Post #3

After completing these readings for the month, my favorite chapter to read was Chapter 10. Chapter 10 talks about Interpersonal Relationships in Culture. One sentence that particularly stood out to me was written on page 202 in our textbook. It states, “indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” This was written by J.K. Rowling. 

I found this sentence interesting because I had never really thought of it that way. I had not thought that by ignoring someone’s differences, you could be doing more harm than just simply disliking someone. 

However it is true. It is so important to not only accept but to acknowledge our differences, because we all have so much to offer. The topic of interpersonal relationships in culture is very broad. I found lots of sources helping to develop this quote and the importance/meaning behind it. 

This quote starts to explain that differences can affect a relationship. J.K. Rowling explains it as ignoring the differences can be harmful. However, an article written about the Role of Culture in Interpersonal Relationships states that “individuals internalize cultural values, which then affect the ways in which they relate to important others in their environment. ... The end result is that individuals from different cultures develop a very different sense of self, especially with respect to how the self is related to important others.”

In the end, both of these sources are talking about how the differences need to be used positively. Do not ignore our differences, instead use them in a way to benefit your interpersonal relationships.

Lalonde, R. N., Hynie, M., Pannu, M., & Tatla, S. (2004, September 1). The Role of Culture in Interpersonal Relationships.

Blog #3

Reading the Family Bullies post from Adams, and Berry really go me thinking. It is not often that we think about bullying inside of the family dynamic. In American culture we often think of the family as a safe space, a place to escape anything negative that may be happening outside of the home. So this reading really challenged what I knew as a typical family in our society. The sentence I chose to focus on was the one that says "Bullying is an omnipresent is an everyday culture and relational lives"(Berry & Adams, 2016). The part I am really focusing on is the relational lives part of the sentence. This small part completely changed the way I will look at bullying. Especially bullying in the family dynamics. We often times think of bullying in the family as "OK" because they are your family and it's not bullying because they love you... But would a person who quote on quote loves you really treat you in that specific manner. I started to think about my own family dynamic growing up to see if I have had first hand experience of this bullying in the home space. Thankfully for myself I had not, but I started to think about the experiences of one of my childhood friends and his older sister. Significantly older by the way. I can remember her physically abusing him, but it was deemed OK because it was sisterly love and he couldn't be hurt because she was a girl and he was a boy. But looking at this now I can see that this behavior was far from OK and is most likely one of the things that has played into their strained relationship as they have grown older. After reading this piece I will now look deeper into the dynamics of bullying as a whole and hopefully as a result help fight back against this stigma of bullying. 

March Blog Post

The Most Important Sentence - March Blog Post

"Poverty was no disgrace in our household. We were socialized early on, by grandparents and parents, to assume that nobody's value could be measured by material standards. Value was connected to integrity, to being honest and hardworking."

I chose to examine this quote from the work titled "Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor", written by bell hooks. In this writing, hooks discusses the poignant differences between the way that the rich are viewed in comparison to the poor of society, and draws attention to the problems associated with this cultural portrayal and subsequent perception of the two groups. Hooks turns to life experiences to analyze the representation of the lower class within media. She states that she grew up essentially poor, but was taught from an early age that the source of the value of an individual had nothing to do with material possessions or economic status.

As mentioned in the selected excerpt, poverty was viewed as no disgrace in the household in which hooks grew up. She goes on to explain the shock that she felt in starting college and realizing that this was not the viewpoint that everyone held. It was at this point that she started to take notice to the way that others referred to the lower or "working" class, with the poor often being regarded as unintelligent, aimless, lazy, or sometimes inferior in some sense. She was especially disturbed by the notion that those living in a state of poverty were somehow void of value, given that the concept of value was something she had been taught within her family to connect to the individual regardless of income, and perhaps even more strongly relate to the hardworking lower class through personal experience.

This sparked hooks' alarm towards the manner in which American media and popular culture most commonly represents the lower class. Hooks discusses how such media and culture reveals a tendency to associate the lower class with negative stereotypes, and goes on to describe the harmful effects of such misrepresentation. She describes a sort of negative feedback loop, in which poor individuals view and consume media that represents lower class individuals as 'worthless', and in turn, lose a degree of personal motivation and sense of self confidence and esteem. She also highlights the monetary impact of a materialistic society; individuals who do not have enough money to make ends meet will often go into debt buying unnecessary materialistic items or comforts simply to convince others and the world around them that they are living above the standard of what is deemed as poor, sometimes even at the cost of buying basic necessities.

Hooks notes of the nihilistic perspective that is commonly adopted by lower class people, as they adopt a worldview that signifies their presumed lack of worth, and touches on the impacts of misrepresentation in regard to crime. Some individuals will stop at nothing to meet material standards, even without the means to support such an image, because culture has impressed upon them so deeply that their idea of self-worth is inseparable from economic status and displaying symbols of wealth to the world around you. Finally, hooks notes that if this cultural representation of the poor in media is not altered or, at the very least, recognized and commonly acknowledged, then the views that these images are espousing will never be challenged.

Blog 3

Lauren Schoeneshoefer
Blog 3

The quote I have chosen is in chapter 10 of our book. It is "... how outside factors come to shape even the most seemingly individual and enhancing aspects of us, has had a lasting impact on how we think about the significance of interpersonal relationships." Erving Goffman is the man who said this, and he was studying human conduct through a dramatic and theatrical frame. A frame is the environment or set of circumstances that helps you understand how to process or interpret an instance of communication.

I thought this quote because I believe it is extremely true. Take an abused child for example, the child is going to have a different idea of parental relationships, than a child who had two loving parents. That child is going to be sensitive and apprehensive to that interpersonal relationship for the rest of his life. It can sometimes effect the way that child grows up and treats his or her child. Another example, is when I was younger, at my friends birthdays there was a clown. When i went up to the clown it did an extremely creepy clown laugh at me and I immediately started crying. Ever since that day, I have been terrified of clowns. Because of that experience I was scarred for life.

I love thinking about how people create relationships with other people. It is crazy to me how different parts of our lives, and different experiences can effect us later in life. Communications is a good way to study that.

Blog Post #3_ March Post

"Media surrounds us. Like fish immersed in water, we swim constantly through media, which develop and shape our perceptions, goals, desires, and beliefs." (Warren & Fassett, 211)

Looking into more depth of this quote within Chapter 11 of our textbook, I couldn't help but reflect on some of my own personal experiences with the media and my communication with the media. I look at social media as an inspiration and an idol to mirror, when really I shouldn't even give it an ounce of my attention. However, I give way more attention to the media than what is actually needed. The media is where news, words, and "inspiring" people can make you feel and think about the world around you. It can change how you see yourself, it can encourage you to do (sometimes irrational) actions that can change your surroundings, and it can make you look at things differently than you normally would have. The media thrives on it's negativities, and shuts down positive promotions almost instantly.

The media is a very interesting tool in the world of communicating with others. For example, Instagram is all about posting the "perfect" self or life within a picture. If your picture doesn't show/ emphasize that perfect reality than it's not worth posting. At yet, when we try to post a picture that shows "the true us", it still follows the same standards and "worthiness" of a the perfectly filtered picture. Even when we strive to put our reality into the world of the media, it continues to follow the norm of the media's standards. Negativity, perfection, and chaos is what the media encourages. We all fall to the hands of the media, whether we participate in it or not, we are always surrounded by the media within even the smallest things.

I found that Instagram is one of the perfect examples as to why is changes how people communicate, act, and live their lives. Instead of just living in the moment, we live in capturing the moment.

Is Instagram harsh on mental health?
Instagram and Self-esteem

March Blog Post

“Dialogue is a process where people try to come together to talk, often spontaneously, honestly, and without judgment, to clarify particular, often conflicting beliefs, values, and practices.” I chose this quote because I just recently switched my major to communication and Iven never read too much into the rules and pathways of communication. And now that I am surrounded by classes that all have to do with the many different types of communication. But this biggest thing that comes to mind is how communication is a two way street and I think that that is often forgotten. With people recently only concerned with their opinion and forcing, or trying to force people into thinking the way they do so they don’t have to be bothered to have an educational debate on points of view. Or how when people are having discussions, it isn’t about listening anymore, people listen with the intent to respond, when we should be listening with the intent to understand. I think so many disagreements, common conversations, and talks with superiors will be better understood if people tried harder to listen.

Blog #3

I chose to talk about the Six Myths About Culture. The quote that stuck to me was,

" Citing political corrections requires a stable image of culture. That is, for you to say that something is PC, you have to first believe that culture is basically a static thing that remains constant. For instance, if you examine the history of race in America, you can see there have been major shifts in how we, as a society, have treated race" (Fassett, 171).

This quote stuck to me because I would say that in society throughout the years race has been a major issue. Race has been a big part of society throughout the years. Race is who we define ourselves as. Where we come from and what are background is. Many people come from different places and have different backgrounds. We have to understand that everyone is not the same and we all come from different places.

Coming from a small island and moving to the states especially Idaho. It was a major culture shock for me because I am so used to the island life. Being in the states taught me a lot about people. Through out the years that I lived here I met so many people from different places. I think that it is important to surround yourself and have diverse friends. The reason for that is because if you don't you will be close minded to meeting new people. I think that it is important to be open minded and get to know other people from different places.