hell is other people- aka sociology
OMFG. My essay that’s due next Monday? Is more complicated than I imagined.
STEP 1:
To begin, you need to choose a topic that interests you. Your choices are:
1. Biometric surveillance
2. The use of CCTV cameras
3. Online identity-related crime
STEP 2:
After choosing a topic from the list above, you must find a ‘real life’ incident related to your topic that occurred in 2010 and was documented in the media. This media report can be from the newspaper, radio, television or internet (Australian or International) and must document an event from 2010.
NONE OF THESE TOPICS INTEREST ME. AT ALL. If anyone knows any RL incidents relevant to the three topics, please let me know? I’m floundering atm, ack. The lame part is that this is a research report but we’re only to use one paragraph to describe the case related to it. Um, first of all, I have crappy choices to pick from; second, I have no idea what to go with; third, even when I do find something, I can’t even waffle on about it for hundreds of words? UNCOOL.
In more awesome news: I got my grade back for my reflective journal entry- and it was not bad!
Dear Annie,
A well considered reflective journal which I really enjoyed reading particularly for your dry humour. One of my points to those who always emphasise the stranger danger aspect of the internet is always "How would we ever meet any new people if we re so paranoid about strangers?" I also found the gender comparisons really interesting and undoubtedly there are similarities between what we do as well as differences between the genders.
I look forward to your second assignment.
Mark: 72%
Okay, assuming my math skills don’t fail me- if the reflective entry is worth 30% of my total grade, then 0.3 x 72 = 21.6. I only need to get 50% on my essay *prays* and 20% on my quiz to pass! TO WHATEVER DEITIES ARE OUT THERE, HEAR MY PRAYER.
Of course, I’d feel a lot better about that 50% if I knew what to write about. *headdesk* Seriously, any input at all would be great.
Also, I can't believe she made that comment about my sense of humor! I wasn't even trying, lol. But...now I feel slightly guilty- she's looking forward to my essay? UGH. This is why I don't like to try at things- it raises expectations and people have high hopes for you and then you let them down and it all sucks.
On another note. You know what annoys me about Sociology? Aside from the fact that I have to do two units at once this time (in the past, I’ve only ever done one Soc/one Psych each trimester), it’s that the bloody thing is so vague and dense. In Psych, it’s beautiful and elegant and so clear. Everything is perfectly defined- if there’s a psych term, you look it up in the glossary and there’ll be a short and precise description. If there’s a theory, it’ll only take a couple sentences to outline the gist of it. Even if the topic’s something as complicated as the brain, well, at high school, someone came up with an acronym that covered all the regions of the brain (was it something to do with playing the violin? Can’t remember) and once you knew the letter each area started with, it triggered the memory of what that part did and how it functions and everything. SIMPLE. CLEARLY DEFINED. LOVE.
Sociology? Is a hot mess. Someone tell me what symbolic interactionism is, in twenty or fewer words. Go on. PFAH. The bloody thing isn’t clear even when you look at the individual sociologists associated with it- in fact, there’s hot debate over whether Goffman even counts as a symbolic interactionist; Blumer and Mead are either alike by those who’re pro-SI or vastly different and illogical by those trying to tear it down by proving their work had nothing to do with what it’s supposed to; Mead copied off Cooley, but then spent the rest of his career trashing the dude and insisting his theories were worthless, even though that kinda comprised his own work…ARGH. There is not one single nice short definition to be found. Even with Goffman’s thing about dramaturgical sociology, which can be broken down into chunks, is complicated and long-winded and everything requires about a hundred words to explain. UGH.
Tl;dr- it’s hard to summarize. They take twenty pages to explain one concept. It makes it hard for me to work out wtf is going on. No offense to anyone who's studying it, but it seems to me that Soc is all about waffling on about things in a learned manner but saying nothing. Psych was so much better. I yearn for Abnormal Psych and Criminal Psychology. *pouts*
ETA. Milestone for me today! I managed to do three hours of studying. I KNOW. I had four 45 min blocks of reading, then a fifteen minute break to check my mail, reply to a few comments (mainly on the sshg_exchange comm, I'm officially signed up, omg!) and basically wake myself up and make it more bearable, lol. I've got all the info I need for my essay due on Thursday; I just need to chop, summarize in my own words and put into order. I can do this. *iz determined* The reason I picked this topic is 'coz it's easy enough- choose three sociologists associated with SI, explain their perspectives and discuss the weaknesses. I don't have much on Goffman atm, but oh well.
I'm just freaking out about the Sex, Crime and Justice essay, because that looks really hard, but I'mma compartmentalize and focus on this one first. *takes deep breath*
Vidspam: since this is a uni post, here’s a random vid from Sociology and the Modern World (I think that’s what it’s called…) on norm violation, what happens when people don’t act as we expect. For some reason, only half the vid is on that; the rest is like a plea or promotion or something? IDEK.
STEP 1:
To begin, you need to choose a topic that interests you. Your choices are:
1. Biometric surveillance
2. The use of CCTV cameras
3. Online identity-related crime
STEP 2:
After choosing a topic from the list above, you must find a ‘real life’ incident related to your topic that occurred in 2010 and was documented in the media. This media report can be from the newspaper, radio, television or internet (Australian or International) and must document an event from 2010.
NONE OF THESE TOPICS INTEREST ME. AT ALL. If anyone knows any RL incidents relevant to the three topics, please let me know? I’m floundering atm, ack. The lame part is that this is a research report but we’re only to use one paragraph to describe the case related to it. Um, first of all, I have crappy choices to pick from; second, I have no idea what to go with; third, even when I do find something, I can’t even waffle on about it for hundreds of words? UNCOOL.
In more awesome news: I got my grade back for my reflective journal entry- and it was not bad!
Dear Annie,
A well considered reflective journal which I really enjoyed reading particularly for your dry humour. One of my points to those who always emphasise the stranger danger aspect of the internet is always "How would we ever meet any new people if we re so paranoid about strangers?" I also found the gender comparisons really interesting and undoubtedly there are similarities between what we do as well as differences between the genders.
I look forward to your second assignment.
Mark: 72%
Okay, assuming my math skills don’t fail me- if the reflective entry is worth 30% of my total grade, then 0.3 x 72 = 21.6. I only need to get 50% on my essay *prays* and 20% on my quiz to pass! TO WHATEVER DEITIES ARE OUT THERE, HEAR MY PRAYER.
Of course, I’d feel a lot better about that 50% if I knew what to write about. *headdesk* Seriously, any input at all would be great.
Also, I can't believe she made that comment about my sense of humor! I wasn't even trying, lol. But...now I feel slightly guilty- she's looking forward to my essay? UGH. This is why I don't like to try at things- it raises expectations and people have high hopes for you and then you let them down and it all sucks.
On another note. You know what annoys me about Sociology? Aside from the fact that I have to do two units at once this time (in the past, I’ve only ever done one Soc/one Psych each trimester), it’s that the bloody thing is so vague and dense. In Psych, it’s beautiful and elegant and so clear. Everything is perfectly defined- if there’s a psych term, you look it up in the glossary and there’ll be a short and precise description. If there’s a theory, it’ll only take a couple sentences to outline the gist of it. Even if the topic’s something as complicated as the brain, well, at high school, someone came up with an acronym that covered all the regions of the brain (was it something to do with playing the violin? Can’t remember) and once you knew the letter each area started with, it triggered the memory of what that part did and how it functions and everything. SIMPLE. CLEARLY DEFINED. LOVE.
Sociology? Is a hot mess. Someone tell me what symbolic interactionism is, in twenty or fewer words. Go on. PFAH. The bloody thing isn’t clear even when you look at the individual sociologists associated with it- in fact, there’s hot debate over whether Goffman even counts as a symbolic interactionist; Blumer and Mead are either alike by those who’re pro-SI or vastly different and illogical by those trying to tear it down by proving their work had nothing to do with what it’s supposed to; Mead copied off Cooley, but then spent the rest of his career trashing the dude and insisting his theories were worthless, even though that kinda comprised his own work…ARGH. There is not one single nice short definition to be found. Even with Goffman’s thing about dramaturgical sociology, which can be broken down into chunks, is complicated and long-winded and everything requires about a hundred words to explain. UGH.
Tl;dr- it’s hard to summarize. They take twenty pages to explain one concept. It makes it hard for me to work out wtf is going on. No offense to anyone who's studying it, but it seems to me that Soc is all about waffling on about things in a learned manner but saying nothing. Psych was so much better. I yearn for Abnormal Psych and Criminal Psychology. *pouts*
ETA. Milestone for me today! I managed to do three hours of studying. I KNOW. I had four 45 min blocks of reading, then a fifteen minute break to check my mail, reply to a few comments (mainly on the sshg_exchange comm, I'm officially signed up, omg!) and basically wake myself up and make it more bearable, lol. I've got all the info I need for my essay due on Thursday; I just need to chop, summarize in my own words and put into order. I can do this. *iz determined* The reason I picked this topic is 'coz it's easy enough- choose three sociologists associated with SI, explain their perspectives and discuss the weaknesses. I don't have much on Goffman atm, but oh well.
I'm just freaking out about the Sex, Crime and Justice essay, because that looks really hard, but I'mma compartmentalize and focus on this one first. *takes deep breath*
Vidspam: since this is a uni post, here’s a random vid from Sociology and the Modern World (I think that’s what it’s called…) on norm violation, what happens when people don’t act as we expect. For some reason, only half the vid is on that; the rest is like a plea or promotion or something? IDEK.
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