Homework #11

1.

The first artifact that I took a picture of was an American Flag. This shows our culture because it represents when we first started and the

colonies/states. The second thing I took a picture of was a poker poster. I took a picture of this because I feel our culture is filled with gambling

and desire/addiction for money. The third picture I took was of a grocery store. I think our culture has many different kinds of food and every

culture has their own that defines them. Mexico has spicy foods, Italy has spaghetti, and America is more of a burger and fries kind of country.

The fourth picture I took was a bank. Similar to the gambling picture, I think banks have a lot of affect on people and culture. Some people don’t

believe in banks and some do. This shows how our culture has many opinions on money and who we trust with it. The next picture I took was of

an engagement ring. I think our culture is a very affectionate culture and marriage is key in most people’s lifetime. The next picture I took was of

a car. Our culture’s technology with cars has skyrocketed. Every year before the year even changes, new cars come out for the up-coming year.

Many people have desires to get the new and latest cars to assure their families are safe. Our culture has had an out poor of demand for cars. The

next picture I took was a cell phone. Our culture and kids are now defined as the technology era. No verbal communication really exists anymore

because of cell phones and internet. Another picture I took was of a house. Our culture today most people have a home to live in. In other

cultures they live in huts, igloos, or some places outside. We have the comfort in our society (for most) to live in a comfortable setting. The last

picture I took was of a power line. What would our culture be without power? Sometimes we can barely last 2 hours in a snow storm without it.

We wouldn’t have been able to get technology without power. Our culture is very reliant on power and the use of our electronics from it.

2.

“Into your heart I’ll beat again
Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock
And sweet you roll
Lost for you I’m so lost for you
You come crash into me”

The lyrics above define me as an individual because I have been in a relationship for the past 4 years. To many that isn’t a big deal but I

am only 19 years old and not a lot of people my age can say that. This song I have listened to with my boyfriend since we first started dating way

back in freshman year of high school. Many knew us as told us because of “how cute we were” and that we had stayed together all through high

school. You could say we are high school sweethearts! I define myself different from everyone else from these song lyrics because many college

students focus on school, parties, and having fun with significant others. I personally could never see myself like everyone else since all I know is

being with my boyfriend. He and I have been through almost everything such as the other being injured, away, surgeries, a death in the family;

you name it, we’ve been through it. This is also different from everyone else because not many people can say they have experienced that with

someone else while only being 19 years old. I also chose these lyrics and my boyfriend because he defines me. He is basically my other half. He is

why I am who I am today (besides my family and friends).

Homework #10

1. The biggest thing that I have witnessed is going to a school that is very diverse. My high school wasn’t very culturally different and coming to IUP I have met different people from different places with different backgrounds. It made me realize that outside of my hometown, there are people and places with so much diversity. This makes our cultural so unique because it’s totally different from where you live to the places you go and visit.

2. I believe me working at a diner where I have to interact with people that are different than me has proven to make me more cultural. I get all kinds of customers from different cultures. One guy who always orders salmon has an accent and is from South America. He gives me talks on where he is from and how much different the food is and language. This makes us so unique because what made him come here? What made us cross paths in life? It amazes me.

3. Over the course of this week I myself have demonstrated individuality because I went to a Phillies vs Pirates game and I was wearing Phillies gear while everyone else had Pirates stuff on. I was my own self at that game and got looks and stares but I still represented my Phillies. 

Homework #8

1. The first thing an international student visiting IUP would notice different than TV or movies is that people actually do study. Most movies portray college to be all parties [there are plenty of them] but week days, you can find a ton of people in the library. They also portray college campuses to be all Greek Life. Think about it, every movie involving a college has people in a fraternity or sorority. Not everyone on campus joins greek life and international students can find that just as much fun can occur if you’re not in one. I believe movies and TV portray college campuses way different than it really is because they want people to become interested in their movie, make money, and sell tickets. Most people would want to see a party movie with kids being distructive such as Project X.

2. The pamphlet says that time is simply an idea and humans are always worrying about how much time is wasted, used, or left. I believe American’s view time this way because ever since we were born we were told to be at certains places at certain times. T-ball practice, soccer, dance, band, whatever our parents put us in we were told to leave at a certain time and that we’d be back at a certain time.

3. The pamphlet says that humans hate interuptions because it is a humans way of conveying thoughts and ideas in ones own language. In my life interuptions are a normal thing. My group of friends always have a lot to say either about the weekend, some guy they met, or a party the went to. Everytime someone talks, someone else thinks of something similar and jumps in. It’s not frowned upon in my group of friends because we all do it. At times it does get annoying when you’re trying to get a point across and you can’t finish a sentence, but we all do it and were all use to it!

4. “Social settings also guide how individuals interact. Though many relationships are informal, differences can still occur. Giving gifts does not happen as commonly as other places which tend to be limited to family and close friends.”
I thought this was interesting because I agree with it a lot. Most relationships are informal and many people, such a myself, have aquintences but they aren’t friends. We have our differences because of being raised differently. They might not have the same gift giving traditions as me. My family gives gifts on holidays and only to close friends and family. I may interact with someone who gives gifts to an entire community. Different views but we still interact.

Homework three

Question 1: I believe that a society that solely focuses on buying materials could create an alienation because of many people’s addictions they have to this. Most people who earn money look to spend it. If our society completely focused on buying materials rather than working, it would create a social downfall and many people would fall into debt. I believe that American’s would isolate themselves from the world and either shop online to crave an addiction or avoid family and friends to buy buy buy!

Question 2: I absolutely don’t think that if salaries were to increase it would solve the focus on buying materials. I think this would make people want to spend more because they will think they have the money. I know that personally if one night I make more money than usual, I tend to spend more because in my head I know I have extra. However, I really should be saving it because in the long run it will help me.

Question 3: I believe that there are 3 things that associate with people’s “competitive consumption”. The first would be physical/body. I believe that if someone has a lot of money (such as celebrities) they focus on looking their best such as botox and plastic surgery. Many people who keep track of their lifestyles feel as though they must look just as good. The second would be outside/clothes. I believe that people focus on how someone dresses to prove their social standing. Someone wearing a ripped t-shirt might look up to someone and try and look just as great as someone wearing a suit. The third factor that plays into this theory would be the internal/mind. I think that people who watch others succeed strive to succeed as well. They don’t want to be falling behind socially and economically so they create this competition within themselves to be like others.

Question 4: ”Competitive consumption” has influenced my identity when I was in high school. I remember being a freshman and at the age of 14 you always look up to the older kids or the popular kids. At this age you also are trying to find your identity. I always tried to wear what the popular kids wore or what was ‘in style’. I was always striving to look more fashionable and more preppy everyday.  ”Competitive consumption” affected my friends almost the same way as me. At the same age as me they were trying to find themselves and setting trends were done by the popular girls. If one person was wearing something that was more in style, they would go out and buy it.

Morality Homework Week 2

Question one: I honestly found Bill Gates to be the most admirable just because I knew most about him and what he has done to make himself wealthy. After reading I still believe Bill Gates to be the most admirable after the facts due to his creation in my era. Mother Theresa was influential in the 20th century however, I am not catholic and she really has no effect on me. Bill Gates has made a change for the better that can help me out in my lifetime like being able to write this article due to Microsoft. He has made himself the richest man over creating a genius idea.

Question two: The two people I’d have to choose to be most admirable would be Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks. I know Tyra Banks isn’t known for many things and mostly only known for her TV show, America’s Next Top Model, I have learned that she honestly is someone to look up to. She made this show to change the typical ‘anorexic’ looking model to allowing plus size girls into the modelling world. She has helped young girls with body issues, created a talk show, and changed lives of little girls helping them realize being a size 10 is okay! My other choice, Oprah is such a profound lady that I don’t even know where to begin. She has helped numorous charity’s and took many trips to help Africa out including school’s for the poor. Oprah’s talk show has had many life changing episodes from rapist’s, to Tom Hanks, to taking a trip to the Holocaust remains with author of ‘Night’, Elie Wisel.

Question three: I don’t believe there is a universal morality because everyone has their own opinion. I believe that each person somehow has a slightly different view on each type of morality. No one person can be exactly the same as someone else’s thinking. Even though they might be going through the same thing just in a different country, does not mean that together we all have a universal morality.

Question four: The five are harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity. Out of these I think American’s would rank community number one because of the Nationalism we have experienced since 9/11. I believe that every person in America has some form of respect for the community they were raised in whether is was in the suburbs, city, or country everyone will respect their roots. Each American can have a sense of peace knowing we all went through the attack on 9/11 and we have a sense of closeness to our community that we were in at the time of the attacks.

 

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can always preview any post or edit it before you share it to the world.