Minimum Wage Whats The Big Deal ?

This week in class we watched a TV series called 30 days. In this episode a man and his wife lived a month on minimum wage. Well your thinking right now whats the big deal its not that bad well that's what i thought coming from a middle class family getting to do just about everything I want and get what ever I want. Not in a spoiled way for example if I want an ipod i either ask for it for my birthday or the holidays, or I save my money up and buy it. Well compared to how this guys life was I was living royalty. Well, as the month went on this guy and his wife went down hill. From having to walk to work to waking up at 5am to sit around hoping to get work that day. There workday was rough it was manual labor for 8 hours a day. There home life even worse they were living in a shady part of town in a run down apartment with ANTS in it. They couldn't really afford food except for beans, they had to go to a free store to get hand me down cloths and what not. Compared to there previous life they were living in misery. But were does the lesson come in, well at the end of the month after saving every penny by walking to work, eating cheap food, and etc. They were in debit still after simple hospital bills they owed about $500, so what I realized is people in poverty/ minimum wage don't really have the chance to move up in life. Even if Low income family's want to climb the economic latter they really can't. You need money to go to college which they can't afford. People usually end up in the social class they are raised in because of economic restrictions. That's the big deal of minimum wage.

Social Class

This past week in class we watched a video about social class. Well in the video I learned that usually the social class your born into is the social class you will end up in. Like people who are born in the family of WASPS or OLD MONEY will probably end up as WASPS (aka having a ton of money) well in some cases there are new money, people who climb the economic latter. While middle class born people usually end up in middle class like myself. Both my parents are accountants, which puts us in middle class, and I want to become one too which is probably going to put me in middle class too when im older. Just like people in the lower class, since they usually can't afford college there not usually going to end up with a college degree which most people in the middle class have a college degree. There usually end up at a blue college job, putting them back in lower class.

Drugs and Prisions

Recently we watched a show about people in Jail. Well in the video it was about life in jail, whose in jail, how they got there, will they end up there again, and so on. Well from that video I learned that most people in Jail are lower class people, minorities, and in most cases do hard drugs. Well usually the people who are in Jail don't have alot of money because people with money usually end up getting out of what ever trouble they got into by getting an expensive lawyer instead of a state assigned lawyer who you get to speak 7 mins with. Well the people who usually go to Jail will end up going back to jail once they get out because they don't have a job or money there not really able to get out of the slums. Well I realized that because im in a Middle class family even if my lawyer couldn't get me out of a jail i would probably not end up going back there because my family would be able to get me back on my feet and head me in the right direction unlike lower class people who would have trouble getting back on there feet considering there economic situation.

Coin Flip

In class we did this activity were everybody started out with the same amount of coins (3) and you would flip a coin to decide who takes the other persons coins. Well after about 5 mins there ended up with most people having a few or none. There a few people with having like around 10 or  so and one person having around 40 coins. Well then are teacher told us how this relates to life, some people have most of the money, some have a decent amount of money and most have almost no money compared to the top of the the list of income. Well, i realized that for me living in a middle class family, with a decent family income compared to the top, its almost im possible to make it to the top its like flipping a coin only the lucky make it to the top.

Learning Something New

This week in class we did alot of fun stuff such as learn about aikido a Japanese self defense technic. Aikido is a fighting technic created by Japanese solider in WWII. This technic is a mixed of different martial arts, it supposed to take someone's energy whose trying to hurt you and use it against them to not cause harm to them by calming them down. This is amazing to me cause i've grown up in a culture that teaches you to hurt the person whose trying to hurt you, by causing them more pain then they have cause you. But the guy who created aikido realized if two people keep at it by going back and forth causing more pain each time, it will never end till there both dead. So he realized that if you calm some one down if there trying to hurt you both there problems will be resolved peacefully.

How Media, Advertisement, and Entertainment can control you!!!!

During this week of class I have seen the light, of sociology that is. After one week of videos, class discussions and some hard thinking about how media, advertisement, and entertainment effects who you are.

 Well first is advertisement effects woman in more ways you could think of. If you take a close look at ads involving women you see that it portrays women to have to be a certain way if they want to be considered a women. It makes women have to be extremely skinny to the point were some have died. If your not then your not considered "attractive". In some advertisement such as the dove, it shows a picture of a very sexy women, but she doesn't actually exist. When you see models on billboards and you say to your self i wish i had a girl like her well you better keep hoping cause she most likely doesn't exist with photo shop now a days people can make other people look like someone there not. With this constant changing of how people look women become more and more self conscious about them self. It makes women want to be some one who doesn't exist and this is leading society down the wrong road.

It not only effects women but men to. Well about 40 years ago being a man had whole different definition then toady's man. Back then to be a man meant to have a job, walk to school instead of having your mom drive you, and if some one messed with you, you beat them up. You didn't take a gun to school and kill 20 people. You didn't act like a wannabee gangster and carry a gun around. If you compare movies from the 80's to present day movies you see that being a man you now have to be huge muscular wise and carry big guns, and just be jacked. Now you see more school shootings because boys are trying to be manly.

As you can see Media, Advertisement, and Entertainment is teaching people to be someone there not and leading society down the wrong road.

Why Marketers Are Evil

It has recently come to my attention that society is taking a turn for the worst. Since about the 1980's marketers have been finding new and more deeply ways of marketing too kids. They have created shows just to market toys to kids. They are so deep into kids brains they are actually shaping how kids think. We need to limit the marketing to kids to allow them to properly develop there brian. Also in the marketing world, there have been new ads they create offense to both genders. They make people self conscious about them self and make people feel insecure. Marketers need to watch there boundaries and learn they everything isn't just about money.

The things that influence us

This week in class we read two articles, one about human nurture and two about agents of socialization. The first article talked about how humans need nurture to properly develop. The article talked about feral and isolated children. It said how if children are left isolated from people by themselves, isolated children, they do not properly develop. These children don't know language and without language they cant form ideas, thoughts, and etc. While feral children are children who are for some reason separated from there parents and are raised by animals such as dogs. These children will take on the characteristics of the animals they are raised by. The articles point was that if babies/ children don't get proper human nurture there brain will not properly develop and they won't know how to function as a regular human. The second article we read was about agents of socialization and this was about the how the people and things around us influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes and behavior. People and things such as family, neighborhood, religion, daycare, school, peers, sports, and etc influence who we are.

Lessons of Life

In class we recently watched a movie called "Tuesdays with Morrie". Well, from this movie I learned alot things about how I should live my life.The first thing I learned is that we feel weird, awkward, and scared in certain situations such as death. We fell this way in these situations because that is how me are trained to feel its the culture norm. In American culture we hate talking about death, because are culture doesn't like to talk about death. While in other cultures they see death as a good thing, they feel that you are moving on to a new world or some aren't aloud to mention the deceased name.Although, the most important lesson I learned from the movie is "Once you learn to die, you learn to live" Morrie. Well, right then and there i realized that people there whole life are scared to die, but if they were at peace with that they would be able to open there mind to enjoying life more. So I made a promise to myself that the older i get the less i should worry about death and then i will live my life more peaceful and more enjoyable.Also, i will look at aging not as a bad thing (American culture norm) but as a good thing because the older you get the more knowledge you gain.

A Town Divided

Well in class this week we talked about alot of things, like culture differences, culture shock and especially sub-culture. After talking about sub cultures which is differences of a group of people compared to a larger culture they belong to, its basically just a culture with in a culture. Well, as i started thinking i realized something about the very town i live in. I live in a relatively large town and half of the town goes to one high school while the other goes to another. The line at which decides which high school is actually the county line (a main street). Well as i got thinking I realized that you don't really go to the other side of town at all, sometimes every once in a while we do. I realized that each side has all the stores, schools, hospital, and etc. that you need in a town. We rarely interact with the other town people. We are,basically each are own town we are a town with in a town, which in sociology terms we are sub cultures or sub towns. We are each part of one town but are divided by are differences because we go to different high schools, also one side of town in my opinion has higher economic statures then the other so that can be why we have alot of differences because we believe in and do different things. I think its kinda cool, also the people on the other side of town are kinda weird.

Culture Shock

The first time I experienced culture shock, is when I went to France. When i first got there i went to my moms friends apartment in Paris. At first i was freaked out becuase it looked nothing like chicago with skyscrapers every were. Every building was nicely built with the whole so beautiful. at first i thought that every one was werid in france, becasue they acted nothing like people in the US. Then when we went to a restaruant thats when i really freaked out i tried to order french fries but theu diddnt have any so in my mind i was like whats going on. Then i order what i thought was fish, but when i got the meal it was like a bunch of sea creatures on a platt, i thought i was going to be puke but i tried it and loved it and from then on i started trying to put myself in the shoes of the french and from then on my trip was smoth sailing. It just took me a while to get a hang of things in a difeernt culture setting.

Looking into the past

This week we are watching a movie in Sociology called The Tale of The bronx , its about a boy name Calogero or C for short. It was about the story of his life at age 9 and 17. Its based in a italian neighborhood in the bronx and the conflict between blacks and whites, the fight of Calogero between his dad and sunny a notorious gangster ( Who's a straight thug). Well, while watching this movie i noticed alot things, one that the italian culture is to stick together, family is everything and in some cases to just be BA. There is a certain Social Structure, with different roles some with more power than others for example it goes Sunny the neighborhood boss who got the most money, his workers, the working class, then everyone else. The children always respected there parents. Everyone in the neighbor hood looked out for each other. There was also a different social reaction between people when it came to sunny. The people were scared of him but respected him for protection. Since he was the boss if you stepped out of line your gonna get shot or hurt. But if a bunch of bikers like in the movie come to the neighborhood and cause trouble and you need some ones help, Sunny's there and he acts like a gentleman to the bikers but the bikers then step out of line again so sunny and bis workers take care of them.

Thats what the movie was like from my prospective.

A new way of thinking

After this past week i have learned about qualitative data from the article Gang Leader for a Day, but something that made me think was the part in the article were the student talked to the Old Time and the knowledge he gave to the student in my mind I see how some people like me used to see old people as useless like most Americans, but in other countries like china old people are looked up to them for their knowledge and are highly respected. It’s weird only now I realize that where you grow up and how you do is what makes you like in the projects if you’re black and poor or middle class and white in Lincolnshire.

The things we think

Well after the spitting thing in class, when a kid spit in a spoon and are teacher messed with us telling us to eat it and drink it . Well it made me think how in some countries people think of thinks differently because of what is socially acceptable. Like in France and Canada women don't shave and that is common there while in the US the country that matters women do shave and we see that as common and when we go to France or some whereand women have hairy pits we freak out cause we see that as weird and nasty while they don't.

Who we are

The world we live in today makes us who we are. They place,way,how and etc. how you grow up made you who you are today. The people who you grew up with and what you did made you who your are. It shaped your decision making process. And the decisions you make make you who you are. Just like in the some Pennsylvania town called Roseta the people lived so long on the decisions and feelings they had from those decisions from there sense of family.

About Me

Im a senior in high school and i wrestle. I like to golf, fish, and frolf. I like to hang with friends and have fun. I like music and tv.

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