Two

This section asks to define two key terms that lay the base for the entire world of sociology.

Sociological Imagination

The way the world around us influences the decisions we make everyday is knows as sociological imagination. A prime example of this concept would be an Odyssey class that was offered that demonstrated the influence of others when it comes to appreciating music. Students were asked to walk to one side of the classroom or the other, depending on whether they liked the piece of music that was playing or not. They found that people's taste in music was dependent on what others thought of the piece of music. The insight of the way the rest of the classroom influenced the individual is an example of sociological imagination. I admit that I fall victim to the influence of others when it comes to a taste in music.

The following is a post from me on another social media website:

This is intimidatingly long, sorry. Hope you read it though!

Tomorrow, February 4th, 2014, will mark the ten year anniversary of the creation of Facebook. In ten years, a website has connected the world in a way that would have been viewed as impossible ten years ago. It's an incredible phenomenon, and we don't necessarily realize the psychological, philosophical, and, most effectively, the sociological changes people have gone through in these last ten years. We are witnessing dramatic change around us, in people, in behavior, in advertising, in just about everything.

We now have more access to information than we have time to read about.
We now have more friends than we have time to hang out with.
We now have more friends than we have time to talk to.
We now have more friends than we have time to know.
If we wanted to know more about a guy who sits at our table in math class, we can look him up on Facebook. We will know his first and last name, what he looks like, who he hangs out with, and everything he likes.
And we find that to be completely acceptable.
Relationships aren't legitimate unless they're on Facebook.
Fights are on Facebook.
Invitations to most events in real life are on Facebook.
There's a good chance that the last social gathering you went to was brought together by Facebook.
Groups can be instantly created to communicate with classmates, clubs, bands, fantasy football leagues, sports teams, people attending the same college in the same year, people who dislike the same Canadian pop singer, Satanist cults, you name it.
You can post your opinion on Facebook, and people will hear you and listen to you. (Hey guys!)
You can start a conversation with any "friend" of yours.
You can communicate at school, but your life happens on Facebook.

There are clear pros and blaring cons about having a Facebook and what it does for one's life. According to the current social norms, we are to the point where not having a Facebook account would be considerably detrimental to one's social life. If the cute boy in your math class doesn't have a Facebook, there's a much better chance we will ignore them and move on to other stalkable people. Facebook isn't the only thing that has effected our society in the last ten years, but my god spank me sideways if it isn't the biggest damn thing that's happened to us yet in our short lifetimes.

This is different from other events and ages in history. This isn't looking at a t.v. and saying, "Wow, I was alive when that happened."

This is personal. This is happening. To us. The boiling frogs.

Cheers to a revolutionary ten years, Facebook.
It truly terrifies me trying to imagine another ten years on here.

"...in a world
where there are voices that are only read
and laughter is never heard
or I'm so desperate to feel
that I hope the Technologic can reverse the universe
so the screen can touch me back
and maybe it will
When our technology is advanced enough...
to make us human again."

~Marshall Davis Jones, "Touchscreen" "

Sociological Mindfulness

As the society has influence on the individual, the individual also has an impact on his or her surroundings. The awareness of affecting the environment around you is called Sociological mindfulness. There was trash all over the ground at the Chicago Bears game a few weeks ago. I don't mean your occasional half-empty (half-full) bag of peanuts, I mean full-out hard-to-see-the-ground trash everywhere. It's sociological imagination to see how people influence me to not pick up the trash, but it is sociological mindfulness to realize that I, too, am influencing others by also not picking up the trash.

In Marshall Davis Jones's poem, the realization that we are all part of the influence on other people with technology is another example of sociological mindfulness.