Blog 12

This week in class we talked about the use of technology and how it can widen or narrow the inequality gap.  I think that technology only widens the gap of inequality.  Sure it can be of great help when a person is able to use it, but it comes at a price.  Unfortunately not all of us can afford it.  I found this article talking about social media and the effects it has on social networking.  Social media sites were designed to bring people together but the exact opposite happens.  People go inline and meet people that are similar to themselves and do not really expand their networks.  It creates a greater inequality.  This article obviously explains it better.  Its a good read and is very similar to this weeks discussions.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/understanding-social-networks/201203/social-networks-and-inequality

Blog 11

I really enjoyed watching the video in class.  I thought it was great that these women can change their lives just by learning how to put together some circuit boards and make solar powered appliances.  The quality of life for these women was saddening.  They are socially oppressed by their husbands and receive little respect.  At the end of the film however I was happy to see that Rafea had moved away from her husband and was able to keep her children.  With technological advances comes social empowerment at least in the case of these women.  I was kind of angered by Rafea's husband trying to control her and not let her go back to the school.  I think he was jealous and too lazy to learn something himself so he just kept her down.  I am glad that she found power in her education and was able to change her life.

I think this image perfectly describes the situation in Rafea's and many other women's lives.

Blog 10

This weeks readings about fear and power really got me thinking. I am planning on a career in law enforcement in some area or another and the reading relates directly to this.  Authority is a legitimate domination over a group whereas power is simply a domination over a group.   As law enforcement whether it is local police or federal agents, there is a code of conduct.  There are more and more cases where this code is broke and authority turns to power over people.  One of the readings talks about Police joining in on hate crimes against the immigrants in the town.  This is appalling.  I think that there are cops out there that are in the career just to bully people and impose fear into people.  I think that it can be a slippery slope when someone is given authority.  Problems can arise when someone sees themselves not as an enforcer of the law but rather the law.  I think that this gives Law enforcement officers a stigma that they are all just power hungry people looking to get innocent people in trouble.

As far as my media I would just like you to Google "police abuse of power"
https://www.google.com/search?q=police+&rlz=1C1BXPB_enUS509US509&oq=police+&aqs=chrome..69i57.6838j0j1&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=police+abuse+of+power
It is sad that people who are there to protect and serve can do things like this.  Sure some things may be out of context, and the media can have bias opinions but no doubt there are people who abuse power.
    

Blog 9

Cultural Transmission is defined as the act of passing on culture and information from one generation to another.  This is what made us who we are today.  As far as the topic of media and how it differs today from what it used to be is a little unsettling.  However, what I personally find upsetting is how our generation differs so much from the generations before when it comes to hard work and gratification.  Everything today is at our fingertips.  anything we would ever want or need to know can be found on the internet that is so conveniently located in our pockets.  Corners are cut and tasks are made easier constantly.  Our generation knows one kind of gratification and that is instant gratification. Our parents didn't have computers growing up, never mind a cellphone with internet.  Many in my generation expect everything to come easily and everything to be attainable instantly. From wanting to know the answer to a question to making money or getting in shape. Our generation is overwhelmed by this instant gratification.  "Get rich in only 4 weeks", "Get ripped in 5 weeks", these are things that really disturbed me. Hard work is almost a thing of the past.  This is more disturbing to me than what is currently on the TV or the radio.

This past summer I was back at my high school helping out with the annual alumni football camp.  After the camp was done for the day I went to get a lift in. I was in the middle of my lift and was approached by some of the students and we got to talking about lifting weights. I have had many conversations about training and lifting and the first question I am always asked is normally along the lines of "Bro/dude, what do you take?". It was no different when talking to these students. Rarely if ever, is the first question asked "How do you train?", it is always what  do you take.  Why is that? Because our generation is always looking for the "get ripped quick" scheme.  Everyone wants to exercise very little and take that pill to get huge or super cut for beach season.  Our generation is king when it comes to this.  

We don't want to put in the time to read the chapter of the book when we can Google the answer and only read the one relevant sentence in the chapter.  Almost everyone today does it.  I will admit it, I will do the same thing when it comes to certain things like Googling something over looking in a book.  It is just a norm among today's youth.  There are many things that our generation failed to accept from previous generations and hard work/patience is on that list.  I think this ad pretty much sums it up.

Blog 8

Sociopoly
This week in class we played the game Sociopoly.  Much like real life there was economic inequality in the game. I was on the 4th team or group, which received the short end of the stick when it came to the money.  We rolled the dice once maybe twice before my team was out of the game. I thought this was very easy to relate to the reading.  The chapter talked about inequality concerning African Americans. It really shows you what it is like to be a minority faced with economic constraints and hardships as well as inequality in the judicial system.  By no means does it give a full experience but it definitely gives you insight to problems faced by minorities.  I use to be a pretty firm believer in the whole bootstrap saying but when you don't have a thread to grab its hard to pull yourself up.
I am looking for a summer job and have been for months.  I have a job and I see how lucky I am to have it because this whole search is looking pretty bleak as of right now.  As I get older I realize that sometimes you want to pull yourself up and make a life for yourself, but if you aren't given an opportunity it can be almost impossible.  It really opens my eyes and makes me think about what it is like to be socially oppressed.

Blog 7

Inequality in Education
This week in class we talked about inequality in institutions, with a touch on educational inequality.  the first thing I thought of was this clip.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/05/28/tsr-intv-9-year-old-takes-on-chicago-mayor.cnn.html
The kid basically says it all.  The mayor wants to close numerous schools because they are not producing the scores that other schools are.  I see a whole other solution for this problem.  Like Asean says in the clip, we need to invest in our schools.  However when it comes to schools filled with racial and ethnic minorities people seem to give up and say forget it when performance is sub-par.  The test scores are low and graduation numbers are low because there are no resources.  There are no supplies, no good teachers, and no motivation to learn.  If a child is given a new book, new school supplies, a classroom, and a excited, qualified teacher, that student will learn and be eager to do so.  However, these schools like Asean's are filled with minorities, and that limits the funding the school receives.  America is going to have to start funding equally, if not more so,  the schools in which the student body is predominantly minorities, because in fifty years, whites may be the minority.  There needs to be racial and ethnic equality in the education system.  Eventually it would become too big of a problem and few schools would be receiving funding, and our nations educational system would be in the bottom ranks on the worldly scale.

Blog 6

Romanticism of the job
This last week we watched the video about minimum wage and the janitorial employees at several prestigious universities.  I thought the video was great.  It gave insight into the jobs that people "get stuck in".  I thought it was interesting how people think that they are stuck in these positions as janitors when really they are doing something that they love.  Sure no one or very few grow up with aspirations of becoming a janitor but once they become one they love it.  Several of my friends I went to high school with now run their family farms.  Sure its not a glorious job, but its what they love.  It doesn't pay great and comes with no vacations, yet they love it.  One of my good friends graduated with a degree in accounting from UW-Whitewater and he is working at a produce farm.  He loves it.  He could be making  close to six figures a year at some big company but he chooses to do something he loves.  I do think that the video we watched did romanticize the job a little bit, but i do believe they and many more people that are "stuck" at a job may indeed actually enjoy them.

 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38168029/ns/business-careers/t/lowest-paying-jobs-america/#.Uy-vQ_ldUuc

These jobs may be low paying, but many people find them very rewarding.