Social Issue Blog-Inequality in the workplace

 

                According to the department of Labor, Women make up fewer than 50% of the workforce as of 2012. However, this number has been increasing since the 1970’s. Women are gaining more representation in the work force, but this representation is generally in the lower paying fields. As of 2012, the top three jobs for women are secretaries, nurses, and cashiers, with only secretaries and nursing being female dominated. Managerial related jobs are currently ranked at number 11 and are still considered male dominated. This is shown in the median weekly income of both men and women who are currently working as managers. Women make just over $1,000 a week while males earn around $1,400 weekly. While this may seem like a pretty small margin between prices, over a year it adds up to a difference of $20,800 (Women’s Bureau).

 

 

( http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/facts_over_time.htm#wilf )

Looking at some of the different reasons why this could be, I had difficulty finding any hard evidence. It could have been from not having as much education, but as of 2012, more working women have completed a college education than working men have. 34.6% of men have graduated college, while 38% of women have. Also, the unemployment rate for women has been dropping and is actually lower than that for men, showing that women are less likely to be fired or laid off. There are even laws out there that prohibit paying one person less than another based on their gender.

 The equal pay act of 1963 states that No employer, labor organization, etc. can discriminate against an employee/member based on their gender. In section 206 they actually state “No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex… (Pg. 1)”  This states simply that one gender should not be paid more than another gender when doing the same jobs and not receiving extra money based on merit or quantity of product produced, so in the case of a business manager, both a male and a female manager should be paid at the same starting rate.

                It is nearly impossible to decide whether or not a person is going to be good at business just by looking at their gender. According to Kirdahy, “men are more apt to zone out in a meeting since their brains are designed to enter a “rest state” more easily than women. In that same meeting, women may run off topic before returning to the task at hand because they’re born multi-taskers.” Neither gender is actually perfect a business. We all have our flaws and things that we are not good at. Women are generally better at noticing small changes in a person’s face. This characteristic can be used nicely when trying to negotiate. The example that Kirdahy used was a man a women negotiating team. The men on the team were unable to notice that the CFO’s needed more information while the woman was able to. They didn’t listen to her and actually lost the deal. This just shows that neither of the gender s should be ranked higher or looked higher upon when hiring. We both can bring something to the table that can help the company out in the long run. If that’s the case, why is it that women are still getting treated unfairly at work? The answer to that lies in the sociological issues surrounding it.

                In the past it was a norm for women to stay home and take care of the house and children. They cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, and handled all child care and all other household chores. They were expected to do all this and still have dinner ready so they could greet their tired husband at the door with a kiss when he got home from work. This norm was rarely fought. Women and men just accepted that it was the way things had to be. As time went on, more women wanted to get out and do things. They were no longer satisfied with pleasing their husbands. They wanted to get out and explore the world on their own. Girls began going to school and then moving on to higher education. They began searching for jobs and testing the boundaries of that gender norm. While some people went along with this idea, others still feel like the norm should be women staying at home.  That is one of the main sociological reasons that women are not paid as much. Generally the higher ranking people in a business setting (CEOs, CFOs, etc.) are older. They may have come from the generation raised to believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. They have a harder time getting used to the new norms.

                Besides norms trying to keep women in place, we also have social institutions that are trying as well. While watching any TV show, chances are you will a women playing the role of housewife and keeping everything in order or even being the damsel in distress. Beginning as children, we are exposed to not only the idea that women are housewives, but also that women need to be saved. Everything from video games to princess shows depicts women as weaklings. One example of this is the Mario series. As girls, we look towards princess peach and think she is the best character. However, that only lasts until the first time she gets captured by Bowser and requires the help of Mario and Luigi to save her. In my time of playing these games, I have only seen maybe one game where peach takes center stage and controls the game. For the most part, she is the damsel in distress. In sleeping beauty, we see a young princess whose curiosity got the better of her. She pricks her finger and is thrust into an eternal sleep until her true love comes to wake her up. Again, we see the male figure as the hero.

                By this point you may be thinking “why does this even matter?” Well, it plays a big role in how women view themselves. This is called the looking glass self. We often see ourselves as we feel others see us. So for a woman in business, she may begin to feel like she is not as good as her male counterparts because that is how she thinks her coworkers think of her. In a recent study, “…Roughly half of Millennial women (51%) and their older counterparts (55%) say society favors men over women; just 6% of both groups say it favors women over men (Pew Research, Pg.1) .” This study goes on to talk about how not as many women are even aspiring to be in high management positions. This is related to the looking glass self. If women look out and think that they won’t be able to make it up as high on the corporate ladder, then they are not going to be able to.

In my opinion, it will take a lot of work to continue to bring equality to the workplace for both me and women. We need to continue to show women in a higher light and less as damsels in distress and teach our daughters to want to do the best they can and be the best workers possible. We need to train our employers and people who are looking to hire others to base their decisions on whether or not a person meets the qualifications of the job rather than whether they are male or female. The last thing we can do as women is always demand the best. If we give in to pressure, or begin to see ourselves as weak, we will never get anywhere close to equality. We have to be able to stand up and say “I can do that job just as well as any man could.” That requires us to change our self-image and see ourselves as strong individuals.

Like with women as managers, women in science are also getting discriminated against. But in the article, Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students, it states, “we are not suggesting that these biases are intentional or stem from a conscious desire to impede the progress of women in science. Past studies indicate that people’s behavior is shaped by implicit or unintended biases, stemming from repeated exposure to pervasive cultural stereotypes (14) that portray women as less competent but simultaneously emphasize their warmth and likeability compared with men (15)(Pg.1).” We have it sort of programmed in our brains from society that we know what both genders are capable of. That goes back to our ideas that women are meant to stay home and cook or clean and men are better at working. Whether we genuinely want to keep women out of the work force or even if we don’t, we still have that subconscious thought in our mind that makes us hesitate with hiring them. In order to change this aspect, we have to change how we view the genders and work on changing that idea.

We have already seen some of this change happening in the media today. While we do see many things in the media that depict women as the weaker gender, we also see strong women as well. Look at Mulan for example. She goes into war in a time when only men were drafted. She turns out to be one of the smartest, strongest soldiers that China has ever had. She proved to little girls everywhere that even if people are saying you can’t, you still can go out and prove them wrong. We also have Doc McStuffins out on Disney channel right now. Dottie “Doc” Mcstuffins who wants to be a doctor like her mother. She plays doctor with her stuffed toys and her friends’ toys, fixing them up and making things better. This shows girls from a young age that they don’t just have to stay home. They are able to do whatever they want.

In conclusion, women who are business managers generally make about $20,800 less than males in the same field ever year. This is mainly due to the fact that women are not seen as managers. They have this image around them that makes men believe that they should be housewives and take care of the kids rather than be working in a field such as business. We have the social norms from the past as well as media and video games to thank for that. Even though we do have the negative side of showing women as weak, we still have the strong portraying of women also and are beginning to air more shows that make young girls want to achieve greatness. This is a very important topic that we all should pay close attention to because for one thing it is illegal to underpay a worker based on their gender alone. Society as a whole can help to improve this issue, but it will definitely take some time and work to get things to finally be equal.

 

 

 

Sources:

Dwoskin, Elizabeth, and Peter Coy. "Shortchanged: Why Women Get Paid Less Than Men." Bloomberg Businessweek. N.p., 21 June 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/equal-pay-plaintiffs-burden-of-proof>.

Matthew, Kirdahy. Women Vs. Men: Who's Better At Business?. Forbes.com, 28 May 2008. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/28/gender-strategy-behavior-lead-manage-cx_mk_0528sexes.html>.

Moss-Racusin, Corinne A., John F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoll, Mark J. Graham, and Jo Handelsman. "Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor." PNS. Ed. Shirley Tilghman. Princeton University, 2 July 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

"On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity – For Now ." PewResearch Social and Demographic Trends. N.p., 11 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millennial-women-near-parity-for-now/>.

"The Equal Pay Act of 1963." U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. USA.gov, n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm>.

Women's Bureau, . United States Department of Labor. N.p., Aug. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/stats_data.htm>.

 

Attend a Meeting

When asked to attend a meeting on the subject of gender, race, sexuality, or some other topic, I decided to go and see the spoken word poet, Michael Reyes. He is a part of the Social Justice series and has been featured on HBO and PBS and has travelled both internationally and nationally using his poetry as a way to talk about history and other important topics to him. He began his presentation by asking the group to call out 15 different words and then one to end with and he used those words to come up with a poem on the spot.  The topics of most of his poems for the night were identity and diversity. He told the group that “As a person of color” he is always searching for opportunities and ways to find his own identity.

 

 Reyes talked a lot about his life in Chicago. He described as a place that is violent, has drugs, HIV, and Child abuse, but is also a place to create your own reality and be who you want to be. He was questioned all the time on who he wanted be, because no one thought he could make it as a full time poet. They all doubted his decision. He described the idea of internal racism. That concept is when you hate the person you are so much that it makes it easier to kill someone who looks like you. That lead into his next conversation on how statistically, most of the murders that occur are done by someone who looks like the victim.

 

Another big topic that he mentioned in his poems was the sphere of influence. He said that when we do things for others, it should not be about instant gratification. He said that we should focus more on the spheres of influences, or the people that we can affect. Each of us has our own sphere of influence and just making an impression on one person in our sphere can cause them to make an influence on one person in their own sphere and so on. He also focused a lot on the idea of happiness and how it is different to every person. He said that if you can see the beauty in the world, then you don’t need money to make you happy. For this he used the example of feeding the ducks with his god daughter.

Being that this was a presentation on diversity, and identity, it seemed fitting that he would use a poem about how he feels about being Latino. He described them as being a cosmic people.  They were mixed with almost every type of person out there in the past. They had a Spanish influence, but were also affected by slave trade and colonization, and other forms of movement as well. He was very proud of who he was and where he came from. He was not afraid to show it at all. He was proud of coming from a ghetto and emphasized that if we didn’t have ghettos, we wouldn’t have jazz of many other contributions that many people love today. He talked about how the word ghetto has and identity. It is political; they have murals, and food that is popular in them. He emphasized the difference between a ghetto and a slum and said that through the negative things, the best work is found and ended his message by saying that wherever there is oppression, there is some kind of beautiful works around it.

When entering into this presentation, I felt nervous. Not that I wouldn’t be accepted, but just that I would be categorized wrong. I am not in a minority group at all, besides being a woman. I have never lived in a hard situation, such a slum, or in poverty and I am not part of the GLBTQ community. I wasn’t sure if showing up to this meeting would cause people to misread me or misjudge me for it. When I got there, I realized that no one really cared who showed up. They were just happy that the word was getting around that people were interested in hearing him speak. The people there were all very kind and did not treat me different or exclude me at all. The culture that Michael Reyes talked about was completely different from what I was raised in and understand. I could never deal with knowing that people get murdered outside your door or that you may not know when you will get your next meal. I have always lived a sheltered life and that is becoming more and more obvious as I get out more on my own in college. This matters because it shows how everyone is raised differently and it is these situations that shape us into the people we become. You always hear the saying “we are the products of our surroundings” and this became more evident listening to Reyes speak.

 He had a passion for speaking and wanted people to know about the struggles of the poor people of Chicago, yet he proved that he was able to overcome his obstacles and make something of himself. A meeting like this exists, in my opinion, to show us that we may all come from different places or see ourselves differently, but we can still come together as one community. That is what I learned about my community. As I sat there listening to everyone laughing as one and genuinely enjoying themselves, I saw that even though not one person in that room can say that they had exactly the same experiences as Michael Reyes, they still understood what he was talking about and where he was coming from enough to appreciate what he was saying. It was eye opening to see that we truly are a community here at Tech and that everyone respects and appreciates on another so much.

Violate a Gender Norm

When thinking about some gender roles, my group came up with some ideas of male gender roles, since we only had women in our group. We came up with men holding the door open for women, wearing baggy pants, the fairytales where the price swoops in to save the damsel in distress, and lifting weights, push-ups, or other signs of strength. All of these are things that in our society are seen as a man’s role and could be questionable if a woman attempts to do it.

For our group experiment, we decided to hold the door open for numerous different people to see how they reacted to a woman opening the door for them. We feel that this is a strongly male role because men are seen as the protectors of women. They try to help with anything and everything; even something as simple as opening the door for women. Some might say that it is in a guy’s nature to feel the need to help out the “weaker gender” and show that they are strong and still caring.

We decided that to complete this experiment, we would go to one of the buildings on our campus and simply hold the door open for different people. With certain people, the violator felt awkward, but for other people, it seemed fine. The first person who came up to the door was an older gentleman, probably a professor. When one of the girls in our group went and opened the door for him, he showed obvious surprise. He took a step back and was going to let her pass, and then moved through the door to hold it for her to go through. When she just stood there and smiled, letting him pass, he said thank you and continued walking, but looked back a few times as he left. The next person we tested was a college aged girl. She gave the violator a weird look and also looked back as she walked away, but still smiled and said thank you. When I was attempting the experiment, I held the door for a college aged boy on crutches. He showed no surprise, but instead it seemed like he appreciated it and smiled and thanked me as he walked in without a second glance back. The last test we did was on a group of people. One member of our group help the door open and the people coming out, opened and walked out of every other door around her and stared at her as if she were strange. Some of them glared, some looked confused, and other just started laughing.

From this experiment, we came up with the conclusion that it depends on who you are dealing with for whether or not an activity is weird. When it came to the guy on crutches, he didn’t care whether we were guys or girls, he just appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to try to open the door himself. With the older gentleman, it seemed like he had a strong desire to take over and hold the door open for the women, rather than have her hold it for him. The college girl just seemed confused that we were holding the door for her, and the group wanted nothing to do it and did everything in their power to avoid the door that was being held. This is important to society because it shows how acceptable tasks have changed over the years. The older gentleman was raised in a time when it was proper for the man to hold the door for the woman, it confused or annoyed the college students, showing that it is still seen as a guy’s job and not exactly normal for a woman to hold the door. This still shows a little bit of inequality towards women. We are still seen as the weaker gender, but that is slowly diminishing and a change is happening. Women are gaining more authority and showing that they don’t need men to do everything for them and that they are capable as well.

Comment on Everyday Sociology

For this post, I looked into the idea that women let men take credit for their work. This was a very interesting topic to look at both from a normal standpoint and also from a sociological perspective. They were pretty much the same ideas, with the exception of the examples used. They both followed the idea that if a man and a women are working in a group together or even if they are working at completely different time periods, the man is generally given the credit for the work done even if they were not the originally ones or the only ones to complete.

On the Everyday Sociology Blog, They talk about the idea of double consciousness. This is the idea that some people have more than one “person” that they are supposed to be. An example of this is an African American. They have the sense that they are an African, as well as having to act like an American. The two “people” sometime conflict in how they are supposed to act. From what we knew, W.E.B. DuBois was the first person to write about this topic. That is not the case however. Going back in time, we see that Anna Julia Cooper actually wrote about the same thing (but not calling it double consciousness) many years earlier and before that, Sojourner Truth also talked about that idea. This is also seen in other articles that are about sociology.

Looking into different articles, I found on the effects of men and women working in groups together at work. According to this article, Women are less likely to take credit for their work or contributions to the group if even one man is in it. They did a study on 34 men and 36 women. They had them work individually on a project but that their work would be combined with a partners work for a final group score. They were given their score and in survey after, women who thought they were working with a male tending to discredit themselves and make their “partner” sounds better. Going against this, the ones who thought they were working with a women tended to talk about their own work and accomplishments.

Both of these sources show that men are given more credit than women are. Why is it that both in a sociology blog and in a normal article, men are shown as receiving more credit than women? According to the Everyday Sociology Blog, this has to do with power. Historically men have been given more power than women and it shows in how much credit both genders receive. Men are seen as more influential than women so going off of that, it makes sense that their contributions are raised up higher than a woman’s.

 I can understand how they came to these conclusions, but as a woman myself; I can’t help think about the fairness of this idea.  I would to think that if I were to make a big impact on the world someday that it would stay under my name, unlike Anna Julia Cooper who lost it to W.E.B DuBois. This is important to society as a whole because as Americans we pride ourselves with the idea of equality. After reading these, it seems like women do not think of themselves as equals to men and are willing to step down to let the men have the spotlight. As a whole, this is something that we have to work on. It was very interesting to me to see that the same issue was discussed in two different locations using two different sets of examples, but still talking about the same thing basically.

 

Sources Used

Everyday Sociology Blog:

http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2013/09/when-men-get-all-the-credit-gender-and-the-construction-of-knowledge.html

 

Huffington Post Article:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/women-take-less-credit-for-success-group-projects_n_3239673.html

My Culture: Education

When asked to think about the culture that I grew up in, the first value that comes to mind is education. My parents did not go as far in the education system as they could have. My father dropped out after middle school and joined the military and my mom made it through high school. They have always drilled it into me that a higher education is the way to go.

                That idea is becoming especially relevant in our society today. Many employers will not hire you if you do not have a college degree, making it almost a necessity. You are looked at as lazy, unmotivated, or rebellious if you choose not to attend. I remember back when I graduated high school. We had a graduation party for me with all my family. Every single one of them asked me where I was going to school next. When I told them that I was heading to Michigan Tech, they all got excited and were congratulating me and making a big deal out of it. Now, I can honestly tell you that most of them probably didn’t know much about Michigan Tech, or what it offered, or even where it was located, but none of that really mattered. It was just the fact that I had a school picked out and I was going out to further my education.

                That’s the thing. In recent times it doesn’t really matter where you go or what you even study. Just the simple fact that you are looking out for yourself and taking the next step makes you look good in the eyes of our society. Of course colleges are always trying to sway you in their direction because that in itself makes them look better. This college has a better job placement rate, or that one is more hands on. This one is bigger, that one is smaller. We hear all these comparisons everyday thanks to the media. The question is which one should we choose? That is based on our schemata, or world view. Each of us sees the world in a different way, which shines the spotlight on what we feel, is the best college.

                That brings us back to this idea of culture. Our world view is partially shaped by our culture. Because of my parents trust in me and constant pushing for me to make the most out of my life, I looked into Michigan Tech. With its high job placement rate, and excellent educational record, I know that this would be the place for me. I was told by my parents that money was not an issue and that whatever school I wanted to attend; we would find a way to fund it. If I lived in a different culture, however, I may not have been so lucky.

                A big part of how we see education is based on the culture that we were raised in. For instance, if I were born in a small village in Africa, as a girl I may not have even had the option to go to school. I would have been trained by my mother from a young age to do housework and how to raise a family, while any brothers that I may have had went. I would have looked down upon any schooling, let alone college because in my culture it would have been unusual for a girl to even think about school. In many cultures around the world, it is seen as a women’s job to raise the kids and clean the house. To cook, clean, and care for her husband while he goes to work and earns whatever little money they receive.

                Each culture has its own set of beliefs and it is because of how I was raised that I know how important education is. My high school never really had the best sports teams, but our academic teams were spot on. Although many people joked about the education we received upon graduation. I know for a fact our school put a high priority on it. That is the community that I was raised in. From a young age were trained to look highly upon education. As we started kindergarten, we were given small assignments and told to bring them back, we began counting and writing and learning in ways that we all thought were just fun and games. We had the framework for a good education drilled into our brains. We saw it as a “norm” to be a good student, to listen, and to turn in your homework. We were praised when we did well, and scolded when we messed up until we began to learn.

 It is from those cultures that we are shown what we should value and believe in and it is from living within those cultures that I can proudly say: I value my education. I believe that my education is going to take me wherever I want in life and beyond, and it is those values and beliefs that I want to show to my future children as well. That is what culture is all about.

Data as Evidence

            For this blog post, I decided to look at the differences between the county, state, and nation on the amount of children who are living in poverty. This is a sad statistic for anyone to look at. According to dictionary.com, Poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.” When we think of poverty, we often think of the adults who don’t have a job and can’t support themselves, but in many of these cases there is also the children who are dragged down with the adults.

When looking at the national average (See graph below), we can see that the percentage of children who are living in poverty has gone up considerably. In 2011, the average was up to its highest peak in history, at around 22.5%. This may seem like a small percentage, but when you look into the 2010 census and see that at that time there were 74,181,467 children under the age of 18 living in the US. By 2011, that number would have increased, but going with that we get that there is about 16,690,830 children who are living in poverty range.

 

 (http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/Line/43-children-in-poverty?loc=1&loct=1#1/any/false/867,133,38,35,18,17,16,15,14,13/asc/any/322)

Looking at poverty in a little bit smaller scale, we see that our state of Michigan is not better off than the state average (See graph below). According to the national kids count website, we see that in 2011, Michigan peaked at about 25% of children living in poverty. That is one quarter of all the children living in Michigan are at poverty level. Chances are we have gone to school with these children, became friends with them, and knew nothing about what was really going on for them at home.

(http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/Line/43-children-in-poverty?loc=1&loct=1#2/24/false/867,133,38,35,18,17,16,15,14,13/asc/any/322)

Once more we will move down to a smaller picture of the poverty in our country. For this next section, I will be looking at the county that my home town is in, in Michigan. Marquette County. Compared to the state and national averages, Marquette County is doing pretty good actually. According to the graph below, Marquette County has peaked at around 18%. It is still not a very good number, but it better than the 20+% off the state and national average. Marquette County is a smaller County in Michigan, so that could be one of the reasons that it is lower.

 (http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/Line/1765-poverty--all-ages--saipe?loc=24&loct=2#5/3795/false/867,133,38,35,18,17,16,15,14,13/asc/any/13136)

Now, you may be wondering why the poverty level of children is so high right now. That can be caused by many things. The one thing that I think of is the unemployment rate. Right now the rate is up pretty high which means that not as many people actually have a job at this moment. Without a job, they have no way of getting money in to pay for what they need and they are dropped to poverty level. This matters to us on a sociological level because our society is pretty much run on money. Those who don’t have much are seen as outcasts. Without having money, they may not be able to get to college or get a high paying job, and they could be stuck in poverty when they are older because of this. It is my guess though, that like the housing bubble, this will only be a short time. Looking at the three graphs posted above, you can see that the poverty rate has gone up and down throughout the ten years shown. I do think it will continue to gradually get bigger, but in that time it will go down slightly and people will be able to adjust better.

 

 
Sources:

Kids count data center. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. <http://datacenter.kidscount.org/>.

 

 

The Sociological Imagination

This morning was like any other school day for me. I got up at 7:00 and went on facebook before getting ready. I then brushed my teeth, brushed my hair and got changed. I grabbed my supplies and headed out of the door, as I said “see you later” to my roommate. While walking down the stairs, I politely moved out of the way as someone else was coming up and we shared a smile before I continued down to my first class. I hurried along the way because I didn’t wanted be late, yet still smiled and said hi to friends as I passed them. When I came to the door, a nice gentleman held it open for me and again I smiled and said thank you. I made it to my class early and sat down and unloaded my supplies.


Even though these may seem like simple tasks, when looking at the bigger picture of them, they become much more.



1.) I went on Facebook. Facebook has become such a big part of our society recently. It contains all of the who’s-who and what’s-what of our daily life. Is has gotten to where you are basically left out of the loop when it comes to most information if you do not have access to Facebook. Most people no longer use email, or write letters to get in touch with others. If they have something they need to say, they go straight to Facebook. In my experience, people think you are strange if you do not go on Facebook and one of the first questions I usually get now is “do you have a Facebook account?” If it is not Facebook, It is Twitter. Our society is wrapped so tightly around technology that it is easiest just to jump on board rather than be left behind. I have seen everyone from eight year old children to elderly grandparents joining Facebook just to keep in touch. Facebook is also used a way for future employers to check on your character to see if they should hire you.

2.) I brushed my hair. I am told by society that I must brush my hair. The people who are higher up in society are usually the ones who have their hair done up into fancy hairdos or at least have clean hair. We see many famous people daily on tv with perfect hair. You are looked down upon by many people if you walk around with messy hair. You may not get hired at a job because the boss may think that if you don’t care about your appearance, then you probably won’t care about your job either.

3.) I smiled as a greeting. In society today, we have many types of greetings. Some are nice, and others are mean. Smiling at a person as you pass shows that you are a kind person and not any threat. If you are not in a good mood, and you frown or scowl, then you could be taken as antisocial, or a threat and no one will want to be around you. Even though they are basically the same thing, just flipped over, a smile is seen as a more open gesture than a frown is and people would much rather hang out with the happier looking person.

4.) I had someone hold the door for me. For some reason, this is customary for boys to hold open the door for girls. You always hear people say “Ladies first” when it comes to guys and girls. Boys are taught (and expected) at a young age that they should respect the girls and treat them like princesses. However, it is not pushed upon girls to hold the door for guys. I hold the door open for anyone just because it seems nice. In our society though, it is more focused on boys being proper towards the girls.

5.) I arrived to class early. It is seen as rude in our society today to come barging into a classroom late. You are interrupting the class and breaking up the learning for your fellow students. When you show up early, you show the professor that you respect what he or she is doing and take your learning seriously. Arriving early allows you the time to prepare your mind for the lesson so you can get the most out of it. This is important in our education based society. We are told that school is very important and for the most part can’t even get a job without it.



Now, what if we didn’t do some of these tasks, or if they were seen as strange to our community? What would that be like? Take brushing your hair for instance. What would the world be like if when you turned on the TV, you saw your favorite actress rocking her matted birds’ nest of a hairdo? We would never have to take the time to brush our hair because wealth and status would be shown by how messed up your hair is. If you took the time to straighten, or brush, or even style your hair, you would be seen as an outcast. Your hair gets greasy, why would you want to touch that? It would just dirty up your hands and get all over everywhere. The people who touch their hair to clean it up are the ones who will be seen as dirty or unclean individuals and will be cast aside like garbage. The grease that you got on your hands would get all over the door knobs and railings and disgust everyone around you. What kind of a world would that be? Not one that I would personally like to live in.