stephenmazeski-blog

[stephenmazeski-blog]

Sociology as a concept is the study of human interaction on many levels. It is important as educated individuals that we spend time looking into what this entails. Often people relate sociology to the term “social norms” when in reality it stretches much further. Personally, I am very fortunate to have taken this class. Growing up a white, middle-class male in the United States, there were many things I took for granted and just assumed everyone received similar luxuries. This class has opened my eyes to many of the issues our culture faces, issues that otherwise I would have been completely blind to.

The units that resonated with me the most had to be the ones about gender and race. I am privileged to have been exposed to both through this text, as it has given me a far better understanding of the issues we still have today in society.

Eventually I would like to own my own brand. When owning a business, hiring the right employees will be just as important as interacting with them and treating them with the respect they deserve. A safe-environment of a workplace where people can let ideas flourish no matter what walk of life they come from. This class has taught me that no matter the color of one's skin or gender of which they identify, people often face very different struggles on an individual basis. It is important to keep mind of these things and when interacting with others, to be educated enough to know what to say.

[stephenmazeski-blog]

This class is completely what you make of it as a student. The readings and videos can be time consuming on a weekly basis if you let it accumulate. At the same time, taking an hour or two four times per week is more than enough time to complete a weeks worth of assignments along with working on the final project on the side. Be sure to spend time on the readings rather than just skimming, as there are some great world examples in the text.

The same goes for material within the class. Personally, the unit of globalization was not a unit I cared for. I felt like I was being pushed an agenda and for that reason I did poorly on it when compared to others. Looking at this class with an open mind is the most important thing you can do when starting. Leave your opinions to the side and take time to learn and read about the material. The videos assigned are absolutely fascinating so be sure not to skip through to answer the questions given beforehand. They are assigned for a reason.

Lastly, take this class to the next step. Ask your friends and family opinions on topics that are being talked about in class. If there’s disparity between opinions, that’s normal interaction. Talk about them and ask them why they feel that way. It is important as a student to understand concepts outside of the classroom just as much as it is inside. You are getting nothing from a class by just regurgitating what is being taught.

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[stephenmazeski-blog]

The module on Gender was one that resonated with me the most. Growing up with two sisters, I never truly understood the difficulties they would go through on a daily basis that I myself did not experience. I think that there are many things in this society that revolve around patterns of the past. Media and advertisements portray only a few styles of women and anything that deviates from these styles tend to be unaccepted even today.

Today, Women's Marches are taking place all over the United States and creating a stir in the media. Continuing to get this in the media is important as it brings current issues to light in the eyes of the people. Supporting these movements on an individual-level is important as it adds to the growing crowd. Additionally, condemning advertisements that portray women to be objects should also be a standard for society, rather than trying to equal it out with male advertisements like some larger companies are attempting to do.

I think one of the most important first steps to tackling the issue of gender is a figure to rally by. A strong woman comparable in speech to a MLK that can create their own position of power to make these current issue mainstream. Before this class, I had never thought of many of the issues that come along with Gender other than the often talked about wage gap. Women are fully capable of carrying out great changes and to change our society for the better in the long-term.

A website I found is actually the main site for the Women's March organization. The link is: https://www.womensmarch.com/ . Here people are able to donate along with finding other great resources beneficial to the empowerment of women. There are also links to their social media, where people can find marches local to them along with finding pictures of past rallies.

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

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The video I chose to focus on is titled "Mass Incarceration, Visualized." The video starts with a man talking about the high rates of incarceration in the United States when compared to countries around the world. He then focuses on the incarceration of Black people, and the disparity in percentage incarcerated. The statistic that stood out to me the most was that 68% of black men who were high school dropouts had served some sort of imprisonment before the age of 35. At first, I thought I was reading the statistic incorrectly because it seemed to be such a high amount.

This is an example of institutional racism rather than individual-level racism because of the scale that it occurs at in combination with the recurrence.  Institutional racism is a system of oppression that appears in both social and political institutions - one of which is most definitely the prison system. With that being said, it is clear by the grand scale of this statistic alone that black men are being oppressed throughout the entire criminal justice process, from even prior to arrest through incarceration.

To accept oppression is to allow the system to take control of one's individual fate. This was a useful strategy in the Birmingham Alabama incident when the Children's March occurred. The clear fate of these children would be that they were instantly to be taken to jail. The scale of the march however, created national attention to the point that President John F. Kennedy addressed it. This form of accepting oppression actually shed light on an issue of institutionally racist city at the time.

To resist oppression is to openly speak about the issue of institutional racism. This is not limited to people of color, but also those who are not. Throughout history, talking openly about these issues were difficult because incidents went unnoticed. With the rise of social media and examples coming out such as black men serving maximum sentences for very minimal crimes, resisting the oppression is becoming more common. Platforms are being given to those oppressed so that they can speak out about what they experienced, whether it be during arrest or in the courtroom.

(361 Words)

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

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. (2015, October 02). Mass Incarceration, Visualized. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/

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The image I took away from Killing Us Softly 4  depicts a girl dressed to look younger than she actually is, in little clothing, while licking a ice pop. The advertisement was put on by Lee a few years ago. The image is used to sell jeans but clearly sends a message about gender as well. There is a man seen in the mirror dressed without a shirt and taking the picture. It is clear that the advertisement is selling the idea that this was his doing. The girl is dressed to look much younger and as the video we watched said, it is because this idea sells. The idea that men are often attracted to a younger looking female, thus this advertisement reaches this audience. This can be connected with the mention of Marxist feminists in the text. The text reads that "Marxist feminists, for instance, argue that sexuality in America is an expression of the unequal power balance between men and women" (Conley, 2017, pg. 299).

There is a clear unequal power balance in this picture. The woman is looked at as helpless and young in her clothing. The man behind the mirror clearly is meant to have staged it. Gender roles often portray to be the woman as submissive.

Things as such are often taken lightly in society. Personally, I have never seen a man portrayed as younger than he actually is in order to create an advertisement through sexuality. This is a problem in today’s society that has yet to be shed light on in mainstream media, as I had not even considered it before watching “Killing us Softly 4”.

(274 Words)

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

Jhally, S., & Kilbourne, J. (2010). Killing us softly 4: Advertising's image of women. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.

[stephenmazeski-blog]

The article I found was posted by CNN tech. In this article, they talk about how certain jobs are at the risk of robotic automation in the workforce. Though it only shows a few jobs that are at "high risk" by their definition, what they had to say for each was rather interesting. One example involves a study from Cornerstone Capital Croup where a study found that 7.5 million retail jobs are at risk of replacement by these robots. The article talks about CVS Pharmacy, a popular chain pharmacy in the United States, and how they have installed self-checkouts in 448 locations, completely eliminating the need for a human clerk.

When comparing this specific example with the reading, I can find a few parallels. These machines will offer an efficiency that otherwise would not be able to be had. In terms of time spent checking out at a self-checkout, I can't imagine the stay will be any faster or slower. However, in terms of the money spent on upkeep of a single machine versus the payment of a clerk around $10/hr (via indeed.com), I can imagine the machine would well pay itself off in around a month and begin to save the pharmacy countless money in the future. The quality of walking into a pharmacy and buying something is hardly measurable. I am sure that few consumers are worried about being able to see a clerk's face and engaging in stimulating conversation while on a weekly visit to CVS. This is where the McDonaldization effect comes to play.

(259 Words)

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

T. (n.d.). Robots: Is your job at risk? Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com

[stephenmazeski-blog]

Reich makes many good points throughout this documentary about the inequality of wealth. The point that stood out to me the most was when he said that the United States doesn't have to look to other countries policies for change, but to its previous version.

Just before this, Reich interviewed a working couple where the mother is educated and works for a law firm and the husband works in transportation. He asked the couple the amount of money they had saved up and they replied with $30. Their expenses are so high to the point where they are unable to save any money consistently for the future. This family, based on their income and expenses, seems to be doomed to stay in the same spot for years to come.

Reich continues after the interview with some key statistics. Higher education became affordable to many people in the late 1950s. This lead to a highly educated workforce and the creation of labor unions. At this point the middle class became strong and held the economy together. Reich calls this "the Virtuous Cycle" as prosperity was shared between all classes in the system.

I think the point he makes here is strong. He is essentially saying that society functions at its best when the middle class is at its strongest. During the "Great Prosperity" education became the focal point of the workers and wages grew as more people became educated. The higher wages created a greater flow of wealth, because the middle class makes up for 70% of money spent (Reich). This stimulation of the economy kick started the “Great Prosperity”.

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

Kornbluth, J., Chaiken, J., Dungan, S., Reich, R. B., Cvetko, S., Krauss, D., D'Ambrosio, M., ... Anchor Bay Entertainment, Inc.,. (2014). Inequality for all.

[stephenmazeski-blog]

In this CNN article, a story is told of two Police Officers responding to a shooting call in Chicago. The Officers had been partners for over a year at this point, and were used to calls like this. Upon arrival, they discovered five victims of a drive by shooting. One of the five was an 11-month-old child. The article describes that the Officers knew an ambulance was far from arrival. They decided to break their procedure, in a social deviance (Conley, 2017, p. 191), from the norm of a Police Officer, and take the child to the trauma center themselves. Conley talks about Social Forces and Deviance a few pages later in the book. It is revealed that this example can also be considered an innovative technique. The book says that an innovator is "a social deviant who accepts socially acceptable goals but rejects socially acceptable means to achieve them" (Conley, 2017, p. 205). In this particular case the Officers are the social deviants, the goal is to get the child to the trauma center, and the rejected acceptable mean is to wait for the ambulance.

Along with being social deviants, this example also shows a great example of social control. Conley defines social control as “what sociologists refer to as the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance, the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply following the rules of group life” (Conley, 2017, pg. 198). This example can be classified as an informal social sanction, of which Conley defines as “the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life” (Conley, 2017, pg. 198). In that particular situation, a Police Officer’s job is to clear the area of any hostile people. Those with weapons need to be arrested at the very least. These Officers seemed to be aware that at that instant they were not in any immediate harm. Instead of doing what a Police Officer is given a weapon to do, they took care of those who needed to be taken care of. They did not wait for the Ambulance and instead did everything in their power to get that person to safety and medical attention.

(366 Words)

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

Kirkos, B., & Young, R. (2016, February 05). Officers break the rules to save baby shot in drive-by. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/

[stephenmazeski-blog]

The artifact I found is a research study done by Pew Social Trends that looks into the transition United States soldiers have from their military lifestyle to civilian life. Though the article is from 2011, I chose this article based upon Dalton Conley's relation of Marine boot camp to a total institution (Conley, 2017 pg. 132), along with experience seeing my own father go through a similar transition. My take from this article is that there are hints of total institution  within the military lifestyle. Soldiers are often going into the field for training or schools where their every hour is managed by someone else. Their role is often one of subordinate. Once leaving the military, they are given freedoms to make decisions without repercussions. A statistic shows that over a third of these people suffer from PTSD (in this article PTS) or some sort of emotional flashback that causes them additional stress in their everyday life.

To look deeper in the matter, I will use an imaginary example of a soldier who just returned from deployment. Generally a deployment lasts anywhere from a year to two years. That time has been spent away from family and friends, two of the “Agents of Socialization” according to Conley (Conley, 2017, pg. 124-130). After being in a total institution for that amount of time, one can expect that assimilating back into civilian society is no easy task.

A way that the National Guard is trying to suppress this stress on a given soldier is by introducing smaller and more predictable deployments. This would allow for National Guard soldiers, who often have other careers as well, to plan far ahead to be deployed, along with less time away from home. This could be a minor change that could help with the resocialization of soldiers after their stressful and hazardous duties in a total institution.

(311 Words)

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

Morin, R. (2011, December 08). The Difficult Transition from Military to Civilian Life. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/

Guard to Get Shorter, More Predictable Deployments. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.army.mil/

[stephenmazeski-blog]

The Mercedes G-Wagon is an SUV that starts at $123,600 (via Google). This SUV sits high with a large chrome Mercedes symbol on its front, and comes with many luxuries upon purchase. Many celebrities are seen driving them these days. I personally recall seeing my first Mercedes G-Wagon while my mother was watching the early seasons of “Keeping up with the Kardashians.” I remember one of the sisters drove it, though it seemed a little large for her. Since then, I’ve seen some of my personal favorite celebrities such as Actors Sylvester Stallone and Boxer Floyd Mayweather ride in this symbol of an SUV.

Before, vehicles like this were impractical as they were far too large to park and drive, along with getting horrible gas mileage. Hollywood made vehicles like this a symbol and the average upper-middle class American would buy them as status symbols. This is an example of consumerism. Conley defines consumerism as “the steady acquisition of material possessions, often with the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved” (Conley, 2017, pg. 107). Examples like this show the power of those in the media, whether it be Celebrities, Sports Stars or Politicians.

Now to take it a step further, I would like to say that those very people have influence much further than coercing the average person to buy products. In 2016, an entire Presidential Campaign was won and many say a big role was the media. President Donald Trump’s name was constantly in the news for things he was saying or doing during his rallies. According to New York Times, Trump earned $2 Billion in free media attention for this. He would go on to win by a large margin in the electoral college, though many thought he wouldn't even make it out of the primaries.

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

Confessore, N., & Yourish, K. (2016, March 15). $2 Billion Worth of Free Media for Donald Trump. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/

[stephenmazeski-blog]

A question that arises in continuing the funding of space, and remaining a Global Leader. Pew Research Center conducted a large survey on this very topic in early April of this year. The article I found (link below) states that "These survey results come at a time when NASA finds itself in a much different world from the one that existed when the Apollo astronauts first set foot on the moon nearly half a century ago." Meaning that much has changed since the aforementioned race to the moon. The survey did find that roughly 72% of United States citizens continue to say that is is essential for their country to remain a leader in space exploration. In addition, Pew Research Center found that over 80% of those surveyed think that what money has already been spent has been a good investment for the country.

In another study, Pew Research Center looked into the populations opinion on NASA through a comparative research technique. Their goal for this specific survey was to find the population's opinion on the most important mission of NASA today. Not surprisingly, they found that the least important mission was to send more astronauts to the moon. Two of the clear missions of NASA, according to the results of this study on the population, were monitoring climate systems along with monitoring asteroids or other objects that may hit the earth. I think that looking into this it is clear that the population cares less about something as obscene as the idea of populating another planet, and more interested in practicality like keeping this planet from harm.

I strongly urge those with a passion in space exploration to give it a read. You may find that not everyone want to live on Mars like Elon Musk but there are many out there that think what is currently happening in NASA is a good.

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

Funk, C., & Strauss, M. (2018, June 06). Majority of Americans Believe It Is Essential That the U.S. Remain a Global Leader in Space. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/

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Elliott, J., Yale University., WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.), & PBS DVD (Firm). (2003). A class divided. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Films.

Conflict theory as a theoretical perspective is often derived from some sort of competition. Whether it be by power, physical characteristics, or cultural differences, Karl Marx writes that these all create an endless conflict within society.

In the video, "A Class Divided," the teacher separates students by color of eye. She does this so that she can show a lesson to the students about how when a specific  group of people are given an advantage, conflict begins to arise. One particular example that came to my attention was when the students were sent to recess. There was a clear division between the groups and jealousy at that point. One student, John, was being picked on by another named Russell. Russell had called him "Brown Eyes" because of the separation of him to that group. John then proceeded with physical violence.

This example in particular can be connected to what is going on today as well. The conflict theory goes much further than physical characteristics. It can be seen in issues such as the massive gap in wages. Those in the lower and middle class are currently at the whim of those controlling major companies. These higher class individuals make the decisions that those of the other classes are then told to follow. A specific example would be the repealing of Net Neutrality. Those of the lower and middle class were benefited by the implementation of Net Neutrality for many years. Over the past year, there was discussion of the FCC repealing. This caused protests on social media and created two separate sides. Those with the power to change the law and those who wanted to leave it as is.

(279 Words)

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

[stephenmazeski-blog]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Stephen and I am a Guest student in this Sociology class from Penn State. There, I study Computational Data Science along with a minor in Statistics and Math. I am taking this course because of my constant interest in the functionality of society. More specifically, the interaction between each other on a regular basis. I find it fascinating when someone is brought up a different way than myself yet we can share views. I find it equally fascinating when I can talk to people who do not share the same views as myself. I hope to find both in this class.

More specifically about me, I am an avid weightlifter and gamer. Since a young age I always found stress release in picking up some sort of video game to play or taking my anger to the gym and working out. I am also a big Eagles fan, and months later still cannot believe we won a Super Bowl. I grew up in a half Puertorican and half Polish household. Needless to say my family is a mix of different cultures.

I spent three years in ROTC at Penn State before leaving in order to focus on my degree. I have taken skills away in leadership and survival but thought that because of my major, I was being pulled in two completely different directions. I hope to be able to support the friends I made in the program in the future and in any way I can.

I am excited to start this class and see what this material has in store to broaden my knowledge. I am looking forward to working with everyone!

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