Today we briefly discussed “sociological imagination,” which is when your social behavior is affected by the environment and the time period that you grow up in. “The Outliers” article that I read for sociology concluded that the citizens of the town, Roseto, had a low chance of heart attacks because of their calm, family driven lifestyle. This low number of heart attacks was not because of something physicians typically expected, such as bad eating habits or little exercise.
In addition to our location in growing up, the time period in which we grow up is also significant in our social behavior. When I was in the second grade I used floppy disks to save my science projects. When my dad showed my ten-year-old sister his floppy disks from college she had no idea what they were. She just laughed at him telling him that he’s so old fashioned. When I was in the third grade I got a Walkman for my birthday and even though I have an iPod, I still use my Walkman until this day because I don’t have some of my favorite rapper’s mixtapes on my iPod. Some kids on the bus will make fun at how bulky my Walkman is, but I personally like it because of its sentimental value and because I didn’t have to pay a lot of money just to listen to my music. A child that is born today will most likely not recognize a Walkman, and down the road they will probably not recognize an mp3 player either. In the future children will not recognize a computer mouse with a wire, a land line phone with a wire, or a cell phone with an outer antenna.
Throughout my generation our society continues to modernize leaving us with products that we never use again. We have gone from VHS players, to DVD players, and now blue-ray. As our society continues to modernize we gradually inch away from the beliefs of the Roseto citizens by spending less time with family or going outdoors, and more time with our newest form of technology.
I really like how you connected the movement of our generation to the Outlier's excerpt; I didn't think of it that way until you mentioned it.
ReplyDeleteGreat examples of what we talked about in class but be careful of the terminology:
ReplyDeletesociological imagination is the idea that people are affected by their environment and the time period when they grow up.
sociological mindfulness is the idea that once we understand the idea of a sociological imagination then we can make responsible decisions about how we are influenced and how we influence the world.
mindset is just another way of illustrating the soc imagination. That is, one's mindset will be different depending on when and where he/she was raised. I used the term mindset because that is how Beloit U. refers to that list I showed you in class.
Your example in this post is that of a sociological imagination.
Hope that makes sense.
Do you really still use your Walkman? wouldn't it be easier to find your music on iTunes and buy it? great connections to real life!
ReplyDeletei think its still cool to use the your walkman. i agree with you that our generation is growing faster and faster.
ReplyDeleteI really like your post. It had good examples and i think your post gives others a lot to think about.
ReplyDelete