Sociology Week 8

This week in sociology class we watched the movie, Tuesdays With Morrie. It's based off the book which is a true story of how Mitch Albom, a sport's writer, has his life changed by his old, dying sociology teacher from college. Mitch's life was revolved around work, he didn't put nearly enough time into his personal life, like his girlfriend. He was constantly on his cell phone and attached to due dates and had fallen victim to very unimportant things, as many Americans do. Getting back in touch with his sociology teacher helped him to learn about what's really important in life. He wasn't valuing what he should or ever living in the moment, and Morrie showed him that.

Watching this movie really makes me want to do more meaningful things with my time. It makes me cringe to think that I put way more time and effort into my schoolwork than I do with my relationships. In Brene Brown's TED talk, she talks about the importance of being vulnerable. Up until seeing that talk, I had always thought vulnerability was a bad thing. To most Americans, being vulnerable has a negative connotation because it means that you aren't in complete control of yourself.  Many Americans value complete independence and see depending on others as a bad thing. But in order to love anyone- family, friends, significant other, etc.- you have to let yourself be dependent. Seeing this talk, and Tuesdays With Morrie has really made me value the process you have to go through in order to feel connected to others. I've always had a difficult time saying how I feel, and I see now that it's really important to do that. I want to spend more time with my family and friends before college, and tell them how important they are to me. Seeing this movie made me realize that you can't wait and put off these things because the time might pass, Mitch was lucky to have gotten in touch with Morrie before he passed.

Sociology Week 7

This week in sociology we discussed the values we have in American culture. We read an article talking about the main 13 values we as Americans all tend to have. They include - change, time, individualism, future orientation, taking action, efficiency/practicality- just to name a few. We also read another article about a man who came here from Germany and lived in Chicago, he was very surprised by the jogging phenomenon he encountered. Back in Germany, no one would ever choose to do that. Jogging is a good demonstration of American values. It's very individual, as it is done alone. Although it may be more fun to get a group of friends together to play a sport that comes into conflict with other values- like time, action, and practicality. It takes more time to arrange a sports game then it does to just get up on your own and do it- making it a much more practical form of exercise to fit into Americans' busy schedules. The man also discussed how he was surprised that Americans would even get up at 5 AM to go jogging. This illustrates the value of taking action. Doing something is always better than not, and so taking action is more "productive" than sleep to some Americans.

Reflecting on my knowledge of Indian culture I can definitely see a difference in their values versus ours. For example, in India the oldest son does not move out of his parents house typically. He will marry a woman and then bring her in to live with him and his parents to start their family there. Over here we would look down upon that saying that they aren't growing and developing as people and on their own as a family because we highly value the experience of change. It also has to do with them being less individualistic over there compared to over here. Another example I have regarding individualism is how we value privacy more than other cultures. According to our reading, privacy isn't even a word in some languages. This makes much more sense to me now as to why my parents who were raised in India have more trouble "respecting my privacy". Growing up as an American, it has always frustrated me because I feel like they owe me privacy. But where they grew up, privacy was not valued at all and someone who wanted privacy would probably be seen more as isolating themselves from the group.

Sociology Week 6

This week in sociology class we watched a documentary, "God Grew Tired of Us". It was about a group called "The Lost Boys" from Sudan who were brought to America as refugees. In the movie they experienced severe culture shock, from balloons, to electricity, to doughnuts- there is no way for them to have known these things that are so familiar to us. It was interesting because although they were living a very comfortable life compared to their life in Sudan, (having a job, sleeping in a bed, having enough food to eat/water to drink, living in an apartment, etc.) they still missed Sudan greatly. They missed the strong bonds they had with everyone there, calling American culture very lonely. Over here, you aren't able to talk to strangers without being called weird. One of the boys who worked in a grocery store noticed this woman who was crying and was so surprised and saddened by the fact that no one went to her to ask her what was wrong.

This isolation can definitely apply to my life in a way that I don't really want it to. Just the other day my mom was telling me how I'm always in my room with my door closed and I don't mingle with my family as much as I should. She continued and said that if I had been raised in India like her and my dad, that would never be okay. India's culture is much more similar to Sudan in that way. Normally I probably would have shrugged my mom's comments off, but after seeing this movie I really want to make it a point to go beyond the norm and be more sociologically mindful of how I further contribute to the isolation of American society.