Americans Big Space Big Monkey

Sociology 200 07 9:45-10:50

42126

Americans: Big Space, Big Money

In class we had group discussions about how we observed how people act when in an elevator. We also had a class discussion about how the media makes low-income countries look more appealing than they really are in real life.

Every student in class observed the way people interact in elevators. The class found a great amount of common behaviors among the people. Most of the people in elevators seem very uncomfortable and very fidgety. The people usually avoid all eye contact. To avoid eye contact the people usually have a blank stare, stare at the door, or they watch the numbers change as the floors change. Usually, the older men also seem to let the females off the elevator first because of our culture's expectations.

The individuals in the elevators also cut conversation very short which even creates an awkward silence. Usually, if they do not know anyone in the elevator they just do not talk to anyone. Even if two people who know each other go into an elevator together, the still become very quite during the time that their in the elevator. Most of the time when someone is on their cellular phone when entering an elevator they often end their call until they get off of the elevator.

The reason why most Americans act like this while on elevators is because they receive a temporary loss of personal space. Most Americans need more space than people of other countries because they cherish their independence more. When Americans loose their personal space when socially interacting, it is out of their norm and they do not know how to react for that short period of time.

In the second exercise the class kept a log book of different mass media advertisements that featured low income countries. We found a great amount of advertisements that stretch the truth about the low income countries. There were only a very few amount of advertisements that actually showed how poor those countries really are.

In advertisements for Cancun, Mexico, the travel agencies stretch the truth a great amount. The advertisements show Cancun, Mexico to have a great amount of money. The advertisement shows beautiful water, Ornamental Roman-style columns, all the different very elegant resorts, and water theme parks. The advertisement shows many elegant features of Mexico. In reality, Mexico's Gross Domestic Product is 637 (US$ billions) compared to America's 10,383 (US$ billions) (Macionis 2005:232).

In advertisements