End of semester reflection post: Sociology in Public Relations and my personal life
As a Public Relations major sociology is beneficial to me because you work with a variety clientele on various projects all from various locations and backgrounds of life. These groups of people are very diverse, across races, religious beliefs, genders and disabilities. Sociology teaches you to drop the stigmas and how to approach unique matters on a micro and macro level. When you’re looking through a sociological lens, you will realize how to be tactful in handling press releases, social media and when handling people in general. Most public relations jobs are extremely culturally diverse since you could be working with global customers you’ll need an understanding of their traditions and the social norms within their country as well. You will see sociology being beneficial in how one group of people may be affected more than another group based on how you handle things. Ultimately your approach could unintentionally exclude or upset a group of people that you are trying to help.
Sociology teaches us that even if we don't believe we aren’t being discriminatory we may be subconsciously or that we could be participating in institutionalized racism or have advantages based on our skin color or economic standing that we may be oblivious too compared to someone else. By taking a Sociology class, you can enhance your critical thinking skills and put into practice an approach that will benefit a variety of people long term. It teaches you how to articulate your message in a well-thought-out manner while listening and trying to understand the culture, diversity, and message of the clients you will be working with. It teaches us that if we do have a benefit over someone else we can be a voice to advocate for the changes and justices that are more balanced for them. Public relations often involve various causes meant to balance equality and help those who need it. It allows us to utilize the diversity we have in our world and teaches us to appreciate one another for these differences.
As far as my personal life I’m finding myself thinking about things in even more ways than I did previously. I’m a self-proclaimed overthinker so for me to say that I’m thinking even more about topics that I once didn’t is “different” for me. Sociology even has me breaking down the meaning behind billboards, television shows, and even songs I once enjoyed I’m finding myself more critical of. I connected to a lot of the topics this semester but the two I most connected to where the social deviance project and gender chapters. The social deviance simply because I am “random”. Things others don’t consider normal I may do anyways just to see how people respond or to see if I can make someone smile. I’ve known first hand what it’s liked to be judged on my appearance or standing up for things when others haven’t, even if it means standing alone.
I also connected a lot with gender and the feminism aspect of that chapter due to being female it was hard not to relate in many ways. I personally found myself placed in some of these gender-specific roles and being criticized and questioned when I stepped out of the “normal” role. As someone who has experienced sexism first hand. It was relatable as far as how the media puts pressure on women and often overlook discrepancies amongst genders. I can say that I am leaving this class with a reminder that globally speaking we are all so very diverse not just physically but emotionally. Our experiences throughout our lives help mold us and our believes and what we project back into the world. Despite trying to fix many of these inequalities I’m not too hopeful at the moment that they’ll truly be fixed. This class has made me slightly more cynical, to be honest. I am however reminded I have a voice and a platform to speak up, so I can stand up for what I feel is right and be an advocate for those who don’t. I only hope others speak up and look at things critically to the point we also don’t make everything into a label and only aggravate an already fractured world. The world will never be perfect but maybe in time, small changes will accumulate into a much-needed difference that we need to solve some of these problems and to prevent history from repeating itself.
Source:
Hightower, J. (n.d.). [Speak up]. Retrieved December 5, 2017, from http://i.quoteaddicts.com/media/q1/1244780.png
If you are planning on taking sociology go into the course open-minded. Prepare to discuss controversial topics. Prepare to have your ideas and beliefs tested. Because you’ll be looking at things through a unique lens. You will be challenged, even if you consider yourself an open-minded person, you may not be as much as you thought. You’ll learn views and theories you may never have considered before and be forced to self-evaluate your own behaviors and thoughts at times. My personal experience will caution you not to take Global History 1500 to present day at the same time. The topics combined although complimentary made it very emotionally draining. It left me depressed frequently due to the nature of the topics. I also felt it made it a bit more challenging in the regard to how I was able to view certain chapters compared to other students because I was beginning to merge what I was learning about history into class.
The positive side to that is that it allowed to me to realize in what ways we really have progressed through history and areas that as a society we still are struggling with presently. There are some fun parts too, so don’t let me scare you away! The social norm breaching project was my favorite part!
What I’m taking away from this course most is that there really are no clear cut easy solutions when it comes to dealing with society and the people in it. There are many variables that will change and some of the changes we start making now may not be impactful until far into the future, maybe even beyond our lifetimes. Ultimately, we can’t make changes unless they acknowledge their existence and are aware of how society constructed some of these beliefs whether it was through poor science, religious beliefs or downright prejudices we’ve gained. Put in the work and stay open-minded. If you’re unsure ask questions and take some time to step back if you get overwhelmed or simply find a topic upsetting. As mentioned these topics aren’t easy to discuss at times. Always remain a bit of a skeptic and do some of your own research as well. In the end, you will have learned to expand your critical thinking skills and your views will have probably changed to seeing things through the lens of a sociologist. I strongly believe the class has changed my perception. Things that I didn’t put as much thought into before I seem to think about even more ways now. Good luck to all future students!
Social Stratification knowing how social class affects you.
When you hear the term social class you probably think of lower, middle and upper class. They have become the common indicators of where we fall within a society based on our wealth and income. Nowadays there are several models and categories to assign someone's social class position. I choose to utilize the Gilbert-Kahl Model since it shows the occupations that usually rank there, approximate wealth and roughly what percent of the population fits in each category. But, there’s much more to how sociologists evaluate the differences in social classes.
Defining the difference between wealth and income
Let’s define the difference between wealth and income since they help differentiate between inequalities amongst some of the social classes.Although they work aside each other they are different.Income doesn’t yield a return the way wealth does.You can have income and little to no wealth but in most cases, you can’t have wealth without a decent income to obtain it. It also is one way the wealthy are able to stay wealthy as investments yield return and can continue to grow.The wealthy tend to spend less and invest more while the income of other classes tends to be spent getting buy and surviving with little ability to move ahead.
Wealth is a person's net worth overall including all assets minus any of their liabilities and owed debts. Wealth is built up generally over a certain time frame, generally the course of one's lifetime. This includes savings, investment accounts, stocks, bonds, and property including your house, land, and vehicle.
Income, on the other hand, is more immediate. This is what’s earned for profit. It can come in the form of wages from a job, government assistance, or rental properties. It is more “free-flowing” and continually moving, it can, however, last for a short time rather than continual. Examples of this can be seen with job loss and more debt then income scenarios.
Social Stratification exists in many societies and has all throughout history. The difference, however, was based on the social characteristics of that society and wealth was variable by different forms of hierarchy systems. The effects of these rankings today can be seen in a wide variety of ways. These system rankings placed on us by society sets us up for different life chances from the beginning.
The wealthy often have access to better schools, health care, tend to live longer and children tend to have higher wealth like the family they were raised in. Lower class and poverty-stricken families, however, don’t have access to great schools, may not have access to health care at all, don’t live as long and often are associated with higher crime rates.
Social Mobility doesn’t mean we will be stuck forever! We do have some degree of mobility within the system.
The good news however, is not all hope is lost. The bad news is for most of us we have little social mobility as far as going upward very much and some of us we will stay stuck as the wealth disparities continue to grow further apart between lower classes and the wealthy. Despite hard work and the American dream many will continue to struggle due to this balance of inequality.
Most of our mobility will be done horizontally as a group or individually:
This would include things like an employee changing jobs, keeping the same title, but at a new location or a job change of equal skill set. The status is the same though. Converting to a new religion or moving to a new town, are also included in horizontal mobility.
Vertical mobility is the rise or fall between groups. This can be felt ascending or descending. This could be moving up in class due to a lottery win and good investing or going down in social class after losing your job and ending up homeless.
Both sets of mobility can be affected by the economy. Structural Mobility will be felt most on the individual level. It effects everyone due to the changes in the economy. The depression, housing bust, and other large-scale economic issues come in to play. As debt keeps rising for the middle class so does the lack of upward mobility. The wealthy are able to stay wealthy because changes don't affect them as much due to their wealth that's available.
What affects social mobility and creates more inequality?
As the industrialization age began and technology continued to advance more disparities began to appear.
Globalization formed enhancing the rise of trade and goods that could be produced and shipped globally. This required migrant labor and produced multinational businesses. This was the beginning of how wealth and inequality began forming social economically with varying degrees of difference.
Since the United States is founded on the American dream we have to take into account inconsistencies. Education, Income, and occupational prestige have a huge part in social economic status. Those who have all three items tend to generally be better off financially. However, there are other factors to keep in mind when thinking sociologically like how racism, bigotry, and misogyny all play a part in fueling these differences as well as our choices and sacrifices towards our own personal progression.
Sources:
Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: an introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.
Robert Kiyosaki- Philosophy of the Rich [Digital image]. (2015, March 19). Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://thefranklinsociety.com/how-to-become-rich/
Sills, S. J., Dr. (n.d.). G Robert Kiyosaki- Philosophy of the Rich [Digital image]. (2015, March 19). Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://thefranklinsociety.com/how-to-become-rich/ ilbert-Kahl Model of the Class Structure [Digital image]. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://uncgsoc101.wordpress.com/module-6-social-stratification/
Solomon, M. R. (2015). Social Mobility [Digital image]. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from http://slideplayer.com/slide/4728773/15/images/18/Social Mobility Social Mobility: Horizontal Mobility:.jpg
Learning about social control and deviance was my favorite section of class this semester!
First I want to go over some helpful key terms:
Social deviance = is anything outside social norms. These are rules we know we should abide by and generally do as part of normal behavior. Items like not committing murder or sneezing and making sure to cover your nose and mouth.
Informal deviance: Fractions committed that aren’t punishable by law but they are “just wrong”. These are actions that will warrant stares, glares, maybe comments or rude gestures if someone would see you commit the offense. A great example is leaving a bathroom without washing your hands or sampling grapes at the grocery store while shopping for produce.
Formal Deviance: Crimes that are punishable by societal standards and often written in the law.
Deviance is a broad term and consist of a wide range of beliefs that as a society we may see differently from each other on an individual level. Or we may see broader on a macro level in an event like geography. But overall there are common connections.
Most of these deviances will offer you a different reaction that’s “punishable” and can be seen differently based on an area your located. Rules can change and will vary. Normally murder is a bad thing but what if it’s committed in the act of self defense or saving a group of other people? Is the person who committed the murderer still seen as badly if he did it to save many others? What if he committed the crime after an argument with the person he killed and simply had one too many drinks beforehand? As you can see in my example the situation changed affecting the outcome. Society has placed stipulations and these views on us and even if it’s a disapproving glance we will often modify our behaviors to conform and not be seen a certain way that's associated as “negative” or wrong.
Let’s think of society as a human body:
The Functionalist theory tells us each organism will serve its own unique purpose. Example: The state you live would be the brain and decision-making center. It would dictate to other areas the laws and what needs to be done and the other areas would then implement them. These “organs” work together much like a society where we’ve come to depend on each other to regulate and keep things working smoothly as a country. Even when there are hiccups there are sanctions to keep “everyone in place”. These vary based on laws, written guidelines or even those looks of disapproval I mentioned previously. This helps guide us based on what’s expected where we live and become part of our societal norms.
What happens when you don’t abide by these rules and rebel against the system? Of course, that will vary based on what you did. Let me share some of my experiences with you from our social norm breaching assignment. For this assignment, we were given a topic list of offenses that are generally seen as less than “normal” by society and our job was to do some field research and document how we were responded too. While I won’t be sharing all of my experiences I’ll be sharing some pictures and once again saying how this personally was very relatable to me. At the time we were doing this assignment it was close to Halloween which made this perfect for an idea I had! I recruited my husband and off to Target we went. Our mission was not to run just one experiment but a few! Before we even started I was stared at by a woman. My only guess is because I do my makeup differently and at that time my hair was a teal color. You get mixed reactions with that and even stopped and treated differently by people for something as simple as different colored hair. But, I digress.
I hoped in the shopping cart and planned on doing most my shopping from inside it with a unicorn helmet on my head, feet dangling over the cart and my poor husband pushing me around. I wish I could say this isn’t “normal” for us. But, alas I was in my element and have a habit of being the deviant oddball people glare at. See, what you don’t know about me is I’ve finally learned to be myself in this crazy world and for me, that means testing my boundaries and occasionally those around me. After a while, I even got out and started dancing with my lovely unicorn head on. The reactions were diverse amongst those there.
How did people react during my one hour and 15-minute shopping trip:
It began with an elderly couple looking at me oddly, but the elderly lady smiled. I looked at her husband and said, “safety first” and I can’t see with this on! Then I got a smile out of him too.
Teenagers…. well they are mean! In fairness, it could’ve been worse, but I was scowled at by one, complete with eye rolls not once but 3 times as she passed by! I even tried saying hi to her and waving. She wasn’t a friendly one.
Children are great. They are honest, bold, and not fully corrupted by all the societal influences yet. Though you can see that even at young ages they begin knowing what is or isn’t socially appropriate behavior based on their influences. One child spent a few minutes talking to me about his costume and introducing me to his little sister. His mom glanced over with an approving nod knowing her kids were ok and continued her shopping in that aisle. Another child wasn’t sure what to think. Here’s this grown woman in a cart wearing a unicorn head. He’d look away, look back, I’d catch him and eventually I smiled and waved, and he smiled back with a half wave almost as if he was confused by what’s going on. After he waved he didn’t turn back and look at me. I think I may have startled him a bit.
I ended up getting a British man in trouble. I said hello to him as he passed the aisle and his wife scolded him loud enough in the next aisle that we heard it just for saying hi back.
There were a few more glares, several people who didn’t notice at all and a few smiles and chuckles.
Without going further into my norm breaching experiments that day I will say I enjoyed seeing the reactions from others. I also enjoyed the acceptance of people or confusion. It was a reminder to me this class that we often become conditioned to act a certain way or allow others to dictate small matters and then we drive ourselves crazy based on stigma’s and labels that we give each other and sometimes those labels drive the behavior it’s intended to stop. While having some formal guidelines are great for a society as a whole deviance can also be needed at times to provoke change and fight against social injustice and inequality. Much like our “body scenario” we need to make changes at times to keep it healthy. The same goes for society and the people in it.
Source:
Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: an introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.
This semester I choose to take a sociology course. As part of our final project for class, we are supposed to create a Tumblr account showcasing topics we discussed. So, I’ll be sharing my journey and take on what I learned and who knows maybe I’ll keep this account and continue to post in the future once this assignment is complete. I am currently a public relations/communications major but human behavior is something that has always attracted my interest. I’ve always been one to ask the why’s, what’s and have you thought about it this way type of questions. I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you all and hope you stick around.
Oh, and if you are wondering how I came up with my username, it’s simply because I enjoy people watching and seeing how we interact with each other. I thought it would be fitting for a course in sociology and when dealing with human behaviors.
