5. August 2010 by student.

Technology is making our society boring!  Wait a minute — could that be right or is it a typo?  No typo here, you heard me correctly, personal isolation devices (PID’s) such as video games, i-pods, lap-tops, cell phones, and social networking sites are limiting the amount of time we spend interacting with one another.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the conveniences that modern technology provides, but when I’m in the car listening to the radio, with one child using headphones to listen a movie (built in DVD player), and two more listening to their i-pods — I feel like my kids are in their own worlds that I have no part of.  Family get togethers are just not as much fun when everyone is sitting around with their noses stuck in their iphones.  On any given day, someone could walk into my house and find the five members of my family isolated in their own area of the house doing their own “techno” thing.  My husband has his “man room” where he lays around watching every sport known to man in stadium surrond sound.  My seventeen year old daughter can be found using her lap-top to video chat or facebook in her room, or sending one of her hundreds of daily text messages.  My twelve year old daughter is usally in her room talking on the phone or on the family computer watching music videos or window shopping online.  My eight year old daughter loves to play wii or watch tv, and if I happen to have some spare time you might find me watching a movie in my room.  I really doubt if we are the only American family living this way.  Boring!!!  Our society is turning into techno duds!

I didn’t grow up this way.  When I was a kid we only had four channels to watch on tv, so other than the Sunday night family Disney movie and Saturday morning cartoons, we played games together!  Hide & seek, flashlight tag, kickball, football, baseball, board games, card games, freeze tag; just to name a few.  We climbed trees and rode bikes and built forts.  We had fun!  While social networking sites may appear to make you a social butterfly, you are really just a caterpillar in your own little cocoon.  You are portraying yourself in the way you want to be seen.  Most of your “friends” don’t even know the real you.  What will the long term effects of using texting and email as a main source of communication have on our society?  Will the next generation posess any social skills at all?

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

5. August 2010 by student.

It’s amazing to me how young a girl will start asking the question, “Do I look fat in this?”.  I have a very healthy, athletically built twelve year old daughter who is already obcessing over her size.  She’s hit a growth spurt and recently outgrew her “double zero” size and now has to wear a zero instead.  She thinks this means she’s getting fat!  I told her that zero isn’t even a real size!  Nobody wears a zero unless they are twelve years old or anorexic.  This is the same daughter who at age eight decided she wouldn’t eat fast food anymore, because it would make her fat.  It’s one thing to raise a child who is aware of healthy food choices and poor food choices, but I do worry when I hear my zero percent body fat, muscular twelve year old complaining that she’s fat.  I know that all girls are concerned with their bodies and their weight.  I can remember feeling the same way when I was in high school.  I always felt so huge, but of course looking back at pictures now I would kill to have that “huge” body back!

The media today pressures girls to be thin and cute — even sexy — by using models that are literally starving themselves before photo shoots.  They will even go so far as to use enemas to help trim a few extra pounds of body waste weight.  Gross!!!  If there are any flaws left, they just air brush them out.  All they are doing is painting an unrealistic picture for girls to try to compete with.  Puberty is a time when girls struggle with self confidence issues, and sadly these fake body images make girls feel like they aren’t skinny enough, or pretty enough, or sexy enough.  Sometimes, this leads to self destructive behaviors, such as bilemia, anorexia, or starving themselves.  They may also feel depressed about the way they look, but want attention and seak it by dressing provacativly and behaving promiscuously.  I think our society needs to go back to the Marilyn Monroe era of sexy.  At least her body size was realistic!

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

5. August 2010 by student.

Posted in Mr. Andoscia, Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

5. August 2010 by student.

Some answers to this would be skin color, background, or some other possibilities. Those answers are good but in our world, apparently your characteristics change your skin color too. What does it say about us when you are no longer black because you speak proper English? For females, are you not black because you may not have such plentiful body parts as the next girl? Why is it that little things like those stated are the basis for people feeling isolated from those they should be able to relate to otherwise? What does that say about our society? To me, there is a difference between social norms and stereotypes. STEREOTYPES are sadly what are categorizing people. As opposed to black people “acting white” because of the way they speak, how are we supposed to speak? Am I not allowed to speak in full coherent sentences? Since when did black become synonymous with ghetto? When is this going to change?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

5. August 2010 by student.

              My culture is the logic by which I give order to the world-Raymonde Carroll. If ever there was a statement drenched in truth, this it. Our culture has a huge part part of every decision we make. As a Haitian, I know firsthand the effects of my culture in my daily activities. When I was living in Haiti, the way we did things was normal to everybody else in the country. Once I moved to the United States, I noticed that though there were some similarities, there were just as many differences in how things were done. Initially, I was set in the ways I grew up with. Gradually, I found myself living the “American” way in some ways. Though many people of different backgrounds would want to ditch the recognition of their own culture and completely adopt the homogenous ways of American culture, I refused to succumb to that. Instead, I have found a balance. Though I find myself adapting to the social norm here, the way I was raised still guides everything I do, eat, wear, and say. The same is said for those who were born here but are of different cultural backgrounds. They were learning two cultures at once: One at home and the other as soon as they walked outside their door. My interpretation of this quote is this: My Haitian background is how I approach the world every day. This will never change no matter where I am and what I learn.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

5. August 2010 by student.

It’s finally happening. Eight to ten years ago students in Middle school and High school used to send back home or send to detention for dress code violation. Dress code used to create all kind of problems in school; such as fight among students, tension between clicks, also used to reveal students culture, ethnicity and social status. Some students used to get teased or attacked by bullies by the way they dressed. Even teacher used to criticize some students by the way they dressed “NOT” on based on their comportment. I remember back when I was in high school, many young boys used to send to detention because their pants were way below their waistline, or coming to class in undershirt, and sometimes some sort of logo or gang’ s symbol. Starting a few years ago, many public schools in Florida started to enforce students on wearing school uniform. I think not only wearing uniform to school will reduce school violence, but also parents will save time, money and will not be wondering if this “outfit” is appropriate for school. Imagine a mother of four without a job need to go back to school shopping for her kidz, she will have to spend at least $500.00, that’s if she buys cheap clothes.  School uniform will cost her way less than that and she won’t have worry what’s and what’s not appropriate for school. There are some cities where students don’t wear uniforms to school; I hope it becomes mandatory that all students should wear uniform to school.

Posted in Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »