"Stuff" changes but that "stuff" changes us

Lice is on the rise with teenagers..Why?    SELFIES!



Technology can have a profound effect upon us individually and on society.  As technology changes we begin to adapt ourselves and our lifestyles to the new technology.

Today I asked you which of the following was the most important tool in your life
1)Emojis

2) Instagram

3) Life Straws

All of you said either Instagram or Emojis.  They are tools you actually use. The life straw is not a tool that is needed for your life.   When I pressed you to explain why emojis were important to you life someone stated, "It helps me communicate sarcasm or emotion to a friend."  We all agreed and gave a couple examples of how the lack of emotion of texting can cause conflict sometime.   But what has the text replaced?  Actual talking! Actual emotion!  We often believe these tools we use "connect" us with those around us but in reality perhaps they are actually pushing us away from each other.  Think of your lunch table...5 people sitting together but no one is engaging with each other.  

Here is  Marshall Jones' award winning slam poetry to prove the point.  Be mindful of your connections.

Also this great technology that is supposed to improve our lives can sometimes make us miserable.

The point of today's lesson was also to drive home the point of SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION.  Those outside influences that affect our lives like TIME and PLACE.  If you were much younger or older perhaps none of the tools would be of importance.  If you were in a country with limited supply of clean water the LifeStraw would really be your most important tool.  Again the point of the Sociological Imagination is to prove that your life isn't truly completely up to you.  Your life is often heavily influenced by outside determining factors that we do not often reflect upon.

Sociological Mindfulness

Schwalbe's "sociological mindfulness" can be a difficult idea to grasp and Schwalbe admits that.  Mindfulness is a  concept that describes an awareness in world at this moment here and now.  It implies being tuned in to the present moment.  Sociological mindfulness therefore, is being tuned into to both the way in which the present moment is influenced by society and also being tuned into how we are a player in shaping the present moment.  The simple way I look at sociological mindfulness is that it is the mirror image of sociological imagination.  In other words, once we realize that people are influenced by their social setting, we can then realize that influence is happening right now and we are a part of it.  Each of us is both influenced by other people and influencing other people.

So, I think there are 2 critical aspects to sociological mindfulness.

First, in being tuned in to the present moment we can see and appreciate how each individual (including ourselves) is affected by when and where we live and all of the social experiences that entails.  That is, we can think with a sociological imagination about others.  And because we realize that others are impacted by these experiences we can appreciate each person's uniqueness.  This makes us more forgiving of others and of ourselves. 

The second part of sociological mindfulness is being tuned into the idea that each of us is a participant in a society.  We all affect the social world, even in little ways.  Each little act we do matters and has an affect on other people.  This aspect has a much longer explanation:

Sociological mindfulness is an awareness that we are being influenced by the world and so we can question that influence and hopefully guide it.  And it is an awareness that we are influencing others and hopefully it makes us question that influence so we can have the impact that we want on our world.  Sociological mindfulness is an awareness that society is dynamic and fluid and we are a part of that. In short, sociological mindfulness is the awareness that how we interact in the world matters!

The Outliers

The "sociological imagination" is an important theme throughout our semester. The idea of the sociological imagination was developed by C. Wright Mills who said that having a sociological imagination helps one to see the connection between history and biography. That is, who we are (our biography) is determined by where and when we live (history). 

The Outliers reading provides an example of how the people of Roseto were affected by where and when they live. Because they lived in the town of Roseto at that time, they lived in a way that affected them (without even knowing it) so that they had a much lower chance of getting heart disease and living longer than the rest of the country.

1. What did Dr. Wolf set out to study originally?

 2.  What did he find instead?

3. Were the people aware of these effects? 

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell uses asociological imagination to understand extreme success stories (aka Outliers). Using the introduction to understand sociology we see a few important ideas.
First, sociologists study how people are affected by their social groups. People are influenced by the groups they are a part of, whether it is family, a church, a town, etc. This often contradicts the idea that people are the sum total of their own individual genes and decisions. An important sociologist, C Wright Mills, calls this having a sociological imagination. He says that one must understand the history and the biography of an individual to understand who they are. That is, people are influenced by when and where they live.
Second, we see that sociologists do not simply make opinions or philosophical ideas, rather they make claims based on research and data. 
Lastly, understanding sociology can change how we think about the world and who we are. For example, in this excerpt, one might change how he thinks about good health.
Do you see how the excerpt highlights these three ideas? Can you use your sociological imagination to think about your own life or your own troubles?
The rest of Gladwell's book uses a sociological imagination to explain extreme success stories. For example, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs tremendous success and wealth stemming from the development of computers: 

Gladwell describes how being born in the mid 1950s was particularly fortuitous for those interested in computer programming development (think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both born in 1955). It also helped to be geographically near what were then called supercomputers, the gigantic predecessors to the thing on which you’re reading this post. Back in the 1960s, when Gates and Jobs were coming of age, a supercomputer took up a whole room and was not something most youngsters would have had a chance to see, let alone work on. But because of their proximity to actual computers, both Gates and Jobs had a leg up on others their age and had the chance to spend hours and hours (10,000 of them in Gladwell’s estimation) learning about programming.

We can apply this model to more than just financial success. Think about what opportunities your own biography and history have afforded you. How has when, where, and to whom you were born shaped your life today?

Think about your plans for the weekend or what you brought for lunch.  How is it affected by where and when you live?  What are the influences shaping your plans and what you eat?  Do you see how it is not simply your choice? 

Another way to examine the connection of biography to history is through the Beloit Mindset list. Every year, Beloit College publishes a list of how the current year's freshmen will experience and have experienced the world differently. A couple examples of this are from the NY Times: Here is an article about students not writing in cursive. And, this link is about the changing role of the wristwatch.  Both show that being born in a different time means students will experience the world differently.  This might sound obvious, but there is a tendency for people to think that they are simply who they are regardless of time or place.  Something you can write about is how kids being born today might experience the world differently than you have.  Or, how might kids being born in 2013 be influenced differently than you have?  And yet another way to think about this is, how might you have been different if you grew up somewhere else?  Especially for those of you who have moved, try to imagine what your life would be if you still lived somewhere else.

Thanks for the post fellow Sociology teacher Sal!

What is Sociology?

Today we cleared up some issues that were lingering from the creation of the blogs.  Remember the blogs are a school assignment and should be treated as such.  Keep them professional and school appropriate.  Let the blog emulate your personality but keep in mind its function.

Your assignment tonight is to read the intro to "Outliers".  It will help you understand the topic of Sociological Imagination.   Reflect on the idea of how there are outside forces that affect who we are even though we may not even notice.

Remember for all the readings for this class to do three things:

1) What is the thesis of the reading?  What is the author trying to prove?
2) What proof does the author give?
3) What questions or challenges do you have from the reading?  Any thing that interested you particularly?

We also addressed the issue WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?  WHAT WILL WE DOING? 

We will try to look at the world through a sociological perspective.  Try to sit back and look at the world as an outside observer and not as a member of certain group. Then look for reasons why groups/individuals react a certain way.  What are the outside forces/influences that are creating their Sociological Imagination?

We tend to think a lot of our actions are due to biological wiring but in reality they are do to our social environment.  Think of the example of the girl with the credit card debt. We may think it was because she has a biological impulse issue.  But what about social pressures or norms?  Perhaps it's the constant image of the "Jay-Z lifestyle" that makes her feel like she needs to put out a certain image. Or perhaps it's due to low wages.  We need to always reflect on these outside influences.

So then he left class....

Today in class, I gave you all the assignment to write down all the "unique" or "interesting" things you saw around the classroom, about me, or your fellow students.  After compiling the list, I instructed the class to discuss what they found to be unique and why they felt it was interesting. I then left the room for five minutes expecting the class to discuss as a whole what and why they felt it was unique/interesting but knowing the class would probably just talk with their friends.  The purpose of the activity was to show you that we, as a society,  have a set idea of how certain groups should act and behave.  Our expectations are that teachers are supposed to lead discussions, not students, so when I was expecting you to do work without me leading you it brought you a level of discomfort.  That is what we will be doing in this class as sociologists. We will be analyzing people and people in groups and look for patterns of behavior and analyze how those patterns affect people.

The second part of class we actually discussed the things that you felt were unique in the classroom.  Someone mentioned the Beastie Boys posters.  I asked the class why they thought I had the posters hanging up.  A few people said, "Because you like them".  I challenged the class to answer "Why do I like them?"  Yes, I like them but "Why?".  After a few guesses someone stated, "because they were prevalent when you in High School".  Yes! What else do we have in common?  "You are all males" Yes!    If I was born in 1925, I probably would not be a Beastie Boy fan.  If I was a born in and lived in Sudan, I probably would not be a Beastie Boy fan.  I'm not a 12 year old girl so I'm not a Spice Girls fan.  There are plenty of outside influences that we tend not to reflect upon that help create who we are.  Understanding, analyzing and reflecting on these influence is also what sociologists do.  It is also what we will do in this class.  We will reflect on this influence and try to explain and understand their power in our lives.  The outside influences of gender, race, who we associate with, social class, time and many other factors create what sociologists call theSOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION.  This term is a main driving force of this course.

Welcome to Sociology!

Hello Students!

This will act as a nice gathering place for us throughout the year.  I will be posting daily activities, projects, updates on community service and a hodge podge of other resources for our class.  It will also act as an conduit to connect your blog to my blog and to your classmates blogs.  You will be directed to this site throughout the year so I would make sure to bookmark it for easy access.  Holler.

End of Semester Survey

As this is the first time I've taught Sociology, I myself have a lot to learn about how to effectively teach the subject. I therefore am asking you to help me improve. I would like you to respond and assess to various activities we did in class.  The survey is anonymous and means a lot to me.  Please take your time and answer honestly. If you can't remember or did not partake please leave the question/questions blank.


Click here to take the survey