Module 4 Reflection
I first watched all the Dugan videos and learned a lot of information; maybe a little too much at one time. I felt bombarded with information and felt as if i couldn’t retain it. In the first video, I learned that we learned our culture and that we were not born with it. I found that interesting because I’ve never really thought about how or why I do certain things. For instance, before leaving my grandmas house I know to wait for my grandma to hover over me and sign the cross. I realized that i learned to wait by seeing my aunts or cousins doing it when i was younger. Its like a habit for me to wait. Another cultural habit that I learned was the whole cheek to cheek kiss. Our family always greets that way so when it come to meeting knew people I tend to kiss them cheek to cheek and they act weird because it might not be in there culture.
In the third video, it explained that culture shapes the way we think, feel, and act. Mass media helped create this type of culture. our ideas of right and wrong are from and shaped by our own culture. While watching, I understood that there are four types of cultures that are personal, family, and bounded. Personal culture is who we are when we are being ourselves. Family culture is who we are when we are with our immediate family. Bounded culture is who we are with our friends and dominant culture is who we are in public. It was said that ‘conflict between culture and setting can cause social tension’. (Dugan 2010-2011). I feel as if my personal, family and bounded culture are all the same. I tend to do everything the same and act the same whether I’m by myself, with my friend, or with my family. When it comes to dominant culture, I tend to be more reserved and less out going. I keep to myself or keep to those I’m with. Many people argue that we can’t act exactly the same in each culture and that there is something different about you in each even if it’s something little.
Growing up, I was never taught anything about sex from my parents; I learned things from church. My upbringing was a one way street and there was a no questioned asked policy. This is what they said and no one can question it and if you did that meant you ” questioned God”. Mass media definitely played a role in my life to bring up questions regarding sex or sexual content questions. I never felt comfortable talking to my arents about it because they never talked to me about sex so I’d have to ask my aunts. In chapter 6, it states that sex has become a “no big deal’ scenario and that makes adults afraid as if their child is growing up too fast. Sex is all over pop culture and kids, like me, get their advice or make questions from pop culture. I believe this happens because children are afraid to ask their parents questions. They are afraid of what might their parents say or even do. Children tend to tense up even more when the topic the want to bring up isn’t a topic that the family has brought up before. I also learned that in the past, premarital sex and teen pregnancies were unspoken of. If a teen pregnancy were to happen, it was either kept a secret, aborted, or given up for an immediate adoption. Now, we tend to acknowledge it and work with it rather than be appalled by it. Im not quite sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Reading this chapter, it did surprise me learning that adult men are responsible six out of ten births to girls eighteen and younger and that in some states the age of consent is sixteen years old! In South Carolina, the consent for girls is fourteen years old and the consent age for boys is sixteen years old. I wonder how this can be when they can still be considered children. Children can’t make big decisions that is why they have parents to make it for them. Parents are suppose to protect their children and how will they if the law is set in stone?
Down below is an article of the consents laws for South Carolina. Please read it. It is quite interesting.
https://www.stsm.org/south-carolina-laws-regarding-sexual-assault-and-consent
- Dugan, Terry. “Impact of Media on Culture- What Is Culture,Part 1.”YouTube. YouTube, 04 Aug. 2010. Web. 20 June 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYu5azRNUck&feature=youtu.be>.
- Dugan, Terry. “Module 2 Part 3-The Functions and Effects of Culture.”YouTube. YouTube, 31 July 2011. Web. 20 June 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9bQiRMQUaE>.
- Sternheimer, K. (2013).Pop Culture Promiscuity. In Connecting social problems and popular culture: Why media is not the answer (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press (139-167).
