One major social issue that many children still face to this day is bullying. The article “How to Stop Bullying in Schools” from www.usnews.com by Ulrich Boser, discusses the impact bullying can have on children and certain approaches to help eliminate bullying in schools. In the beginning of the article Boser talks about how many people view bullying as just a part of someone’s childhood and how it is almost normalized. Boser then goes on to explain how the University of Virginia went on to make a study on how to help students develop better social-emotional skills in an effort to address bullying. The team conducting the study made a framework known as “Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” to help aid student discipline and academics. Boser gives three explanations on how the framework is innovative. First, it helps put students and teachers on the same page of what ethical behavior looks like. Second, it sets clear behavioral expectations which allows the teachers to catch bullying behavior before it even starts. Lastly, the framework provides support for victims and bullies by getting individual or group counseling to help with social-emotional skills. Boser then ends the article by making a call to action asking the audience to better understand bullying in order to help prevent the social issue.

Although bullying may never fully be eliminated, there are tactics to help reduce the social issue. In chapter 18 of “ Social Problems In a Diverse Society” by Dianna Kendall, the book explains that eliminating or even reducing social problems can be a challenge. This could be due to costs, lack of understanding the social issue, and other factors. Eliminating social problems can also cause other problems to arise. Although it can be difficult to take on the challenge of reducing social problems, it is critically important to alter social change. This means modifying public policy, culture, or social institutions over time. Functionalists, conflicts, and interactionalists all have different perspectives and approaches to solving social problems. Out of the different perspectives I would have to agree most with the symbolic interactionist perspective. This perspective states that certain behaviors arise because of how individuals and groups engage in that behavior. Symbolic interactionist approach to handle social issues is to first clearly understand the deviant behavior and then finding a solution to solve the behavior. For example: if an individual is labeling another individual or group. One possible solution to reduce labeling changing the individuals perspective through decriminalization. All in all some social issues may never be fully eliminated, but my making subtle effort when noticing these issues can pay off over time.

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Sources:

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2018-02-27/how-to-stop-bullying-in-schools

Kendall, Diana. 2012. Social Problems in a Diverse Society. 6^th edition. Pearson.

After reading “How Does Social Media Affect Your Body Image?” by nationaleatingdisorders.org I learned how certain internet posts are affecting the lives of young teens. The article noted how media used to market body images mainly through billboards, television, and magazines. However, in today’s day and age media has evolved and teens can sit hour on end scrolling through their phones on different social media platforms. The article transitions to different teens explaining what it takes to get likes on these platforms. One teen named Gracie who is 17 years old said:  “It’s important to think about the sexualization of things. People post sexual pictures of themselves and objectify themselves.” The article also gave examples of different teens explain how they are comparing themselves to these people with nice bodies on social media, and how they feel as if they are being judged in comparison to them. From there the article goes into people’s opinions about online body snarking and the consequences they present. One lady named Jen discussed how she knows a ten year old girl that had completely stopped eating because of comments from a picture. She noted how comments may seem simple, but can actually be very impactful to many peoples lives. The article then ends by a lady named Mary noting how the internet can be very powerful used to seek recovery, or also impact people in a negative way.

After reading the article, it can be said that certain social media posts can be harmful to young teens and adults. Body shaming is only one of the many consequences from media platforms. social issues that media pertains too is violence, stereotyping racial/ethnic groups, and gender stereotyping as well. “Social Problems In A Diverse Society” by Dianna Kendall also talks about the exaggeration of people’s physical appearance. The book explains that all people in a specific category “look alike”. This creates social issues by linking racial and ethnic groups to negative images which gives other people in society the wrong perception of who they actually are. As seen from the article discussed above, one girl completely stopped eating because of comments on pictures from social media platforms. In chapter 14 of the reading, social interactionists explain the influence of the media on individuals. Mainly I would agree most with the audience relations approach. This approach states that people interpret what they hear and what they see in the media by using their own cultural understandings as a mental filtering device. After reading both the article and chapter I have a better understanding of how much media can impact one’s life. With social media being ever evolving, it is important to be aware of our own posts as they can have an impact on someone else’s life.

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References:

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/how-does-social-media-affect-your-body-image

Kendall, Diana. 2012. Social Problems in a Diverse Society. 6^th edition. Pearson.

In this week’s blog post I want to discuss the article “Baltimore teen found guilty of slaying police officer” by David McFadden. Dawanta Harris, a Baltimore teenager was found guilty for striking Amy Caprio with a stolen jeep. The footage was finally reviewed by jurors last week. In the footage Caprio was ordering Harris to stop the vehicle. It finally got to the point where Caprio had to draw her gun and fire off a bullet in order for Harris to stop. Harris ducked his head as the bullet was fired and stepped on the gas. Caprio was ran over and Harris fled the scene. Harris has a track record for other felonies and was supposed to be on house arrest. Other Maryland authorities are shameful of the incident and ashamed that Harris was not supervised more strictly. Harris had a lawyer that took on the case as pro bono. Pro bono meaning without charge. Brown noted before the trial even began that there are no winners in this case just losers. What brown means by this is the lost life of Caprio in the tragic incident, as well as Harris being lost with himself and being in this predicament.

Crime is defined as a behavior that violates the criminal law and is punishable by fine, jail term, or other negative sanctions. In chapter 9 we learned about the six different types of crime: violent crime, property crime, occupational crime, corporate crime, organized crime, and juvenile delinquency. For the Harris and Caprio trial, this incident would be labeled as Violent crime since Caprio was murdered. Many people in the world always wonder why people are committing these crimes. Usually the explanation is due to either biological or psychological roots. Looking into the biological explanation of crimes, many scientists have different theories. Some scientists believe that it is due to your genetic build or even that violence is just in human nature. From a psychological explanation, some analysis’s believe low intelligence or other neurological behaviors are to be the reason for crimes. Finally, the sociological explanation for crimes. Out of all of the perspectives, I would have to agree with the symbolic interactionist perspective. The differential association theory states that individuals have a higher chance of creating a crime because of the environment and people they are associated with. I agree with this theory most because I believe that people you associate yourself with or even look up to can be a big influence in an individuals life. There will never be a time where we are completely crime free in society. However, if we can take action and do what we can to prevent these crimes, then the world will slowly become a better place.

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Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-teen-found-guilty-of-slaying-police-officer

On the www.aarp.org website, the article “10 Things You Should Know About Age Discrimination” starts with a short clip of a woman named Susan who was 59 years old, had recently finished law school, and was seeking work based on her degree. Expert Kerry Hannon spoke on statistics about age discrimination in the work place and some resumé tips for older people. The statistics is what was most shocking to me in the video. A study showed that 61 percent of older workers in the work environment had experienced or seen age discrimination, and 91 percent said it was common. Although there is an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), it is hard to prove that employers are discriminating. Hannon then went on to speak about resumé tips. Some of these tips included not adding your graduation date, exclude how many years of experience you have, avoid career objective, and others. After watching the video, the article gives 10 facts about age discrimination. The facts seem what would be common sense to the general public, but could easily be forgotten or over looked. A few examples look like: how workers ages 50 and up tend to experience age discrimination more. 12 percent of workers have claimed they’ve missed promotions due to age. The EEOC received 20,857 charges of discrimination. All in all, society needs to be more understanding of older generations. Employers need to be fair when giving opportunities to people seeking jobs regardless of age.

No matter the age our society tends to set labels on age. Growing up, at age 16 was when you should have your drivers license. If you didn’t you weren’t as cool as the other kids who already did have their license. Discriminating on age is a social problem because it leads to negative stereotypes, especially against older people. An example that I have personally seen myself on age discrimination was at my summer internship. A guy named Mark who is a technical engineer for Pierce County had been discriminated against because of his age. He was telling me how he wanted to get hired on for the state to be an inspector for WSDOT, but had been rejected. From personally working with Mark, he had all the qualifications and experience for this position, but instead the state gave it to someone who was younger. Although I don’t know the other person that was hired, there is still the possibility of this being a form of age discrimination. Age discrimination will continue to happen if we don’t take action. As the symbolic interactionist theory suggests, the older generation should still be provided work because it provides them new sources of identity, and satisfaction in life.

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As a society it is important that we as individuals recognize issues where we can make a change in this world. In the short Youtube video “Reducing Global Health Disparities” Dr. Patrick Lee gives advice for students on what they can do to make a difference for these problems. Dr. Lee also shares how he felt when he was a student about global health issues and what he did to start making a change. There are people whose health is suffering simply because of the environment that they live in. An example that Dr. Lee mentions in the short clip is; how in this day and age, we are so advanced in technology, yet there are people who don’t get the medical support they need from the providers. Dr. Lee gives an analogy of water flowing down driveways. He mentions how the water will flow in different directions. Instead of trying to cover all the dry areas, instead he recommends to students to attack the areas with more water. The areas with more water in this analogy are the global health issues that we can make a stand or call to action for. Dr. Lee mentioned that when he was a student he struggled with the feeling of having little power to actually make a difference to these health issues. He recommends to students when in a setting, to be culturally sensitive and listen with humility. This will allow students to recognize concerns more easily and to make a difference. According to a Komo 4 news article: https://komonews.com/news/local/report-seattle-has-nations-largest-homeless-population-outside-of-new-york-los-angeles Seattle has become the largest city of homeless people outside of Los Angeles and New York. Homeless people correlate to social health concerns because most of them have been traumatized mentally and physically from not being able to take care of themselves. It is sad that there are funding’s out there that could help eliminate this issue. Not only would the homeless have shelter over their head, but their overall physical health would significantly get better. Referring to the functionalist perspective from the textbook, a society needs to develop and organize its main concerns so that social needs are met. Our economy needs to be able to provide food, shelter, and clothing for the homeless. With more shelters for the homeless, this will reduce global health concerns. If we as a society create programs to help people of need, this will benefit us more in the long run. Tax payers costs would be reduced because then we wouldn’t have to pay as much for homeless people’s health care. All in all, I believe that we need to be more optimistic as a society and reflect on a number one growing issue of global health concerns.

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