What would we do if we
lived in a society where we had rejection of social structure? We would
probably be running around like cavemen hitting each each other over the head
with clubs. We tend to take for granted how the our four father that came
before us set up these day to day rules that developed in to our structure
which we use social structure that we use every day whether we think about it
or not.
Human
action creates structure. As Americans, if a law is not working, we take action
and vote to make it the law right. When social status comes into play, we all
have a different role to play that makes thing run smooth by everyone sort of,
playing their position. We have laws that are not written, but we all should
know them as a unspoken rule. For example, your on the train, and the person
sitting next to you sneezes, and doesn’t cover their mouth. In America, that
would be a total violation, but I’ve never thought that in some countries their
custom to not covering their mouths, and that’s normal behavior in their
country.
The
majority of us are ascribed our social status from birth and have to work for
everything we want to achieve in life. Then you have those like President
Obama, who achieved his social status as President of the United States. He
also did something I thought couldn’t be done. He “occupied the ascribed racial
status of African Americans also by being the first black President. We play so
many different roles on a day to day basis. You can be a mother of father, then
have to go to work an quickly adapt to a totally different environment from
parenting. The roles we play and the status that we hold, is what connects us
all to society
My
Grandmother use to tell me how it was we she was young, and how my grandfather
had the responsibly of working and providing for the family. While the wife
would stay home and e expected to take care of the children. But today, these
role have dramatically changed. Now the woman is going to school and chasing
her dreams just like the man, and the men are helping more with the children
and the entire structure has shifted to a two income household.
Even when beginning a new job, the
status and expectations placed on a person to adapt to this new structure could
be unbearable, but as we all know, we learn, by asking questions and learning
to generally adapt to this new environment.
Another
term I found interesting was, McDonaldization, which is the effect to impose
the standardized, efficient structure of fast food restaurants on all aspects
of life.”George Ritzer (2011) came up with this term which made a lot of since.
Reading this chapter, I realized I actually live my life Ritzers four dimensions
of McDonaldization, which are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and
control.
We
live our lives on a constant time frame. Even when were not working or in
school, time is still of the essence. We make choices like, getting rid of land
line phones in our homes, depending solely on a cell phone, which is pretty
bold, considering if any towers went down during a storm, there would be no
more cell phone service. I never remember my parents not having a land line in
the home. Furthermore, with me having a IT background, I’d actually rather have
a fast internet service than have cable at all, because anything that’s on
cable, can be found on the internet. These are the times that we live in were
we depend so much on technology to guide our lives.
In
closing, unfortunately social structural changes such as Power, Politics will always
dictate our social classes in America. Whether your upper class, upper middle
class, working class, or just poor, remember you control you own destiny in
life.
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