All of the sudden i found myself thinking Sociologically.....

Last weekend i went Christmas shopping. That's when i saw that the social classes exit among us. While i was shopping i could clearly identify witch people are a middle middle class, or upper middle class, and with one are working classes. There is a huge difference on what kind of gifts people pick to buy depending on their classes. Of course the upper middle class would buy more expensive gifts. Also gifts for more people. The Middle middle class were buying gifts that were less expensive and for close family mostly. The working class were buying gifts that are much less expensive and it was mostly for their kids so they can make a wonderful Christmas for their kids.

In the pas week i was thinking a lot how easily people can fall for one class to another.... especially now when there is a huge recession and so many people are getting fired of their jobs. Being in the upper middle class some people are falling all the way to the working class and getting a minimum wage jobs. At this time you never know what will happen one  day because it  is so unexpected and no one can really tell when their class will change.

WHEN IT GOES OFF.....

 This article is talking about the huge protest that was going on in London. There was an unfairness about the murder and a lot of people were very angry about the whole trail think. Robert was the main character of the article and he really wanted his friends to experience this group interaction. There were so many people and and there were so many police trying to control the crowd however it was difficult to do it because there were soo many angry people. The social factors in this article are: Structural constructiveness is that there was a huge protest goin on. Social strain is that a lot of people were were at the same place at the same time. Growth and spread of a generalized belief is that so many people that were affected by it. It started by the one person and it started spreading around the other person. Precipitating factor is that there were many people that got upset.   The murder got them very upset and the unfairness by the trail got them even more upset. Mobilization of participants for action is that people are getting effected by the action of others. Inadequate social control is the all the policeman and all the people are trying to control this huge upset group.
This article have a very good understand on the protest and the different social factors.

All of the sudden i found myself thinking Sociologiclly.....

This week in class we learned a lot about the groups. So that's when i started thinking about how many different groups i am a part of. The major one for me is my family. i have my mom's side, my dad's side and my step dad's side. I consider  my mom's and dad's side as primary groups because i spent so much time with them and i knew them for so ling. We are very close. However i consider my step dad's family as a secondary because i just cannot connect with them and i have not know them for very long. my family cooperates a lot because we always positive and tries to help each other no matter what. My roles in my family are to be a role model to my little sister be a good daughter to my parent an fallow their rules and be a good granddaughter to my grandparents also we respectful to everyone.
My other group that i am part of is my basketball team. I consider them as a secondary group because we all share the same interest and we all are working for the same goal. We work by cooperation because that is very important in the team sport. We all are trying to help each other to get better. However their might be some conflict also when we have to compete against each other for the same spot. I consider myself as a player a teammate. My roles on the team is to be a good leader to be respectful and to listen to my coaches. 
There are many other groups that i am a part of im a student, im a volunteer, am a sports fan and  much more. It feels good to have people around you...:)

The Vicious Circle

In this article it gives a very interesting statistics on how much the drug rate in teenagers has increase. The race however between the teens that are committing the crimes are the same for white teens and color teens. However people in the society does not  understand that and when they hear about the crime they just assume that the criminal different race. I think this article deals more with the secondary deviance because these kids that are on drugs does not really learn the lesson that they suppose to. However in the article it mentions that the kid are getting more scared when the police treat them with taking away their driving license rather than jail. For me this makes no sense, how can a teen not care about their freedom rather they care about driving a car. In this argument the primary deviance is shown. Because teens are scared on loosing their license and more likely they not going to commit the crime again.

I think this article is very interesting because it shows to the people that not just color teens are criminals. White teens are involved in that too and even more than the color kids. Also for me it was very interesting that kids are more scared of loosing the ability to drive rather than jail. I would not want to loose my freedom. I think that prisons for teens needs to me more educational because they are so young still and they can still change it just takes effort. However no one wants to take that responsibility and no one really cares deeply about these teens that are committing the crimes.

All of the sudden i saw Sociology when...

All of the sudden i saw Sociology when this week we went to jail. I must say i learned a lot while i was there. There is soo many Sociological terms that i can applies to the day that we spent in jail! When we were in jail i saw a Phenomenological theory. When Sargent was telling us the statistics on how many inmates come back to jail after they are released. This theory explains why they do that because they have a positive view on themselves and they do not think they are doing anything wrong with it. So they commit the crime again and go back to jail! Also the shaming theory can explain why the criminals are put into the jail. They are put in there so they would see how ashamed the people are of them and the would make them change themselves and learn the lesson. However not so many Inmates take that out  of jail. Because they are have no goals and nor role models so they could change. 
In one of the court hearing i saw the only women that was in it. So i could applie the Feminist Theory to her because her crime was not as what the men would commit but it was close. She was charged with beating up her boyfriend who is in the wheel chair, however the boyfriend was beating her up too so they were both being deviant. This week and the field trip was very interesting to me because in my future i do want to become a lawyer so this was a good reality check for me. I really liked seeing the court hearings. It was very interesting to me because i did not know how did proceed. However jail part was not one of my favorite parts because it is just scary on how much some inmates do not care that they are in jail. 
Thank you for a great field trip Mrs. Haas:)

Response to the article

This article made me sad but it is to true. Boys are not allowed to play toys however girls are allowed to play with boys toys. I think there is nothing wrong if the boy plays with girl toys however his gender is a boy and society says he has to act that. About the costume that he wanted to be a princess i find nothing wrong with that because it is Halloween. People allays dress up however they want and there is nothing wrong. For example my 3 year old sister does not want to be a princess, instead she wants to be a pig for Halloween.Me and mom at first did not understand where did she get that from and i kept on asking her Gabby don't u want to be a princess? And all she said was no and I want to be a pig. So my mom went to the store and got her pig costume. But just by reading this article i understood that there is no reason to push all these things that are labeled as "gilrly" and for "boys". Especially at the young age kids should be allowed to play with what they want. Like my sister again she has race cars and plays with cars sometimes. I do not see anything wrong with that. However society has painted this huge picture the way girls should act and the way boys should act that in the end it might hurt some people.   

All of the sudden i found myself thinking Sociologiclly.....

All of the sudden i found myself thinking sociologically when i was babysitting my little sister Gabby. Gabby is only 3 years old and everything to her is so fascinating. Per day she asked about 1000 times why....? Why the sky is blue? Why is it night time? Why is my name Gabby? Why i have to go to school? Everything is why sometimes it really starts to annoy me but when i was babysitting on weekend i thought about this big question WHY? sociologically. Gabby is 3 years old and by asking questions like Why? so much she is learning so much. That weekend each time she asked me Why? i tried to explain everything as best i could that she would really understand. I realized that i was socializing her into this environment.

My mom has taken a huge role in Gabbys socialization. Since she was little she took her to the story times in the Library. Also she was taking kid rock classes at the park district, with thought her how to count, dance, colors, opposites, and also how to interact with other kids. This fall Gabby started to go to pre-school, with she really likes, and also she takes dancing class on Monday. My mom really wants her to interact with other kids and have fun at the same time.

One day when i came back from school i asked her how was her day and how was school? She told me that the firemen came to her school however she did not go into fireman truck and they did not bring the dogie with like in the cartoon Caillou.This was when i started to think sociologically again. TV was a huge influence on Gabbys socialization too. She remember seeing the cartoon and she was able to connect with her day at school.    

Each day Gabby learns something new. My mom, my step dad, and I myself play a huge role in Gabbys socialization. However TV, her pre-school and her dancing class have a part also. Gabby is socialized each day and that what makes us happy. 

All of the sudden i saw Sociology when... AGAIN!

All of the sudden i saw  sociology when i went to London and stayed in the family for the whole week. I did not really know how to speak English at that time so it was supper interesting for me. I stayed in the family of 2 kids and a mom. the first thing that shocked me the most was that in the bathroom if you want to take a bath there was 2 faucets. One for hot water and the other for cold. When first time i wanted to take a bath it was very difficult for me because it was ether very very hot or very very cold so i really could not figure how to do it.  They just have  different norms that i had to fallow and adapt to it for the whole week. However it was pretty difficult with the bath part. Different countries had different norms and some norms are just very hard to adapt for some people. However it is a good experience and sometimes it is go for people to learn something new.

Symbol Blog Post

Football in American culture means Sunday night. The majority of American population every Sunday attached themselves next to the TVs and watch football.

Fast food is very important in American culture. SO many people are always in the hurry so they do not get to eat dinner with their families sitting at home. A Lot of people eat on the go and that is a symbol of how busy the society is.

Facebook is huge in American culture. A lot of people want to be connected and in touch with each other. Facebook is the place to do that. A lot of Americans are on facebook because they believe that everyone is connected and that's the way they talk with their friends.

Americans value their cars. If you have a nice new expensive car that means you have money and you can afford to buy and expensive nice looking car. However if you do not have a lot of money you buy and old cheap car or you do not have a car at all. Symbol is if you have a nice car that means you have money.

Starbucks coffee in American culture represents daily morning. A lot of Americans include Starbucks coffee in their daily routines. Because we are so busy stopping for coffee does not take so much time. 

All of the sudden i saw Sociology when...

All of the sudden i saw Sociology when i moved to America in 7th grade. For me at that time everything looked so different. The language was completely different i did no understand anything what people were saying to me and i sort of felt stupid. Also i felt like when i was trying my hardest to say something gin English people would just get annoyed with me. When i came here it seemed that people were constantly moving and never stopping. I never understood the eat on the go process. For me it just seemed so weird and out of place. It was very hard for me to get used to the new culture and adapted myself to it but i did it. I got used to the fast moving life. I do know understand the process of eating on the go. But at that time i was a stranger in a huge country with a bunch of new cultures. It is hard for someone from different culture to adapt to another. It takes time and a lot of hard work witch i did. There is Sociology all over us. Going from one country to another or going from one town to another it always fallows.    

Beamused in America: American Television

1. In this article Stefan Schirmer is comparing  the TV shows in the America to the TV shows in Germany. He is calling American TV as pretty disturbing. He says that most of our shows has to do something with crime. He was surprised to see so many killing or about killing shows especially during the day ( before 4 pm). Also Schirmer says that Americans are more contribute of being in front of the camera in the TV shows. He does not understand why do we need more than 100 channels. Most of us watch 4 channels the most anyways.

2. Stefan finds this culture strange because he cannot understand how can we take so much crime on TV. He thinks we already get daily news witch more than half is filled with crime reports. On top of that we have all these different shows about crime. Germans are not used to that. They like cooking shows better than killing shows.

3. Americans value their television. If you have over 100 channels that means you are "cool" and not poor. They like to be able channel surf while sitting on their buts. Also we are so used to watching and hearing about crime, so it really does not bother us to be watching tv all day about crime. Americans do value their television.

All of the sudden....

All of the sudden i started thinking sociologically when, one weekend i went to a very small town. This mall town is Putnam, IL. A town that education is not the first instinct to do for a young kinds. However their first priority is to work on the farm from the sun rise to the sunset. It made me want to get inside their shoes and see why they do not wanna go to school? why they do not want to get an education and a better life? Seeing all these young girls walking around with their children and the tummy sticking out made me realize how lucky some people are. But then again i started thinking about those young girls and young guys... They do not know better. They do not know how doest it like to go to school and have an education. They did not realize that maybe they are too young to have kinds.It made me realize a lot and it made me think so much. By thinking i came to the point were it made me realize that these kids do not have a great role models. They do not have no one to look up to and we all know that we always like to have a role model and that open person we always look up to. Sadly these kids do not have this opportunity in the land of no where.

I do believe that we all need someone to look up to and these kids cannot do that. When i visited the small town that's when i started thinking sociologically. In the land of nowhere. 

-Guoste

Who am I?

I am Guoste and i came here from Lithuania in 7 grade. Yes, i am a 100% Lithuanian. I am  friend. I try to be the best i can for my friends and always be there for them. I love helping people to solve their problems. I am a helpful person. I love helping people and i love making a difference. I am a daughter to my parents. My parents means everything to me and i do not know what would i do without them.Sadly my parents got divorced. I live with my mom here in USA while my dad lives in Lithuania. I get to see him every 2 years and it really makes me sad because some days all i wanna do is see my dad.  I am a sister. My little sister totally completes me. She is my best friend and the person that always puts a smile on my face no mater what. She is only 3 years old but she knows how to make me happy. I am a huge sports fan. I love playing basketball. When i play basketball i forget about all the problems that i might have in my life and i just play. Basketball makes me who i am because anytime i need to forget my problems i just pick up a basketball and leave everything behind me. I am a person that loves to smile and always ready to help someone.

The biggest influence in my life is my mom. She is always there for my no matter what and she always have the best advice when i need one. She is the person that i can talk with anytime and about anything because i know she will always understand. My dad is a huge part of who i am also. Since he is so so so far away i miss him so much however he thought me so many thinks that are useful in life. My family is very close. However my mom and I do not get to see our family so often we are still super close.My boyfriend had though me a lot also. I changed a lot after i meat him. he thought me how to live day by day and not look into the future so much.He made me to believe in myself more and he showed me who i really am. Last spring our family experienced a tragic. I know a word tragic sounds so big and scary. This is where my last most influential person comes in play. My moms brother, my uncle. He is like a second dad to me. Last spring brake we got a call from my family in Lithuania with some bad news. My uncle passed away. He was only 40 years old healthy and i thought he will live forever. It was a tragic to me and it still is because i felt like i lost my dad. I could not believe it for very long time and i am not sure if i still believe that it happen. To me it still seams like i am having a very bad dream and i really want to wake up from it but i can not because it is reality.  After that i live day by day because you can not ever know what will tomorrow bring.

I am  a dreamer. I dream a lot and i dream big. I have so many goals that i want to accomplish and i know i can do it. My biggest goal right now is to finish high school with good grades go to a small 4 year college. My biggest goals is to study law and to get into a good law school. My goal is to always stay close with my family. I want to never stop smiling and i want to always believe in myself:)