The Sociology Times 

For instance, the sociological imagination is a key factor in understanding societal concepts. We all have troubles, but the idea of the sociological imagination is to be able to distinguish one’s personal troubles from larger social issues. For example, when I was applying to colleges there were a couple that I was waitlisted for and even completely denied, which ended up making me feel like I wasn’t good enough. However, after looking at the bigger picture, I realized that my SATs were below average for the scores they were looking for and found a college that suited me better for my academic needs. The awareness of the relationship between test scores and societies expectations helped me to feel more at ease.

 The term Social Solidarity was also discussed during the introductory chapters of the textbook. This term refers to the bind that a certain group of people have with one another based on aspects such as shared location, ethnicity, or religion. This term plays a role in my everyday life because many of my personal relationships are based on the fact that we live in the same area, go to the same university, and take similar classes. More specifically I have made close friends with people within the same major as mine because we attend the same classes and have similar interests.

 In relation to social solidarity, there are often social institutions that reside in the shared location of these communities. Social institutions are places such as schools, police stations, grocery stores, and hospitals. These institutions have placed rules that are universally followed within society. These rules help to guide people to be model citizens. Without these rules, there would be ciaos. For example, when I was in high school, I took a class that allowed us to work with preschoolers. If we didn’t set school rules for the students, then they would just be running around with no way to control them.

  In the second section that focused on the cultural side of societal constructs, I learned many terms that relate to my life. The first being, ethnocentrism because I have encountered it multiple times throughout my life. Ethnocentrism is when people express disgust about other cultures without fully taking time to understand their culture. My family and I went to Paris a couple years ago and I remember many French people giving us looks of disgust and one restaurant wouldn’t serve us because many French people have Americans stereotyped as lazy and fat compared to their culture.

 Another term that I picked from the section on culture that impacts my life is ideal culture. The term means the idea or standards that a culture wishes to achieve or live up to. I feel like this term effects everyone in the United States at some point or another seeing as the idea of the “American Dream” is ever present when choosing our majors, careers, where we live and so on. Everyone wants to make enough money to live a comfortable life and the pressure of this is on me, as a student, every day. I want to graduate and get a good job and become successful, so I live up to the cultural ideal.

 The last term I found that impacts my life every day is social control. Social control is a way to make people conform to societies norms. Social control can be positive or negative sanctions. I remember growing up I would get rewarded for getting good grades with candy and then money as I got older. However, if I would get bad grades, I would have a negative punishment such as getting grounded. These sanctions are ways to make people be “ideal” members of society.

 

By Austin Redaway

On Homecoming Friday the school spirit was incredibly apparent. Whether it was face paint or clothing, the Viking colors were everywhere. The assembly was a scream of Viking pride and spirit. The band played a terrific presentation of the fight song. During the activities, the participants were enthusiastic about the games and fought hard for class victory. The Viking 2018 Bangor Royal Court members were: Count and Countess were Daniel Ruiz and Alyssa Birner Duke and Duchess were Cameron London and Amara Littlefield Prince and Princess were Max McGuire and Maritza Barajas. The Senior Royal Court were Getsamani Vargas and Laisha Ramirez, Grace gleason and Josh Zordan, Ivan Meijia and Elena Guel. The crowns of King and Queed went to Marco Ruiz and Yareli Bentacourt. Congratulations!

Christine Sargeant - Senior Editor