astajnrajh

1) An American social interaction that I find my self involved with is when I see an acquaintance passing by and we exchange hey what’s up’s or how are you’s.  Most of the time when people I see while walking by and they say what’s up, I don’t usually answer. One reason is because neither of us are going to stop walking to wherever we were headed to in order to find out what’s going on with each other.  This is unique to American Culture because Americans value time and we’re usually care more about where we’re going than an acquaintance.   Another reason is because the person that asks the question doesn’t really care about the answer since the answer is probably going to be generic.  I think the only reason we really ask is to be polite and we’ve been programmed to do it.

2) An interaction that I was involved with was my field hockey team in high school. All of us knew each other and what made us unique was that on game days we would have different spirits where we would dress up differently from the other students. Some days we would wear all tie-dye and other days we would wear mismatching clothes. It let people know who we were and it would  make us feel closer as a team.

3) Something that I think I do different from many of my friends is the way I talk. A lot of the people I know here are from western Pennsylvania while I am from outside of Philadelphia. They always point out how I say water and coffee differently, but in my opinion I feel like they are the ones that say things weird.  I don’t really care though because it lets people know where I come from and and sets me apart from them.

1) One topic I think Americans consider rude to discuss is politics. The reason I think that it can be inappropriate to bring that up is because some people feel very strongly about what political party they belong to.  It can cause big arguments and disagreements between people in some cases. Another topic that can be rude to talk about is weight. These days everyone wants to be thin and one of the most sensitive subjects to ask someone is how much they weigh, especially if you are talking to a woman. One last subject that is considered rude is religion. Just like political views, many people take their faith seriously and can get offended if somebody questions it or insults it.

2) One of the main differences between Thai culture and American culture is the value of family. In the United States it is normal for children to be dependent on their parents until they are around the age of eighteen. After that, usually it is expected for you to go to college or find some sort of job, and eventually move out. Then after the children have made a life for themselves, and their parents are older, many people put their parents in assisted living or nursing homes if they are unable to take care of themselves.  Unlike the U.S, people in Thailand as well as  other Asian countries when their parents get sick usually move in with them. Another difference between Thai and Western culture is individualism. In the United States we are taught to be able to do things on our own, while in Thailand they are a little bit more dependent and share with each other. In the article, it talked about how we eat our food differently. In the U.S we have our own plates, and in Thailand they share from one big dish.

3) I think one of the things my parents made me do that other cultures would find strange are the chores my parents made us do. Me and my brother both had a list of things we had to do such as washing bathrooms, taking out the trash, and mopping the kitchen floor. If we did this we would would get money or they would pay for something we wanted. My parents did this to teach us how to clean and do things by ourselves as well as showing us money is something that you earn. Another incident that the Thai people may find strange is how much more dependent I became as I got older. I got a part-time job and did things more on my own. From the article it seemed that the only reason a child should get a job is to help their parents out and not so that they can have their own money.

1) Money has distorted relationships between people because obtaining things has gotten less personal. Before people would barter and trade things and become friends and form relationships. Today all you have to do is give someone money and get whatever you want without knowing the person at all.  It causes people to resent others for increasing their prices and it also creates the gaps between the rich and the poor. The new economy has also made people dependent on nonexistent things like money. All it is is paper and we depend on getting that in order to get for instead of using the land and  growing our own food.

2) I believe that the Ladakh were better off before the new economy was introduced. Before they knew about money, the people were friendly to one another and helped each other out. They were more dependent  on themselves and were able to do things for themselves. After they had money, they went to the cities and left their homes just to get money. They also weren’t as friendly with each other. They became greedy and relationships weren’t as genuine as before.

3) My favorite sentence in the article was, “But deeper than mere goods, it is souls that are mingling.” This sentence means the most to me because cultures to learn from each other through things other than material things. We adopt other cultures ideas and philosophies. Many countries learn from the United States and adopt a lot of our culture and values. More non-western countries are using American customs.

4) One of the positives is that we take the good things from other countries and learn better ways to do things.  In the article, it talked about how Asians brought the values of hard work and family values to the United States. Another positive is that it lets us experience new and unfamiliar things from other cultures. It causes us to keep open minds and broaden our horizons.  A negative is that it isolates some countries such as ones under communism or third world countries because many of the people in them don’t have opportunities. Another bad thing about this globalization is that some cultures lose their traditions and identities. From personal experience, when I visited the Philippines it was hard to find a restaurant that actually served Filipino food  because there were so many American and other types of restaurants from other countries.

1) I definitely think that the media has influenced me the most concerning body image. Whenever I open a magazine I am bombarded with images of women with flat stomachs, big boobs, and perfect skin. It makes you feel like the way those girls look is the best and only way to look, and if you do not look like that you are considered ugly. It’s deceiving because usually the models and celebrities in those magazines don’t even look like that without the use of Photoshop and other picture editing programs. There are also always articles about how to lose weight and get the “perfect body.” It makes you feel like you need to lose weight and diet even if you are already healthy. Shows like America’s Next Top Model used to influence me. I remember watching the judges on the show reject perfectly healthy looking girls get kicked off the show because they were not thin enough. One more influence has probably been culture. Unlike in the United States, in Asian countries you are considered better looking if you have lighter skin instead of tan skin. They even sell skin lightening lotions and products. When I was younger I used to never lay out in the sun so that my skin would not get any tanner. Since I’ve gotten older and a little wiser I’ve realized that I don’t have to look the way they look on TV or in magazines because it’s unrealistic and am now content with the way I look.

2) I think that American cultures does have different body image expectations for men and women. I believe that women are expected to be thin and lean and young looking. Men are supposed to look muscular, toned, and tall. When I was little I used to play with Barbie dolls which were always pretty and skinny. There were never fat Barbies, so from when I was little I was given this image that being skinny was the only way to look. Also for guys the “hot guy” in all the movies is the football player who has a muscular body. It makes  men think that they’re more desirable if they are toned.

3) The first word that comes to mind when I think of masculinity is sports. I feel like sports make men very masculine because guys who play sports are athletic and competitive which are very manly characteristics. A second thing that comes to mind after hearing masculinity is dominance. I feel like guys always want to be the ones in charge and make all the decisions because they always want to be the “alpha male.” The third thing I think of is rich. I feel like guys always feel more masculine when they are rich and able to get the nice cars and nice houses. Many men these days feel emasculated when their wives make more money than them or if they have to make the girl pay for them.

4)I think that fathers are one of the reasons why boys are pressured to act masculine. They tell their sons to not cry which is bad because it causes men to bottle up their emotions. This usually results in venting their emotions by fighting or through drugs.  I remember my dad always used my brother, “there’s no crying in baseball,” or to “man up.” A second way that men are pressured to act masculine is when they’re with their friends. Guys are always pressured by their peers to act tough or else they make fun of them. It leads to a lot of bullying because if a boy doesn’t do sports like football or basketball they may be made fun of for being weak or not athletic.

1) I believe that our consumer culture does isolate us from each other. We already have different social classes that are determined by how much money everyone has. A lot of my childhood friends grew up in the same neighbor hood as I did. We lived in a middle class development but because of that it isolated me from the other kids that may have grown up in trailer. Not that I didn’t want to but we just never really came in contact with each other so I never got to know them.  Also when we buy new technology we isolate ourselves.  We’ve all had those moments with our friends when we sit in silence while texting and staring at our phones.

2) No I don’t think any problems will be solved because I don’t believe that when people have more money that it solves all their problems. I think we’d spend more of the money on unnecessary things.

3) I think that we compete with each other’s clothes. We’re constantly told what is in and what is out from magazines to TV. It causes us to go out and buy the newest thing. We always want to be the best looking one. Another thing we compete with is what kind of technology we have. We like to flaunt our new phones and tablets and laptops. The last thing we compete with is our homes. I remember in the show Cribs celebrities would always show off how nice their houses were and it almost seemed like it was a competition between them.

4)I think that competitive consumption makes me want to buy more things especially clothes.  Whenever me and my friends go out we always want to be the best dressed people so it causes me to buy clothes I may only wear once and not necessarily need. I don’t think that it really affects my family though.

1) I think that the catastrophic even described is very likely to happen. Maybe not those exact events but something very similar.  I feel like our society is obsessed with having the newest and most advanced technology. If something like this were to happen people will be scared and angry about what happened. I feel a lot of people will be more cautious with technology and not as interested in the next new thing to come out.  There  might even be groups against any new technology.

2) I think that we are very close to technology thinking and reasoning by themselves. We are already able to talk to our phones and have cars parallel park themselves. If artificial intelligence really is created I feel like it would be confusing for us.  We would have to find things that differentiate us from robots, just like how we did with the apes.  Humans are the only species in the world that can think, reason, and have morals. If artificial intelligence is developed, I think it would take the uniqueness of humanity away.

3) Some positives of artificial intelligence are that they can do the jobs nobody wants to do.  They can clean our houses and clean the public bathrooms.  They also can do dangerous jobs that could harm humans.  They also can do things efficiently such as repetitive and tedious jobs such as taking inventory.  Artificial intelligence could also create jobs and be good for the economy.

A couple negatives of artificial intelligence is the question of its morality.  It would be strange living in a world surrounded by robots and machinery.  Also technology is never perfect and always comes with flaws.  I feel like we would eventually become completely dependent on the technology and when it failed we would not know what to do.

4) I have had many types of technologies fail on me from my alarm clock to my laptop.  The worst is when I broke my cell phone by dropping it in water. It made it very hard to communicate with people and not having a cell phone for a week made me feel isolated. It is crazy to think of the time before cell phones. It is almost sad that not having a phone made me feel isolated from everybody though. It shows how dependent on technology I have become.

1)When I first heard the three names the obvious choice for most admirable was Mother Theresa. I don’t know that much about her, but I knew she was named an official saint so that means she had to have done something that was really admirable. Also compared to Bill Gates she looked really good. Whenever I think about Bill Gates I think of lots of money, and when I think of lots of money I think of greed. I had no idea who Norman Borlaug was so I couldn’t really compare him with anyone.

After reading all the facts about each person my mind definitely changed. I felt like the most admirable would probably be either Gates or Borlaug. The reason my feelings changed was because I seemed like Gates an Borlaug did helped more people an made their lives better. I feel like when you do more  things that help other people instead of yourself it makes you a more admirable person.

2) One other person I find admirable is probably Oprah. I think she is very admirable because she has so much but she still gives back. She has a bunch of charities that she donates over thousands of dollars to. A second person I think I have a lot of respect for is Bono. He is the founder of multiple charities and causes for Africa and to help stop AIDS.  By picking these two individuals it shows that I make moral judgement based on what they do for others. I believe that when you have a lot of money like they do you should use at least some of it to help other people or put it to a cause. When very wealthy people don’t help the less fortunate I see them as selfish.

3) I think that there morality is somewhat universal but will still depend on what culture you are brought up in. I think that everyone around the world thinks killing and rape is wrong. On the other hand, moral values are different such as arranged marriages. In some countries arranged marriages are thought as immoral while in others it’s tradition. Also in some places around the world having multiple wives is acceptable whereas in this country it’s not.

4) The five moral themes are harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity.  I think the theme that Americans would rank first is fairness. We always want things to be fair and when we see somebody is cheating or doing a crime we believe that to be fair that person should be punished. Our government is also somewhat based around fairness. We all vote for whoever leads our countries and for our judicial system everyone is supposed to have a fair trial. Also we believe that every person should have the same opportunities.