'Clip of the day' Poll

Hey guys!

There is now a poll up (located on the right side of the page) regarding the clip of the day.

Go ahead and vote on the video that you would most like to see as the clip of the day.

If you have made a video suggestion, and do not see your video on the poll, don't worry! You can re-submit your suggestion, as we will have a poll for the 'clip of the day' every week.

The video choices for this week are:

1. "Sociology Music Video"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOzWIXvk_Y

2. "People Are Awesome"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo0Cazxj_yc

3. "Dynamite-Taio Cruz-A Cappella Cover-Just Voice and Mouth-Mike Tompkins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjCLQaTFXx0

4. "Dub FX 10/10/2008 'Love Someone'"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiInBOVHpO8

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep them coming!

Quiz Numero Dos

Remember--- although you are welcome to discuss the questions with classmates, YOU NEED TO WRITE YOUR OWN ANSWERS. If you cheat, we will embed you in carbonite.

Here are the questions. You are encouraged to use a word processor like Google Docs or Microsoft word to type out your answers before you submit them. 

Once they are all written, then open the quiz and copy and paste them into the following Google Form. SUBMIT ONLY ONCE. 


The ideal answers are logically complete but short and succinct.  Make sure you use your own examples (not the ones from lecture).

CLICK THIS LINK WHEN YOU ARE READY TO UPLOAD YOUR ANSWERS:
  https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFpKeE9keWpaMTdyNmFmSHpHN0h2ZkE6MQ


1. A social role is a coherent set of norms associated with a particular social position. It is more complex than list of rules. The rules, expectations and symbols associated with the role are organized in a role schema, which is like a cognitive map that people use to understand the role. *


ps. answer is true.

•  True
•  False

2. A. Describe a role and explain how that role is relevant to your life. B. Describe the structural and cultural aspects of this role. *Make sure you come up with a unique and interesting discussion of how the role is relevant to your life.
3. “New opportunities lead to new behaviors.” Shirky uses a bunch of examples that illustrate this principle. Describe one example from the book that demonstrates how new opportunities lead to new behaviors. How might that type of technology allow people in your life to work together in new ways? *Think creatively about how technological change leads to social outcomes that are connected to your life.

Socialization

One of the micro-sociological theories we discussed today was Socialization Theory.

This theory argues that social action is a result of individuals being socialized to internalize norms and conform to them at all times.

However, there are several problems with this theory. It essentially says that people act like zombies and blindly follow norms.

This does not account for several trends in society, including crime, conflict, social change, and even sub-cultures.

Additionally, this theory cannot predict social changes and outcomes, but can only explain them by saying that the rules of society have changed.

It is for this reason that sociologists often rely on other theories to explain social outcomes.

Meme - viral marketing

This video has been seen 28 million times. It was shared on all the major social networking websites. People shared it amongst themselves in emails, instant messages, and wall posts. They also did it the old fashion way, they told their friends and family.

In the Google Docs chat, one person admitted that the commercials were the reason they purchased the product.

Think about how important this is to marketers.

Since we are moving from a time when we were forced to watch advertisements between bits of television to today where we can watch the shows we want on demand, often skipping or without commercials. Instead of being forced to watch the commercials people are flocking to watch them.

Interestingly, this new method allows people to watch and comment on the product being marketed.

What would Shirky say about this?

Norms

Norms are socially determined rules that govern behavior that can vary from culture to culture.

A group or society creates rules (often unknowingly) about what kinds of behavior is appropriate for different situations, and can be classified as either pro-scriptive or pre-scriptive norms.

Pro-scriptive norms are the kind that tell people not to do something, such as belch loudly in a restaurant.

Pre-scriptive norms are the kind that tell people to do something, and we frequently do these without knowing. For instance, on an elevator, everyone gets in and faces the door rather than each other or a random wall.

Norms? Why not Howards?

Don't worry. . .

Several folks emailed expressing surprise and dismay that they did not do better on the first quiz.   


Do not despair!   


We will review the quiz in class on Thursday, and we will go over the ideas behind each question.   We will also talk about how best to answer these types of question in general.   


Consider Question 1: 


1. Define the concept of the sociological imagination. Use an example where you explain a social outcome that demonstrates your understanding of the sociological imagination.



The most important part of this question is demonstrating your understanding of how to use the sociological imagination through *the way that you discuss your example*.   


A question very similar to this one will be on the mid-term.  I would love it if everyone in the class would ace it, so lets use the comments on this post to improve our capacity to do this.  

1. Think about the name example that we started class with.   The social outcome was the drop in popularity of popular names.   How did we use our sociological imagination to come up with explanations for why we saw that drop?  We came up with a change in peoples preferences for distinctiveness,  an increase in the distribution of information through TV, magazines etc, lowered costs/risks related to being different, less centrality of Bible for coming up with names, etc. 
2. Now, think about what a social outcome is.  [notice the social outcome is at a level higher than the individual]
3. Think of a social outcome that we have not discussed.  Something interesting that has really happened, and is likely caused by the combination of context, individual people and how they interact. (i.e. something we need to use our sociological imagination to understand).
4. Use your sociological imagination to come up with possible explanation(s).
5. Write up your new example and post it in the comments below. 
6. The best answers will get 3 to 5 extra credit points.
7. Dont use your PID, but make sure we can tell who you are in your post so you can get credit;  a good thing to use would be your gmail address, or your last name and first initial, or use your university oak id (without the @ohio part)---- the one that goes like this hw3349560.

Don't worry!   Enjoy the snow.

Social Structure and Population Density

Today in class, we discussed how certain aspects of a social structure, such as population density, might affect the life experiences of members of that society.

An example of this discussed in class was Kowloon, formerly a walled slum of Hong Kong. The population of this small part of town was approximately 50,000, while the population density was 1,900,000 per square kilometer. A person growing up in this environment would have considerably different life experiences than someone growing up in London, where the population density is only 4669 per square kilometer.