Veggie Straw/Chip Nutrition Facts
130 calories per serving.

All of sudden, I found myself thinking about sociology when I found myself reading the Nutrition Facts label on my bag of Veggie Straws.  I realized that the Nutrition Facts labels that can be found on virtually every food product in our country are a symbol of  American culture.  People have become so obsessed with monitoring their calorie intake that they forget to look at the overall healthiness of a product.  When making a decision on what types of snacks to buy, many Americans base their decision on which product has fewer calories. The ignore the fact that while one product may have fewer calories than its competitor, it may have higher amounts of artificial flavors, sugar, sodium, and fat.  The calorie craze causes many people to think they're eating healthy when they're actually eating some of the worst food out there.

"One nation controlled by the media, information age of hysteria." ♪♫

You're sitting in a dark room.  There's 200 other people sitting all around you.  As you reach into a large tub sitting on your lap searching for a bite to eat, the wall in front of you lights up bright white.  This little lamp hops across the screen, "clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk."  It bounces on the letter 'I', "squeegee, squeegee, squeegee...POP." The 'I' is gone and as the lamp looks at you in confusion you know you are about to watch an awesome animated movie thanks to a team up between two of the richest corporations in the world- Disney and Pixar. 

Facebook: the ultimate symbol of social networking.  Teens and young adults rely on this website for almost everything.  Want to stay in touch with someone? Facebook them.  Want to know when someones birthday is?  Look it up on Facebook.  Just had an awesome weekend with your friends?  Better get those pics up on Facebook pronto.  Planning an awesome party?  If you want people to come, you ought to create a Facebook event.  All sorts of information is communicated through Facebook.  Basically Facebook represents all things social-life related. 

Many Americans can recognize this symbol in an instant. It is, of course, the logo of the sixth largest food company in the world, General Mills.  This symbol can represent many things: cereal, box tops, Pillsbury cookies, Yoplait yogurt, Green Giant veggies, delicious Haagan-Dazs  ice cream, Nature Valley, Fiber One, Hamburger Helper, etc.  For many reading this blog, it represents the delicious air that gives us a reason to go to school each day.

Pac-Man, Mario, and Frogger are all symbols for the video game craze.  A concept that began in arcades has now spread into homes across America.  Young children's minds are being wasted away by hours upon hours of video game use. 

The #2 pencil.  One of the simplest objects in the world.  Yet it means so much.  What does it represent?  Scantrons, bubbles, stress, ISATs, PSATs, SATs, ACTs, A, B, C, D, true, false, yes, no, multiple choice, paragraph on the back, this: , not this: , "teacher can I borrow one?", high school, college.  The list is endless.

"Numbers, letters, learn to spell."♪♫

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking about sociology when I overheard some kids talking about wanting to smoke some "pot" after school.  This caused me to think about the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis which states that the more important something is to a culture, the more words there will be to describe that thing.

I began thinking about all the words that mean the same thing as marijuana: pot, weed, ganja, kronic, cannabis, buddha, herb, green, mary jane, skunk, grass, bobby brown, 30s, swag, dro, hash, kush, dope, super greens, dank, broccoli, nuggets, hemp, reefer, resin, shake, kill.  Seeing as how there are many more terms not included here, I have come to the conclusion that marijuana is very important in American culture. It's actually pretty sad how important it seems to be.

I decided to ask my friends for some synonyms for volunteer and donate.  They were only able to come up with about two words off the top of their head.  However, when I asked them for synonyms for marijuana, they came up with a significantly longer list. And these are people who haven't smoked marijuana a single time in their life; the topic is so prevalent in our society that even people with anti-drug beliefs know multiple words to describe it.  The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis would say, based on our language, that marijuana is more important to Americans than volunteering and donating to the less fortunate. That's just sad.

"I got mixed up confusion, man it's a killin' me." ♫♪

In his article Bemused in America Part 5: Language, Stefan Schirmer addresses the problems that American idioms cause for foreigners.  Schrimer, a native German speaker, finds it strange that we have so many different ways to say the same thing and so many words with multiple meanings.  He uses the phrase "passed away" as an example.  When he first encountered the phrase, he knew the meaning of pass and the meaning of away and took the phrase to mean something along the lines of "gone out to lunch" when of course it meant someone had died.  As a native English speaker, I can see how our language may be strange and even frustrating to foreigners.  Schrimer is probably used to a word having a meaning and only one meaning, and that word is probably the only word with that meaning.  So of course our culture would seem strange to him, what sort of crazy culture would create such a confusingly complex language?  Why would we make things more difficult than they need to be?  I would imagine Schrimer asks himself these questions all the time.

This article relates the the American value of self-expression. One reason the English language has so many words is so that we can better express ourselves.  If someone says they feel "happy" then we have a general idea of there emotion.  However is someone was to say they are "effervescent", then they have more specifically expressed their emotion and we can better understand them.

"Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today."♪♫

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I opened my early birthday card from my grandparents.  On the front of the card was an image of a cute little kitten with a purple ribbon bow on its head.  The inside of the card read, "Happy Birthday to a girl who's completely cute!  Have a Purr-fect Day!"  The card was very sweet and I'm thankful to know my grandparents think I'm "completely cute," but of course the part of the card that I was most thankful for was the check inside for $40.00.  When I looked at the check, I began to think about concepts of symbolic interactionism and how they related to my life at that moment.

Symbolic interactionism is the theoretical perspective that focuses on interaction among people- interaction based on mutually understood symbols.  When I looked at the check I though about how it was a symbol.  A symbol that I could show to any banker and they would understand that I wanted to trade them one piece of paper labeled "$40" for two pieces of paper each labeled "$20."  My interaction with the banker would be based on mutually understood symbols,  therefore becoming a perfect example of symbolic interaction.  Then, all of a sudden, I found myself thinking about how my two new pieces of paper labeled "$20" are themselves, two new symbols.  Symbols that I can now take to a store to make another trade.  This time, however, the item(s) I receive in return for my two pieces of paper labeled "$20" will be something much more useful than paper, be it a pair of shoes or a couple new CDs.  I can't wait to take my pieces of paper to the store and have a symbolic interaction with the cashier.