SUMBLOG11 Dorothy Smith

To truly know a cultural you have to spend time in that cultural.  This is the basic principle of Dorothy Smith’s standpoint approach theory.  Just like the documentary that we saw in class, we can’t judge a person based on looks alone.  The homeless street venders on the documentary were seen by some as lazy bums.  These same people also suggest that they stop doing what they are doing because it is not helping the local market and it gives a bad vibe to tourist who comes to visit their city.  However as the documentary stated, these venders are actually somewhat helpful within said community.  They all look out for one another and act as a cheap alternative for people who like a good bargain on book.  They also provide tourist with more useful information about places they should visit than those travel guide booth.  So for those people who may have a negative view on others, just spend some time getting to know them and maybe they could make a new friend.

Nerd culture use to be view as a gross and weird thing to be into.  Kids in school would always pick on the nerdy kid who spends most of their time reading comic books, playing trading card games, and always on the computer.  Little do they know that these kids would one day grow up to be a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.  Due to the impact of this tech geniuses made in the main stream industry, people now are getting exposed to this cultural and thus are now more accepting of it.  Each year it seems like the film industry is coming out with a new superhero movie based off comic books.  People who did know about these superheroes are now becoming more knowledgeable with them, while these “nerds” have been exposed to them there who life.  Show like the Big Bang Theory is successful because they are using nerdy humor to entertain the audience.  Here is a clip from the show that will help demonstrate this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R5w4Qz6pVk).  So what I am trying to get at is don’t judge a culture before you even get to know it, because one day it might just become the one that you enjoy being involve with the most.

SUMBLOG10 Talcott Parsons

I find Talcott Parsons concept of pattern variable very useful.  I say this because the way people deal with certain situations can be explain through 1 of the 5 variables.  If you don’t deal with it in a certain way, then you are going to deal with it using another method (Patterns).  What I mean by this is that there are only so many ways that we can actually use to interact with each other, therefore Parsons’s 5 variable helps us understand why humans behave in these patterns.  The first pattern is the affectivity-affection neutrality pattern.  This pattern basically states that we are expected to have a more intimate relationship with the people we are close with, and act neutral with the people we don’t.  This make sense because, who would want to share personal information to strangers.  The second pattern is the diffuseness-specificity, which is a person’s willingness to help other.  Again, people are more likely do things for people that they know rather than people that they don’t.  Universalism-particularism is the third pattern.  Form my understanding of this is being a law abiding citizen VS hermit.  People are supposed to follow laws to ensure a safe environment, which is the norm.  However, a hermit is someone who chooses not to follow the norm and do what they see fit.  The fourth of these patterns is achievement-ascription.  The best that I can explain this pattern is people do the things they do to achieve a goal.  The last of these patterns is the collectivity-self-orientation.  What this is is if a person is in it for him/herself, or for the group.  An example of this is a ball player wanting the ball more to raise his stats VS working together with the team to achieve something greater.  I like to use this video of Italian striker Mario Bolitelli to showcase this (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Ea6t_FCQ6Vc).  As you can see he clearly had a chance to put his team ahead in the game.  Instead he chose to showboat and brings instead the attention to himself. He is a prime example of a selfish individual.   In conclusion, in my mind I think that these five patterns really have an influence on our behavior in one way or another.

SUMBLOG9 Erving Goffman

I think Erving Goffman hit it on the head when he came up with his Presentation of Self idea.  I too believe that we as humans live out our lives as if we were actors in a play or movies.  Think about it, we put ourselves though school so we can obtain the necessary skills to get our ideal jobs.  Thus establishing what our status and role will be in society.  If someone happens to be a salesman at a store that specializes in video games, we would expect that his/her role is to be knowledgeable about the different types of games, and help people who are clueless about it make the right decision when purchasing a video game.  Just by knowing that the person was hire to work at that store already gives us an idea of that person’s capability, and again has established a role for him/her.  However, if we lack the skill and don’t get hire due to lack of experience, isn’t that the same as an actor not getting the part of a role due to someone else being more experience?  Relating to status and roles, aren’t we always trying to impress an audience?  According to Goffman, the power of the audience is very influential because the audiences have expectations, and those expectations needs to be fill.  Let’s take the salesman again as the example.  If the salesman fails to do his/her job or does it poorly, then the members of the audience can report him to higher management, and he/she can be discipline or potentially fired.  So by comparison with a play/movie, if the actor/actress does not perform as well as thought to be, there may be negative impacts in the future.  What I mean by this is that, if a an actor/actress fails to deliver on a role, then in future projects that that person is in, the audience will turn a blind eye because that person is associated with negativity base on one bad performance.  This is the case with Ben Affleck, which can be found in this news article (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57599811/ben-affleck-to-play-batman-in-man-of-steel-sequel/).  Due to his bad performance in the movie Daredevil, fans of comic books are booing the decision to make him the new Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel (http://io9.com/the-50-greatest-tweets-about-ben-afflecks-casting-as-1188521731).  Although he has redeemed himself since then, people will never forget that he fails to deliver as Daredevil.  So overall, Goffman’s idea takes a modern look on society, which makes it so relatable.

SUMBLOG8 George Herbert Mead

I find George Herbert Mead’s view of “the self” quite fascinating.  We live in a world where people like to generalize each other based on their looks and their status.  In other words there are standards that are set upon us on how we should act in society within the cultural norm.  What I mean by standard is if you are a famous athlete you must act humble and try to be role models for the younger generation. With these standards put in place on people, it’s no secret why we will never truly “know” who or what a person really is.   This is where the “I” and the “me” come into play.  The “me” is objective part of a person which is the part that they want to be projected as.  The “I” is the subjective part of a person, which are the inner thoughts or raw emotions.  The two works hand in hand to help balance each other out.  The “I” may want to do something, but the “me” may tell a person to think otherwise, which in this case help the person makes the right decision.  Social media is a great way for people to play around with the “me” part of them.  They can be view as someone else without any precaution.  Take online gaming as an example, some people sure talk big during gameplay even when their behinds are getting kicked.  They might act this way during gameplay, but I doubt that they’ll act this way in public.  Superheroes are no strangers to the “I” and “me” concept.  The heroes wears a mask to hide the “I” or their true self from the public.  This is usually done so to keep them safe, and to protect the people important to them.  But they mainly wear the mask so that people won’t treat them differently or fear them while in human form.  While the “me” helps them display what they really want to do, because the mask becomes a filter that allows them to display their true intention, which is to help people.  Like this scene from the movie Spiderman 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVX-cUJGdxs).  This scene does a good job at telling us that there is a hero in each and every one of us.  We just need to find a filter to display it.