fmiller1903-blog

[fmiller1903-blog]

Hello

I was very hesitant whenever I decided to sign up for this class. I had never taken an online class before and wasn’t sure if I could handle it. Whenever Professor J emailed out the syllabus I automatically began to freak out. There was so much to do in such a short period of time. Every week we had at least 6 assignments do. However, at that point it was too late to back out and I needed this class to earn my degree. So what do I think of this class? Well it is similar to one of my previous posts, the advice one. I learned how to manage my time, teach myself some things, and think in new perspectives. One of these perspectives that I learned is that there are many ways at looking at life and groups of people. This class was very helpful and insightful for my future educational endeavors. In the end, I am grateful that I stuck through with this class.

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[fmiller1903-blog]

Me Too Movement

Social movements today look somewhat different than they did several decades ago. One of the most famous movements throughout American history was the civil rights movement. This movement was in order to help end discrimination. Before this movement, black people were treated like they were nothing. In order to make these situations better, the black population knew they needed to do something. So they decided to team up as a community to try fixing the situation. After a long decade, and then some, the black community were able to begin the end of segregation and discrimination towards black people. Although they used more physical methods more than today’s social movements do.

Social movements today are more of an online social movement. One of the biggest social movements today is known as “#MeToo”. This movement is mainly geared towards women who have been the victim of sexual violence. This movement began in 2006, but it did not become very large until 2017. In 2017 was the first time someone tweeted out the phrase “Me Too”. Within the first 24 hours there were close to half a million who responded to this tweet. This tweet then got all of these women to be able to come together about something that is important to all of them.

Not only was this tweet able to reach all of the women who have been affected, but it also was able to inform those who did not know about it. Before researching about this topic I didn’t know much about this topic. However now I am more aware of this. I think that in today’s technology based society this type of method is very effective.

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References-

Seales, R. (2018 May 12).  What has #MeToo actually changed? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44045291

[fmiller1903-blog]

Apple’s Methodology

We are living in a consumer culture throughout our country. People are always buying the newest and latest products every year. Especially when it comes to technology, people want the nicest and newest. However some people do try to hang on to their old products but just cannot forever because of how companies build them to. These 2 situations happened due to 2 phrases: perceived obsolescence and planned obsolescence.

Perceived obsolescence is a very big thing in our country. The definition of this is when the customer believes they need the newest item even if theirs is working perfectly fine. A company that really likes to take advantage of this is Apple. Every year Apple is pushing out its latest technology. This new technology looks all fancy, nice, and new, but underneath there are processors that are barely any faster than the last year model. However by making it look all nice and new, Apple draws in customers to buy a new iPhone every year. Not only is it the look of the phone itself, but they have created an iCulture in which if you don’t have the newest Apple technology you look uncultured.

Planned obsolescence also plays a role in the company of Apple. This term means that an item begins to wear out on purpose after a set amount of time while using the product. In an article on Vox.com, Apple admits that they slow down previous years phone batteries (Kirby, 2017). They say that they due so in order to protect their customers from being around deteriorating batteries. This may be the case, but I think that it is also part of a plan to make their customers buy new phones every couple years, if not every year.

Apple is a big company that uses these type of methods in order to have a higher consumer rate. However there are companies all throughout the country and world that take the same route. Other companies use planned and perceived obsolescence in order to have their customers come back time after time.

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References-

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

Kirby, J. (2017 Dec. 28).  Apple admitted it’s slowing down certain iPhones. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2017/12/22/16807056/apple-slow-iphone-batteries

[fmiller1903-blog]

Hello any future sociology students,

I just want to begin by saying that this class started out as just a general education class for myself and probably other students in it as well. Also this was my first online class, so I was nervous. However, over the past month I have learned many things that I did not think that I would take away from this class. Some of these things being a change of mindset or a change of priority. If I were to give advice to someone that may be taking this at a future time is as follows.

First of all do not just blow something off because you don’t think it is going to be for you. I came into this class thinking it is just going to be another intro gen ed class that I really do not want to take. But, like I have mentioned I have learned so much more from this class than I thought I would. I have a different and better point of view of the world and of people. Also I have finally learned how to properly cite in APA format through in-text and in references.

My next point is to make sure you schedule out as soon as you get the syllabus. Do not wait until the very last day or two just trying to cram in all of the assignments. I tried that one of the weeks and I did not do very well on the quiz or the discussion board. Along with that I just felt bad because I was wasting the professor’s time looking over the bad work I submitted.

My final words of advice are do not stress over everything that is coming your way. If you have that set schedule made up and follow it, then just look at the day you are on and if you want to work ahead after you finish up that is alright. But, whatever you do do not look at everything at once and be like “Oh My Gosh!!! How am I ever going to fit all of that in?” It is more than do able, just take your time and you will be okay.

This post may be focused towards this class in particular, but this advice goes for all classes and even some events in your outside of school life. Good luck with all your future endeavors.

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[fmiller1903-blog]

Outside the Box was a Castle

In the early 20th century life began to change for America as many knew it, without anyone knowing what was about to happen. The very first fast food restaurant opened in 1921. Before this, families in America almost always sat down together and ate a home cooked meal. However thanks to White Castle, this was changed forever.

Walter Anderson and Edgar “W” Billy Ingram were major innovators of the 1900s. An innovator is someone who introduces a new concept or idea among society. These two men were the ones who founded and built the first fast food restaurant in America. These men also portrayed one of the first deviant acts in the food service world. They were able to think outside of where everyone else was thinking. White Castle was the first food business to test the waters of fast food. However because of this being the first of a new idea it did not start off with the smoothest ride.

In the beginning the people of America were still against hamburgers and other fast food items because they were thought to be unsafe and no one wanted them. This thought was mainly due to how the burgers were being sold at the time. Hamburgers, before White Castle, were being sold on the street from not the best looking burger stands. So, in order to make them more desirable to the average American Anderson and Ingram got an idea in their heads. These two guys decided to change the appearance of the burger and where it was being sold.

White Castle had a quite attractive appearance to it. When walking into the immaculate-looking building, a customer would see porcelain counter tops and stainless steel interiors. Not only was the restaurant good looking, but also how they made the food attracted people. Anderson and Ingram were not hiding anything from their buyers, so they made the burgers right in front so anyone that wanted to see how they were made would be able to. Joining the attractiveness of the  building and the making of the food were the workers. The workers had to be well groomed and a uniform that had to be kept clean and spotless of stains (Kieler, 2015).

By thinking outside of the square box that many Americans are subjected to nowadays, so many things are possible. Anderson and Ingram were 2 innovators that thought just right outside of the box and created a vision of the world no one had done before. In a short amount of time their deviant acts exploded and set a new tradition among families across the nation, if not the world.

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References-

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

Kieler, A. (2015 July 14). The White Castle Story: The Birth Of Fast Food & The Burger Revolution. Retrieved from https://consumerist.com/2015/07/14/the-white-castle-story-the-birth-of-fast-food-the-burger-revolution/

[fmiller1903-blog]

Racism has been a large concern throughout the world for a long time now. As I have grown up in America, I have seen discrimination of black people my whole life. Even though I have seen the discrimination my whole life, I never really saw it as that severe. I personally think that as a country we have become more accepting of all types people, races, and cultures. However, after reading this article from The Washington Post, racism may be more prominent today than I had imagined.

This article talks about how racism is still a large part in the school system today, so many black families are beginning to home-school their kids. During the civil rights movement, schools were much more segregated and almost everyone who wasn’t black was against the black kids going to school with this white kids. However, this time it isn’t about them going to school together. Nowadays the students get fairly well, but the school system itself along with the teachers are becoming more of the problem. The situation with these two is that many of them are still stuck in the old ways of things.

To begin with are how the school system is being considered discriminating. The curriculum of what is being taught is based off of Eurocentric society, but that is no longer what America is. In a Eurocentric society, a society is focusing on the history, values, and knowledge of European nations and cultures. While embracing these, they are also focusing all of their teachings toward them. America is all types of cultures now, not just white descendants from European nations. In today’s culture we have people who descended from Africa, Mexico, the Middle East, Spain, Italy, China, Germany, all over the world. So in history classes, the curriculum should be more geared towards a worldly view of cultures rather than being an Eurocentric view just focusing on a single culture. By making this change it allows for a larger majority of students learn about their histories along with all other types at the same time.

Some of the educators of the students are part of the problem of discrimination in the school system. According to The Washington Post, 85% of the teachers in public schools are white (Mazama, 2015). When questioned about the teacher’s discrimination towards their students, black parents said that teachers were harsher, hypocritical, and using double standards when dealing with black students. Also, some of the white teachers grew up thinking that black people were less educated, lazy, and more likely to be put in prison. These thoughts that they had grown up on have become a part of them and are difficult to break. However some white teachers may have these thoughts ingrained into them, many are working on or even already don’t think this way.

Due to having to deal with these problems, black parents are beginning to pull their kids from the discriminating public school system and instead home-school them. In the past few years, black students make up 10% of the homeschooling population (Mazama, 2015). This article intrigued me because I thought as a country we had grown further away from racism than we actually have. Hopefully we can reverse this change of black students being home-schooled and become a less discriminating country.

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References-

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask Yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. (5th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Mazama, A. (2015 April 10).  Racism in schools is pushing more black families to homeschool their children. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/10/racism-in-schools-is-pushing-more-black-families-to-homeschool-their-children/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dc66c9b77b1c

[fmiller1903-blog]

Welcome!!!

Hi Welcome to my Tumblr. I have never really blogged before, but let’s see how this goes. A little bit about myself before you start reading through my page. I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania with my 3 sisters and my parents. After 18 years in that town, I needed to get out a grow a bit. Now I am going to college. I am on my way to becoming a Physical Therapy Assistant. My goals for that job is to travel around the country for a few years and then settling down and help children who have been hurt. Another quick fact about myself is I played volleyball in high school. I loved that and if I could get back on the court that would make me the happiest person around. Finally, I love the warm weather because being outside it such a great experience. So, I cannot wait for summer to come back around to go to the beach and go on some weekend adventures. There is some things about me and I hope that you enjoy my blogs and find some interesting.

Have a great day!

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[fmiller1903-blog]

Throughout the world there is a very common problem when looking at the income of all types of people. This problem is called economic inequality. Economic inequality effects the societies within the countries more so than it effects overall countries versus countries. The countries looked at that were on the lower end were Sweden and Japan, while the UK and US were on the higher end of economic inequality. This Ted Talk looks at many different points of society that are affected by economic inequality. The three main subjects were social relations, health, and human capital.

Social relations within a country are one of three problems that are affected whenever a country has a larger income gap. Homicide rates are higher in countries that have a higher gap between the rich and the poor. Also, the trust that people have with one another is lower in the countries with this higher gap. I believe these 2 issues are related to each other. Whenever someone feels like they cannot trust others around them, they become more anxious about things that can happen to them. To feel less anxiety about being able to trust other, they put it into their own hands and purchase weapons in order to feel somewhat safe. However, when someone is more anxious about a situation and you give them a weapon, then they are more likely to irrationally use it.

Another problem talked about in this video was health. Two health variables talked about are life expectancy and mental illness. Between separate countries, the average life expectancy was rather equal, but when looking into specific societies within a country, that has high economic inequality, it is different. The life expectancy rate is higher in the wealthier and lower in the poorer. For mental illness the rates of people suffering with this disease is higher in those countries with economic inequality.

One of the final problems discussed at this talk was human capital. High school drop out rates were grander within these countries with high economic inequality. Social mobility is found to be lower in countries with economic inequality. Social mobility is the ability to change from a lower-class position to a higher-class position. This point is not as surprising, because it would be easier to jump classes if the gap is lower than higher.

 Words- 387

References:

TED. (2011, October 24). How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw

[fmiller1903-blog]

In the military, the first step for any soldier is boot camp. This first stage to being able to serve your country is a brutal 8-12 weeks. During these weeks the officers are working to break down what you think you already know and believe. By breaking through these borders, they are able to do something unique that not many other institutions do. They are able to rebuild you into the type of soldier that they want you to be. This type of process is called resocialization. The actual definition of resocialization is the process of changing your self-values, beliefs, and norms (Conley, 2017).

Resocialization is actually a very important step in boot camp. If the military could not succeed in doing so, then we would not have the uniformed military that we currently have. We have such a strong military because by breaking their soldier down, they can rebuild them with the military’s own values, beliefs, and norms.

The military breaks down the incoming soldiers in a series of steps. For example, in the army the very first thing that happens when you get off the bus is the officers are yelling at you to get off the bus and to move faster. Some steps that follow are being issued a uniform, so then everyone is basically under the same identity. Also, for the weeks you are there, there is a lot of physical labor and training. These training are mainly to get you into the mindset of going over seas and if needed to kill someone you are able to do so. These steps are all part of resocialization. The military has got this method down well because by the end of boot camp, the soldier know are instilled with the military's values, beliefs, and norms.

Words- 298

 References: 

 Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a Sociologist. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Military, Aiirsource. (2018, July 18). Making Soldier- United State Army basic training at Fort Benning. Retrieved     from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0J3mXLmUmI

[fmiller1903-blog]

Hand Gestures through the World

In America hand signals are big way of our culture. I along with many others have used them my whole time growing up. From whenever I was a baby and wanted something but didn’t know how to talk so I pointed at it with my finger to being in high school when I raise my hand to someone else it signals for a high five. These hand gestures are all apart of our country’s symbolic interactionism. This is basically a level or sociological theory when known phrases and actions are done because other people around you know what you want from that phrase or action. However, this only occurs whenever it is within the same culture. When going outside of the westernized culture, our hand gestures can take different meanings.

To begin with, one of the most common hand gestures in America is the thumbs up symbol. This symbol typically means good job or keep doing it that way, but only in a few countries. Although if you go to Greece or the Middle East, it pretty much means “up yours” (Cotton G, 2013). If you do a thumbs up for job well done, then you can get into some trouble and looked down upon. However, in even other countries the thumbs up is just a number symbol.

Another common hand symbol in America is the OK gesture. This is also known as okay and everything going well. In other countries it is not as bad symbol as the thumbs up. In Japan the OK gesture is used to signal for money. While in France, the OK gesture just means zero (Cotton G, 2013).

When used, hand gestures can be a both a good and bad thing. Sometimes, it just depends what gestures are used and in which country it is in. So, if travelling to a different country remember these rules and how are the symbols are used.

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Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

Cotton, G. (2013, August 13). Gestures to Avoid in Cross-Cultural Business: In Other Words, 'Keep Your Fingers to Yourself!' Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gayle-cotton/cross-cultural-gestures_b_3437653.html

[fmiller1903-blog]

I was watching tv today and had just finished up with my chapter about gender inequality and sexism in ads. As soon as I saw this, I automatically thought about how they were using women in this ad. In previous ads we were showed in “Killing Us Softly”, women were be perceived as vulnerable and sexual objects. So, I watched this commercial with extra attention detail to these types of situation.

This commercial opens with a girl in just a bikini. While in her swimsuit she was showing off parts of her body that should have been covered up with more clothes. Also, she was shaking her body and stretching just to show it off a bit. However, this ad is just supposed to show what the “South Beach Diet” can do for you. So, I played along with the ad for a bit more.

After this girl was finished talking about herself, she introduced three success stories, two girls and one guy. The two girls both had similar starting pictures. These pictures were them in a heavier weight point of life in swimsuits. Then one girl success picture was in a tighter dress. The second girl’s success picture was in a bikini again. However, the male’s pictures were quite different. His starting picture was him in a t shirt and shorts. Then, his success picture was in a flowing shirt and khaki shorts. This difference may have not affected my view of the ad, but after my reading it did. The girls’ bodies were being shown off much more than the guy’s body was. The guy was not showing off himself at all. If there was an equality between the guy and girl here, either the guy would have been shown shirtless or both girls would have been showed covered up more.

These types of ads are not uncommon in today’s media. Females are more times showing off their bodies, while guys can stay comfortable and covered up.

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References:

Diet, S. B. (2017, December 27). The Brand New South Beach Diet - 28 Day Meal Plan For Weight Loss That Works! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuDo4IfUmtE

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

[fmiller1903-blog]

Positive Effects of Volunteering

In California there has been an increase in teens volunteering and being active within their communities. The UCLA claims that 64% of teens statewide said that they had participated in volunteering. The highest ethnic group that volunteered were whites, 78%, and the lowest came from Latinos, 55%. However, I think that this is still a great amount of teens volunteering. At least this percentage of teenagers are doing good for their communities, rather than make it worse off.

This study showed that the teenagers who chose to volunteer were healthier than those who did not. 76% of the volunteering teens said they were in very good or better health conditions, while those who did not only had a percentage of 49 who had the same health conditions. For college there was also a relation shown with this study. 72% of the volunteers said they would go to college, while those who do not volunteer only 50% said they would.

Although these numbers do look favoring, they may not be what they seem. I believe that this may be a spurious relationship between the volunteering and living better. If someone already feels the desire to volunteer, it most likely means that they were raised with helping others in mind. So if they were raised this way, they may also be raised in the thoughts that education is an important part of their lives. Whether this is correct or not, these quantitative results do show that there is a correlation between volunteering and living a better life for teens in California.

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References:

California teens who volunteer and engage in civic life are healthier, aim higher in education, study finds. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2018-12-california-teens-volunteer-engage-civic.html 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton. 

[fmiller1903-blog]

In this blog I found conspicuous consumption. On the day after “Cyber Monday”, many Americans give to those who are less fortunate in a new event called “Giving Tuesday”. On both “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” the people are purchasing a large number of items. These days fall under conspicuous consumption because people are purchasing some of the best products and items, on the market, all within a short period of time. This type of consumption is not bad though, because there are many great deals that people are able to get that then saves them a great amount of money.

However, on the Tuesday following Cyber Monday, it turns from conspicuous consumption into conspicuous compassion. People will go out and whether it is something they own or have recently purchased, they will give it to other people that cannot afford that item. By doing this they are helping the greater good of people all over the country. This experience gives Americans a great spirit during the holiday time of year by giving others what they cannot have. It is a wonderful opportunity to participate in. 

If more people were willing to go out of their way in participating in conspicuous compassion on days like “Giving Tuesday”, I think there could be a wonderful change shown in this world. We could begin to get along with each other and be more civil than we currently are. This could be a great start to having the world’s leading countries get along better.

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References:

D. Seidman (2013 Dec. 3). Giving Tuesday: From conspicuous  consumption to conspicuous compassion. Retrieved       from https://www.forbes.com/sites/dovseidman/2013/12/03/conspicuous-compassion-celebrating-givingtuesday/#1f7ec2191490

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.