SOC 100 - Sociology of Religion Assignment

The last assignment! YaHoo!

 On page 369 in your text is a “Mass Media In Social Life” relating to God on the net.  At the end of that article are these questions:  How do you think that the Internet might change religion?  Can it replace the warm embrace of fellow believers? Do you think it can bring comfort to someone who is grieving for a loved one?
I got a 45/45 on this one. Seems like the grading is getting easier as the end nears. Good for me though :-) Here it is:

Religion on the Internet

How do you think that the Internet might change religion?  It changes how the people get information about religion. They no longer have to go to a physical church to hear the gospel or message. They can do it from their own home or anywhere for that matter with a computer. I think the Internet is a good tool that religions are able to use and it can serve many purposes. For one, they are able to reach millions of people with the hopes of bringing in new converts. They can also get their message out to members cheaply and quickly.  Even the Pope is on youtube.com (Henslin, 2011). It’s changing the way people get the teachings and messages from their religion or church. Internet video is becoming more popular with religions along with websites, newsletters and blogs.

Can it replace the warm embrace of fellow believers? I don't think it can. There have been a number of attempts to create online Christian communities, usually supplementing, but occasionally attempting to replace, more traditional, brick and mortar Christian communities ("Religion and the," ). From what I’ve seen, it may change the way people get communications from their church, but I can’t see it replacing the physical church and warm embrace of fellow believers.  From another website: Church of Fools is an experimental online site in which worshippers move around a virtual church building using avatars ("Religion and the,”). Again, I think this is an attempt to replace a physical church, but it doesn’t replace face-to-face socializing with fellow members. It may help temporarily or be used as a bridge to the “warm embrace”, but it cannot replace it. From a functionalist viewpoint I don’t think it can bring sufficient “emotional comfort.” As one Christian says, “For us to truly communicate the love and grace of Jesus Christ, we must have a personal relationship with people to witness to them. The sound of love and concern in someone’s voice, a gentle touch and the look into someone’s eyes are what really make a difference (Hearne, 2011).”

            Do you think it can bring comfort to someone who is grieving for a loved one? I think it can, but only for a short duration. It may temporarily bring some level of comfort to someone who is suffering, but we need personal contact with people. In all of the information I scanned on the Internet I haven’t seen one article that says it will replace face-to-face contact, but it is a good way to stay in contact with the person who is grieving.  It’s a good way to touch bases until the next time you can get together with them.  As I stated earlier, from a functionalist perspective I don’t think it can bring sufficient “emotional comfort.”  The answers that religion provides about ultimate meaning also comfort people by assuring them that there is a purpose to life, even to suffering (Henslin, 2011). I think this can only be fully achieved with personal contact, not by a website, blog or other electronic media. While technology has brought with it the benefits of convenience, flexibility and global connectivity, it’s also made us long for the warmth associated with more tactile experiences; those things that have a human touch ("The human touch,”).

            There are four concerns or questions that many people have. These are (1) the existence of God, (2) the purpose of life, (3) the existence of an afterlife, and (4) morality (Henslin, 2011). From a functionalist perspective religious sites on the Internet can help answer these questions. The Internet may help to serve the function of “emotional comfort”, but I don’t think it can replace face-to-face communications.  The Internet can also help the religion re-enforce the guidelines for everyday life which serves the function of “social control” and a website or online community can help its followers to keep up with teachings and practices which in turn re-enforces “social solidarity” within that community. I don’t believe the Internet is completely sufficient though. The Internet can be used as a tool or aid, but I don’t think it is going to completely eliminate the traditional approach.

            It’s true; there are many ways that the Internet can change religion. Our text book lists new ideas from online prayer requests to virtual church services.  I think the Internet is a good tool for religions to use to help market their own beliefs and it’s a good way to make contact with thousands and potentially millions of people either who are already members or who are potential converts. It’s just good business for them. Can it replace the warm embrace of fellow believers? No, it won’t replace face-to-face contact with fellow members. The sound of a person’s voice, the smile on someone’s face and the warmth of another’s touch can’t be replaced with a computer screen. We are social animals who crave the real company of others.

References

Hearne, R. (2011, July 08). [Web log message]. Retrieved from             http://www.ntcumc.org/_blog/The_Lay_Leaders_Blog/post/Texts_and_tweets_can't_repl ace_old-fashioned_face-to-face_contact/

Henslin, J. (2011). Essentials of sociology: a down-to-earth approach. (Ninth ed., p. 368, 369).     Pearson. Retrieved from http://www.coursesmart.com/SR/3803881/9780205841141/369

The human touch. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://contributor.corbis.com/content/Creative     Research/Macro Briefs/100222-ExecSummary-HumanTouch-EN.pdf

Religion and the internet. (n.d.). Retrieved from                                                                                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_the_Internet

SOC 100 - Global Stratification Assignment

Okay, we had a video with this assignment as with most of our assignments, but I'm not able to post the video because it's not mine to post. We're reading the chapter on Global Stratification in Essentials of Sociology, A Down to Earth Approach, Henslin, 9th Edition. Here's the assignment: In the video lecture it was discussed how the concepts we studied in Culture strongly influenced social stratification in different countries. In other words how does the definition of each of the three concepts that sociologists use to measure social stratification influence the strata in a society? (Power, Property, and Prestige). Here's my paper:

The Three Elements: Property, Power and Prestige

Property, power and prestige normally occur together in a society. Yet they are not always evenly distributed. Property is all the wealth, investments, deeded and titled properties, and other tangible sources of income. Power is the ability to get one's way even in the face of opposition to one's goals. Prestige is the degree of social honor attached with your position in society (Cheney, 2009). How do these influence the strata in society? In our country and in other industrialized nations wealth or income is the major determining factor of a person’s social status.  However, in the least industrialized nations they are less dependent upon income as a means of stratifying the society. They have a stratification system based more on power and prestige.  For instance, in Sudan the number of cattle a family owns is a sign of wealth and status. In some countries a shaman or medicine man ranks high in status and little importance is placed on material possessions or income.

Max Weber said that three elements determine social class: property, power and prestige (the three Ps). So let’s look at our country and how the three Ps occur together but aren’t always evenly distributed.  In our country people who are wealthy and in the upper class tend to also have power and prestige. Yet this is not always the case. Plumbers may make more money than college professors, but holding a professorship is more prestigious than being a “blue collar worker” (Cliffnotes.com, 2011). Normally people who have very powerful positions also tend to have more wealth and prestige. Again, this is not always the case. Look at the President of the United States. This is a very powerful position. President Obama wields a lot of power, but in fact doesn’t make that much money in comparison to the tremendous power his position holds.  Firefighters are viewed by 61% of the public as having “very great prestige,” and rightly so – with an occupation that puts them decisively in harm’s way in order to save lives and properties, it’s of little wonder why firefighters stand firmly at the top of the occupation prestige list (Tu, 2009). However, the salary for firefighters on the average is only around $41,000 per year. Given all of the prestige of a firefighter one would think they would have more power and wealth, but they don’t. 

In the least industrialized countries income isn’t a major determining factor of social class. In those countries stratification is based more on power and prestige.  In our society wealth and income play an important role in determining social class, but as we’ve seen, even though power, property and prestige normally occur together, they aren’t always evenly distributed.

 

References

Cheney, P. (2009). Stratification and the three p's. Retrieved from 
http://freebooks.uvu.edu/SOC1010/index.php/09.html

CliffsNotes.com. What Divides Us: Stratification. 28 Oct 2011
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26879.html

Tu, D. (2009, August 02). Top 10 most (& least) prestigious jobs in america: How much they earn and     how to land them [Web log message]. Retrieved from         
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/4556/best-worst-jobs-america/

SOC 100 - Discussion Posts Day Three

Day three: How are the three ways of learning to discriminate illustrated in the video? Here is my posting for this question. Again, this is a discussion assignment for Sociology 100. We were instructed to read out of the textbook and then watch a a video. The video is called "Children of the Plains" and was aired on 20/20 a while back. The link is here: http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55148316/2020-1014-children-of-the-plains

My post:

Discrimination is the result of an attitude called prejudice. Prejudice is pre-judging, usually negatively.  I also see in the textbook it talks about learning prejudice and one way we learn is from association. We’re not born with prejudice we learn it from the people around us. So in the video I see this in a couple of ways. One, the video shows an old western movie with stage coach and Indians chasing it. People learn discrimination from the way the Indians were depicted in those movies. It’s so negative. Second, I think that negativity just perpetuated and spread from one person to the next, through association. The video shows in a lot of places that many people discriminate against the Indians.
The second way we learn is the “far reaching nature of prejudice.” In the video businesses discriminated against them. They won’t hire Indians and in one part a lady pleads for businesses to come and open stores in the reservation and for businesses to hire Indians. In that same part of the video a man pleads for education. They need schools but are discriminated against and new schools aren’t built there. He asks for that and also for teachers to come and teach and share their knowledge with them. “Bring your education to our community”, he says. Part of the far reaching nature of prejudice is that if you discriminate against one group, you'll tend to discriminate against another. I can really see this with businesses in the video. Also, in the video is the federal government and its discrimination against the Lakota. It seems like for no reason at all or maybe just ignorance, the federal government wanted to westernize the Lakota. The Lakota aren’t the first people they discriminated against. They took their children away and prohibited them to speak Lakota. They cut their hair and changed their clothes. They wanted to kill the Indian and save the man. It’s so far reaching.
Finally, the third way that people learn to be prejudice is internalizing dominant norms. People can actually be prejudice against their own group. In the textbook it talks about ethnic maps too. I can see the ethnic maps illustrated in the video. The pictures they show of intoxicated Indians on the streets, the small lucrative liquor stores in that small town and the signs everywhere that forbid alcohol and drugs. The video shows the beer cans on the side of the road too. This would have to have a strong impact on the people living there, especially the children. The video illustrates this by interviewing the young kids about alcohol and drug use and we hear those children saying they don’t like it and that it’s bad. Those are good things they’re learning and they want change. They want to get a better education and stay away from drugs and alcohol. From this ethnic map they could be learning to discriminate against their own group too. As the textbook says, “Apparently, we all learn the ethnic maps of our culture and, along with them, their route to biased perception.”

SOC 100 - Discussion Posts Day One

The next assignment we had in our Sociology 100 class was a discussion post. It was series of five posts answering some questions about a video we saw. The video is "Children of the Plains" and was a 20/20 special on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. A very good 20/20 video. Here is the link and I reccommend it:
http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55148316/2020-1014-children-of-the-plains
Day one:  How do the six myths and reality play out in this video? The six myths come from the textbook and I didn't quite get all of them.

Here's my post:

The first myth I see played out in this video is the myth of pure races. As we read in our text, this is myth. The video portrays the Lakota here as being unlike any other people. In our text it states that even though we have many visible differences, we humans are strikingly very homogeneous (same or similar nature). The second myth I see from our text is the myth of fixed number of races and I don’t see this played out in the video other than there are just two large groupings of people mentioned and that’s, Indian and White.  Either you’re Indian or White, but I don’t believe that’s the real message they intend, but I think that’s all that is mentioned.  I think this video shows a good deal about the culture of the Lakota and this breaks the myth that race is fixed by biology. As stated in our text, “race” depends more on the society in which we live than on biological characteristics.  I particularly like the powwow scenes and the dress of the dancers in this video.  Probably the biggest one that stands out for me is the myth of racial superiority. When the video told of how in as late as the 1940’s these Lakota children were being sent to western schools and sent there to be westernized, that myth just popped out. The federal government believed that they (Lakota) had to be westernized as if the Lakota were inferior. The children had their hair cut, and their clothes changed.
The reality is that no race is superior and even biologists can’t decide how people should be classified into races. People act on beliefs and not always the facts. Alcoholism and drug abused was shown in the video, but the fact is these problems plaque all people. I don’t think it was the intent of the video to suggest it’s only a problem on the reservation, but I can see how some people may get the idea that it’s because of race that it’s such a problem there. As the book said, people will act on perceptions and beliefs, not facts.

SOC 100 - Test Over Chapters 4 & 5

Okay this is the first test. I was looking forward to it and now that it's graded I'm kinda disappointed. The last answer I thought was good, but the professor didn't. I had a couple of small errors in the test just because I was in a hurry to get it done. I was going to a retreat in upper South Dakota and was really looking forward to that. The biggest error I had was Roosevelts name. It was Franklin and not Theodore that started the March of Dimes. So here it is. I got an 87%.

Introduction to Sociology

Soc 100

Test over Chapters four and five

Answer all five questions as completely as possible.  Yes, you may use your text, the internet, and any notes you may have taken from the video lectures.  Each question’s answer is worth 20 points each.  It is due 5:00 Friday October 14, 2011.

Erving Goffman introduced the idea that in everyday life we perform our assigned roles, and maintained that our social life was like a drama enacted on a stage. Discuss his approach to the study of everyday life.  Include in your discussion his ideas of front and back stage, as well as impression management.  Describe a major characteristic of your front stage and a major characteristic of your back state.  What is your favorite way of impression management?

Answer: Erving Goffman introduced the term dramaturgy into sociology to show how life is like a play. Goffman said that when we are born we are put on stage and though out our life we act. We have ideas on how we want others to think of us and we act on those ideas. This is what he called impression management.  Every day we are playing our roles and he divided them into two parts, front stage and back stage. Front stage is where we deliver our lines (a major characteristic of front stage) and when we are in front of people. If I were giving a speech to a class, that is considered front stage. Back stage is where we can relax (a characteristic of back stage) as if no one is watching. When we are alone and in our rooms is backstage.  One of my favorite ways of impression management is while working I dress in a company shirt and nice pants. No tennis shoes or blue jeans are allowed. My clients must see me as a professional. I also use a more professional language when around clients and I don’t use slang terms.

Define role strain and role conflict. Give an example of role strain that you might experience as a college student and an example of role conflict that you have experienced.

Answer: We have many roles.  We may be a son, daughter, father, mother, student, business owner, employee, or club member and so on. Sometimes two of our roles may have a conflict. I’m leaving for a retreat this weekend with my girlfriend, but at the same time I have this test due on Friday. There’s a role conflict between my role as a student and my role as a boyfriend. This will require some management on my part. I’ll need to make sure I have time to prepare to leave and also make sure my test paper is done and uploaded. A role strain is a conflict within a role, not between two roles. An example is with my role as a technician.  When I visit offices to fix problems with their equipment I want to be helpful and explain what went wrong or what they did wrong, but at the same time I don’t want them to feel bad. An example of a role strain as a college student may be that in a classroom I might know the answer to a question, but be hesitant to raise my hand in fear of making my fellow students look bad.

Apply functional analysis to "Mass Media in Social Life, You Can't be Thin Enough: Body Images and the Mass Media." How is the extreme emphasis on attaining a nearly impossible standard of body shape both functional and dysfunctional?

Answer: The functionalist approach to analyzing this article is seen within the article. Functional analysis will consider the large scale features of social life (macrosociology), such as social class. Thinness is associated with “good-looking”, and according to the research thin people make more money which raises their social class. Also, thin women are more likely to marry wealthier men. The extreme emphasis on body shape can be functional because it serves to motivate people to eat better, be healthier and to exercise. While at the same time it can be dysfunctional because not everyone has the access to good diet and gyms. These people are left out and looked upon differently through no fault of their own.

Compare and contrast the traditional society with the nontraditional society in reference to production, relationships, and evaluations of each system.

Answer: Production in traditional societies is less because there is less need for it. Importance is placed on personal relationships and not on material things.  In contrast, a nontraditional society people will consume more and the production is higher.  Nontraditional societies place more importance on self-interest and material things and people’s lives don’t center on family and friends as in a traditional society.  A traditional society is a close knit community; more importance is focused on family, lifelong friendships and long term relationships. There’s less need for long term relationships in a nontraditional society because things move faster and there’s less time to develop those close personal ties. In a nontraditional society much of our time is spent with strangers and short-time acquaintances. Both types of societies have advantages and disadvantages. An advantage in a traditional society is that everyone knows what they are expected to do and does it. One disadvantage though is that a traditional society is slow to change when new technologies are introduced. An example is the farming equipment of the Amish. A nontraditional society accepts change faster and invents new technologies allowing diversity among people, but at the same time it creates new problems associated with progress. An example is industrialization and the pollution it causes.

How do bureaucracies perpetuate themselves through goal displacement?  Provide an example of  a bureaucracy that used goal displacement and how they did it.

I think he was dead in the 1930’s as he was shot and killed in 1919.

Answer: Goal displacement is adopting new goals once the main objective is completed. This allows the bureaucracy to continue. A good example of this is with the March of Dimes, originally founded by Theodore Roosevelt in the 1930’s to find a cure for polio. Once the vaccine was found in the 1950’s they didn’t claim victory and close the doors, but instead found a new cause to pursue. This allowed them to continue and today the March of Dimes fights for the health of babies and against birth defects.

SOC 100 - Social Groups

Assignment: The text defines, describes, and explains Aggregates, Categories, Primary Groups, Secondary Groups, Voluntary Associations, In-groups, out-groups, Reference Groups, and Social Networks. . With the rise of Facebook, myspace, Linkedin, texting and other such electronic communities these groups have gone through change and now need to be redefined or drop out of use.  Select 3 of these groups and redefine these groups and give examples of your definition. Also, the text discusses three types of leaders.  How do you see these leaders being played out on the internet?

I got a 45/45 n this one. It must have been pretty good.

Redefining Social Groups and Assessing Leadership Styles on the Internet

In our textbook Cooley defines primary groups as, those characterized by intimate face- to- face association and cooperation (Henslin, 2011).  With the rise in instant messaging, e-mail, web forums and social networking sites on the Internet I think his definition needs revision. How could he have foreseen these new leaps in technology in 1909? People do have intimate face to face relationships over the Internet using instant messaging, e-mail, web forums and social networking sites. They don’t have to meet face- to- face to become intimate. Social dating websites like Match.com are a good example. I think an updated definition would be using the term person- to- person. So we could say, those characterized by intimate person- to- person association and cooperation instead of face- to- face.

Also in our textbook it says, an aggregate consists of people who temporarily share the same physical space but who do not see themselves as belonging together (Henslin, 2011).  As with Cooley’s definition earlier, the definition of aggregate leaves out the Internet. What about people on the Internet watching a live video broadcast or people joining a chat session? Instead of saying “physical space” we could broaden that to say “physical or virtual space”. I think that adding the term “virtual” gives us a better definition for today. An example of an aggregate would be people who join a Tweet to see what their favorite athlete is saying or people who just happen to be viewing the same YouTube video.

In our textbook the term social network is defined as people who are linked together (Henslin, 2011). It defines a social network including family, friends, acquaintances, people at work and school, and “friends of friends.” It doesn’t mention people who are linked together over the Internet or who have joined a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter. Now that the Internet is so widely used in our society and at the forefront of almost everything we do, I think we should specifically mention it. It sounds as though the old definition is using old ideas or concepts. I think a better definition of social network would include social networking sites.  So in addition to family, friends, acquaintances, people at work and school, and “friends of friends” we could add users on social networking websites. I have a social network of people on Facebook and Twitter. After all, Facebook and Twitter are called social networks (Nations).

Our text discusses three leadership styles and each is played out on the Internet by various people, organizations and countries. The authoritarian style is seen when countries (governments) block Internet usage.  For instance, China blocked Twitter and hundreds of thousands of other sites (MacKinnon, 2010).  It’s common for dictatorships and socialist regimes to block what they don’t want their people to see. I can see an authoritarian style of leadership being played out in our schools and libraries. The school administrators and library officials have put in place software to block or filter certain Internet websites and the users don’t have any choice in the matter. Spam could be seen as another authoritarian style on the Internet. Spammers send out millions of e-mails to unwitting people.

The democratic style can be seen when users voluntarily block websites that are offensive to them. There is free software available that can do this automatically and filter out the offensive sites even before a user is connected to one. I think another example is users having the ability to opt out of e-mail newsletters and advertisements.  Legitimate businesses that advertise using e-mail don’t want to be seen as spammers. Also, good social networking websites give users a choice of security or anonymity. Users can choose a level of security which determines who is able to view their personal information and postings.

I agree with others that the Internet in itself is seen as laissez- faire capitalism, because there isn’t much control over it and governments are letting things alone (Zombiehero213, 2010). In our own country state sales tax is usually not collected across state lines. I can buy a product in Utah and not pay any sales tax.  We don’t see special Internet taxes or fees imposed by governments either. I don’t have to pay a separate fee or special tax to view a website in another country. People worldwide can buy and sell on E-bay freely. There’s no government regulation on online auctions. Our existing federal and state laws still do exist so you can’t sell automatic machine guns on E-bay, but for the most part the government goes unseen.

                                                                                

References

Henslin, J. (2011). Essentials of sociology: a down-to-earth approach. (Ninth ed., p. 112,                116). Pearson. Retrieved from                                                                                                                            http://www.coursesmart.com/9780205841141

MacKinnon, R. (2010, October 11-12). Networked authoritarianism in china and beyond:                        implications for global internet freedom. Retrieved from                                                                                  http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/6349/MacKinnon_Libtech.pdf

Nations, D. (n.d.). What is social networking?. Retrieved from                               http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworking/a/social-network.htm

Zombiehero213. (2010, March 23). The internet is laissez-faire [Web log message].                                                     Retrieved from

                             http://zombiehero213.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/the-internet-is-laissez-faire/