Friday, February 12, 2010
First Individual Exercise
In the context of my opening remarks about developing a ground or basis for recognizing social problems, I want you to identify some aspect of contemporary American society which you believe is commonly accepted or widely practiced, yet still could be considered harmful or destructive, that is, be considered a social problem. What I mean by "aspect" of contemporary American society is very open-ended: a popular consumer product, government policy, business practice, social ritual, form of media or entertainment, etc.. Briefly describe this aspect and tell why you believe it is a problem despite its wide acceptance. I am looking for NO MORE THAN 2 PARAGRAPHS (no dissertations). Post your response as a comment on this blog post. Please do so by FRIDAY, FEB. 19TH. This exercise is worth 5 points, and we may have a little contest after I get all the comments about which one the class feels is most interesting/significant and award 2 bonus points to the winner.
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I would consider cigarettes to be a social problem because they are harmful and destructive to one's health. Cigarettes are widely available and easy to purchase. There are a wide variety of cigarettes in the world and every time a person purchases a pack, the tobacco industry is benefitting. In the United States a person has to be 18 or older to purchase them, but everyone knows there are ways around that, including fake ideas or having someone buy them for you. So basically, it is easy for anyone of any age to smoke them. Many teenagers and adults smoke cigarettes, sometimes without realizing the effects.
Although cigarettes are legal, they have many bad effects on people. They are harmful to one's body and addicting. They can cause lung cancer and numerous other problems later in life. Even though a person might know of the issues with smoking, people still smoke cigarettes. I believe people smoke in social situations, to relieve stress, and because they are addicted to them, to name a few. These are some of the reasons why I believe cigarettes to be a social problem.
One harmful aspect of society that is very harmful and fairly pushed aside is individual's over indulgence in fast food restaurants. Day after day Americans consume millions of dollars worth of fast food. this is harmful to society in many different ways. First, as we all know, fast food is not the healthiest. Obesity is a growing problem within the American culture. This is harmful to society in the sense that those who consume these unhealthy meals on the regular basis tend to develop health problems, weight issues, eating disorders, etc. All of these issues can be correlated with lower life expectancies. Another reason it is harmful to society is because these fast food meals are not cheap and are often fairly expensive. Americans spend countless amount of money on these fattening meals, yet even during a recession this consumption is stil occurring.
An aspect of American culture that is widely accepted, yet can be seen as a problem to society is credit card use. Credit cards are a social problem because they often promote excessive spending of money on products desired by consumers. They are primarily used when monetary funds are not readily available. Upon the arrival of the credit card bill, individuals are not always prepared to pay the balance due, which leads to massive amounts of debt, as many credit card companies have high interest rates. The usage of credit cards and the debt created can be a vicious cycle that is difficult to end. The financial struggles facing many Americans today offers proof that credit cards are indeed a social problem.
I believe that one of the most pressing problems we face as a society is unwanted teenage pregnancy. I think this is a very controversial issue because we see ads everywhere on billboards or on television advocating the education of contraceptives, so my question is why are teens so careless? I think part of the problem lies in the seemingly widespread acceptance of this issue. We see movies like Juno and The Pregnancy Pact and television shows like Gilmore Girls and The Secret Life of the American Teenager that show the more positive aspects of pregnancy. Though they do touch on some of the difficulties that plague teenage parents, more often than not, they romanticize the situation. In reality, teenage pregnancies cause more families to resort to welfare and prevents many teenage parents from pursuing the higher knowledge needed in order to keep up with today's job market. Teenage pregnancies also lead to more children entering the foster care system. This issue is very close to me because my best friend got pregnant in high school. I have seen both the positive and negative effects that it has had on her life. Although I personally watch all of the television shows and movies I mentioned above, I also recognize the importance of their subject matter. I think promoting awareness of teenage pregnancy is very important, but I also believe that this is still a pressing social problem that needs to be addressed.
As strange as it sounds, I believe a lot of reality television shows are a social problem. Through these shows, real people are setting an example, whether it be good or bad. The station MTV has a great number of reality tv shows that may give the teens and kids watching it bad ideas. There are tv shows about teen pregnancy, dangerous stunts, and celebrities showing off their houses. The example that these real people are setting for their audience is materialism and poor decisions. The growing youth learn so much from tv, and this kinds of tv can teach them really bad habits, behaviors, and ideals. And sometimes they aren't truly reality; a lot of the shows are staged and rehearsed, and the people are put in set up situations in order to create drama. For a lot of youths, their role models are the people in these reality shows, and most of the time, it's a negative influence.
I believe society’s view of a 'pretty woman' is a problem. Shows such as America's Next Top Model, teach young girls that being ultra skinny is normal. Not only is this unhealthy to some individual girls, but teenage girls as a whole. Some girls may go to extremes to meet the criteria of being skinny. In this society skinny means pretty. Some of these extremes may be eating disorders, and sometimes drugs. I know that some girls will smoke cigarettes to try and stay skinny. When members of society are willing to commit dangerous acts in order to meet what society considers normal, there is definitely a problem. I think that this problem is further influenced by the increasing amount of focus on celebrity lives. When the TV and tabloids are full of young girls fleeing to rehab to help them with eating disorders, this can also make other young girls think that it is okay to have eating problems. This view that to be pretty you must be skinny is ridiculous. While my personal opinion may be thrown out, the proof is in the lives of young teenage girls throughout America. Drugs, cigarettes and eating disorders are not okay. They are harmful to these young girls, and are caused by the pressure of society to fit the mold of what is normal or ‘pretty’.
When I think about social problems that society accepts that I absolutely don't agree with is cigarette smoke. I hate it because many people I know and live with use this nicotine drug and its the most selfish act because its said that second hand smoke is worse. It's addictive just like every other thing in this world, but that doesn't make it okay to be used legally. I believe that many people downplay them because there are so many other things that are much worse such as: marijuana, alcohol and heavy drugs, etc. So in a way society doesn't mind this because when you walk into a restaurant they ask you, "Smoking or non-smoking." I understand companies are benefiting and the government is also, but its a social problem that I believe will never be fixed, but would like to see that day!
One of the social problems that I think needs to be addressed in our society is the issue of education. Many people are not aware of the issues within our educational system, because most of us at Wofford College are blessed with the opportunity to attend decent schools and, of course, Wofford. However, many children don't have books to study, proper learning materials, or proper learning environments. Everybody should be entitled to an education, and a decent one at that.
In my opinion, a huge social problem in the US is a lack of true action. We can’t go anywhere without TALKING about social problems: health care, environmental degradation, unhealthy food options…. The topics come up in our classes, at work, in the news. They are even becoming topics of conversations at parties and social events. But what do we do about it? More often than not, we do nothing. Most people spend their time “raising awareness” or trying to figure out the problems over cocktails, but then they simply return home and live their comfortable lives.
The other day in class, someone mentioned the movie Avatar, describing its critique of our treatment of the environment, and even other cultures. I haven’t seen Avatar, but I have heard very similar remarks from friends and critics explaining that James Cameron is making a very strong statement against our degradation of the environment. But is he really doing anything about it? The production costs and marketing costs of Avatar add up to be around 430 MILLION dollars. 20th Century Fox openly admits that it is the most expensive movie they have ever produced. In my personal opinion, if James Cameron was truly concerned with the world around him, there are much better uses of that amount of money. And to explain, I did the math for some of them. $430,000,000 could provide for:
•The care of 1 million children through World Vision for a year.
•95,555.5 wells in developing countries, or clean water for 43,000,000 people for ten years with The Water Project
•17,200 two room school houses in the developing world with Samaritans Purse
•43,000,000 mosquito nets for Doctors Without Borders to distribute
•Or, if you’re looking closer to home: 9,555 complete (and VERY LARGE) solar panels on residential houses in the US.
I don't mean to pick on James Cameron. I simply wanted to use an example of what we COULD do if we would be willing to commit ourselves to making a difference in our community. There are lots of programs that already exist to help others and the environment (I already listed a few). They just need people who are willing to do something, willing to help. People CAN make a difference if they want to do more than talk. They just have to actually do more than talk.
The acceptance of using bio-fuels as a safer replacement for normal gas can be a harmful concept to society. This is a social problem on many scales. One would be the fact that the actual production of some bio-fuels is bad for the environment and it is detrimental to humans in the long run. Secondly, producers know this information and continue to lie to consumers which is a disturbing problem. What most people do not realize is that some bio-fuels, such as bio-fuel made from palm oil, actually emit just as much or even more CO2 than a car using normal gas. The reason for this misconception is because producers do not include the numbers of CO2 emitted during the production of this bio-fuel. The numbers released only pertain to the CO2 released from the use of this bio-fuel. Another problem created in the production of palm oil is that to obtain palm oil, the destruction of many rainforests has occurred. In order to gain the palm oil in a fast and cheap manner the process used is extremely bad for the environment. Consumers are not told about the process of the bio-fuel production. However, to be fair, the consumers never seek this information. They accept for fact what they are told without question. Consumers continue to believe they are helping the environment by using this bio-fuel, when in fact they have contributed to the release of just as much CO2 as they would have if they had continued using regular fuel.
I think that the idea of using technology as a form of communication is a social problem;in the forms of texting, facebook, twitter, and myspace. Technology is a great invention and I use almost all of the social networks listed above. However, I believe people are forgetting how to communicate with one another in person. By unknowingly beginning to merge how communication via texts and internet with how to speak to a person. As well as bringing "the lingo" into the work place. I know we are knowledgeable enough to decipher when to use "text lingo" versus proper english, but we are creatures of habit. I have found myself to be in the process of typing a paper and instead of writing "you" I will write "U". That is a problem in of its self. If we lose the ability as a society to communicate out ideas and beliefs, then what will be left?
I believe that a major social problem in America, right now, is hyper commercialism and our abilities to mass produce goods to sell that we actually don't need. We recently watched a video in class that described the concept of GPI, or Genuine Progress Indicator. This idea is contrary to the GNP, or Gross National Product, a major economic tool to measure the output that an economy may produce at a certain time period. This was a very interesting idea to me, as an Economics major, because it would include things like household consumption and subtract things like crime and black market transactions.
I believe that hyper commercialism is the cause hyper spending and shopping. As a result of this epidemic, American citizens are never satisfied with what they have and find themselves in a constant pursuit of more. This is not a good thing.
In order to put a stop to these forces of affluenza from taking America by storm, we, as Americans, must make some conscious changes in our decision making. Shopping icons, like Wal-Mart and Target, must be used less in order to promote local economies and foster a financial shift that would cause for the redistribution of wealth to those local economies.
There are thousands of social problems; however, it is up to the people of a society to create and maintain change.
The Blue Family decided that the symptom of "consumer kids" was the worst. The idea of an entire comference based on "kid power", an oxymoron in itself was very disturbing. Using the title "kid power" implies that they are trying to find solutions to build up children, but in actuality they are working on methods to break them down. Heavily influenced by the idea that if you get kids early, you can raise them to love your product. Although, kids are the fastest growing consumers, our family believes it is wrong to manipulate them. It is our belief that if we break the cycle of marketing kids, it will simultaneously break all the other symptoms.This is because children are the future, if they are raised to be aware of affluenza and its harmful effects, then these are the ideals that will be passed to future generations and vice versa.
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