Folkways and Ethnocentrism

A folkway is doing something that wont hurt someone else, but you just don't usually do it. The other night my girlfriends and I went out to dinner. My one friend only had eleven dollars and her bill came out to twelve ninety-four, so she searched through her bag for loose change. We all gave her our change too, but when the waitress came to take our money she seemed a lot happier to see my debit card rather than all of Caitlin's change.

Something else reminded me of sociology last week, and it was ethnocentrism. It means to judge someones culture, in a mean way. For example people say Indians smell bad. On the show Jersey Shore the group of people that live in the house are Italian. It was on at my house when some one decided to say "ohh yea all Italians wana do is GTL (gym, tan, laundry) and party!" Which is not true because my family does other things normal families do.

Things that effect us today

This is the iPhone, and I think it is a symbol for America because we are all about the latest technology.

This picture represented things in the past because Uncle Sam was trying to get people to join the army, but it also can represent today’s army. More people want to join the army and be heroes for our country.

I think a lot of people in America want to be a part of the latest fashion, and be caught up on the celebrity gossip.

MTV is a channel that has reality shows and music videos. People want to believe they can be on those shows and want to hear the latest music.

Facebook. This is a huge social network that teenagers and some adults are always on. They can post pictures and what they're doing, so others can see about them.

Italy, and our society!

I was thinking about sociology when I remembered my vacation to Italy. In class we talked about the article we read the night before, and some things reminded me of Italy. One day when I was in Italy we had to go to the bank and it was totally different then here. First off the door to get in the bank is like a tube you stand in and it weighs you because then when you leave it could tell if you stole something. Also it's like a free for all; you fight to go to the front of the line. Where as here we wait in line or go through with our cars. Another thing is that from 1 to 4 everyone closes there shops and they go home for lunch and a nap. I don't think Americans would be able to do that since were constantly over packing our schedules.

Another time I saw sociology was during the news. They were talking about how more and more kids are addicted to technology. I think it's true because teenagers want all the new "cool" toys. We want to try to one up someone. Also we want to try and fit in with all of our friends and the media because those are the two major things that influence most teenagers.

Homework

Stefan thinks it's weird that women who look younger than 21 with be carded at a bar, and that we even have a drinking age that old. She also thought it was rude that she could only smoke outside of a building rather than where ever. She thinks of our rules are weird because her culture in Germany is more lenient. If teenagers lived in Germany that grew up here, they would be going crazy. We learn to follow all these rules even though we break them sometimes.

Girls.

Being at a party with my friends made me realize how we see other groups of girls. If you think about it most girls stare you down when your at the mall or anywhere. They want to feel like they're better cause they bought something from an expensive store and your just wearing sweats. Well at a party when girls from a different group or other schools come we dont get along with eachother. We want to be the ones who are the only girls the guys talk to or be invited to there parties. We think of us and our group of friends as the best, not even knowing anything about the other girls.

We think the same way about guys too. When were out shopping and theres an Abercrombie model walking around topless we all stop to talk to him, but if there was just an ordinary not so cute looking guy stopping to try and talk to us we wouldnt want to as much. We think just becasue the Abercrombie model has a 8-pack we should go buy something from the store. I think it's becasue we want to be at the top just like we talked about in class people buy named brand items to look better or have more of a value.