"Teenage Wasteland"

Eventually, one day, we'll want the best for our children but sometimes the best isn't what'll be best for them. I hope I didn't lose you there! In the article, "Teenage Wasteland," by Donna Gaines we see that teenage suicide rates have dramatically increased in the past forty years. We become aware that national issues such at teenage suicide, gun control, mass murder, do not become a major problem until it happens to a group of people at a given time. The article explores the deaths of four teenagers from Bergenfield, NJ who all four have committed suicide and the plausible explanations, or driving factors, leading to their suicides. Here in the United States, and I'm many other countries as well, we've set normalities that shape who we are and who we become. During your high school years you might probably recall those groups of people who were more "popular" than others, you might've even been part of that group that nobody knew about unwillingly! Every school has that. During the 1970s we learned that teenagers in suburban American often found nothing to their liking to do. Schools were filled with jocks and cheerleaders, and oftentimes familiar relationships were faulty.
A way to escape involved drug use. Upon the death of these four teenagers in NJ, the newspaper referred to them as "burnouts," "druggies," "dropouts," and the whole town referred to them that way as well without knowing their situation. The article lets us know that parents have high expectations for their children, limiting them to what the parents feel is appropriate. In a teenage gathering a parent might thing that they're getting stoned when in fact they can be talking. About their futures, careers, plans in life. A major problem in this town of NJ was that teenagers barely had things to do and a way to waste time was by doing these wrongdoings. I immensely agree that if there's nothing actively thrilling to do, you, I, everyone will find something to do—right or wrong. It's a problem with society and the status quo. The way we want to be seen, thought of comes down to the way our children carry themselves. A lot of parents want to be viewed as a prestigious mother or father because their child is in a private school bringing home nothing but A's from school without asking the real question—"son/daughter, is this what you really want? Are you happy?" Ms. Gaines also did a research from an ethnologist point of view by going out and experiencing what these teenagers do. Most of them have issues at home, some may not have a person they can trust, others may be in "war" with their parents because their parents think that they're rebelling thus a way of escaping is by cutting themselves, getting drunk, abusing drugs, and ultimately committing suicide.
A major point referenced in this article was the thought of many that the United States is being divided into a two-class nation where there'd only be the rich class and the poor class—rich class having a broad knowledgeable perspective and the poor not having sufficient skill sets. Those teenagers who do not go to college will be stuck in what she referenced, "shit jobs" where they'd most likely will get paid minimum wage, often complain or whine about work and their managers, and try to waste time by doing other things because they're bored. The reason for this? They lose motivation while in high school, they (and both you and I have noticed it too) realize that they barely get the preparations needed to work in modernized jobs, many jobs require a skill set that many do not have, some even require sufficient proficiency where you'd need to have worked in such positions for an X amount of years before being considered.
The problem? Much of the problem can be pegged to the parents. Parents shape society and sometimes they are oblivious to that fact because they're too busy trying to perfect other people's views of their social standing, and their weapon? Their children. I do still believe that teenage suicide rates are still rising and it could all be taken care of if their parents let their children break that status quo. The article says, "teenage suicide until kids' bad lives go away." I agree with that statement because most of suburban America does not have activities for teenagers to do that will influence them in the long run. A lot of the times towns look down, they frown upon, on these so called "dropouts," "druggies," "burnouts," and they'd wind up not having a place to go and this has to do with the fact that what's right and what's wrong, what's normal and what is not normal has been embedded into our society that what these kids do seems abnormal. Until we change that we'll continue to have a Teenage Wasteland.

Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground. / Maintenant, mes pieds ne touchent pas le sol.

You barely think about this but, when was the last time you stopped to think? Stopped to marvel at the beauties of outside—the sky, trees, nature. Society has deemed it to be normal, the everyday routine we have like robots most of the time. When was the last time you cried? Tears of joy, or malevolence? I do believe that sometimes crying releases some tension, even you do it for no apparent reason but many think it isn't normal. At times I teleport myself out of this planet, our brain needs the rest, for a brief two minutes or minute and a half and just think and reason about life, plants, the way things are done and are meant to be. We need rest sometimes otherwise we'll wind up lost. What's your opinion?

"The Promises and Pitfalls of Going into the Field"

               We all remember science labs, you know, those labs we used to do in middle school? One of the words I remember learning was hypothesis and learning that in science there has to be some sort of validity in my evidence. In sociology the same is true and the article I read, "The Promises and Pitfalls of Going into the Field" describes just that. Ethnology is the study of characteristics of various people and the differences and relationships between them. In this field the article emphasizes that the information you get is obtained through years of work with a minimum of two years of research depending on the topic of study. On example the article gave of an ethnography report was one done by Barbara Ehrenreich, PhD. She spent a year working low wage paying jobs all around the country (Maine, Florida, and Minnesota). In he research she reveals how "physically demanding and personally demeaning" those jobs are and ultimately how the employees are "stuck", "trapped in them." Ethnography may be compared to journalism but it differs because ethnography requires systematic long-term gathering of specified data in the field of research and involves close study in human behavior. In order to come up with a factious ethnological report there are certain steps to take. The article describes the three crucial stages in an ethnography: data gathering, data analysis, and data presentation. You cannot study a field in which you're familiar with because you might get attached—researchers being biased by their own opinions or history. Under data analysis, researchers start right away framing and refining their findings. The article states that they usually remain in the area of study. Their analysis are not based on "word of mouth" or statements said by the people being studied but by hard facts from the data gathering process stated earlier.
                In reading chapter two in my text book I realized that is a very important factor of sociology. A powerful example the this chapter of the book uses is a Santa Claus example. Children believe the main influential source in their lives—their parents. We don't quickly realize this but the parent creates this fictitious character that rewards their children for the good deeds done throughout the year. We display this Santa character on billboards, in stores, on the television, and in our movie theaters. The children each believe because their peers do so as well, then once they become a certain age, the truth comes out. Hmm, that's a very good example that wouldn't have been possible without ethnologists. This chapter focuses on doing research and finding hard based facts unlike those we gave our children about Santa. A helpful chart given (page 37) is the Elements of Social Science Research. This chart relates a lot with the article I read because just like in ethnological research we are "Identifying and understanding patterns in social life," we're gathering "empirical evidence," using "transparent methods"—analysis, and viewing "knowledge as provisional"—if new evidence is discovered. An overall learning curve is being presented by the field of ethnologist in the sociologic science spectrum.

Coldplay - Lovers In Japan

Sans Danger? / Safe?

                Are you at risk? Are we at risk? What is "being at risk?" Could I be injured, murdered, or hurt in the area where I live? Many people say that living in an urbanized area puts you at a greater risk of being murdered or injured because the concentration of people is so high, could this be a stereotype? What about those who live in a suburban to semi rural area? I would think that due to the high solidarity in suburbanized areas theives, murderers, rapists, gunmens, and "wierdos" have a greater chance to pursue what ever they want because of the following factors:

• Low police patrol
• High income family households
• Unlocked doors (whenever I sleep over my grandmum's house we'd sleep with the front door unlocked)
• Lack of streelights and illuminated sidewalks

               Meanwhile in an urbanized area such as the one I'm in, New York City, even though we have a greater population than those smaller municipalities surrounding this city and semi rural towns miles away from the city, we have more police officer patrolling our streets. People are aware that living in an urban area poses a greater risk of danger, therefore the investment to be kept safe is there. Since in New York City we've built on every square centimeter of land our neighbors are a lot more closer than they'd be in suburban areas we lock our doors.

               Could a main factor be that before suburbanizing, back when the industrial revolution occured and everyone lived in cities, the dagerous risks were high in urban areas and by suburbanizing, all the criminals (had no automobiles) couldn't go to the suburbs plus their pleasures were fulfilled in cities and as people started earning a higher income they started moving out to what seemed safer-than-the-city suburbs they grew confident of the safe guard--distance. Are you at higher risk in New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, London, Paris, Moscow, Roma, and Madrid than you'd be in Charlestown, West Virginia or any other semi rural area? Post your opinions!!!

Blind? / Aveugle?

Do we rely solely on our apparatus' so much that we fail to 'see?' Have you lived in an urban area for so long that you barely think of nature? Have you given that poor fly a chance or maybe even not have panicked near a wasp or a bee? Living in a country where all the resources you would need to go back packing, RV-ing, or hiking is something to not take for granted. With the modernization of society we have made it sort of a priority to have our "smartphones" handy at all times and during challenging situation, we reason with the device, whether it be on Facebook or listening to music. We ten to do it often—so often it's like second nature to us because we do it without thought. It's time! And there still is time! Time to put down our gadgets. Time to get out of the urban area for a weekend and enjoy all the beauties and wonders of our planet. Almost three hundred years ago, people couldn't enjoy what we could, so get out there!

Qui Suis-Je? / Who Am I?

               Who Am I? I am what society calls a "person" but does that really define me? What makes up the person I am is my sanity, my beliefs, my hobbies, my sports, my bed, my family, and looking at tomorrow with wide open eyes. I'm a nineteen year old person who thinks he has ten more years of life left because I rush into things too rapidly. The biggest influences in my life by far are my parents and grandparents. My grandfather could take the first place trophie if there were to be one.
               I'm a fourth generation American (paternal side, first generation maternally). My father is of American-Italian decent and my mother is from Spain. I do have two last names and to make things easier I use the first one. I do not, unfortunately, speak very much Italian and I always ask my grandmother why she never embraced the language, it's so beautiful! Thus the only Italian-speeking family member I have is my great aunt. I do speak Spanish and very little French (mom speaks both). My interest for accounting came from my mother because she herself is one. I have just one sister and I remember playing "store" with her and swiping her library card as if it were a credit card. I guess it runs in the family. I have a passion for music and wanted to have a band while in highschool. I play the piano and listen to Coldplay on stressful days (everyday). During my second year in highschool I joined the Air Force JROTC and through that program I matured very quickly. I graduated a Cadet Second Leiutenant. So you're probably wondering why I had stated that it feels as if I only have ten years of life left and the answer to that is, because of that Air Force program (and my grandfather) I've started doing things teenagers my ages wouldn't do until another 5 more years. I even started saving for my retirement (401k) last year at 18 years old! I play hockey and ice skate during whatever free time I have. 
                My goals in life is to have a career in accounting and political science and to be able to have more than sufficient stability to support my needs and one day my very own family. There are things we go through that shape our personality every day and I do believe it's affected my own biography. The everyday world is changing more rapidly each and every day with rights being granted to certain groups of people (and many other things occurring around us, not just that). To keep up-to-date in this modern society we live in we must adapt to changes, and I'm not too fond of that, and a major historical factor that has change my sociological perspective has been Equality for those individuals who want what they want and break the "status-quo." This has influenced my "biography" because I've become very acceptant of new norms—it's our life! And with that being said I step out of my own view and look at things with the sociological imagination and come to realize that we're "hard-wired" to look at the normalities of today and say, "this is how it should be!" Without noticing that change is inevitable for the better.