individualism

Social interactions that I have witnessed over the past couple days include fake conversations, high fives, gestures in my car to other drives, and stares. I feel like other cultures are more real with how they treat other. For example, if you don’t like someone you don’t talk to them. Also I think that people in America care more about themselves then they do others so when they have a conversation with someone or wave hi to someone they don’t really mean they are too wrapped up in their own life.

Right after class on Thursday I witnessed a fake conversation between people, one said, “hi how ya doing?” and the other one said “good.” Both of them continued walking. You could care that neither of them really cared how the other one was doing. In the group of “college student” I think that a lot of us have a lot on our minds and we try to care about one other but I think for the most part people are wrapped up in themselves.

My sister just got her prom dress the other week and since I was home I got to see it. Most girls get tight dresses or dresses with a little poof but my sister got a huge dress. All her friends picked on her about it but she did it anyways. I don’t know if she got it because of her individuality or because she likes the attention. I feel like most of “individuals” that I’ve ever met or seen just like the extra attention, but that’s just my opinion.

Individualism

1. One topic that is rude to talk about in America is a women’s weight. Women get highly offended if I man or even another woman asks about their weight. It is also considered to be rude to talk about money, especially if the person talking about their money is bragging. Nobody likes a show off. Religion is rude to talk about, since there are so many different cultures and religions. No one wants to be told that another religion is better than their own religion, and people definitely don’t want to be told that they need to convert into another religion.
2. In Thailand, the elderly live with the children or grandchildren if the elderly fall ill. The children or grandchildren take turns taking care of the sick grandparent. I think this is how America should be, because there is a lot more care involved when it’s your own family. In America, we ship our grandparent who have cared for us and gave us gifts every time we saw us to nursing homes. At nursing home, the people that work there do not care about the elderly as much as someone in their own family would. I hope that when I’m older I can be humble enough to take care of my parents.
3. A lot of incidents in my own life have helped illustrate my individualism. As a teenager, I was never forced to work and sometimes I wish my parent would have made me do something. I didn’t get my first job until my senior year, so I feel like there was a delay in me having responsibility. In contrast, I played sports all through school which I think helped give me responsibility. I was a team caption my junior and senior year which gave me the responsibility to take care of my team. I had to make sure everyone was happy and that nothing negative was going on within the team.

International Students

1. Two things international students would find different would be that there isn’t always a happy ending and that people don’t act the same way on TV as they do in real life. For example, the people on Jersey Shore are not a good portrayal of all the people that live in New Jersey. I think that they portray things to be better and happy because people don’t want to be sad when they are relaxing watching a movie.
2. Americans view time as a very scarce resource and valuable. Americans feel this way because there is so much emphasis on being on time and getting everything done on time that we almost become obsessed with it.
3. Americans don’t like interruptions because it wastes sacred time. In almost all of my classes if there is an interruption no one is really happy about it. However at home, no one in my family really gets uptight about interruptions.
4. “In the United States, it is extremely important to extend the same courtesies and respect to all individuals…” I feel like people want this statement to be true but I personally don’t really think that it is. Also I think that people discriminate against ANY differences in other people. For example what you wear or how you talk can determine how people talk to you and react to you.

cultures

1. A money-based economy distorts relationships between people by making them greedier; which then makes them take advantage of their friends and family just to make a dollar. It also makes people have less trust in one another, because it’s hard to tell if someone is being straight with you.  People become addicted to items in a money-based economy because most of the time the items make their life easier. It’s like Americans and their cell phone, people lived without them before they were created but now that we have them they make talking to people much easier.
2. I believe that the Ladakhis were much better off before the money-based economy because their lives were much simpler and they appreciated everything more. Like cell phones, people who be less distracted and appreciate their time talking to someone more because it was more rare.
3. “As space shrinks, moreover, time accelerates.” This question caught my eye because it isn’t really a definition, it makes you think about what the writer means and how he/she interprets it. I thought about this sentence for a while and I’m still not really sure what is meant by it.
4. Diversity can be both a negative and a positive to a multicultural world. Positive of diversity is that it brings different views and different ways of thinking about an idea. However, a negative of diversity is that the different views can cause conflict between different cultures. Another positive is people are exposed to different foods, clothes, and lifestyles’ of different cultures. A negative is that it is easier for “crazy people” to spread their word of anger and hate.

Competitive Consumption

1. Societal focus on buying material items could cause isolation to someone buy making that there only goal. If someone is only focused on material items they could forget about actually “needs” instead of just wants. People could begin to lose themselves and truly believe that something materialistic is actually more important than milk or bread.
2. I don’t think increasing American’s incomes would fix the problem; I believe that it would just add to it. People would just spend more money on material items and continue to save just enough money for their needs. People want what they want and giving them more money is just going help them buy and get what they desire.
3. In the 1950’s people were worried about keeping up with the neighbors down the street but now communities are more homogenous. The focus turned more to the work force and how well you do at your job. People stopped hanging out with their neighbors and stayed within their own house watching TV. TV shows have a very messed up idea of “normal family” which made people question their own lives. Trends of inequality also helped. The rich seemed to get richer, especially in magazines and TV made people think the norm was to be super rich.
4. Competitive consumption influences my life in a lot of ways. First I think there is a lot of pressure from TV and magazines on people appearances. The reaction to that is that people buy weight loss programs and expensive close to fit in with “everyone” else. Also TV shows make people think that it’s normal to act a certain way when it is obviously not acceptable. The show Dance Mom’s is a good example of people acting nuts and getting no punishment for it. Which in the end make people in the community think it’s okay to treat people like that.

hw 2

1.Bill Gates, for more than one reason, due to many of his actions.  Fist off many individuals in his class do not choose to help others.  Over the past ten years he has been able to give away twenty percent of his saved earnings.  Through his philanthropy he has been able to touch the lives of thousands.  And this is just one of the reasons.  For a man that made four million a day as he slept this is an example for all man kind.

 

2. The two people I admire most in my life are, without a doubt, my parents. If I weren’t for my parents I would not be who I am today. My father instilled me with his good work ethic and my mother taught me to be a compassionate person. These are both traits that I really value. The fact that my mother and father are most admirable to me tells me that they raised me to make the most moral judgments. Because of them I always weigh my actions. If they had not raised me right I might not think things through as thoroughly.

 

3. There is a universal morality because if it wasn’t universal there would be more killers and rapist.  The fact that that number is so limited shows you that most people can tell the difference between right and wrong.

4. Care

Fairness

Loyality

Respect

Purity

Respect is the most important to Americans. Then followed by fairness, care, purity, and loyality. Loyality is last because I feel like people enjoy screwing people over all the time.

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