In today's class we:
- Finished watching the Human Animal documentary about gestures and body language
- Discussed it in class after mentioning the various factors that affect cultural variations in body language
- Discussed global diversity and the changing state of population in America
-old cultures and traditions
-efficiency of using gestures (speed, efficiency, they can be done at long distance, can over come loud noises etc)
- Discussed the social effects of the rise of social networking on Thailand (The Myspace/Facebook generation). The following points were raised:
- Decreases inhibitions of communication (no major 'loss of face' if communicating with a foreigner when speaking another language). This may increase application of the target language.
- Increases the efficiency of communication (makes language more efficient).
- Improves local advertising/cuts costs.
- Allows teenagers to live freer 'dual lives' outside of the confines of conservative parents.
Negatives
- May prevent 'real' socialising with a generation reliant on using social networking instead of face-to-face communication.
- Prevents people from learning 'official' language rules before informal 'text-chat' becomes the primary language.
- An increase in promiscuity.
- Increases individualism (for example in a family where everyone spends all of their free time on a computer rather than interacting with actual family members or friends). This is further linked to addiction.
- The idea of 'dual lives.' Could actual be a negative with a large hidden divide opening up within families against the knowledge of more conservative parents.
There were many more points raised but these were some of the main ones
- Watched a documentary called 'The Most Hated Family in America in Crisis.'
The previous episode is here: http://kat.ph/louis-theroux-the-most-hated-family-in-america-bbc2-2007-04-01-t1145785.html (Download the torrent file and open it with a suitable torrent/download application. Otherwise you can use youtube to stream the episode).
- Discussed the video from the point of view of the 'tribalism' within the group. Here is the sociological paper written about the 3 steps towards hatred :
- Spent some time in our groups planning the sociological experiment for the course
- Confirmed the plan for next Saturday (March 10th). This class will be set aside for research/surveying. You DO NOT have to attend class on this day.
The changing state of population in America
| american_population_pages_from_sociology_-_the_essentials_6e.pdf |
| american_population_2_pages_from_sociology_-_the_essentials_6e.pdf |
