Media

This week in sociology, we discussed about how the media soially constructs our life. We watched the video, "Killing Us Softly 4," about how the media influences girls' minds that they need to look and act a certain way and that they are the ones that belong in the house. Looking at ads, all the girls that are in a advertisement are all photo shopped to look so perfect. A lot of teenage girls look at those magazines and compare themselves to the images of reflection. Everyone is different, and can't be the exact replica of someone else especially if the perfect gals n the magazines are photoshopped. Growing up in a generation where media was embedded in our heads, I can clearly see how the media affects one's social construction. As a small boy, I thought girls were gross, and weird, but I only thought that way becase of all the T.V. shows that I watched emphasized boys disliking girls. The same thing goes on in social groups in high school, and how are they shaped by the media nowadays. Before, smart kids were seen as the "nerds," the outcasts of popularity, and kids who excelled at sports were branded "jocks," the popular faces in school. As these were all seen in the media and followed as the norms, it changed overtime like in the movie, "21 jump street," where police officers that graduated highshool years ago followed the same trend growing up. But when they went on an undercover investigation, they had to be highschool students all over again. And this time, the norms have changed like how smart kids rule the popular face of their school, gay people were accepted, and being a jerk isn't as funny as ten years ago. This all happend because of the media. This shows how poweful the media is.

Awareness

Knowing what's right from wrong, is that what we call awareness? Having cognitive thinking, is that awareness? Humans are supposed to be aware because we actually need this awareness to survive. This week, in sociology class, we were talking about children who've been neglected by their parents, and ended off being feral children. From what I've learn from this week is that, humans are very vurnerable their first years in life because that's when we develop our brains . It's the stage of nurturing, and learning how to function in our socially constructed society. Having no human interaction in that time period will cause children to stay an infant no matter what age they may be. Although there are given circumstances where in children have been exposed to the wild like this child that we watched who were raised by dogs, so she acts and even pants like a dog because that's what she saw, and the only interaction she had with any living thing. This unit really reminds me of my favorite childhood movie Tarzan. The movie is about a boy who was raised by gorillas, and was fortunate enough to have survive to his adult years in the care of Apes. Soon enough, humans came to the island, and he learned how to speak and understand the Human language knowing that he's one of them, and not of his gorilla family. An awesome movie, but would that be possible in real life to comprehend human language when one is raised like a monkey?