Post 8

The past couple of weeks we have been learning about deviance and how it plays a role in our every day lives. Whether it be good or bad deviance, deviance effects how the people around you view you. However who you are and where you are in the world changes what it means to be deviant and how it affects you. In the podcast we listened to 21 chump street we saw a minority student with above average grades get arrested for drug dealing. even though the student only got the drugs for the undercover cop because he kept on getting pressured by her, the student still got charged with the crime. On the other side of the spectrum, in Stevenson High School there was a similar situation that happened with a major drug bust in the 2012 school year. After finding over 100 students connected to a major drug ring going on in the school only 2 students got expelled but no arrests. Because Stevenson is in one of the most affluent counties in the country, the school didn't think the involvement of authorities was necessary. But, if you were to go across the country to one of the poor counties in the nation, you would have the authorities brought in without letting the school even know. Deviance not only decides how others perceive you, but also decides how you can behave in society.

Post 7

Growing up I have always been in the stereotypical boy routine. Whether it be as a baby being dressed in blue, or being put in football and baseball as a child, what it meant to be a "boy" has always been instilled into me. As I aged, and saw the ideas of men having to be tough, emotionless and strong, while women were expected to be more caring and more in touch with their emotions being the norm, I never thought twice about it before this year. Marketing companies are notorious for perpetuating these gender stereotypes by pushing "standard" gender roles in magazines. Also by over sexualizing those who are in the magazines, readers of said magazine tend to develop unrealistic thoughts on what it should be like to be a certain type of person, further confusing the population on what it means to be either truly male or female. In the Documentary Killing Us Softly we are shown how modeling agencies and the advertising companies portray their female models in more submissive positions while taking photos of them. This is not only bad for the models themselves, but also to whoever would read the magazine and after a while think "Oh, okay this is how the people I look up to in the magazines act like so if I want to be like them this is what I should do". Furthermore when dealing with online pictures it is hard to find "real" untouched photos without them being edited in some way, shape or form. Supermodel Cindy Crawford said "Even I don't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford." Showing that even supermodels don't know who the people in the magazines are.

Post 6

Socialization, whether we like it or not human beings are wired from birth to crave human interaction.  From young ages kids interact with each other and create connections that help them learn and grow in society. Over the years media outlets and advertising company have  exploited these children need for human interaction. As we se in the documentery Consuming Children Advertising companions have gone to so many extremes just to make money off of the fact that children need to communicate. Like when the ad companies would go so far as to accompany small children into bathrooms to observe what they are doing and create ad campaigns based off of their findings. Given that situation in any other circumstance and that person is going to be on the sex offenders list for the rest of their life. However, these companies are successful in their proceedings. My nephew, who is eight years old, was over at my house before we left to go to a hawks game.  My brother recently bought him a stitched Stanley Cup jersey and the kid was asking for him to buy a shirt for him at the game. Then I started to think, my nephew was wearing a $30 T-Shirt, a $150 jersey,  $50 pants,  $120 shoes and even $20 socks. In about 6 months he is going to outgrow almost all of those items and all that money would be down the drain. But then it dawned on me, I was subject to this media and consumerism consumption swell. I often find myself buying the next big pair of shoes that I wanted. In the past year alone I've purchased 2 pairs of Sperrys (Even though my family doesn't own a boat) 2 pairs of Jordans and a pair of reeboks. Media has latently taught us that to be a true american you have to spend your money on the next best gadget or the new big thing or else you won't fit in with the societal norms. It has taught us that we as a nation need to become materialist because that is what they've been feeding us, quite literally, since birth.

Post 5

America, land of the free and the home of the brave. A place where man can travel across land and sea for opportunity and achieve success. However, to achieve such success requires time and effort. So much so that us as americans feel if we are not doing something productive or proactive every second of our lives then we are wasting our time. And as we all know, time is money, and money in america equals out to the success that we strive for. For example, In the movie Tuesdays with Morrie The main protagonist of the movie was so engrossed by his every day life that he barely had time to be with the people that he loved or do the things he previously enjoyed. Mitch was so caught up in his work that it took one of his college teachers and close friend dying to come out of the environment he and his american values put himself into. These values of success and time commitment are all around us in america. Although it is not only in our workplaces anymore, people are so concerned with their personal success that they starting to stress out over their future in High School. Here at our local High School we are drilled from the age of 14 with information and values of high ACT scores and amazing GPA's that any form of social life is near impossible to create. The stress that I have felt from as early as my freshman year is crazy to think that as an american we are programmed to think that the only happiness we will find is in what we can have in our future and not just taking a moment  to appreciate those who are in our lives now and being grateful for what we have and letting the future come got us instead of us going to the future.

Post 4

In class we have been going over culture and how it each society has its own different and specific cultural values. We've learned that somethings that would be unusal or strange to us can be considered normal to someone else's culture or vice versa. Like in the film we watched in class God Grew Tired of Us  we saw the Sudanese me talk about how if they were seen cooking or doing anything feminine in nature that they would be laughed at or looked down upon within the community. On the other hand, here in America it is normal to see a male chef or main care giver for their respective family. Like, I grew up in an all male household, minus my mother, and both of my parents worked so my brothers and I had to learn how to make food for ourselves and each other whilst our parents are woking. Also in the film we saw all the Sudanese wearing non name clothes and eating whatever they grew or hunted. However, in America we would never see this kind of behavior. The capitalistic society that we have developed in our country has made us in to a society that needs to have the latest and greatest product and made us a very material driven country as a whole.

Post 2

Learning about the different sociological theories in class have made me have a different outlook on life. Learning about our Social Construction of Reality have helped me learn that the mannerisms I conduct on a day to day basis haven't come from an internal development over time but was shaped by the society and world I was born into.  With this concept I have realized that the society that made me who I am today. Becoming a die hard Chicagoland Sports fan, except for those ugly uniforms in the south, was because I lived in the city where I do. Family parties have always had one constant and that was watching a sports game of one of our beloved Chicago sports team. 
Knowing what I do now I understand the Sociological Mindfulness that I have. Growing up with my two best friends being Green Bay Packers fans I never thought different of them even though in the football fan society we should be butting heads at every moment we get.  In the article The Sociologically Examined Life by Schwalbe he says, "mindfulness is useful because it helps us see how our lives are intertwined and how our words and deeds help or harm others in non obvious ways" (16). If I wasn't mindful of the differences between our differences in our sports teams I probably wouldn't be the same person I am today and most likely lead a completely different life than I do today.

Who Am I

Who Am I?

My Name is Brandon. I am the youngest of three kids in my family. I am a first generation American with dual citizenship in Italy. Both of my parents are from a southern Italy town called Calabria. I have a brother named Anthony who is a sophomore at the University of Missouri and another named Damien who is out of college and owns a LED lighting company. I have a nephew Kaden who is 8 and a niece/goddaughter McKenna who in September will turn 3. In college I want to study Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering at the University of Missouri. In my free time I like to design houses and other buildings. My Dream is to design a sky rise in one of the major cities in America and own a flat in Pittsburgh.