Blog 10

"Society is a human product.  Society is an objective reality.  Man is a social product."

-Peter Berger

The Social Construction of Reality, Berger's best-known work, takes a deeper look into why a society functions in the way that it does.  Berger's concept explains that groups of people will create different concepts, or assign meanings and representations to things, over time.  These will then eventually become habitual; we won't have to think about them, we simply know.  After that is when institutionalization occurs. This is when people enter into these roles almost systematically.  Once these created thoughts and concepts become institutionalized, our reality becomes socially constructed.

This was an interesting topic to discuss, because it really makes you question the validity of the world around you.  I think one way in which I agree with this concept is that society is not the same all over the world.  If these "roles" that we play were the same all over the world, then maybe I would argue that somehow these societal roles were inbred in us.  But, you can see that there are roles that are seen as normal in our society, that when you travel to other societies you see that those are not even in existence. What is an acceptable role in society in the United States would be different than that of a societal role in a third world country. We socially construct these roles and ideas, and we, in a way construct the society around us.

Here is a video of Peter Berger talking about his sociological views, and his book The Social Construction of Reality

Blog 9

“And to the degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.” 

-Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was a really interesting topic of the week.  Goffman theorizes that each of us has this presentation of self, or in other words, ways that we know we are expected to perform in certain situations.  Within this presentation of self we see how we also balance these ideas of status and roles.  Our status is our social position, our roles are our expected behaviors of a particular status, and our self-label is our power to present ourselves how we want to.  

I really saw how prevalent this is in anyones life.  We care what people think, or at the very least are aware of what they think.  And this does have some sort of an effect on how we conduct ourselves in certain situations.  Sometimes we act in ways that are not ourselves, or maybe feel unnatural, because we feel that is how we are expected to act.

This video is from What Would You Do, which used to (or maybe still does) air on ABC.  I remember being in a situation like this at a restaurant, and witnessing the same things.  At the time, I was too caught up in what my "role" was, and how I was expected to act, that I did not act at all. That is something I really regret.  Sometimes ignoring how you are expected to act in a situation, and simply doing the right thing, is more worth it in the end.  

Blog 8

This week we learned about Georg Simmel and his concept of "The Stranger".  The idea that someone "...who is remote is near."  I honestly thought this idea was kind of humorous, just because of how he words this.  It sounds quite ominous, like some elusive person.  But it really does make sense, the concept that someone is physically near you and yet you do not really notice them or know much about them. They are near and far at the same time. It is a strange thing, indeed. But it makes perfect sense.

I liked the example we used in class when we said that this is kind of like when you meet the friend of a friend.  You know their name, what they look like, and funny stories about them.  And yet they are still a mystery because this is all second-hand information you've collected over time.  You've never actually heard their voice say their name, or seen the color of their eyes because they are staring back at you, and you've never actually witnessed them doing some of those goofy, endearing things your friend has talked about before.  I think another example that I have experienced would be when you have foreign exchange students in your class. You usually can tell by an accent, or a strange looking choice of clothing... or even a simple complexion difference can be an indicator that this person is different than you.  You do not know much about them, but you notice them. They are remote and yet near.

It is easy to look at the "stranger" and just see someone different than you.  You choose to always remain as strangers, and you move on with your life.  I feel like all my blogs end with me talking about giving people a chance, but it's something I've learned a lot in my short 20 years of life.  Even in class talking about Muslim Americans...seeing how amazing those people are, and then seeing how mistreated they are made me so sad.  We're missing out on people who have great ideas and life experiences to share.  You grow when you get to know someone who is different than you.  Maybe it's a good idea to make that "stranger" in your life anything but that.

Check out this sweet video!

"Fear makes strangers of people who should be friends."

-Shirley MacLaine