Representations of America

Money- I believe that this represents American society better than anything else. No matter what your status is or how you are seen by others, money is always obsessed over and important to everyone. This symbolizes how materialistic our culture is and that we rely on money to get us where we want to go in life. It can also be seen as somewhat of a motivation to be successful. The more successful you are, the more money you get, and that is the reason we have successful corporations and industries in our country today. Other countries view us as a rich and powerful country and they are right because without money, I don't really know what else we would have to obsess over besides Justin Bieber and the Kardashians.

Diversity- I believe that when others think about America, they think about it as a melting pot. Many people of different ethnicity's have all come to this country for opportunity, and because of this, we have become one of the most diverse countries in the world. Each group has brought their own culture and traditions and therefore we have a large variety of different walks of life within our 50 states.

Fast Food -Fast pace. These fast food restaurants have done a lot for our country, good and bad. On the downside, they have been the basis for our country's obesity problem, meanwhile they are some of the leading corporations in the world that were born in America. The word 'fast' not only represents the quickness of receiving our food, it represents our country's pace as well. We are always in a hurry and never make the time to sit down for a family  meal and always resort to food places such as these. 

Technology- I truly believe that our country has lost our ability to socialize face to face and if we were to be stripped of our technology, our relationships with others would take a major downward turn. Our country has become so reliant on technology to do the work for us. We are always looking for the next best thing, as well as ways to spread new trends quickly and what better way than facebook or twitter. As our technology advances, so does our society, and sooner or later I think we will reach the point where we may not even talk normally, solely through technology.

Media & Sex- The two words combined, along with money, are probably the best words to describe our culture and society. Sex sells in our country, the less clothes, the better. We have become so enveloped in the media and the newest happenings that we don't really even care what is going on in our own lives. Between Charlie Sheen and Jersey Shore, there is never a shortage of drama or events to take our mind off our own lives and get sucked into those of other peoples. We are known for producing phenomenons constantly and people that can represent our country and what we are all about. Which is mainly sex. Even the most innocent, end up being labeled as sex symbols. Look at Miley Cyrus. No one ever thought she would get to where she is at, but as of lately she's been busted for partying too much and smoking weed. It just goes to show that our culture has a huge impact on many people and it's mainly because of sex and the media.

Norms in society

So today I went down to ISU to watch the final rounds of the three point shooting competition for girls basketball because one of my teammates was competing and I saw a couple connections to what we have been talking about recently in class. There was over sixty girls competing and I saw a lot of conflict involved where there were competing amongst each other for the final four spots. I also saw cooperation among the group of people that volunteered to work the event. They had to communicate well with each other in order for everything to run orderly and smoothly. I saw many different groups of people and a lot of it seemed to me like in and out groups. Many of the girls that were competing, brought someone with them whether it was other players on their team, their coach, or family and friends, but either way, that seemed to be their in group. Most of the groups weren't necessarily hostile towards those that were not in their group, but they weren't all the friendliest people. Another example that I saw was that even though the groups were not all buddy-buddy with each other, they still abided by the norms of society. In the arena no one was acting crazy and doing outrageous things. Of course they would cheer for their favorite shooter or show support in that way, but everyone knew that there was a limit to the cheering and what was expected of their behavior. Finally, I was with my basketball team most of the day, which I considered a secondary group and we had to have a lot of cooperation throughout our trip. We had to communicate and come to a decision on where we wanted to stop for dinner, as well as when we wanted to make pitt stops on our way their and back. All in all, I saw probably the most examples of groups and behaviors in one day then I think I would have on a normal day at school or on the weekend. It was nice to actually see real life examples of what we have been talking about instead of just taking notes and learning about these concepts. It was a success!

snow disaster!

So the main event of the week was clearly the snow storm. I couldn't think of much else to write about considering it determined pretty much my entire week. The storm caused a major period of upheaval and it took many different aspects of society to return back to normal after the event occurred. First off, clearly the snow plow companies as well as the tow truck companies, played a large roll in helping relieve many people who were caught in the midst of the storm and became helpless. Besides the obvious, I thought about how schools and teachers, as well as businesses were going to recover after this storm. No one expected it to be as bad as it was, yet there still was some major after effects.
Teachers and schools barely ever cancel a day, and if they do, they have to have a very good reason. This epic snow storm gave them one. I thought about how their lesson plans are figured out a week or even weeks in advance so that they have ideas laid out for the week and they have pretty much a game plan. Because of the unexpected two days off, their game plan was messed up. They were forced to either put things on hold, or come up with something new. Either way, things did not go accordingly. The same goes for businesses. Some businesses may have had major meetings of plans to discuss businesses deals within those two days where they were unable to go through with it and put in a somewhat binding situation. In those two days, what if the companies they were planning to make a deal with, changed their minds? Anything could have happened and they would have had to pay the price. Eventually all teachers and schools, and businesses too, returned back to normal. But in the mean time it just seemed like a huge issue and it took many efforts from many different aspects of society to return back to normal.

Martineau's thoughts on society.

After learning a lot about some of these famous sociologists, it's obvious that they would all have different takes on events that have occurred in our society. One particular aspect of our society that some of these sociologists might feel strongly about, would be how women are portrayed as sex symbols in the media. In the society we have created today, advertisers realize that sex sells. However, they resort to women to be sex symbols and bring in the money. In magazines, on commercials, billboards and pretty much every other type of advertising, women are degraded to nothing more than a way to catch the eye of the American people and persuade them into buying that particular good or using that service. This has become an epidemic and in my eyes, I don't see an end to it anytime soon. If Harriet Martineau were to see these ads, she would be appalled. As the founding mother of sociology, Martineau's main beliefs were related to feminism and those are the ideas which she is most famous and recognized for. After studying Martineau and learning quite a bit about her, I have a pretty good idea as to how she would react to this epidemic. Martineau would undoubtedly take a stand and fight for women to be seen as strong individuals rather than half naked girls trying to sell a product or service for a company. Advertisements using women to sell, may never come to an end, but she would fight for it the best she could.
Another part of our society that is problematic and an issue that Martineau would also fight for, is how women are paid less than men in the workplace. If a woman and a man are just as qualified for a job, yet the man receives higher pay than the woman, a problem arises. Harriet Martineau wants women to be respected in society and treated just as equally. Although she would be very happy that the women can even be employed and hold steady jobs and get paid, she still wouldn't settle if she knew that the women weren't getting paid as much as the men.Overall, until women are portrayed as strong, powerful individuals with the same rights and privileges as men, Martineau will not settle.

Who I am.

To many different people, I am viewed in many different ways. I have been influenced by many experiences and people as I have grown up and that has definitely impacted who I am today. I am a competitor and I love it. I have grown up with two older siblings and therefore have been around sports my entire life. Sports are my passion and that has created that competitive nature that I possess. I am also very opinionated yet open minded at the same time. My dad is a very stubborn and opinionated person and I have always taken after him in terms of standing behind my beliefs and ideas regardless of whether others agree or disagree. I have grown out of my stubborn ways quite a bit and have been much more open minded to ideas of others. I love to talk to people and hear what they have to say and allow their ideas to possibly work with my own and make something better because of it. I also love helping others. I hate to see other people fall behind and because of this I do what I can to help them. Finally, I'm probably one of the hardest working people you will ever meet. Occasionally I allow myself to be lazy, but knowing that I have wasted time doing nothing when I could be doing something to make myself better at something or being productive, bothers me and that's why I don't do it a lot.
I have a ton of goals set for myself. Probably too many. I really know what I want out of life and I want to be successful and because of this desire, I have quite a few goals. I have different goals for each aspect of my life between sports, school, family, etc. If I'm not setting a goal that doesn't push me to do better and be better, then that goal is not good enough. I have accomplished many goals throughout high school so far and I don't like to think about the future too much, but that is ultimately what my goals are set up for. Each one is set to make me better and more prepared for my future. Some goals I have for the rest of this year is to finish out this year strong academically and get A's in all of my classes. For sports, I want to get all conference and win conference for basketball. As well as go for a regional title. In softball I want to win conference for my senior year and finally win a sectional championship. I also want to make the first team all state.  For summer softball, my plans are to use that time to gets as prepared as I can for DePaul and go try and defend our national title. As I go on to college my goal is to succeed and do the best that I possibly can. I think that the way I am, allows me to set such high goals and have such a need to get the most out of everything I do. I love to do well and see others do well too :)