Cultural Assignment #1

One interaction that I am exposed to every day is being part of a team. I am a part of the field hockey team here at IUP. I transferred here from Robert Morris University where I used to play D1 field hockey and softball. Field hockey was introduced in America in the early 1900’s. Before becoming popular in America, field hockey was played in Europe for thousands of years. This is interesting because field hockey has only become prevalent in America in recent years. This sport was mostly played by men in Europe and has predominantly been played by women in America. Being a part of a Division 2 field hockey team is unique to this country because we are taking a sport originating in another country and making it our own. While participating in this sport, I have learned many things. Being a part of a team teaches you strength, loyalty, teamwork, and a sense of pride in your team. This is how being an American is as well. This past week our field hockey team made it to the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) playoffs. After travelling to Shippensburg for the conference semi-finals, we lost to Bloomsburg who is undefeated and is ranked number 1 in Division II for NCAA. Before every game they play the National Anthem which is unique to American culture.

            Not many people get the opportunity to participate in a college sport. I got the opportunity to see the differences between Division I and Division II sports. While at Robert Morris, I played two sports. This was very normal to me because I played 3 sports through high school and was constantly busy. After transferring here, I learned that Division II sports are not taken as seriously. Not many people hear about the games or are very interested in them. Robert Morris was a small Division I school so it was not much different coming here. Field hockey in America is biggest on the eastern coast. There are hardly any schools that have field hockey out west. California is one of the only western states that has field hockey. For some reason, Pennsylvania is one of the biggest field hockey states. Most of the larger high schools compete in the state tournament for field hockey.  This is unique to our culture because in other countries in Europe, field hockey is a huge sport all around.  European hockey is more likely to have men’s teams. This past week the American field hockey team beat Argentina in the Pan-American games. This was a huge accomplishment for the Americans because Argentina is always a very hard team to beat.

            American sports are a great source of American culture. Participating in a sport is one of the most common things you can do as a child and going on to play in college is definitely part of our culture. Playing at IUP has shown me how to be part of a team and how to represent our country in a sport that originated in a different continent thousands of years earlier.

HW#8 1. Topics…

HW#8

 

1. Topics that would be considering taboo for Americans would be one’s personal life, income, and religion. It would be rude to ask someone why they got divorced or got too into detail about one’s relationships and nobody wants to bring up religion in a conversation because of its level of controversy. These differ from Thais because they would think it’s normal to bring up income or things about their personal lives. 2. The Buddhist philosophy is that aspiring to be rich and famous would be considered greedy. It is normal for Americans to aspire to be rich and famous. In Buddhism it was better to focus on being a good, moral person than to focus on trying to be successful and wealthy. This provides strikingly different models for behavior in these cultures because American children want to be successful while Thai and Buddhist children are more worried about being a good person. 3. The values that I was taught as a child was to find a good job and be successful. Our education through childhood is based on trying to find a good job and earn money. This would be considered strange to other cultures that focus on being good people. I had my own room my whole life up until I got to college. This taught me to be independent and have time of my own. Most cultures do not emphasize being independent but it is important in American culture.

HW#6

HW#6

Globalization of Eating Disorders and Macho Men

 

1. There have been a lot of influences for me regarding body image. When I was little, I was always the tiniest and skinniest girl. Growing up, I continuously played sports and was always working out and staying in shape. This has been a big influence because my body image hasn’t really been a problem for me. It was not considering a big deal by my family and isn’t a concern I think mostly because my family all has very high metabolism. It has become second nature for my family to constantly work out and go running. I think it is more important to all of us to stay healthy rather than only being concerned about the way we look.
2. I think American culture definitely has different expectations about men and women regarding body weight. Men are expected to have big muscles and be bigger and stronger than any woman. Our culture teaches us that strong men are the best and most attractive while skinny, smaller men are not considered as masculine. Women are expected to be skinny and smaller which causes a lot of stress and pressure to look like what is expected.
3. Three things terms that relate to the word masculine would be: strong, muscular, and fearless. Masculine men are supposed to be strong and able to protect other people. In our society the men with the biggest muscles are considered the most masculine. Also, I think masculine men are considered fearless. Men aren’t supposed to have any fears and if they are scared, they are not allowed to show it. Showing emotion isn’t manly to our culture so most men will do their best to hide their emotions and fear so that they fit the perfect image of a strong and masculine man.
4. One way that males are pressured to act masculine is when competing against one another. Everything is a competition and since American men are generally very competitive, it is always important to them to be the best and not show any weaknesses. Another way that males are pressured to act masculine is when they are judged for showing emotion in any situation. Men are pressured to stay “strong” and never cry. Showing emotion is the same thing as showing weakness in our society.

New Politics of Consumption HW#4

1. I agree with Schor that focusing on money and purchasing material items would create alienation and isolation. While focusing on material things and other items that are not necessities, people would not focus as much on the things they need. Money is spent on clothes, phones, and technology. By skipping out on important things like food and shelter, people spend their money on things that cannot be considered as important. This isolates and alienates people because the reason behind it is mostly to fit in. I believe everyone needs to be more focused on being themselves rather than wearing the most expensive clothes to show off for other people. This takes away from being yourself because it is more about what everyone else thinks rather than what you think yourself.
2. If the average salaries were increased, this would simply result in more spending. If people had more spending power with higher salaries, this would make them feel as though they have the money to spend on more expensive things. I don’t believe this would solve any problems because it wouldn’t help the spending problem, it would only increase it.
3. A good example of competitive consumption would be the iPhone. Apple does a good job of only putting out steps of the technology. Everyone felt the need to get an iPhone because it was a huge step in the phone world. Since they are constantly coming out with the next best thing, it makes consumers feel obligated to go buy it as soon as it comes out just to keep up with the times. People with old flip phones would be looked at different than someone with an iPhone or Blackberry. In order to fit in with the higher class, people spend their money paying extra for a data package to get an iPhone even though no one really NEEDS Facebook on their phone.
4. Competitive consumption makes people greedier and more materialistic. Fitting in with the popular crowd or higher class becomes the number one priority and takes away from one’s identity. It becomes less about defining yourself and more about trying to be like someone else’s definition of yourself.

1. I think that the event from the text would be very unlikely to happen. It seemed as though the story was very exaggerated and quite implausible. I do believe that something like that incident could possibly happen but not to the extent that the author proposed. It is becoming more and more likely because of how dependent humans have become on technology. The public reaction would be quite chaotic. No one would be sure how to deal with it. Although it is not probable for the exact incident to occur in our lifetime, it is definitely possible.
2. With the rate of growth of technology in the last few decades, I believe it is very likely that an Artificial Intelligence will be created that thinks and reasons without human help. Technology has been increasing at an amazing rate and eventually I think it is possibly for scientists to come up with an AI that won’t need humans. This will affect our human identities because humans would be almost completely dependent on technology. If you could have a robot do everything you need for you, why bother doing it yourself? Humans would get even lazier than they already are and wouldn’t need to get up to do anything if they had their own robot to do it for them.
3. Some positives of developing artificial intelligence would be that it would help out our military a ton. It wouldn’t need to be humans dying in war if we could make an unlimited supply of robots to fight for us. The robots would also be able to help out people in everyday life. The elderly could have a robot to help take care of them. Teen moms would be able to keep a robot at home to take care of the kids while she finishes school. There are an endless amount of possibilities of how Artificial Intelligence could benefit us. Some negatives would be that robots would take jobs from Americans. Many people are already struggling to find paying jobs. If humans had to also compete with robots for jobs, they would certainly not win out over robots. They would be able to complete jobs better than humans and there wouldn’t be any jobs left for people to do. As I said before, people would get much lazier and give even simple tasks to robots to do.

4. Last year I was in a hotel for field hockey and was working on a paper due for an English class. I was about 6 pages in when my computer died completely. It wasn’t just the battery that died, it was the hard drive. I had to eventually get a new computer. This was a huge problem because my paper was still due the next day and I didn’t have enough time to re-write the entire thing. I did my best from someone else’s computer and sent my teacher an email. This problem wouldn’t have happened if it was simply written on paper instead of on the computer.

 

1.     1. My gut reaction was exactly what the author had predicted. I originally thought that Mother Teresa was the obvious choice, Bill Gates had only came up with Windows, and had no idea who Norman Borlaug was. After the author had explained a few facts, my mind had changed a little. These facts were quite interesting because before reading this I had no idea how things really were. I think the moral thoughts that brought me to this conclusion is the fact that Mother Teresa had gotten so much credit for the great things she did and that those were the only things that are considered important and are well-known. I still thought that Mother Teresa was the most admirable of the three based on her contributions.

2.   2.   The person that I admire most that is still living is my grandma. I admire her the most because she has always been there for me and understands me more than anyone else. One distinct thing about my grandma is that she will always put her family first. It is the most important thing to her and she would give up her life for anyone in my family. She is very reliable and I have learned a lot from her. Another person that I admire a lot is my father. He is the hardest worker I know and has a huge heart. At his work, I believe he is the one working the hardest and it is very important to him to get things done right. Many people take the easy way out and my dad would never do that. He does not take advantage of the freedom of his job and always does the right thing. He has also done a lot for my family and I appreciate everything he has done for me. I look up to my grandma and my father a lot. I believe that since the two people that I admire most are in my family that it is one of the most important things in my life. Looking out for my family and having them there for me has always been a huge help.

3.     3. I don’t believe that morality is universal. Sometimes when people make certain decisions, it makes you rethink if you could possibly have the same mindset as them. I believe that the general idea of morality does exist but that it is not universal. The people who do terrible things like rape and kill can’t have the same idea of morality as someone who saves lives every single day. Their idea of what is important and what is right is completely different and therefore can’t be universal.

4.     4. The five varieties of moral experience are harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity. I think the one that Americans tend to rank first would be fairness. A big part of American culture is the justice system. The main point of this is to bring fairness to the country. Everyone should be held accountable for their actions. Fairness is one of the most important varieties of moral experience because everyone wants to be treated fairly and when you are not treated with fairness, everything begins to change. One example of this would be the women’s revolution. Women were never treated with fairness and to a degree are still not treated the same way. This is part of culture but it is a huge part of how a society is shaped. Women have come a long way since they were not able to vote and so on, but fairness is still a huge obstacle for many people to overcome.

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