Culture!

The past few weeks, we've been talking about culture and how all of the different types of cultures interact. Culture universal shows us how many cultures have the same idea (weddings, funerals, etc.) but each culture has different "rituals" that go with it. After watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I realized how different my culture is from their Greek culture in the movie. Their family parties consisted of yelling, talking over each other, eating, eating, and more eating. My family parties consist of sitting in the backyard for a barbeque, telling stories, and playing football. We both have family parties, we just do things differently as different cultures. I also looked at the way they got married. The extended family would spit on the bride as she walked down the isle. The pastor spoke in all Greek and once they were married they had to take their first steps together as a couple around the alter. My aunt's wedding that I attended just a couple of months ago, was very laid back and calm. They walked down the isle, were married, and that was it.

I think it's really interesting learning and taking part in other cultures. One needs to have the culture clash and culture shock in their lives to completely understand the fact that everyone is different and just because one culture doesn't do it the same way that you're culture does it, doesn't mean by any means that they are wrong. Innovation, technology, and diffusion has played a huge role in the way many cultures are today. For the most part, it is because of these three things that a lot of cultures are linked together in some way. But on the other hand, I believe that ethnocentrism is something that can really hurt our cultures as a whole. It goes along with one culture thinking another culture is wrong just because they don't do things the same way. Judging a culture is the same as judging a person, it hurts the people involved especially when the person judging doesn't know anything about that specific culture. I think if more people would be open to letting in new and differnet ideas and cultures, our society would be a better place to live in and be apart of.

Breaking Folkways

Folkways, the social norms we all follow in our everyday lives. It makes us "normal" or somewhat close to that. This week in class we had to break folkways and watch the reactions of people around us. To be honest, it was really hard! To do something that people don't normally do and to get weird looks from people takes a lot of courage. Especially because we were purposely doing it. Making sure we weren't breaking mores (do something that goes against our morals) or laws (the rules of our society!).

For my project of breaking a folkway I went to stores and paid in all change. No paper money involved. Quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. It was kind of intimidating to go up to the cashier and take out a big bag of change and start counting. I felt really awkward. Some people would give me dirty looks because I was slowing everything down. One person even yelled at me to hurry up and count faster. They would watch me with hawk eyes making sure I was counting it correctly but they wouldn't help me out. Out of all ten times I did this, there was one person who helped me and didn't make any rude faces or comments. I don't think that people understand that when they yell or make rude faces it just makes the situation worse and embarrasses the person. But after a couple times I got used to the faces and comments.

Overall, I think that people are really rude! I learned a lot from this project how fast-paced our society is. Everyone wants to get in and out without any hold ups. I don't think a lot of them realized that the more they interrogated me about it, the longer it took. I would look up then have to restart counting or I they would start taking some away and I would lose track. I think our society needs to slow down and take a chill pill. Because something so small as paying with change really made people mad. This shows a lot about the way our society is run and the way no one will go against what it is.

American Culture and Society

After taking a look at American culture and society, I think that we are looked down upon from many other societies and cultures. With all of the inappropriate things that are just plain normal to us, to other cultures it is against the law or just downright wrong. We talked a lot about kissing in public. It goes back to the article we read in class about the man kissing the Indian girl in a public place in front of people and that was considered illegal or wrong. The Indian culture doesn't allow this kind of behavior. And walking through the hallways or just seeing it on the streets or in public areas, we have no rules against public display of affection. It seems as though  people have made babies standing by their locker at my school. It's gross and not something that should be displayed for all to see. I don't think making it a law is really necessary, but to at least have some rules or guidelines would make the situation a lot less awkward for those around the situation.

I also think that American culture and society is very big on being perfect. We all have this standard that we are supposed to live up to. And it's really annoying because the only people who live up to that standard are the unhealthy, not-going-to-eat-till-you-can-see-my-ribs kind of person. Going against the fact that we all have that standard of being perfect, America has a huge problem with obesity. A whole lot of our population is considered to be obese. This lifestyle is also unhealthy for the human body.

Overall, I think American society is given a very bad reputation because of the things it comprises. If we could set guidelines or boundaries to some things, I feel that we could change our reputation to be something good. But until everyone starts to work together, American culture and society will, unfortunately, be looked down upon.

American Society

This picture of a female model represents American culture because this is the so-called "picture perfect" look. Everyone wants to look like these girls. Skinny, tall, perfect hair, perfect smile. Our American society tries to live up to these unrealistic expectations. This is the cause of eating disorders and self esteem issues. Nobody actually looks like this "perfect person" everyone talks about.


Facebook is big in American society. Everyone has one. It leads to making new friends, to making enemies. Facebook can be good in ways, but usually people have a bad conotation about this social networking site. At first, one had to be 18 years or older to use this website. But it soon became very popular and now it seems as though the whole world has one. This is a big communication tool that people use which makes it so popular in American society.


Reality television is one of the biggest influences on people around the world, especially the American society. We get these ideas and thoughts put into our heads about sex, drugs, drinking, etc. This overall hurts a persons self esteem, ruins their reputation, or digs them into a deep hole. Everyone watches some kind of reality tv show and if you don't you still know about one or two and you're influenced by them. This gives American culture a bad name when Americans are focusing on all of these bad things instead of presenting ourselves in a good manner.


Fast food restaurants have become a social norm to American society. Our society is very fast-paced and busy with tasks that we usually don't have time to sit down to a nice cooked meal for dinner. So where do most Americans turn? Food that is fast, simple, and easy. But it is also horrible for our bodies and doesn't help us whatsoever. Americans have become known for all the fast food eating we do because of the number of obese people we have living in our country. This is a bad representation of American society but it's probably the biggest of them all.


Even though we are pressured to look small and skinny, most of our society is very overweight. 85% of adults and 20% of children are overweight or considered, "obese". This is a huge problem in American society. It goes along with fast food, where we eat and eat and eat but we don't feel full because we aren't putting good things into our bodies. America has a reality tv showed called Biggest Loser, a show to see who can lose the most weight in a given amount of time. I think that's when we know American society has a problem and should think about changing its ways.

Sociology On The Streets

This week I saw sociology while walking in the hallway. I tried to look at the different aspects of groups and the barriers that go along with it. Different cultures have different customs and different things that they do in every day life. This fits into West Chicago Community High School because all of the different groups have different "customs" or different ways of living their lives. They don't necessarily talk in different languages but every group functions differently. Some groups talk about everything openly and some groups keep everything to themselves.

While I was in the hallway yesterday and I walked past a group of people screaming and then a group of people not saying one word to each other. All of the people within the groups are completely different from each other too. People don't hiss at each other or know each other by their specific numbers but they act so differently. I don't think people know how to act exactly the same which is good but it makes things really confusing. That's why there is so much drama that goes around because everyone clashes with each other. I think that after awhile everyone learns how to deal with each other and move on in life. That's part of life I guess.