Gunnar Graham Intro Sociology July 20th 2013

1) Cultural hegemony is the leadership and influence exercised by one nation over another’s nation/culture through society. In the chapter “ Rethinking The Good Life,” Norwegians celebrated the 100th year of independence from Sweden. Due to Norway’s past of cultural hegemony, Norwegian didn’t have much free time. A group of individuals from Norway campaigned to declare freedom of “time poverty.” In the United States, americans struggle to do too much with too little time. On October 24th 2003, the alliance known as the U.S. Simplicity Forum, organized the “Take Back Your Time Day.” People would arrive late, take long lunches, and leave early from work. Thousands of people came together for the cause. This resistance focuses against politics to make a change in their lives. Social changes are made for the betterment of the people in the society. Cultural capital relates to these societal changes due to the fact that the knowledge of a more relaxed state of life is presented for free towards people. The cultural capital of this situation help people to better see the good life and enjoy some of their life, not all work. I relate to this situation because between football and school I have very little free time. I let the weekend act as my days to take back my time. I also allows for me to stay in a cooperative society and live sociology. 2) For this experiment, I was unable to complete it, due to responsibility to stay in contact with both my athletic coaches and my academic supervisor’s. Fortunately, I did this experiment in high school. However, I don’t have the data logs with me anymore. During the blackout, I found it very difficult to not use technology. When I would usually have my phone to text people, I

discovered how much time I actually spent on my phone rather than doing my homework. Speaking of homework, I found that it was easier to concentrate on each of the assignments and i was able to communicate better with friends. I actually rather enjoyed the experiment, because I never had to worry about returning texts or calls. It was relaxing to be able to enjoy life without the distractions of modern technology. For the blackout relating to functionalism, the blackout represents how we can connect to other groups of people who aren’t ever able to use the technology that we use day to day. According to conflict theory the blackout relates to going against the interests of most americans. Many people truly believe that they can’t live their life without technology. Symbolic interaction allows for people to be social face to face rather than being social through technology. Living through a social network isn’t the same as living live as a real person in society, not just a picture on the screen. The feminist theory relates to the blackout, because girls will no longer just focus on calling guys or dealing with the drama that gets spread around social networking sites, such as Facebook and twitter. This experiment teaches us that technology can sometimes be helpful by standing connected to people in society, but it can also hurt society by harming our social interaction. Technology can either help us or hurt us; it all depends on how we approach the controlling power of technology.

3) Culture is a way of thinking and behaving, it is traditions, memories, written records, ideas, rules, and accumulated beliefs. Socialization prepare people from a young age to set them up to be proper adults. Socialization also transmits culture and allows for society to function properly. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s