant is going to pay off your whole college but getting some money is better than getting no money. Fast food restaurants may be low on workers and more demanding for you to work making it hard for those with other priorities. With prices in California rising it is really difficult to even financially build yourself up because you may be getting paid more but items and gas start to rise. Not to mention fast food restaurants get very busy making it hard for workers to pick up the pace.