The Sociological Effects of Digital Technology

For this blog, I will attempt to analyze the sociological effects the digital age had and is still having on us. First, however, I will provide a brief history lesson of the subject at hand.

It is not surprising that this issue has turned into a hot debate amongst professionals from various fields. Long before the internet and other digital tools were created, new forms of media "have always caused moral panics: the printing press, newspapers, paperbacks, and television were once denounced as threats to their consumer's brainpower and moral fiber." (Pinker, 2010)

One of the more obvious effects of digital tools, including but not limited to video games, is alienation. In Mix It Up, David Grazian explores the feeling of total flow experienced by those that are totally immersed in mediums like online games. Players who fall into this state slowly become disconnected from the real world and lose the feeling of the passing of time, which Grazian says is illustrative of the increased levels of loneliness and alienation. 

Another effect of digital environments, such as social networks, is the small degree to which someone living in the digital age has control over his or her social identity. Palfrey and Gasser, co-authors of the book Born Digital, provide an example of a 16 year old girl living in the agrarian age. If that girl wanted to change her social identity, how others view her, she could travel to a distant land and start a whole new life with a new social identity. With the rise of the digital era, however, this dramatic change has become near-impossible. If this girl was living nowadays, her social identity would probably be greatly influenced by her online interaction with family members, peers, and online friends, thanks to digital environments like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Keek, along with the other various social networks and hubs of communication that belong to the internet.

If we take a look at who exactly has access to and uses these fancy digital mediums and social networks, we notice immediately yet another effect of digital tools that we see in everyday life--social inequality. This is because the poor and those of the lower working class usually do not have access to things like social networks and online video games. As a result, their social identity is much less complex and less rich than those who are privileged enough to own and use such tools.  

  

My 8 year old brother with his Ipad

                 

My Ipad in his age

                                                                                                                  

These were, in summary, some of the sociological effects the digital age and its accompanying tools are having on us. What other effects can you think of? 

Face - a reflection of beauty or deviance

  What is your face to you?  Is it a source of beauty or just reflection of who you are? A face not only distinguishes you from others but it also portrays your social identity. Seeing a person’s face you can tell which age group or gender it belongs, whether he/she resembles her mother or father. A person’s face can tell you whether the person is Asian, Black or White. A certain kind of social stratification is done in societies based on person’s appearance. A person’s personality and how he/she has been brought up in society can be easily told by by viewing their looks. Like for example one can easily associate a girl with well-applied makeup, wearing a black veil to be an Arab girl belonging to a respectable, rich Arab family and at the same time recognize a brown colored person to be Asian.

  But what if one day your face changes?  It is no longer the face of the same old you.  It no longer reflects your identity. In that case, not only you fail to recognize yourself but also the society disowns you. The society throws you apart and starts labeling you as a deviant. They also keep a distance from you.

  Similar is the experience for many women who fall victim to domestic violence. Shouting, calling bad names can be disturbing but not as threatening as being physically abused. Sometimes woman are harmed to such an extent that the dominant male figure decides to steal away the woman’s identity by destroying her face. The acid or kerosene is usually thrown on their face to kill their beauty. As the acids are corrosive it results into complete disfiguration and often immobility. In some cases, person also experiences loss of sight, hearing and speech. Some extreme cases can also result in death.

  Fakhra Yonus, a Pakistani woman committed suicide as she was so much disheartened by the acid attack on her by her husband Bilal Khar. The acid thrown on her face shattered her beauty and left her mentally shaken.

Another true story of Naseera Bibi, a 23-year-old woman talks about her brutal experience. She says that while she was sleeping, a bottle of acid was poured on her. She could feel the acid melt her skin, ate through her nose and both her eyes. She believes her husband was the culprit as she remembers his voice when he was throwing acid on her. However, with her face being physically damaged she now feels that she is a burden to the society.

  In sociology we know that in the male dominating society, people usually blame the woman even though it is not her fault. The society refuses to accept them and makes it difficult for them to fit in and live a normal human life. However, there are few groups of people in the society who go against the required norms, break the conformity and help these domestically victimized women. They share a different viewpoint than the majority of others. 

One such example is of Mussarat Misbah who is a makeup artist, owner of Depilex beauty salon and single mother but also she is a Philanthropist who has set up Smile Again Foundation in Pakistan. In this institute she not only gives shelter to female survivors of acid and kerosene oil burns but also sends them abroad for reconstructive plastic surgery. Also providing them with psychological/psychiatric support with vocational training she makes them stand on their feet and good enough to earn for their own living. We want every woman to look beautiful and for her to smile again, says Musarrat Misbah. Many of these burnt female survivors are working in Depilex beauty salon, having attained a beautician’s degree they are now helping beautify customers who come to their salon.

  Social Awareness regarding the acid attackers is gradually spreading in societies. There are various awareness campaigns set by NGO’s. Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) is also now organized in Pakistan and is helping the burnt survivors with their reconstructive surgeries, catching the culprits and educating people in those societies about the traumas of these issues. They have made various documentaries regarding this subject and are making a point to personally spread the message in most of the educational institutions so that this topic is heard, considered and solved upon.

Everybody works but father

“What does your dad do?”

“My dad? Uh, he’s a lecturer,” I looked down at my feet, which were making patterns in the playground’s sandy grit.



“Oh, what subject does he teach?”

“Language,” I muttered, gritting my teeth. I knew what was coming next.

“Interesting. Where?”

“Well,” I was thinking fast about how I could change the topic, “He doesn’t teach anywhere as of now…”

For as long as I can remember, that was the one reply I had for that seemingly harmless “where does your dad work” question. I was beginning to give up hope that my answer would ever change.

“Uh, no, he doesn’t work right now.”

It did come up more often back then in high school, when I was in the process of interacting and developing a social identity.

And it wasn’t a pleasant question.

“Oh, he’s a lecturer. Hey, I love your shoes! Where did you get those from?”

Dad had a history of being constantly in and out of jobs. Six months here, two months there, yearlong gaps in between. Looking back now, I think I can pin the inconsistency on spikes in he-cession.



Nonetheless, it was to transform my societal outlook forever.

That was the time that saw my dear mother become "Mrs. Dad" when circumstances made her take over as the family breadwinner. She worked round the clock—7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at her workplace, then longer hours back home.

My dad?

That is the funniest part.



His shift would begin everyday at around the same time, lasting the same number of hours.

Only, he would make breakfast, sweep and mop, tidy rooms and prepare lunch. I think he could have related very well to the following review from the 1983 comedy drama film, Mr. Mom:

“Jack soon finds himself overwhelmed with laundry, cooking, cleaning and other household chores. He is frustrated with the never ending menial tasks. His only social contracts around the house are his children and though he tries to engage them in work, he is often left feeling frustrated and alone. Jack shouts at his wife, ‘My brain is like oatmeal. I yelled at Kenny today for coloring outside the lines! Megan and I are watching the same TV shows and I’m liking them! I’m loosing it.’”

Only, I must say, life wasn’t all that rough. Mom and dad adapted to the bizarre responsibility transverse. I did too.

Before long, I had spent 12 years living in this role reversal. Although the family responsibilities clearly appeared uncomfortably topsy turvy to me…..well, I was okay. It was just the way my family worked—dad cooked and cleaned, mom brought in the money. I was habituated.

Yet when that question was asked, I would always be “thinking fast about how I could change the topic.” One more time, I used to brood, and I’m going to snap. “No, my dad doesn’t work for god sakes!! Only mom does. But you what? That is okay with me! Because they have managed to make it work so well…”

Come to think of it, although it was always okay with me, I knew, even as a fifth grader, that it would never be so with society.

Society.



That rigid structure of standards and values everyone wishes to be a well- integrated part of.

If you function out of norms, you are the odd one out.

For all those years before my father finally got a steady job, my family and me-- despite being financially well off-- were the odd-ones-out.

That is how society is fundamentally structured. The male and female spheres of responsibilities have been laid out quite distinctly, almost as a stringent law of nature that has to be respected and abided by. The man pays the bills; the woman takes care of the children. She can have a career, which is becoming increasingly common these days, but home and hearth still remain the top priority.


Although this concept is increasingly changing in today’s fast-paced, modernizing society, an absolute gendered division of labor in the private realm is still a difficult idea to digest.

“I just think that’s absurd,” said sociology professor Geoff Harkness, and I couldn’t agree more. What’s wrong so long as a family manages to function?

But modern society is yet to catch up with the notion. I think we were a family at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hopefully, a few years from now, society will be much more receptive to the idea.



Oh and dad, if you are reading this, I just want you to know that you make the best pea and potato soup ever.

Socializing in the Wild

According to sociology, socialization is the process by which people develop a sense of self and or social identity, learn about the social groups to which they belong and do not belong. The two main factors that revolve around socialization are nature and nurture, nature referring to ones biological inheritance and nurture referring to ones social environment.

The text talks about the lives of two infant girls, Anna and Isabelle- who were kept in isolation during the first six years of life. Anna was kept in complete isolation and Isabelle was secluded with her deaf- mute mother. Anna died four years after she was found, where as Isabelle survived because of the bond she had with her deaf-mute mother.

This importance of bonding is not just seen in human beings, but is also common among animals as well. This was clearly evident in Harry Harlow’s clinical experiment “Pit of despair” conducted on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s. His experiment was conducted on newly born monkeys who were raised in isolation chambers for up to one year. Most of Harlow’s experiment was based on maternal love, in other words the ‘nature of love’. However, being raised in isolation, these monkeys were unable to show appropriate affection to their offspring, they did not know the appropriate ways of interacting socially. They ignored their offspring and some even killed their baby by crushing their head on the floor. His experiment also looks into the forms of affection these monkeys tend to look for in different circumstances, showing how socializing is not only an important factor for human, but works the same way even in the wild.