Blogging

Blogging

Blogging, for me is a new phenomenon that i have only recently heard about and looked into. There are many online blogs that are easily accessible on the world wide web these days that talk about everything and anything. A range of different people are involved in blogging from all over the world, which they choose to do either purely for enjoyment, escapism from the stresses of daily life or have academic influences in writing blogs.


In terms of recreational blogging, for some people it can be very addictive, for example following a blog that people read 'religiously', or even when writing a blog; it can become a way of life, similar to keeping a diary.
After looking at a variety of different blogs online, I've come to find that the content of what is shared within a blog varies with each one, from exploring personal issues such as discussing health problems to indulging in different hobbies, including swimming and baking.
However, in some blogs there is the question of whether the content of the topics discussed is too personal to be discussed openly and readily available on the Internet, crossing boundaries of what is considered to be private information entering the public sphere. This becomes a common question as there are many instances where some people do not hold back with what they share in their blogs, sometimes i do ask myself when looking through blogs, did i really need to know that?!

This lack of maintaining privacy can be seen as a result of the emergence of modernity, as with the increase of social networking and the increasing intrusiveness of the media/press, topics of conversation that were once considered to be only spoken of in private (if spoken about at all) are now commonly spoken about daily with everyone and everywhere! 

Cultural changes within society have lead on to the development of a popular culture of 'bloggers', especially from the start of modernity in the twenty first century. There have been major cultural and technological advancements throughout society, as Jill Walker Rettberg mentions, "the introduction of print, spread of literacy and the expanding access to the Internet"(2008:2), that have all been  building blocks towards the emergence of the desirable blogging culture. The desire to 'write' came as a result of books and publications being readily available within society and from this it has continued to expand as technologies have, on to the Internet.

Parsons makes the distinction between two types of societies; traditional society and modern society. He highlights that there are key differences that set these two apart, one of them being a need for self orientation and individualism in a modern society. Rather than having a collective orientation individuals should strive for their own self interests and ultimately form their own self identity. Blogging can be seen as a way of expressing oneself, sharing personal thoughts and values, in which Parsons would see as concurring to a modern society. 

Giddens explains in his book 'Modernity and Self-identity' that "modernity radically alters the nature of day-to-day social life and effects the most personal aspects of our experience" suggesting that the changes that came with modernity have influenced this new popular blogging culture. This point made by Giddens further suggests that the onset of modern society has had an effect on what is considered to be the 'personal' entering the public sphere. With the developments of modernity have come changes in the way society thinks and acts, hence the popularity of blogging today.

Although blogging is often considered to be a relatively knew craze that is getting more popular by the day, there are elements of the 'blogging culture' that can be seen prior to the onset of modernity, for example, back in the day - prior to the 21st century, many people kept diaries and wrote letters to one another recording the special events or 'goings on' in their lives or venting their fears and stresses into a diary over things that were not considered acceptable to talk about. These are often subjects of discussion that inform the majority of blogs today, however now they are written on a larger scale, publicly and widely available to everyone, as opposed to being kept as personal diary entries. 

Blogs are not only used for recreational means, they can also be used academically to discuss topics such as social movements or global events that are happening in the news - people can often overlook this and just consider blogs to be a bit of fun. As well as academics using blogging as a means for academic discussion, blogs can be used as research tools, as a means of collecting secondary data. This is highly beneficial for social researchers in particular, for multiple reasons, as there is plenty of information readily available, searches can easily be refined and it saves a hell of a lot of time in comparison to the many other methods of research. 

As a student looking to develop knowledge and gain experience as a social researcher, I would definitely consider using blogging as a way of collecting information about a research study. It is only recently, since I have looked into blogging for this module, that I have realised  that blogging could be used for this purpose and on reflection I feel that it would be a really interesting way of gathering research, not to mention the time it saves compared to having to transcribe interviews and focus groups etc.  

Twitter

Twitter   

When you think of social networking you immediately think of Facebook and Twitter - well i do anyway, at the moment I am slightly obsessed with twitter: #serialtweeter.
As someone who is signed up to both of these sites, i can speak from experience of being involved in posting status', sharing photos and videos and 'tweeting' on a regular basis -i have been drawn into the world of social networking and its far too addictive. However it is not just me, engaging in these sites is becoming part of the daily routine for a huge proportion of the population today.

Although both Facebook and Twitter are similar in so many ways I'm going to focus on twitter as the topic of debate in my blog. Twitter is considered to be a form of 'micro-blogging' as there is a limit to the number of characters you can post at one time, where as with Facebook people can go on for pages writing about their life stories which can get a bit tedious.
You can write as many status' as you want throughout the day, which in the world of twitter are known as 'tweets' and there is no filter whatsoever on what you can talk about - the world is your oyster!

There are two symbols that you need to know about to get to grips with twitter; '@' and '#'.
The @ symbol is used to tag others in your tweets as it identifies your twitter account (@joeblogs), for example if you wanted to send a tweet to multiple friends at one time here's how it would look:

                              Hii @joeblogs @curlysue fancy going to the pub later?

this makes communication among friends especially, so much easier than having to ring everyone individually and it is then easy to have a multi-person chat.

You may have wondered earlier what I meant by '#serialtweeter'... let me explain. Within the world of twitter people use a hashtag (#) when talking about a specific topic, for example if on the odd chance i felt the need to tweet about a sociological issue, i could finish my tweet with '#sociology', this would then group my tweet with any other tweets that have been tagged with #sociology, effectively making it easier for anyone who was interested in this topic to click on and access tweets on this topic much easier. For example this is what would happen:

I searched for '#sociology' and as you can see the application itself sieve's through millions of tweets and refines all sociological related posts by people, saving a researcher for example, a lot of hassle.
This is one of the many pro's to twitter for academic use, however you can also do this for any topic that interests you, like if you wanted all the gossip on one of your favourite programmes that you had missed you could just search #Eastenders and you would be up to date in no time.
When such subjects have been paired with a #, if they then become really popular on the twitter news feed, with millions of people tweeting about them, then they become known as a 'trending topic'.

I personally think that twitter is a good form of social networking because as well as keeping in touch with friends and family (if they have an account obviously) you can keep up to date with goings on in the world, be it having a nosey into the lives of celebrities and catching up on the latest gossip or even tracking the news networks for the latest breaking news stories as the majority of them have a twitter account these days that is constantly being updated. 

Ryan (2011) defines a social network to be 'a group of people coming together for a specific reason', that share common interests and behaviours, therefore twitter is an obvious example of what it is to be a social network. Engaging in conversations among friends on twitter can be seen as an online social network and especially with the use of hashtags, peoples common thoughts and interests are joining together to create larger social networks with multiple people whom might not necessarily know one another.

As well as being an outlet for escapism, recreation, research and a news feed twitter is often used as a marketing tool for business and has made the advertising and promoting of products and services so much easier for business to carry out as well as broadened their audience. This is true at the moment of the tv advertisement for the mobile phone network 'three'. There is an animated advert on the tv of a dancing horse (that is hilarious might i add) and of constant discussion on twitter. It has been intentionally promoted with the attached hashtag of #dancingponydance for the purpose of twitter, so that when people catch on to this new craze (which they already have), they can tweet about it, benefiting the company with the media and public attention that they wanted. It is proving to be more of a common practice for business to promote through twitter - a very clever idea if you ask me!

This new found niche in marketing and promoting, leads us to think of the idea of flexible accumulation in a post modern society. It is argued that postmodernity commodifies all aspects of society including that of our personal lives and identity that we form through social networks including twitter. Harvey (1989) would say that the change from modernity to postmodernity, a shift away from a capitalist society if you like, means that advancements in technologies i.e. ICT and the internet mean that social networking sites such as twitter are important sources for attracting custom and achieving profits, which is exactly what the 'three mobile phone network' have set out to do. 

Although there are many ideas of what twitter can be used for or considered to be, it is ultimately a form of social networking that provides enjoyment and entertainment for many of the population and   is rapidly becoming even more of a popular method of communication.

Wearing White?!

Wearing White?!

Everyone has their own style when it comes to the clothes they wear and to some extent  are conscious about how they dress, be it men, women, teenagers; even toddlers are picky these days. Women are no longer the only ones that spend hours in the shops looking for the perfect matching outfit!

Looking at a fashion blog by a blogger named Janis Prince Inniss, she highlights the issue of how popular fashion culture can lead to questions of racism within this realm of society. The main issue that Inniss raised is over the idea of 'nude' coloured clothing.
For women having a nude coloured bra, pair of nickers,  pair of tights, vest top or even nude coloured heels are often essential pieces to your wardrobe, i know they definitely are for me!
However, nude is a colour that is associated with wearing under another piece of clothing that can protect a girls modesty if it is an outfit that's a bit too revealing, with the hope that it will blend in with ones skin tone and be barely visible underneath the original outfit.
For those who skin colour is not the same colour as the standard 'nude' that comes off the production line this is not practical.
Inniss makes note that she has experienced this when shopping, as the nude colour suggested to be 'skin colour' does not match the colour of her skin and rather than wearing a discreet nude vest top underneath her clothes, it had the adverse effect and "stuck out like a sore thumb" - as some might say.

Basically the idea of producing a generic 'skin coloured' or 'nude' coloured garment in the fashion industry is not practical in a multicultural society - which in modern times all societies tend to be multicultural, at least to a certain extent.
The main question that comes to light after reading this blog, is 'does labelling clothes garments as 'skin coloured' suggest that all other shades of skin are different to what is considered to be the normal 'nude' colour?' This is the issue that may offend some members of society and be linked to episodes of racial prejudice and discrimination (Garner 2007).

Inniss suggests that individuals whom have 'different' skin tone to white people are considered to be of a 'different race', however whitness should also be considered as a 'race' in itself, but this is often a concept that is overlooked within society; "The meanings attached to 'race' are always time- and place- specific.... whiteness is no exception (Garner 2007:1).

In Britain it was once a condition that to acquire citizenship you had to be a 'white person' (Haney Lopez 1996:1), however times have moved on, as a result of colonialism and immigration, using Britain as one example, is made up of many multicultural societies.
It is often perceived that whitness reflects power as Garner (2007) states, 'whiteness represents dominance, normality and control' and it is these perceptions that society have embedded in them that cause tension and debate around the colour of a persons skin.
In an ideal world, along with developments of multicultural soceties that are effects of immigration etc. there should also be developments in society's attitudes to individuals with  different skin tones.

It can also be true that the shade of nude clothing can be problematic for white people, who's skin shade doesn't naturally blend with such clothing, however the meaning behind Inniss' arguement over the issue of clothing labelled as 'skin coloured' is a a contentious topic of debate. As retail outlets are often very influential towards society, the homogenizing of garments that are labelled as 'skin coloured' highlights publicly that anyone with a different skin tone fail to encompass what it is to be 'normal' in the eyes of society.

Link to blog: http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2012/06/fashion-and-race.html#more By Janis Prince Inniss (2012)

An Autoethnography

Eating Habits: Tastes or symbols

I am going to write an auto-ethnographic review of the types of food that I eat. An auto-ethnographic piece of research consists of reviewing a personal experience with individual feelings, stories, emotions and primary information from self experience and then an analysis of the experience with cultural and ethnographic explanation. 
An autoethnography can be used as a social research method as it is a piece of "writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience" (Ellis et al 2011), therefore it is an appropriate tool for gathering research in the study of society and the behaviour of society.

I eat foods and dishes that originate from a variety of countries/cultures and consider myself to be very open minded when trying different world foods. As well as enjoying English foods, such as the traditional 'fish and chips' for example, I like to eat Indian, Chinese and Italian foods. Eating different cultural dishes from countries other than England has become an increasingly popular thing to do for the whole of society which could be seen as a result of the expanding population of migrants from other countries coming into our society.

Even though I say that I'm pretty much open to try most foods, when it comes to eating different kinds of meat I'm often influenced by what is considered by society to be edible. For example the most common animal that is eaten in the UK is probably chicken and this is the most popular type of meat that I eat. I do eat beef and pork as well but these three animals (chickens, cows and pigs) are generally the only animals that I'd consider eating, I think that this is influenced by the society that I have been brought up in, as these are seen as 'normal' meats to eat, compared with other societies and countries in different parts of the world that consider snakes or horses to be edible and would maybe object to more western eating habits.

It is fair to say that as you grow older you become less picky over the foods that you will eat, for example, as a young child it is sometimes (among friends) considered to be 'uncool' to eat vegetables, therefore you don't eat them or claim to just not like them. However, with age and with the discovery of your own identity tend to make their own decisions over what they will or will not eat, regardless of what their friends would
say.
Therefore I personally think that our choice in eating particular foods is, to an extent influenced by societal values; what is considered to be socially acceptable to eat, however I believe that individuals themselves also hold autonomy of choosing what they eat and do not eat and ultimately it is a decision made by the individual.
This belief ties in with the general assumptions made about society progressing into a post modern society, that is centered around individualism and personal choice (Bauman 2000). With the onset of postmodernity and a development in a 'consumer culture', members have the freedom to make their own choices and consume what they chose to; in this instance it is the foods that they eat. This is considered by Bauman to be the key shift from a modern to a post modern society.

My First EVER Blog!

My First Sociology Blog!

I'm writing this blog as a part of my sociology degree and this is my first ever blog so i'm not too sure what i'm doing!

The topics that im looking forward to researching and covering in more depth are around the sociology of childhood and gender and race relations. Im hoping that this blog will help me reflect on what i already know on these topics and what knowledge i go on to develop throughout the rest of the course.

For this module, doing social research, i expect to widen my knowledge on what it is like to be a 'social researcher', developing and gaining more knowledge around my interests in my own studies of data, primary and secondary research.

I hope to gain more insight to research methods and what resources are available that may benefit me in my third year when it comes to doing my dissertation. 
So far this module interests me because it involves more of a hands on type of learning, through blogging and posters rather than just doing essays! But having said that, I do find this quite challenging at the same time because this isn't what i'm used to.