Cracking Down

The introduction to the article "Dealing Crack: Doing Research with Streetcorner Dealers" discusses how to investigate drug dealing in urban areas. This immediately made me think of the Illinois Youth Services survey that all the seniors and sophomores recently took. The survey asked kids about different drugs, alcohol, sex, and violence. I don't know how seriously the IYS takes the results of this survey. However, I am suspecting the results are far from accurate. No matter how confidential that the school swears the survey is, kids are still going to lie. Not only are kids lying to protect themselves (many students believe the school will catch you if you admit to being involved in illegal activity) but they also lie to be funny. Many people check they do have tried or do every drug, every day. On the other hand, some "more clever" students check that they have never tried drugs or alcohol and never want to, even if they do involve themselves with it. They do this becuase they believe that if the survey results show that kids are not involved with drugs and alcohol then they will focus on other problems that they believe that kids have and forget about drugs. Thus allowing more freedom and less suspicion about drugs. I think it is even harder to find out the truth about the activites of highschool students than it is about the drug dealers. Kids are even more protective of their privacy and even more scared of getting in trouble; and even less trusting of authority figures.
However, I do find it interesting that the crack dealers eventually let Jacobs into their lives. Perhaps with a little more effort in slightly different tactics, adults could learn more about the lives of the youth.

Understanding the Golden Arches

I thought that this was the most interesting article we've gotten so far this year. I never realized that McDonald's went to such an extreme effort to keep all of their stores uniform. However, now that I take a step back and look at it, it's true. Although I have noticed some individuality; in the interior decorating. For example, our very on Barrington McDonald's has a 'fancier' air to it. Perhaps this is an attempt to reflect Barrington and our ideals, and entice more customers to eat there. The McDonald's corporation probably sees that Barrington is wealthy, and a part of the upper class, and took steps to capitalize on that. Once when I was in Florida, I went into a McDonald's decorated with an under the sea theme. Again taking a step back, I now realize that this is a gimmick for tourists to eat at that McDonald's; although it is exactly the same as every other McDonald's in America. This week I realized how often the general population falls prey to different marketing ploys that have been so thoroughly researched by companies.

Debating and Deliberating

As we begin to learn more about the values of our society, I become more embarassed of America. Compared to most other countries, we don't seem to have a cultural basis that keeps us in order. I find it really intersting that as the world's "melting pot", we don't have half as many traditions and holidays as some other countries. Although America is definitely unique, we are often seen as different; with scorn. I feel like we have lost a lot of religious and national identity. We are often recognized as stuck up, lazy, stupid and always on the go. And most of the time, we don't know how to defend ourselves because it's true. With values like conserving time, self-betterment, and convenience; I'm not surprised. Although it isn't unusual to see other countries's cultures as weird or unecessary; I find it hard to see the use in our own. I believe that it would do America some good to slow down and put more value in time with eachother as well as traditions of any sort whether they be family, friends, church or town related. I think that America needs something more to be proud of than being the nation with the largest deficit in the world.

Bemused in America

Article 1: "Food for Thought"
-Time & Its Control: The supermarket is open 24 hours here; allowing us to do our shopping whenever we can and want.
-Practicality & Efficency: We have tons of prepared food; saving us time and money and allowing us to push aside eating to make room for other more "important" things.
-Competition: The buy one get one half off sales are there to compete with prices at other grocery stores.
-Informality: The store isn't decorated or made to seem unique or homely.

Article 2: Watching Joggers
-Self-help: People take the initiative to work out and better themselves.
-Personal control over environment: People run to change their appearances, rather than accept how they are.
-Informality: The author notes how they don't care what they look like while running.

Article 3: American Television
-Time & Its Control: Television programs of all genres air at all times of the day, making it possible for us to catch our favorite shows at any time we have available.
-Directness/Openess: We are comfortable acting in front of a large audience.
-Materialism/Acquisitiveness: We have hundreds and sometimes thousands of cable television channels; most of which we don't watch regularly, or ever.

Article 4: Rules
-Equality: The author points out rules like making smokers go outside in order to make non-smokers feel comfortable inside; so it's fair.
-Practicality/Efficency: The restaurant gives a time limit for you to stay at the table.

Article 5: Language
-Change: We are constantly making new words and phrases to go with new cultural phenomenons.
-Individualism/Privacy: Many of our new words come from celebrities who try to diversify themselves, or from unique movies.
-Informality: We have over double the amount of words in the German dictionary, probably due to slang.

Aliens in America

This week we watched a movie about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Soon after arriving in America, the boys start to believe that life in America is no easier than life in Sudan. I think that the boys got an unfair view of America. Although they were working hard and living like most Americans, I feel that they would have appreciated the differences in America if they had been more comfortable here. Also, they didn't realize how unusual it is for a kid to have to go to highschool, pay his own rent, work five hours a day as well as do homework and have time to hang out with friends and play sports. Most kids could never even imagine being in that posistion. Also, I think that they don't see life in America as exponentially better than the Sudan because they were used to life there. Even if they lived like the richest person in America, the boys would probably still see a lot of advantages to life in the Sudan and miss it.