Deviance

Punishable deviance has usually, almost always been a social construct. Negative deviance will always have "punishment" types of outcomes. Punishable deviance has always been apart of human society, not only because it locks up potentially dangerous people, but it separates the "lower classes" from the "higher classes." In the U.S, regulation of this type of deviance is very bleak, besides officials arresting people and locking them up in "correctional facilities." As sociologists, the penitentiary system is basically saying "we don't care, we get the money to store your "trash" and that's fine with us". Because how many jails or correctional facilities actually try to HELP the inmates that reside within them? How many try to help them conquer whatever problems that they might have? Because sitting and rotting in cell is definitely the only thing that's going to help.

Final blog for the second six weeks

1. Both nature and nurture had an impact on my life choices and how I make my decisions. I want to be a writer when I grow up, my mom keeps telling me that she knew I would be a writer. She told me that when I was little, I would write these poems that were very advanced for my age, and that I would make up really creative stories (I was three years old by the way), and she would buy me alot of cute little notebooks for me to write my stories in. I remember that when I was in elementary school, my teacher would read alot of short story books, and she had us do, both for projects and in class work, to write our own short stories. Alot of people I knew wrote and read lots of books, which were people who were a bit older than me. And I was always being told that I was really creative, and had really good ideas, and I would also see stories in everything.

2. Social status power is important to almost all adolescents because it's the only power we have that makes us closer to obtaining adult status, and the only thing that we have actually receive power in.

3. The socialization process is more difficult for children today than in previous generations because of the fact that there is a huge gap among children and adults, and that they have no real place in society, making it harder for them to mature socially. Also, socialization in this generation may be harder due to the large advancements in technology. With all these social networks online and reality T.V, kids don't tend to realize most of the things they see on T.V don't really happen, and that talking through a computer isn't really the same as actually talking to somebody, unfortunately, these factors can "bleak en"their social lives, which slows the socialization process.

4. One of the major gender differences in socialization is the way we are taught to behave, or how our society expects us to. Boys are taught to be 'manly' and not to show emotion (crying), whereas girls are taught that showing emotion is ok, it is socially acceptable. i remember that when I was younger (like maybe 9 or so) a boy got frustrated and started to cry, and the teacher didn't do anything but say "oh try to go back to work". But when I started to cry because I messed something up on my little project, BAM! The teacher comes over and talks very calmy and soothingly to me, (and i think the teacher might've given me a hug also) and helped me on my project, but of course, the boy was left alone, being expected to toughen up.

Video game violence; Happy or Tragic?

Oh the sweet world of video games! (which may be, unfortunately, not so sweet.) Video games are considered by most to be a separate universe. You can put yourself in a completely different world, where you could get away with almost anything-from mass killings to murder, to blowing up buildings, and even torture; taking people hostage. Sounds great, right? Not to mention the fact that you are immortal, you die for one second and bleed to death, wait a few minutes and what do you know? you get right back up again! Now, if only things can really get that simple..

Now, at certain, younger ages, children tend to be more absorbent than their preteen/ adolescent counterparts. What I mean by this is that the brains of young children are still going through the early stages of development. If you were to see and compare a scan of a young child's brian to maybe lets say a 16 year old, for example, you can easily pick out the differences in the size and in the amount of squiggly creases. Younger children's brains (children 3- five), don't have as much of those squiggly creases; making the brain more "spongy" and more absorbent to new information.

Little kids don't know any better, because they're still so young and developing, and that's what makes video games both happy and tragic violence. It's happy because, lets admit it, video games are enjoyable, they're fun. But however, as teens and adults, we know for a fact that the type of "world" that's portrayed through video games isn't like our world at all. Little kids will assume that the fictional, three dimensional world they're seeing on the T.V screen is really what happens in their real, not so three dimensional world. Which can actually make some kids act out what they see. And depending on the video game, that can be and/or become very dangerous. That's where the tragic violence comes in, because the impact video games can have on kids is/or can be aviodable.

Video game violence; Happy or Tragic?

Adolescence and status

Adolescence is an extension of childhood, while at the same time it is the beginning of adulthood.

This stage in life, in particular, can create conflict in an individual's state of being, because for one, teenagers aren't given adult status, though biologically they basically are. Our culture however, grants adolescence certain adult status opportunities like driving and voting, while at the same time denied many others, which include drinking and whatnot. Because of this, along with other factors, it makes the stage of adolescence all the more confusing. It's hard to contemplate that even though, as adolescents, we are granted opportunities to obtain adult status, we can't legitimately claim that status. Maybe that could be why being an adolescent is so dramatic, why certain crimes are comitted; because we want to advance our status forward, and not be lingering between two realms, so to speak.

Status consumes the lives of teenagers, though some don't realize it. Today, teenagers are given alot of responsibilities, yet at the same time they're denied adult status, which for some, causes fights with parents and elders. This can have a big part in the development into adulthood. I think that it might actually slow the maturation process, because as teens, when denied adult status, it forces an indivdual to fall back to their age, instead of progressing. They'll be like kids longer than our society desires, because they didn't fully mature and they're still figuring out certain concepts well into their 20's.

Still, it does have to be this way. Because it does give us more time to figure things out, and to make silly mistakes and learn from them, and to sociologically mature. If we were to rush things as youngsters, we would be clueless adults, and we would be lacking certain skills we would usually obtain as teenagers.

Please comment

socialization blog 1

My parents realized I had a unique personality almost immediately, and I pretty much gave them the sign. When I was two or three, I told my mom that "you're not the boss of me" and she was shocked to say the least, and we both can't remember the whole scene and what had led me to say that. Another example of my difference signs was when I was six and me and my mom were walking in a mall, looking for my brother's birthday present, and we saw a a little girl crying behind her mother, who looked a little uptight; my mom leaned down and chuckled and whispered to me and told me that that little must have been acting like a brat, and I told her how do you know that, what if it's something else?- apparently I was different because i don't jump to conclusions. I don't want to have my parent's ignorance, and sometimes arrogance, and a habit I really don't ever want to have that they do is chewing like a cow, it's so annoying and obnoxious.

I think you have to study the behaviors of your parents nature and nurture to be different, I don't know how one can 'work agianst' those particular elements..is that even possible?

Infantilization culture (examples of Infantilization)

Once a person turns 18, they are considered by their culture as an adult. But they're still treated like children, despite their age and what that age symbolizes and represents to society. As and adult, certain privileges are granted, like the ability to vote, purchase cigarettes and pornography.

If you're old enough to smoke and buy porno, then why must infantilization continue occur? Some examples include a 18 year old student asking a teacher "may I go to the bathroom?" and wait for the teacher's answer, when we can just as easily say "hey, I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be right back." and teachers or other adults talking down to us like they would talk to a baby, and the worst..bedtimes. If I'm old enough to smoke and purchase items of adult content, and vote! then why should there be a set bedtime, I'll go to bed whenever I feel like it, if one is old enough to smoke or vote, then why can't that person choose the very time that they go to bed? Which leads to an all more important question: if I can vote, then why can't I make decisions for myself?