Comments on: Cultural Transformation and Our Personal Lives

By: Lack Of Recycling In Kenya

Lack Of Recycling In Kenya — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:27:02 +0000

I found your blog via Google while searching for lack of recycling in kenya, thank you for posting ral Transformation and Our Personal Lives — Race Relations Project!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:23:42 +0000

This is a very familiar topic that I’ve been dealing with ever since I decided to leave the town where I was born and raised. I could say with no doubt that I have been exposed to a mixture of cultures that not many people around me have exposed to. I believe that everyone has built their own sub-cultures and each sub-culture is usually similar within the group of people that the individual have been around with. However, people around me have changed constantly due to my journey. This is not that I have problem with being around the same people for a long time, but it just happened. I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea with major influence of Japanese culture from my father. Also, unlike to many other Asian kids, I grew up watching American cartoon shows. I do not know how I ended up watching them but I did. Then I came to the states when I turned sixteen and started listening to “black” music. My high school was located in very white area, so that I was usually around and hung out with white kids. After I got out from the high school, I came to Penn State and lived in the dorm they called “Multi-cultural” dorm. Then I started hang out mostly with black kids. I want to say that building a unique sub-culture was inevitable for me, and I’m sure it is to everybody else. However, I believe that sub-culture shouldn’t be the boundary for people to draw lines between each other. It is a characteristic that should be shared with different sub-cultural groups rather than keeping it within themselves.
And I want to mention this because this is a racial relationship class that I believe that people very likely tend to take a sub-cultural group as a racial group. I’ve been getting this question way too many times that “Do you have a racial issue?” I mean this is just who I am, I’m not trying to do something else or somebody else. I’m just trying to be me and this is who I am. One shouldn’t have to limit oneself into a racial group. As I get older and go to different places, I’ve realized that there are way too many fascinating objects and subjects in this world and Who is you to tell me to stop here just because of my outer appearance?
I believe transformation of culture is an undeniable matter. Culture is changing by this second that we’re letting it to fly by. However, the real important point for us is not to just absorb what’s out there. Everyone should try to build and spread one’s own sub-culture.

By: L'Shana Tova!

L'Shana Tova! — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:52:58 +0000

As I read this, I wonder when I became so strange as to not want to be so much like everyone else. Things were different when I was younger, when you want to be like everyone else (the plight of the “lonely Jew on Christmas”). But since grade school I’ve learned to embrace my differences, my collection of random interests and desire to pursue all of them is a good thing. After a few years in college you hear terms like “well-rounded” and “marketable”, but I feel it more depends on where it comes from. Do you actually care about all these varying fields, or is it just to pad your resume? I’m not saying I’m the only one with noble interests, but I’m saying there’s a difference between the two.
I understand about fitting into the boxes and getting caught up in our environment. But I don’t know if such people are always diverging from the rest of the school of fish. I think it was more important that they just look at the world in a different way. By Stephen Covey’s theories, using a different lens, or being more self-aware of the lens you already use. I think that if a person completely goes against what the rest of the society is doing, they will be more feared than respected enough for anyone to trust or believe what they’ve said or discovered. (We all know that society is scared of crazy people.)
I also don’t believe that the great thinkers of the world had no outside influences to encourage their thought. Not that I consider myself a great thinker, but I know to improve my knowledge and skills in my field of interest I tend to read as much as I can. I have my own ideas, but they have influence from varying ideas and theories in the field.
Maybe in this technological age it’s easier to find and have instant access to different ideas and subjects, but I don’t think most people would take the time to try and find them. I don’t think people are that lazy, because you can do from the comfort of your own couch, but I don’t think people have that passion to do it. Or if they do have the passion, many people are scared; scared to be considered an outsider, scared to fail, scared to succeed.
I think the biggest problem, especially in this country, is people play it too safe when it comes to their lives. They don’t try to surpass what is expected of them. People just settle into their lives to work in a cubicle for a corporation they don’t care about, except that they sign the checks on payday. We need to do more, and go further to make a difference. It may only be a little at a time, but even that little bit could change a life.

By: six one ohh

six one ohh — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:33:23 +0000

I feel that as much as I want to stray from the mainstream, I rarely ever find myself doing so, and that’s kind of upsetting to me. I think that other cultures and societies are extremely interesting, and I would love to get to know about them more and to emerge myself into their thinking and their ways of life. But I have never gone out of my way to try this. I guess it’s just easier for me to stick to what I know and not put myself out there and try something completely different, something completely unlike anything I’ve ever done.
Even what Sam said about listening to different types of music and not feeling anything. I try to listen to as many genres as possible, because I love finding new music and artists and listening to their stories through their music and lyrics. However as much as I think that I listen to a variety of music, I guess I don’t really expand as much as I think I do. All the music on my iPod is in English. Although I do listen to many different English genres, I’ve never expanded myself to listen to any other culture’s music. I don’t know if it’s because it doesn’t appeal to me or if I have just been too focused on the stuff that I like to try anything new. Either way, I don’t think it’s wrong that I haven’t listened to anything else, but I feel like expanding my knowledge, even through such a simple step as music, could be beneficial and make me feel even 1% more worldly.
I also stick to mainstream foods. I sometimes order Chinese food or sushi from a Japanese restaurant, but that’s about the extent to which I try food from other cultures. Last year for one of my sociology classes, we went to an Indian restaurant downtown. I liked about half the food, but I hated the other half. The stuff I did like, though, I liked a lot and would love to try it again. However, I still stick to restaurants like Rotelli’s or Applebee’s, places that I’m used to.
I think one influence that stops me from trying new things like this is the people I hang out with. All my friends usually stick to the same types of food when we go out, because it’s the “normal” thing for us to do. I know there are other people out there that try new things on a weekly basis, but that’s just not my group of friends. Although I would like to change, I think it’s something that may happen beyond my college years, when I’m on my own and when I decide that to be more of a focus in my life.

By: Long Live the Butterflies

Long Live the Butterflies — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:01:52 +0000

This cultural transformation and our personal lives blog seemed very interesting to me. Sometimes you don’t stop to think things like this. There are people in life who do things because that is what they have been taught to do so and because is what you are suppose to do (norms). The majority of people in this life do things because that is what is morally right or simply because that is how they have been raised. Most of the time people tend to follow the mainstream culture. This I tell you from personal experience. A perfect example is female models. There is a notion that people who are beautiful are tall, and extremely thin. Due to this misconception you see a trend in more and more females that want to be like the models. There is delusion that the thinnest and tallest is the most attractive or beautiful. Shifting from this thought, I think that minorities in the United States tend to stay connected to their own subculture and stay ways form the main stream culture. A very interesting example is the students here at Penn State. When you go to the HUB and you observe, the first thing you see is that most of the students sit within their racial group. For example, Hispanics will sit mainly with the Hispanics, Blacks mainly sit with blacks, and whites mainly with whites and so forth. Sometimes this happens not intentionally, but because is the group who they know or are either comfortable with. To some extend we are confined to one’s own culture and its own ways. In my case I am a minority and yes I try to stay within my own subculture. I try to stay within my friends; however, there are times in which I also have gotten the chance to meet other individuals outside of my circle of friends and outside my racial group. In a dominant racial group not to a very large extend are individuals confined to a subculture that is dynamic and not connected to the mainstream. By this I mean the majority group prefers to follow its own subculture then to place itself outside of it and try to relate to a minority group. Majority group Individuals prefer to stay within what they already know then to go into something unfamiliar. Sometimes is not because they want to, but because is how they have been raised and how things are around them. For example, it is more likely for an individual who is a fan of certain sport to follow the same sport than to change his sport. Sometimes we behave, act, and do things a certain way not because we want to, but because there are invisible forces that drive us to act or think a certain way. There is no one who is not shaped by these invisible strings. I think that trends are started because something happen without you really wanting to start a trend. Often people try to follow norms and what you are suppose to do, and trying to do so you find yourself doing things not expected.

By: Day Dreamer

Day Dreamer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:31:16 +0000

How can we lead ourselves to be original and think differently than others in society? Most of our childhood and adolescent lives, people have told us what to do and how to behave. Until we move out from under our parents roof; the food we eat, the school we attend and many times, even the places that we go to are controlled by others that surround us or typically, our parents. Through our lives, guidance counselors advise us to take specific classes. Friends suggest places for us to shop at. Parents cook us dinner. So why think on our own and start a new trend when it seems everything is already basically being handed to us? It is so easy to get sucked into certain subcultures. It is so easy to be tempted to do as others do and follow them through life. But why is this? Why can’t we all think, speak and act as individuals? In the end, it comes down to the fact that being part of a “normal” subculture simply makes life a lot easier.
Most people would much rather take the easy path in life than struggle. They would choose to be a follower rather than a leader if it would appear to make like more trouble free. But, in reality, being a follower can make the simple things in life so much more complex. One situation of this involves a straightforward task, getting dressed in the morning before class. The leader in life, one who does not want to necessarily assimilate with everyone will put on what she truly wants, with nothing else in mind. This process should take no more than three minutes. However, what about the one who feels the NEED to look as “cool and trendy” as all the other people? This is completely different. They will pick out something that they think will impress others, or something that everyone else is wearing. It will take much longer for them to decide what to wear. These people worry too much about the simple things in life and not about what really matters in reality. This is what is so unfortunate about society. It has been this way for years, is this way today, and I’m sure will be in the future as well.
People need to think out of the box. They need to “break-out” of these subcultures and begin something new. But of course, we know what will happen when people are unique and start to think on their own… people will follow! And this is when the cycle almost seems to begin again. It is a circular pattern that makes it difficult for anyone to stand out. Just as Sam Richards discussed with new genres of music, as soon as people begin to follow something new, others will follow as well, and then it will once again, be “the norm.”

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:43:11 +0000

Individualism and the idea that no one is really a set background, race, or person is very true now that I think about it. The idea that Sam brings up is a very interesting idea that none of us are purely “American.” We all immigrated to the United States at one point taking over the Native Americans land. The only way we categorize ourselves is by what we know and how we were raised. I am white and I have “white norms” while blacks are black and they have a certain norm as well. It is very interesting to think about how people place themselves in certain groups on the basis of what they know. So how can someone be “wrong” or “right? That doesn’t sit well with me because they are only wrong and right based on what they know. The idea of hypocrisy is very interesting to me because it comes back to the idea of who’s right and who’s wrong. Who am I to say that blacks are all gangsters and are very violent? That’s a stereotype to which blacks are given for the most part. It’s also hypocrisy. This is something that we deal with in our everyday society when people put labels on others based on what they know. This is a form on ignorance and people don’t understand that there is not right and wrong, there’s just customs and certain norms we associate ourselves with.

By: lalala

lalala — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:40:18 +0000

This blog made me think back about my life for a while. I would say I could be included one of the people who was affected by American culture. I am an international student who has been living in America for 3 years. I have lived in Korea for about 15 years and I came to US in my sophomore year. By that time, I was a typical Korean girl who wore uniforms to school everyday and Korean trendy clothes. I can’t still forget the first day of school in America. The clothes, songs, appearances and the languages made me extremely confused. Not like Boston, New York where other Asian cultures were affected, the town I lived was extremely rural so any Asian cultures haven’t reached yet. My school was consisted of 98% white students. I had to force myself into the American culture as soon as possible to adapt myself well. I didn’t want to be one of those Asian outsiders who are made fun of. So basically I did lots of things to be ‘Americanized’. Whenever I think back my immature years when I wanted to look just like one of American girls, I laugh at myself a little bit. On the other side of my head, however, I believe things that I did to be look ‘cool’ were inevitable and that actually led me to adapt here very well.
People often ask me if I am going to live in America forever. I always answer ‘No’ but I really do not know what am I going to do later. Whenever I go back to my home country during summer, something has been changed that I can’t really understand. Then later on, I usually realize that something has not changed but I have. Whenever I feel that, I get anxious because I don’t want to lose my identity and my culture. I could say me changing is inevitable, but that could not be the excuse.
Just like I imitated what American teenagers did, anyone in any cultures are likely to go with the flow of the celebrities and the ‘populars’ in that society. In Korea, half of my friends did plastic surgeries to make their eyes bigger like white people because having that surgeon has been one of the trends for about years. I asked my American friends if they look actually better for them and they’ve all liked the Asian eyes better. Personally I think the eyes with plastic surgeons look better. It was interesting listening the American’s perspectives about the eyes. Even though each country has its own culture, the cultures are all likely to go with the flow as far as I’ve been experiencing. It is fascinating and interesting looking at the two nation’s trends at once.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:54:38 +0000

I find that it is extremely easy to slip into the subculture of being “in the norm” and doing as the people around us do. However, doesn’t this make the most sense? If everyone is a product of their environment, wouldn’t we all act, dress, eat, etc like the members of our family and the friends we grew up with? At my high school, there were very distinctive social groups that depended on religion, wealth, and style. Even though my high school was relatively small (800 total), this was a way for each student to feel like they were a part of a small subculture in a large group. But these subcultures, instead of merely acting as a means for everyone to feel like they belonged, acted as a way to not include others that were not “in the norm.” For example, if you looked around the cafeteria of my high school, you would see a table of all the pretty, rich, and mostly Jewish people (this was considered “the group to be in”), a table of black people, a table of the smart, geeky Asian and Indian people, a table with the theater kids, and everyone else in between. The worst part was that even the teachers and coaches recognized these social groups and gave special treatment to the students and athletes that they knew were the most wealthy and powerful in the community. All of these subcultures dressed alike, acted alike, ate (or didn’t eat) alike, and drove similar cars. When there are such clear, distinctive social groups and everyone is fighting to “fit in” and be a part of the “popular one,” we all tend to lose sight of who we truly are. Everyone is so worried about conforming, that they forget to be their own person. You might purchase a school bag that wouldn’t normally be your bag of choice just because it is the popular bag to have at your school. Or you might wear Ugg boots in the winter even though deep down you think they are really ugly just because they are considered in style and to be “the norm.” It is easy to lose track of our true likes and dislikes when we are surrounded by others. On the other hand, rebelling from conforming and being alternative or unique has also developed its own subculture. Sometimes I think people try so hard to be unique and not “the norm” that they end up fitting into their own stereotype. So what do we do? Do we lose ourselves in the mainstream culture of our environment or do we risk being different? I think once and a while we all need to take a step back and reevaluate our choices. Did I see that movie because I really wanted to see it or because I knew everyone else was going to be talking about it? Do I really like wearing leggings? That way, we can make sure that we are making choices based upon our true needs and desires, and not based upon the wants and desires of others.

By: its great to be weird, its fun to be different, thats why i love being me

its great to be weird, its fun to be different, thats why i love being me — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:26:51 +0000

I like to think of myself as a unique woman. I want to believe I am someone who is different and innovative. Al though, I do follow some mainstream cultures. However, never the less, I’m different and my own person. I often find myself saying before I walk out the door “do I look to weird today; so different to the point that those who don’t share my same perception may question my sanity or do I look as if I maybe setting a new trend”. Often I see life differently than others. My perception of things is usually not normal, but I enjoy being weird. I like being a person who is one who thinks outside the box and sort of doesn’t conform. When it comes to style I rock sneakers and skinny legs and t-shirt dresses. However, one day I dress punk and the next prissy and then a mixture of the two the next day. Sometimes I animate myself. I design and produce a new copy of me. When doing so I allow different sides of myself to shine through. Many of my friends say I have multiply personalities because I am never really the same person all the time. I constantly change style, dialect, and attitude. I think I redefine myself without actually purposefully doing so. Why do I stray from being completely mainstream; because I carve to be different? Being fully mainstream is never good a good thing. I don’t care to be normal. However, I don’t take things as far as Lady Gaga. Her statements are a little beyond me. I try to speak loudly without yelling if you catch my drift. But let me not stray to far from the subject at hand. I’ve explained how I’m unique, but one wants to know where does that spark come from? Where does it originate? For me I would say growing up in an environment where materials were limited and scarce pushed me to become creative and inventive with forms of entertainment, fashion, food, and even education. When you don’t have you find the time to make do what you do have. You begin to think more about things and discover knew outlooks. You find yourself teaching yourself and others about these things you’ve began to look closer at. Then ideas form and then you act on those ideas to bring them to reality. Then you find yourself experimenting until you’ve made art or discovered how to make something work , or fix something that was once broken, or make something new that was old. That creative spirit comes from, for me and many that I know of, trying to make something out of nothing. When put in that situation you have to be creative and I think that creative spirit stays with you is most cases even if it’s in the slightest way of doing things.