Girls will be girls

Alexis Ortiz

Deviance is based upon an individual choice to not conform and be disobedient according to the guidelines set by society. According to author Richard Schaefer deviance is behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group of society. Each society has a set of norms that we are supposed to follow, when an individual makes the conscious choice to go against those norms they are termed deviant. While deviance is frowned upon is it possible that as a society we expect this kind of behavior? If we expect this kind of behavior does it make it easier for deviants to fall through with that expectation. Watching the news maybe depressing, however when there is violence and high-profile cases the interest of the people and the demand of the inquiring mind maximizes.

Back in November and possibly still today, a group of young girls attending a middle school in Detroit have been utilizing the girls bathroom as their fighting grounds. They have decided to turn violence into some sort of game where the rules require each pair to fight for thirty seconds. The two girls shown in the video become so violent that they fight past the 30 seconds. You can see the one girl getting her head bashed into the concrete ground on the bathroom floor, while the one who is taping the fight finds the sight amusing. This is a trend that is being followed in various schools with different cultural backgrounds. In an interview given by Dr. Phil the female who gets her head bashed into the concrete claimed that she did not want to do it, she just did not want to feel left out and feared being called a punk or heartless. These terms ring very true and heavy for these girls and they take it seriously.

Deviance in The Worst Form: Murder

Submitted by: Samantha Mesa

          Deviance is anything that violates socially established norms or rules set by society. Norms are a set of standards that people follow that has been generally written or understood by society. Deviance can be a tricky matter because sometimes one thing can be seen as normal in one culture and deviant in another. An example would be getting a tattoo. In some cultures, it can be viewed as a sign that you’re of low class or have been to prison. In others, it can show tribal lineage, political/social status, or even personal strength. One of the most popular examples of deviance could be murder. 

         In December of 2009, Susan Powell went missing from her home in Utah. Police had been investigating her disappearance for a few months, and even had a prime suspect, her husband, Josh Powell. While enduring countless interviews and interrogations, Powell continued to deny any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. He eventually lost custody of his two children to Susan’s parents, and the children seemed to be happy about the decision. One day when a social worker was on her way to bring the boys to their father’s, the boys decided to run away of her and went into of Powell’s house. He immediately locked the door and wouldn’t let the social worker inside of the house. What happened after would disturb anyone with children. Powell proceeded to attempt to murder his children  with a nearby hatchet and then lit his house on fire. Authorities later found that Powell had planned the entire thing and had even left numerous voice mails to family members stating that he couldn’t live without his boys and said, “sorry, goodbye” at the end of all his messages. There is no word yet of whether or not Susan Powell is considered dead but investigators say the case is still open. 

         What Josh Powell did was extremely deviant. Not only did he kill his sons, and possibly kill his wife, he killed himself. Murder is seen as a deviant act and so is suicide. Killing a person from your own family is also something that is deviant because family members are part of you. Powell committed formal deviance, which is when laws are involved and he violated them. It's hard to say what will eventually happen with this case but hopefully some kind of justice is served.

McDanaldization of Education

By To-Yin Cheng
Many people know McDanaldization has invaded our society for a long time. Indeed, it becomes a habit in our daily life. Nobody needs to help us take our money out from the bank, we use an ATM machine.  We use self-help machines to scan our food when we go to grocery store. We take our seat and throw out the trash by our own in the fast food store. It seems normal for us because we have already gotten used to it. It even becomes a main wave in the entire world. According to sociologist George Ritzer, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization which means a sociological term that simply means the substitution of logically consistent rules for traditional rules. In the beginning, it occurs when a culture possess the characteristics of McDonalization. However, it is hard to believe our education had already McDanaldiz. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/files/2010/11/students_1485569c.jpg

                In "The McDonaldization of Society", George Ritzer point out four components of McDonaldization. There are efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Unfortunately, it happens in our education system.

In university, it always people always concerned about quantity more than quality, students like to compare the number of pages in the research paper, the number of credit they got. Students often skip the quality of what they learn. It is kinds of sad that no one really knows what they write and remember what they took in the course. After they finish the semester, most of the memorize knowledge will be given back to the professor.  For the professor, they have the calculability of the number of book they publish for a year. In facts, there are lots of parts written by the professor's students rather than the professor. Moreover, standardized exams make even essay test very predicable; the same subject uses the same book with the same multiple choice question in the exam. The departments have the guideline for the professor of what topic should they teach in course (control). It is efficient to evaluate students in the exact same way.  It is really hard to define what is in a student’s mind, for example, if they have some incredible thought. The standardized exam may hide their talent. If you enter in a room with no door, no matter where you go, you are going to stay in the same room. People always feel safe about the predictability, because it is someone forcing you the think about certain things but not getting you think about it in your own way. There will be no other exceptional thought. Also, some unique course had been cut out and replace to some general course to get more effective by the outcome.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slfcBbS2dsk

Although predictability has some strong points, ultimately is fails. For 300 years in the United States, some people have preferred Harvard; some have preferred Yale, and some study elsewhere. Each college has its own personality. Too much predictability will make all colleges identical, and that would be unbearably blink.

Service Before Sympathy

Submitted by Raymond Trinh:

George Ritzer used the term "McDonaldization" to describe anything with the characteristics of a McDonald’s restaurant. In this sense McDonaldization is to apply a process in which everything is performed with maximum efficiency. This term was created to describe the background setting of a McDonald’s. It uses the application of timing things and doing everything exactly the same – every time. The main concept of Mcdonaldization is to increase budget and lower spending through means of control, predictability, calculability and in turn efficiency.

Because of trying to achieve a maximum profit there is usually the effects of: job cuts such as relinquishing themselves from the need to have waiters or bus boys, demanding staff be flexible and ready to work whenever they are called upon, limiting and or completely eliminating any means of innovation, and abandoning human interaction. With the demands that the McDonald’s make, they are basically asking their employees to be at the mercy of the company at large. 

Assembly lines are the means in which food is made for consumers in McDonald’s. Each person on this assembly line has a specific task to make the process as fast as possible. The order is taken every time with the exact same words and sent almost instantaneously through a computer so the people in the kitchen (if you can call it that) can do their specific jobs (I.e. one person for bread and cheese, the next for meat, and the next for sauce and pickles, etc.). Through this is the predictability factor in which everything must always be exactly the same, otherwise it is wrong and employees are penalized. There is no love for the work and employees are now acting the roles of robots so that the process is as fast and smooth as possible.

At the end of the day for any company that is using the McDonaldization process, it really does not matter how satisfied the customer or even the worker is. It is all about running efficiently and the profit.

society did it, why cant septa?

By Robert Wall
   Group behavior is to act a certain way with others that have the same values, beliefs, and norms. In the context of being a septa participant why is that the public obeys the septa bus driver and conform to certain behaviors; it’s because no matter how hard people try to consciously make choices people unconsciously obey people of hierarchy. For example, when the bus becomes crowded a few front seats are given up to the elderly even though younger people pay the base fare andelderly pay no fare; thus it’s abnormal not to let an elderly person rest showing if one person can give up a seat “we all can” per say nomatter what age (non-elderly), race, sex, or economic status. Furthermore, when failing to obey the septa rules you are to adhere to the septa bus driver since he is the hierarchy figure for that momentof that bus in which society pays to keep moving.
    In the amidst of listening to music without headphones in public facilities that is considered abnormal, and because everyone exhibits the same behavior using headphones makes that behavior socialized and normalized creating new societal norms, so without a doubt “the rest will follow.” Behaviors expressed in groups are often uncontrollable since the brain is really unconscious while observing others behaviors via learning and understanding those behaviors. It is a societal norm to let women enter the public transit bus before men letting us know what chivalry and respect is for women. For instance, when the septa bus pulls up to its pertaining address to let tax payers on one man lets a lady come before him and so the rest come running behind similar to the way the men wait instead of breaking the formal chain of women showing our obedience levels and group behavior. In these cases, septa is generally the hierarchy figures figuratively, second the septa bus driver, and finally the ideal “man."

    Society may not notice these group behaviors as showing obedience such as giving up public seats, illustrating chivalry, and using headphones in public because at the moment it is no thought of as this. So group behaviors most of the time can’t be controlled, nor obedience if the authority figure has or plays a certain role, but the behavior within the context or content of the group may be change depending on what variables affect them. Group behaviors are almost unconscious and are seen by people everyday like the behavior of students under the professors eyewatch or observation. Septa made consumers of them more obedient by implementing laws just as America did 400 years ago and through group behavior that is how the more general conform to certain behaviors within a group.

Don't Know, Don't Ask...Just Do by Joshua Lynch

Through out history, it has always been a part of our nature as humans to not only know what a thing does, but HOW a thing works. This is shown through our passionate scientific pursuits. Man didn't only use the wheel, we learned the science behind it and how it works and how we can make it better, which eventually led to the pioneering of the automobile. Man didn't only want to use fire, we wanted to learn how to harness and create it. We learned that with a little bit of oxygen and a "whole lotta' heat" that we could create one of the most devastating weapons that ever existed. It was through the ambition of the Wright brothers and their study of aerodynamics that allowed our feet to leave the ground and finaly touch the clouds. So if this lust for the "how" that lead to such great innovations, why would we ever simply settle for the simplicity of only using something. The answer to that question is a combination of greed and desperation. The greedy feeding on the desperate.

A Sociologist by the name of George Ritzer first used the term McDonaldization as a means of controlling the way fast food industries are ran, and even how they spread to more private sectors. There are five pillars of this concept: control, efficiency, predictability, calculability, and the irrationality of  rationality. Basically the goal of all of these pillar are to maximize efficiency. This is done by taking a task and breaking it down into smaller task, that task is then broke down into smaller task. This process is continued until the simplest and most efficient process is achieved. A prime example of this is the assembly line is the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CReDRHDYhk8&feature=related

The real problem with this process is the manner it treats the worker. As i stated before humans like to seek how, and become a part of the process. This Mcdonaldizations prevents that sense of  empowerment and self worth that people get from using their creativity completely. It's completly dehumanizing to simplify a human beings job to a task that any machine could do. And at the same time tell that person that we don't want you to think, we don't want your input, we want you to become a robot and behave as such. Thid way of thinking is made to benefit a beaurocracy. The burgeouisie takes advantage of the working class by implementing a system inwhich the worker has a task so simple and yet he still does not question why they're doing a task, the lose that basic human need, the need ot understand the "how" and the "why". It is this beaurocracy that completely strips the worker of their humanity in the work place in exchange for efficient and predictable results. So I ask you the reader, do you believe that this way of thinking should be done away with, or is it a accemptable means to an end?

Crowd Control

By: Justin Sharpley

                

 Group behavior and obedience is a two edged sword. Behaving a certain way based on the group we are a part of is something we are all failure with but sometimes the role changes based on the desired outcome of that group interaction/involvement.  One example is when there is an altercation on a playground involving adolescents. Inevitably, the two children having an argument will be surrounded by the other children witnessing the argument. After shouting words of encouragement, more often than not a chant of “fight! fight!” will begin. The children involved in the argument will then take the cue from the crowd and start throwing punches. This is of course an example of negative group behavior. 

                An example of positive group behavior could be at a standing room concert. You have a large group of people all enjoying the same show, singing the same songs, and all acting similar to one another. People are standing shoulder to shoulder, with everyone trying to get as close as they can to the stage in front of them, sometimes a part of the crowd will even start another behavior that may seem aggressive and start shoving one another and generally running into one another. This is of course aggressive behavior but it is rarely done in an angry way, evidence of this can be found when a person falls down in such a situation. People stop doing what they are doing, make space for the fallen person to get back up, and then continue to enjoy the show. This is of course dependent on the artist performing the show as well. The crowd will respond to the performer in a very unique way. The performer will control the crowd essentially taking a large group of strangers, bringing them together to the same mind space and then using that to control the crows and put on a show.

                These are both examples of group behavior in which different situations and circumstances control the behavior. Group behavior is something as small as how we act in an elevator, to something as large as how we act when in a group of our peers. Group behavior and the obedience of the group is something that has always been around and is a very strange thing. The idea of taking people of different backgrounds and unifying them is something we have all experienced, and positive or negative, it can be a very powerful thing.