IHSS Blog 2018-2019

Clothing has been an important part of society for ages. Clothing and appearance define a social status that is made of first impressions and are an indicator of where one stands in society. Throughout the ages there has been a difference in clothing between men and women. Dating back to ancient times as humans evolved from their cavelike states to inhabit a more sophisticated society a gender binary was put in place. Throughout the Middle Ages women were required to cover ankles and wrists, and males were expected to be masculine and dress the same.  The article " You Are What You Wear The Dangerous Lessons Kids Learn From Sexist T-Shirts" discusses the topic of how  clothing  has a direct effect on how children are raised in the modern world, and what ideals are formed through the clothing we present out children with. This includes the clothing they see in everyday society, the clothing we dress them in, and the clothing parents wear. All of this can create a standar...

Sociology For my sociology blog I have decided to talk about the controversial topic Juuls. Now although can be used to quit smoking they are still horrible for you health and I do not support juuling in anyway. So let's begin on why people vape, originally vaping was used to stop smoking by using water vapor instead of nicotine and smoke, but with the introduction of juuls vaping has become much, much more. Vaping has become a way of life. It controls people’s life and use them for their own gain. Although the use of cigarettes have gone down severely ever since the introduction of juuls, they are still horrible. One of the biggest reasons why people use juuls is because of the so called “cool factor” they have. They have become an object were in some schools if don’t have one or use one you aren't considered cool. So that is one of the biggest reasons why high schoolers particularly use juuls https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/03/juul-e-cigarettes-popularity-among-teens-conc...

Tyler Holland There have been lots of questions about whether or not children playing video games is beneficial towards sharpening their mental faculties or if it is bad to let children play video games.  This topic has been discussed for a long time and it can actually go both ways. To be honest, with the information the we currently have we can say, children playing video games probably does not affect their performance in school unless that playing affects their working on homework or getting sleep, nor does it actually decrease their ability to understand/comprehend new subjects.  an experiment was conducted, we found a large group of children that didn't have any gaming system, then we split them into two groups. One group was given a gaming system immediately and the other group wasn't until later on, the two groups were examined and the group that had been given the gaming system had scored less than the other g...

Why do we play music? What is enjoyable about it? Well, these were things I wondered too. (When I saw the assignment) 'Music' itself is not a single phenomenon and therefore is hard to create a definition for. It can be defined as an object or an action, but both have one common denominator: The idea of "Music". The creation involved finding distinct pitches and calling them ‘notes’, then to be played in succession. Octaves, Transposing, Orchestration, and other musical findings and techniques were completely reliant on this ‘note’. Rather than thinking of music of an object, it can also be much more abstract and open to interpretation . " Music is not a thing at all but an activity, something that people do. The apparent thing, "music", is a figment, an abstraction of the action, whose reality vanishes as soon as we examine it at all closely." (Roy, Dowd pg. 9) I interpreted this as music can be more like a verb, than a noun and is unbound ...

Many people read for school and only school, but many more read for fun. Even though fiction books are not real they are still based on things in our world and problems in our world that people face every day. Many kids I meet nowadays think I'm weird or nerdy when they see how much I read, but reading fictional books is actually very important and could change society and people. Books can influence the people point of view for example, Animal Farm, by George Orwell changed how people look at the government. A author who is also a professor found that many people empathize with the main characters because they can relate to their struggles, whether its a big problem in society or not being able to find your keys. Due to this emotional connection the book creates, it becomes more influential than non fiction books. It also can affect people's behaviors. When a person reads a good novel they create expectations in their head about their behavior based on how well you know yourse...

Clothing is something that is a huge part of our society. We all think about it, and we definitely spend a lot of money on it. Clothing can make us feel all sorts of things that we may not really realize.  For instance, someone may feel a sense of comfort while they are wearing sweatpants and a T shirt, but they will feel more professional and mature while wearing a suit and tie. We get judged everyday by what we wear. What you wear to an interview could be a small detail that got you that job. Clothing can make us feel secure and safe, or do the opposite. If you are going to a event and you are underdressed, it will most likely make you feel self conscious and insecure.  You also would probably not wear what you wear to work when you are hanging out with friends, as you are not trying to impress or come across as professional to you friends. Clothing is not just about comfort and style. What we wear reflects our values and who we are.

Sociology can study almost anything that is related to human behavior, especially in interaction with others.  What are the social reasons that we do things?  You may not have considered that there are social reasons behind the things that you do.  Before now, you might have just considered psychological reasons.  But, in doing things from brushing your teeth to playing sports, there may be social reasons that you do these things.  For this blog, think of something that you do or you do with your friends, family, individially that you think may have social reasons.  Find an article that discusses this behavior in any way and write a blog post (10 meaningful sentences) that address this behavior.  You should refer both to the article that you read and your own observations to discuss this cultural behavior and how sociology might be a good approach to studying this phenomenon.