February 24, 2014
Sociology Paper #1
Sociology
Sociology embarks on our everyday life. Throughout this essay, I will be giving examples from a series of youtube videos and everyday situations and explain how they are entwined with Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 5. These chapters touch on the subjects of Language, Symbolic Interactionism, Sociologist Research and Mass media/Peer Groups. Prime examples from rappers and normal people living day by day will be used to explain how they relate to the topics. Let’s take Eminem the rapper as an example. Eminem discussed in a video the upcoming of his career and his inspiration throughout life. I felt that he used symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective in which a society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world and communicate with one another. Eminem explained how he interprets other rappers style with his style. Symbols are what helped guide him to find his inner character to express the music he wanted the crowd to hear. Eminem also took from his first performance of people booing him as a symbol to go harder and become better at what he wanted to do. Another example is the America is Beautiful Cocoa Cola Superbowl Commercial. This was a very beautiful clip. With this youtube video, it expressed language which is discussed in chapter 2. The anthem that people normally hear was sung in many different languages. In chapter 2 it explains that language is the primary way in which people communicate with one another. We pass ideas, knowledge, memories and plan activities through language. Language basically helps people to move beyond their immediate experiences. Even though the anthem that was sung is known to be singed in English, it was a cultural changed to embark different languages and cultures to incorporate their style into it. Now let’s use Kanye West as an example of peer groups and mass media from chapter 3. Kanye West explained his first battle rap he lost as a younger child. He was dealing with peer pressure from the children around him and also the pressure of going up against the kid who was the top winner in theses battles. Going up against the winner is always a tough challenge especially when you have a million voices surrounding cheering and booing at the same time. After losing that battle, Kanye to the lost and the pressure to better himself. He was determining after that to become the top rapper and to never lose again. He took greatness from classic