Capitalism FTW.

Oh boy CAPITALISM. It had to come to this.
All of those who do not know what capitalism is you've came to the right spot.
"Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production creation of goods or services for profit or+ income the accumulation of capital competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor." Wikipedia is so simple at explaining things -_-

This is what capitalism basically means in simple terms: An economic system where things can be bought (such as property or products) by an individual or a group of people, not by the government. This also includes that people can work for money in order to buy things they need such as food. Sounds good right? Well there are some negative things about it.
 Let’s go over the pro’s and con’s, shall we?
Some of the positive things include that it creates competition in the country. It encourages people to work very hard to achieve wealth and prestige. I mean, face it, it’s the only modern economic system that is successful. It provides endless opportunities for all and the individual is in charge of their own life and what they can buy and how much money they could be paid according to how hard they work and etc etc.
Although it is proven to be successful, it is also proven to be terribly unfair. What about those people who weren’t fortunate enough to have parents who did not teach them how to succeed or encourage them to attend school? Capitalism does not provide a safety net for that; it just says “Too bad, fix it yourself” and holds you accountable for your life decisions.

I like capitalism. Even though it is unfair, it is the only thing that works. You’re on your own; work hard, get a good job, and live your life the way you want it. Thanks for reading! Do YOU like capitalism? If so, are your reasons similar to mine? Please leave a comment below! Stay tuned for next week’s blog, you happy bloggers! 

Oh Globalization, How I Love You

'Ello! Happy EASTER, everyone! Thanks for joining in this week's blog. Everyone has heard of globalization at least once in their lives but what is it? And is it good or bad for our planet??

SWell I'm glad you asked! (kinda) Globalization basically has to do with the distribution and trade of goods and services from country to country in order to increase the global relationships of cutlure, people, and economic activity.

But is it a good thing? SOUNDS LIKE IT!

It creates a lot of jobs for employees, it creates better relationships between countries that can benefit the entire world. It promotes global trust and it has increased the speed of travel, communication, and information accessibility through the internet!

But, yes it does have some problems. It causes the high class to get richer and the lower class to get poorer. So it isn't really benefiting necessarily everybody in the world; just the rich people.

HOWEVER, stay with me. I think that globalization is still a very good thing that happened to the world because  it is clear that the pro's outweigh the con's. Although, it does make the lower class even poorer and causes them to work under bad conditions, I believe that countries have advanced due to this.

But what is your opinion on this? Comment in the section below!

Thank you and keep coming back for next week's blog! :D

Being Rational in Sociology? HARDLY.

Heyyy all of you awesome bloggers! This week's blog will be covering the positivist and interactionist approaches and which one better suits sociology.

Interview!

The positivist approach has to do with more rational thinking. It uses quantitative data such as statistics and hard-core facts. Whereas the interactionist approach uses interviews and people's behaviors to figure out the way they act in society. This, in my opinion, provides better methods at gaining a deeper knowledge of sociological issues because sociology is not about the hard-core facts, being rational, and depending on certain equations and statistics. It is a social science that uses no other evidence than questionnaires, interviews, and discussions with people. This allows the sociologist to deeper understand the person within and why they act a certain way in society or what role they serve. Quantitative data alone is simply not enough to let a researcher or sociologist understand these things. 

What do you think? Interactionist or Positivist? Leave a comment below! Thank you! :D

Why am I in poverty?

Hello fellow bloggers and friends!

In this week's blog topic we are going to discuss poverty and how the culture came about. Are you born poor? Do others make you poor such as the elite? How does it work?

Well it all comes down to about 3 theories.

Numero UNO. The Marxist view on the culture of poverty relates to the theory of the elite dominating the poor ones. So basically the theory states that the reason one is poverty is due to the elite controlling the country and the wealth of the economy. This actually makes sense in my opinion but I agree with another theory as well. 

Which brings us to Numero DOS. There is this cycle that people believe puts them into poverty no matter what. Once one is born into a low-class family, one is bound to be poor because they don't have enough money to create something of themselves (i.e. go to college, get a well paying job) and don't have a successful role model's footsteps to follow in the family. I believe this 100% because you see it everywhere. However, there are some instances where it is not the case.

So, Numero TRES. This theory states that people can enter and leave poverty at any time. It kind of cancels the second theory I explained but it is also true. Although some people are destined to be in poverty when they are born and for the rest of their lives because of their poor families, there are some cases where people could achieve their goals and be successful through hard work in school and life.

Aaand that's it folks! Please comment and tell me if you agree!!! YOU'RE AWESOME. :D

The Elites think they're ALL THAT... Oh, wait a minute.

Hello, all you fellow bloggers! From the title of the blog, you can already tell what I am going to be talking about. The Elites and how they affect the popular culture.

Well, first, before we get to the fun stuff, let me give you a bit of background knowledge on the elites and who they really are. They're extremely rich and looked up to. But they're a part of the minority. And this is when you ask, "But why, oh great Denitsa, are they capable of influencing the majority, the Popular Culture, when they are just a small group of people? Why do we care?" Hmm, what a great question indeed!

The reason why we care is because of the media and other institutions we follow. You see, this 'small group of people' has the money and power to control the media and basically what is "in" and what is "out".

The popular culture follow the music, the fashion, and the art of the elite because that is what is popular.

So, yes, we as the majority (because let's face it, most of us aren't filthy rich), look up to this High Culture and follow the common trends made by them.

That may sound offensive since I know most people say that their styles are original and they listen to original music that isn't mainstream, then you're all just freakin hipsters. And hipsters right now are "in". So congrats on being mainstream.

Comment! ;D (yes, I just had to add that hipsters comment at the end...can you blame me?)

Symbolic Interactionism!

Hello all you fellow bloggers! I'm not too fond of this blog topic this week mostly because of this theory. Just to give my opinion on it, I don't particularly like symbolic Interactionism. It was just the worst to understand at first... I mean just look at its definition: " a sociological theory that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction to provide subjective meaning in human behavior, the social process and pragmatism." Thanks a lot for putting in simple terms, Wikipedia. -_-
Anyway, it basically means the symbols people use to interact with each other. Some symbols are words, rules, roles, etc.
There is a debate going about whether symbolic interactionism is a social science or of it pertains to psychology. I believe it Is a part of sociology because sociology discusses relationships within society and why people act the way that they do. Symbolic interactionism fits that because It discusses the interactions of individuals through these symbols and the way they act towards others.
Other opinions? Tell me what YOU think in the comment section below please!
THANKS! :)

Functionalism kicks Marxism's butt.

Yep, it says it all in the title. This week's blog will be about all these sociological theories. Two in particular-- Functionalism and Marxism. When it comes down to choosing which theory does a better job at explaining how society operates, the answer is clear. FUNCTIONALISM.

For those of you who don't know, functionalism is the theory that institutions provide societal functions to people in society. Basically, it makes it so that everybody has a function. For example, I am a student, daughter, sister, cousin, etc. Wouldn't you all say that functionalism withstands our rapidly changing society more so than Marxism? I assume that most people reading this are attending school. So, one of your roles/functions you have is being a student DUE TO the institution of education/school. Other institutions include the media, the government, religion, education, etc. 

Functionalism also goes on to explain socialization early in the childhood stage, which is also correct and seen in today's world. That theory basically states that children are socialized by human contact when they learn the norms and values of society, such as their family and social groups in school and outside of school. It is said that prolonged interaction with adults is needed in order for one to become human. 

Marxism is just some idea that Marx believed will happen but still hasn't. He believed that class struggles will end when the proletariat will dominate over the bourgousie due to inequality in society, and then a classless society will emerge. This sounds to good to be true, and nowhere near does it describe how today's society operates. 

What do you think? Is functionalism a better theory than Marxism in describing the society we live in today? Submit your opinions in the comment section below!

Thanks guys! I don't even have to tell you to "Stay AWESOME" anymore. You're too AWESOME for that.

Online Classes are cool beans.

Oh man, how I love online classes. Before, I used to think of them as classes that only geniuses take because it's hard to learn online without a teacher. But now after a couple of online classes, my mind changed. Drastically.
The teachers are always really nice to me and are just a phone call away. I know that some teachers are kind of hard to reach and some do not even answer their phone, but mine always seem to have been very easy to contact. Which is a plus for me! Haha. The first class I took online was Chemistry Honors. The reason I did that was because I was scared when I saw everybody struggling with chemistry in school and having a boatload of homework and tests. So, I decided to give virtual school a shot. I knew I had a month to quit if I didn't like it, but the truth is that I loved it. 
At first, it seemed kind of confusing but once I got the hang of how to submit assignments, check grades, and go back to lesson pages when I take a test, I started to like it. You can cheat on any test really by having different tabs open of google and the lessons! However, you can't cheat on the assignments unless you find something online or someone else does the work for you. The truth is, I tried to cheat on the assignments for the first couple of chapters but then realized it was useless since YahooAnswers gave me the WRONG answers. Pretty ironic.
But anyway, I find it easy to learn because there are no distractions from the lesson like in a school classroom and you can work at your own pace since there are no due dates. Also, I like how you can re-submit assignments if you didn't like your grade in the first place.
ONE major CON is the DBA's. God, do I hate those. Sometimes, when I don't fully understand a chapter but somehow manage to get all the assignments done, I feel very insecure about the discussion based assessment. And what makes it worse is that the teacher always asks the things that I don't know. So I end up stalling by saying "Umm.." or  "wait, I know this, haha...." as I hyperventilate and click on every lesson to find the answer to a topic that I don't even remember ever reading about in the course!! 
But anyway, online courses are good. The end. :)
Have an awesome day, everyone!

Romney won! Yay???

So, I'm not much of a politics person and I don't follow it much except when it becomes very important and Obama has to do with it, but I decided to look up our state's republican primary.

LOL at the lady in the back

To catch you up, the other in the running were Newt  Gingrich,  Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul in the order with the most votes. Of course, we all know (from the internet, news, or my blog title) that Mitt Romney won the election. He actually had 47 percent of the vote. But do we actually know him? Was he the right choice afterall? Well, let's find out. First, he attacked Barack Obama's policies and ways of running the country claiming he could do it better. Yep, it's all true folks. He said and I quote, 

"Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it's time to get out of the way."

Quite confident, isn't he? Not to mention those harsh advertisements and commercials.

Also, right after winning, he got a lot of criticism (as he rightfully should) when he seemed he didn't care for America's lower class. Romney, part of the wealthy upper-class, was interviewed on CNN about his win over voters struggling with the economic downturn and high unemployment. His answers were primarily on the focus of the middle class and he seemed not the least bit concerned about the poor Americans.

Florida, did we pick the right choice?

Give me your opinion on the matter in the comment section below. Thanks and tune in for next week's blog! :D

TECHNOLOGY. GET WIT IT.

Hello there! The rest of you who read my blog :)

I hope you've had a GREAT winter vacation and you're not dying with the second semester of homework and new classes. I am doing just great, thank you for asking.

But what I'm here to point out is that technology is HAPPENING in every school. Or at least it should be. Whether we like it or not, the world is becoming more technology based. But is it good for our education? Is it bad that we're no longer using pen and paper? Are we just machines? The answer is NO! We are not just machines. We are not robots. We created this technology to make life easier for us and improve the quality of life. This is true. We can still use pen and paper, but it might become less needed. Why draw a graph with data on a sheet of paper with a pencil when you can open up Excel and do it all using a couple of easy steps? You can't deny it; technology has become a big part of modern life and has made quite a huge impact on education. Before all this fancy shmancy stuff came around in schools such as iPads, each school had a set of computers (for a computer lab for example) and calculators. Computers were used for research and online tests while calculators were used because some people cannot add numbers in their head. And that is understandable; that is how the application of technology in education came about.
Now we moved up a couple of levels. We use Permethian boards in the classrooms and tablets, in our case. Step UP uses iPads for home and class work. In order to keep track of what the homework is and for our teachers to contact us, we have created a Google Group to keep track of that, as well as a group on the social networking site that we're all familiar with--Facebook. 

Technology has seriously impacted education's lives in a completely positive way as I explained above. Now it's your turn to give your opinion. Do you agree or disagree? Put it in the comment section below! Thank you!

Have a great day guys and STAY AWESOME! :D

Oh, ALL the things I can do for my COMMUNITY!

Hello, my fellow bloggers, my good sirs and fair ladies! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Christmas and an even better New Year's! It is officially 2012. It sounds a bit frightening and futuristic considering the fact that it seems like it was yesterday when they were making the movie "2012". Yes, that one. With John Cusack. Ugh so dramatic, wasn't it?

But anyway, let's not get sidetracked, shall we? :D This week's blog is about what every one of you should have as their New Year's Resolution: giving back to your community! Yes, that means actually getting up and helping your peers, animals, the city, your neighborhood, the environment, and all sorts of other things! :D It'll be good for your overall well being and it's something impressive to put on your resume for college :)

For example, I've given back to my community through cleaning the environment, helping animals in need, and under-privileged people. I was once a part of the Environment Club at FLHS (Freshman year, I believe) where we cleaned the school campuses from trash as well as empty the recycle bins. I count the first part as both cleaning the environment from pollutants and making the school a better and cleaner place for the students and teachers. Also, I attend beach clean ups and a couple of waterway/canal clean ups whenever I usually can. I am also Vice President of the Animal Rights Club at FLHS. The club is doing an supply drive for animal shelters who are desperately in need of all sorts of supplies and food. So, I am donating cans of kitty food, towels, and big sweaters to the pets and animals who are freezing to death sleeping on the cold concrete. :( Yes, 'tis sad.

BUT... on a more positive note, I have also helped under-privileged  families by participating in a food drive for families who couldn't afford to eat on Thanksgiving. It ended up being successful. I am planning on going to a pet shelter this weekend, as well as another beach clean up (for National Honor Society). Other ways I am planning to help the community are by donating more clothes, volunteering at a soup kitchen, giving money to charity, and volunteering at a senior home. I am planning to do that last one during the summer hopefully. :)

Well that is pretty much it! Thank you for reading this week's blog and stay tuned for next week's! I hope you're all doing your part and giving back to the community! You can get so many benefits from it! By doing good for others and the community, it provides you with a natural sense of accomplishment and a healthy BOOST of LIFE satisfaction. :D 

So, volunteer and do good, young grasshoppers. 

I'm out. Stay AWESOME.