4. February 2009 by student.

As I sit here writing these blogs hoping for those promised “10″ points, I can’t help but wonder if what I am choosing to write about has any affect, meaning, or any content whatsoever. So as an audience, should I silence  my voice or keep marching to my own beat?  I was just looking over Facebook not long ago and became overwhelmed with grief and just intense feelings of hopelessness. Here I am 1500 miles away from a place I know as home, in a major I’m not sure I’m smart enough to succeed in wondering what the world around me is thinking, doing, eating for breakfast. I know it sounds heinous but here I am across the country, living off campus in my grandparents condo, alone. It get’s lonely, making friends is almost impossible, and with all this constant Facebook gossip it seems impossible. Although I wasn’t the closest to these people what they do with there lives seems to be controling what I’m doing with mine, and that’s where the connection comes in. The sociological aspect lies here. We let society and it’s impact control us, in some form or another, we refuse to believe that we are subjects to such matters, because if we don’t suffer from Anorexia we can’t possibly be a subject of Societal effects, but look around millions of teenagers myself includeded have fallen into a category. We let Myspace, Facebook, DarkStarlings, and all the other underground networks, they’re an addiction, and they’re controlling teenagers and young adults all over, how is it not possible that this is not a sociological problem. It is! It’s one thing when a bored teenage girl gets distracted and checks the updates on Facebook, it’s another when it becomes a ritual, ten, twelve times a day it’s when that one girl remembers her old best friends and knows every detail of their “perfect” lives. It’s ridiculous. It’s painful. Mind you, I myself am an advid Facebook goer, so I myself don’t have much to say, but my purposes are to stay connected, meet knew people and so on. And just moments before I stated the blog I read an old best freinds note, and it hit hard, you know what spot I’m talking about. The one where you could cry, but you can’t breathe and you wanna throw up but you haven’t eaten all day thanks to Strep throat. I know they don’t mean to hurt you, just like you don’t mean to stuble across their board, mindless blogs, but you do, and you get hurt, and it’s how society here in the teenage world goes.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

4. February 2009 by student.

Growing up in a home, I had no idea what child abuse was, nor that I myself was a victim of it. Week after week social services would come, trying to rescue me, from what, I did not have a clue? It’s the social ignorance that kills me. I just don’t’ seem to understand how two loving individuals could want to hurt the lives that they have created. Knowing damn well that the memories and confusion will linger always. Fortunately,unlike many others rescue for me and my two siblings was possible, after 11 years in the system, I was free. However the scars, they still remain. The foster care system left it’s marks as well and together, I had to fight this struggle alone, Society was to busy with war, and poverty to see the effects of their own ignorance in their own country, not the poor, not the elderly, but their next generation. I’ll be twenty years old in not to long, and to know that more then half my life has been stolen from me, and to have no idea why, is one thing I’ll never be able to express on paper. You sit here and you know it’s not over yet so you keep fighting, you keep that head up and you pray for more, because you know that deep down there has to be more. But really is there? Can I sit here and wait for society to step in and save me? Let society do it’s job and take care of it’s next generation, because it’s a fact half these children are still here because of the authorities,but what if I wasn’t so lucky what about those who weren’t? Or is it the opposite end of the spectrum, do I take from this experience and grow as a member of the society I belong to. Do I learn, and teach what I know, and share my experiences? Which of the two, is it, the fault of the society, or the fault of the individual for blaming the society?

“1,500 children die from abuse each year. There are 140,000 injuries to children from abuse each year. There are 1.7 million reports of child abuse each year.”³

“…about 1 in 4 women in North America were molested in childhood.”¹¹

“More than 2 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported each year in the United States. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 new cases of sexual abuse occur each year.”⁴

“There were an estimated 903,000 victims of maltreatment nationwide.”²²

“An estimated 1,100 children died of abuse and neglect, a rate of approximately 1.6 deaths per 100,000 children in the general populations.”²²

“…approximately 1 in 7 males will have been sexually molested before the age of 18.”¹⁰

“Child Abuse: An Overview” was written by C. J. Newton, MA, Learning Specialist and published in the Find Counseling.com (formerly TherapistFinder.net) Mental Health Journal in April, 2001.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

4. February 2009 by student.

In the past it was accepted, even encouraged that a young woman become pregnant as soon as possible to allow for more children and better health after birth for both the mother and baby.  However, since women are encouraged to go to school, and to make a good life for themselves, with or without a husband, adolescent pregnancies have become a social problem.  In today’s society teens who become pregnant are less likely to finish high school, and more likely to live in poverty. The age group of 15-19 are less likely to gain the amount of weight to support the child they are carrying, and are also not able or do not seek prenatal care.  The pregnancies and poor care are due to a lack of education.  As these women live in poverty and raise their children in less than desirable conditions they also breed a cycle of ignorance.  Since they don’t have knowledge about safe sexual relationships, or the importance of an education, they cannot pass that on to their children.  As a society schools and health departments need to reach out to these high risk girls and show them how important it is to practice safe sex, and get an education.  For those girls already pregnant or with children health care and education are important things that need to be given out to end this cycle of adolescent pregnancies.

Stats on teen pregnancies.

http://www.teenshelter.org/detailed_statistics.htm

Posted in Social Problems | 4 Comments »