September Blog post

Maddi Osburn

September Blog

9/28/16

                Social Construction is something that is very interesting to me because without really knowing, it is the reason behind why we wear what we wear, why we listen to what we listen to. Social Construction is a process in searching for meaning in ourselves and in each other as we make out way though the world. The book also talks about maybe inside jokes or something that only two people would understand, these messages or jokes between the two people didn't just occur over night, these things were created by being around each other and constructing that social piece of their relationship.

                Another thing I found interesting about social construction is how language is perceived from culture to culture and how one thing as simple as a thumbs up in america can be something completely different in another culture. Another current blogger had some interesting insight to what the thumbs up in different cultures means, for example some places in the middle east, the thumbs up is an offensive term that is almost as america would see a thumbs. https://blog.busuu.com/what-hand-gestures-mean-in-different-countries/

                Everyone isn't born knowing what these signs mean, these signs are created through social construction. How one culture views the simple thumbs up is something that they learn from being around people who use the thumbs up in the ways they do. "Define meanings, notions, or connotations that are assigned to objects and events in the environment and to people’s notions of their relationships to and interactions with these objects". (Barnes, Barry. 1974. Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul). 

               Everything we do is done because of social construction, there may not be a written rule about what to wear or what not to wear, but people kind of have a good idea because of social construction. Another example is how you act in certain situations. Again there may not be a written rule, but people are going to act differently at the football game than they are going to act sitting in class. Why do you stand before kick off, not because we have to but because social construction has made that a norm for us to do so. Why do we sit in classes while the professor is teaching, or why do we have our phones off, there are no rules that say you have to do that it is just something that has become the norm due to social construction.