All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when, I was listening to rap and hip- hop  music. As I was listening to this music I remembered how some people could not connect with these types of songs because they did not understand it. All the reasons as to why many don't understand this music, brought me back to sociology terms. I knew the reasons for the confusion were due to the language (lyrics), the stories of the song, and the listeners back ground. In other words the confusion were the symbols that the songs might of had, the culture the artist and listeners came from, and much more.

Songs that rappers, in the pop culture, like Wisin y Yandel, Tupac, Eminem, J Cole and much more would sing, would have a variety of people connecting with them. For example, like those who come from a Mexican culture could relate with music from Wisin y Yandel. This is because any time these artist mentioned places in Mexico, customs in Latin America, or problems with immigration, people from this back ground could have a deep connection with the song because they have experienced them. When lyrics speak about civil rights movement, or slavery many African Americans would connect with them. Now, a variety of hip-hop and rap songs do focus on the idea of poverty, a common struggle within people of any cultural back ground. So the word money within  lyrics could be a symbol for a days meal or a blessing/miracle to those who are poor or in a middle class. To those who are rich, money is a symbol of a shopping spring for their pets or getting more powerful.Over all, to really understand rap and hip-hop one has to have an idea of were the artist and their lyrics is coming from.

 Jersey shore I think can symbolize America, and specially the youth. This show is well known throughout the whole country by kids, teens, adults and even seniors. A good percentage of the viewers, mainly teens, can relate to things that go on in the show. For example, many drink, party, are  involved in drama, and have sexual intercourse. Over all the show represents a common life style of many teens living in America, even though it is not so great.

                                                Fast food places in my opinion will never run out of business from what I see. Many people here in the US depend on places like Burger King, White Castle, McDonald's etc., as their food source every day. For what ever reason people buy fast food, doesn't change the fact that they eat it a lot. Fast food is not healthy food, and even though many are aware of this they don't seem to change their eating habits. As a result, I truly do think that fast food is a major symbol that represents America.
                                                 Money, money, money... this is definitely something that represents America. I say this because to several people, money, is the most important thing in their lives. They love it so much that they sacrifice friendships,family and so many other things, just so they can have more bills in their pocket. People become obsessed with money that they fall into problems like gambling, and other illegal activity (selling drugs, human trafficking). The way many think that money can buy them happiness, proofs that they cherish money a lot.
                                                  I think that America can be represented by the white headed eagle.To begin with, eagles have good eye vision that helps them catch what they want, and this is like Americans always looking for what is best for them. This can include people looking for things like power, a good house, car, job, health, a good reputation etc. Another thing is that eagles catch small prey as food just like Americans can sometimes step on others smaller than them just to get to the top. Another reason why this is a symbol is because the eagle is found in things like American coins, bills and much more.
                                                    All around the United States we can find families that own one or more pet/s. Animals like dogs, cats, lizards, fish, monkeys, hamsters, bunnies, birds and much more belong to families. They are loved by majority of the people here in the USA that pets are refer to as family now. Love for pets can be shown by the pet shops that have all sorts of things for pets, including a variety of clothes, collars, food etc.Due to the great number of people that own a pet, I can say that pets are an important part of the American culture, therefore, a symbol of this country.

All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when, I went to a concert with my friend. I knew the attitude she carried during school and it was calm, and serious most of the time. Then the event came along and it was this friend of mine, another close friend and me hanging out only. Wow, I could not believe how long I had known this person for and until now I found out their true self. My friend's attitude changes reminded me right away of many terms I learned in sociology class.
The way my friend acted the way others expected her to in class, was a norm. She told me she was quiet because she was expected to be chill at school, as in not being crazy and getting or of hand.This is like the emergent norm theory, because my friend's attitude and actions in school were affected by the public's expectations.More over, at the concert she was more cheery, open and more social. I could tell she felt like in a whole new environment because she said she could be herself any where outside of school. I thought it was cool because there at the concert I connected with two more theories learned in class. One of them was the contagion theory, due to my other friend getting crazy as well like the one I am talking about. This connects because their attitudes are being affected by one another and by the audience as well. This sounds like a domino affect, which is what I defined contagion theory as. Lastly, the way that people at the show were there because they like the artist as well was showing the convergence theory, which is people coming together due to a common interest.
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All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was walking to my English class. I noticed that my senior class mates kept on complaining about how freshman are so annoying, and that they hate school and all sorts of complaining. Immediately when I heard this I was able to classify the seniors and freshmen in  groups. I could see how based one each of their behaviors I could tell so much about them. They each can be placed in different groups that we talked about in my sociology class, depending from which view we see things by.

For example, from the senior's view the freshmen are consider an out-group because they are viewed as immature, dumb, and annoying kids. It can be that the seniors, as the in-group, bug the young ones because they feel like they are acting the way they are supposed to, which is conformity. This makes them all be in a coercion group because is like seniors force one another to act superior towards those freshmen. When the freshmen are told to shut-up in the hall way by seniors they respond by getting louder, laughing and continuing doing their own thing. To me this shows that they do not care about what others think and they feel like they are at the top, so they are the in-group now. The way that the freshmen stood up to those seniors, showed cooperation. Overall, this competition between grades, which is unnecessary, shows conflict within the seniors and freshmen.

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was at the mall with my friends. I began to notice that I have different types of friends all throughout school and out. I could tell right away which group I enjoyed being with the most, and those that I chose just to be far from. At the mall I was having fun, and began to think of how my true, close friends are the right ones to be with. Yet I found myself having a relationship with other people, even though it was not as great. I knew from here that everyone has many groups he or she belongs to, but more importantly a group that they actually like.
All of the group arrangements within me and my friends connected very well with the different social groups I learned in sociology class. When ever I was with my closest friends, or with family I knew they were my primary groups. This was because when ever I was with them I saw all of the characteristics that a primary group holds. That would include being helpful to one another, caring and relatively small. In the other hand those distant friends of mine, which are in school or even outside of school, are my somewhat of a reference group. I consider them this because they are not close to me, there can be a variety of them, and the only reason we speak is because we are in the same class. This group is nothing like my family or close friends, because with them we have so many things in common that we have fun and respect each other, which makes them fall as an interest group.

2/3/11

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was building a snow hill on Thursday. My family, some neighborhood friends and I decided to build a snow hill over the weekend, and I noticed there were some challenges along the way. Since there were many people doing one thing things did not go too smoothly at times. For example, while some were adding snow to the hill some were sliding down it, destroying the hill. Another conflict that occurred was that there weren't enough shovels for everyone so some people at the beginning were doing more work than others.
I was able to connect this experience with the puzzle activity and the Conflict Theory. The way that there was many people doing one single thing reminded me of the group of people trying to form a puzzle. The Conflict Theory applies because there was things getting in the way of both, trying to build a snow hill and forming a puzzle. In both activities there were many ideas going on at one time, which created made things more complicated at times. From both if these experiences I concluded that the solutions to the conflicts, from lack of supplies, too many hands, too many ideas and confusion were similar for both. We all had to simple accept each others ideas, and take turns, making everyone's jobs easy and equal. In the puzzle strategies from different people were used, and in the snow hill everyone had an equal job.

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was watching American Idol. One contestant sang and was not approved by the judges, this female contestant got very upset because they denied her. She began to argue back that they were wrong, that they denied her only for one reason and her voice was not that reason. She said that it was because she was not as skinny and well shaped like other female contestants. She began to claim that her visual appearance has negatively impacted the judges decisions and that her voice was better than other fit females. The judges tried to clear things up by telling her that looks do not mater at all because they were there to judge peoples voices, not there looks. Yet the woman was not convinced.

This situation brought the concept of "Sociological Imagination" to mind. This book written by C Wright Mills  mentioned the ability to see a connection between the whole world and our own personal lives. This concept reminded me of the lady in American Idol because she began to use her appearances as the reason why the judges denied her. Her thoughts probably came form all of the media that is shown out in public. The common thing is seeing tall, skinny women in advertisements, movies and videos. I think she probably felt like the judges did not like her because she did not carry the media image of a tall, skinny woman.The way females are expected to be the hot, perfect woman by the media has affected people like the lady on the show by not feeling good enough to become famous. Overall the connection here is that the media in the world can impact the way someone feels and acts. Sadly, in this case it has had a negative impact on an individual.