Category: Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change

Social Comparison: It’s Not Just on Instagram

On By Karen SternheimerIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social PsychologyLeave a comment
author photo

By Karen Sternheimer

There is no shortage of hand-wringing about social media sites like Instagram enabling people to compare themselves with others, presumably leading to outcomes like depression and other mental health challenges.

But social media did not start social comparison—it is woven into the fabric of many of our social institutions. As it is relatively new, social media gets the lion’s share of attention, focusing on how it operates and its constant accessibility. The algorithms, the devices, the newness drives attention and criticism.

Continue reading “Social Comparison: It’s Not Just on Instagram” →

Driving While Human

On By Karen SternheimerIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social PsychologyLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

author photo

When driving, we interact with other drivers in ways that are often distinct from our other interactions with strangers in public. For one, our language is more limited and less nuanced than in other interactions. We might use hand gestures (friendly and rude), flashing lights, or in extreme cases, aggressive maneuvers like tailgating, weaving, or slowing down to irritate the driver behind us. Whether we are aware or not, we are in constant communication.

Sociologists consider how our interactions produce meaning during social encounters. We often come to an agreement on these meanings, as our definition of the situation is rooted in social and cultural contexts. Driving necessitates social agreements—some mandated by law, others by custom. We need to agree what side of the road to drive on, when to proceed through an intersection, and how fast to drive. We need to communicate through our cars, which come equipped with turn signals, hazard lights, and horns. Newer vehicles tell us when a car is in our blind spots, when it is unsafe to change lanes, or show us what is behind us.

Continue reading “Driving While Human” →

The Robots are Taking Over: Low Wage Work and the Future

On By Karen SternheimerIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment
author photo

By Karen Sternheimer

When I was in high school, I watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Years later, I didn’t remember much about the movie, other than the computer Hal’s monotone voice when speaking to Dave, the astronaut, who must “kill” Hal to save himself after Hal killed the rest of the crew.

Read more: The Robots are Taking Over: Low Wage Work and the Future Continue reading “The Robots are Taking Over: Low Wage Work and the Future” →

Drinks, Anyone? Revisited

On By Karen SternheimerIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change1 Comment
author photo

By Karen Sternheimer

A recent Gallup Poll found that the number of American adults who report being alcohol drinkers has fallen to an all-time low in the poll’s 86-year history. Just 54 percent responded that they drink alcohol on occasion, down from recent highs of 67 percent (2022 and 2010), and the all-time high of 71 percent (1976-1978).

I wrote about alcohol consumption for the Everyday Sociology Blog’s inaugural post in 2007, and thought it would be interesting to revisit the topic and consider what changes may have taken place in the past 18 years that might help us explain the decline.

Continue reading “Drinks, Anyone? Revisited” →

Love Letter to the Indie Bookstore: Radical Third Spaces 

On By econnellIn Alyssa Lyons, Behind the Headlines, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

By Alyssa Lyons

I’ve always loved books. And I mean loved books. As a child, I’d often comb through the trash to recover discarded tomes. Where my neighbors saw old and water-stained trash, I saw glorious treasure. I’d sniff dog-eared yellowed pages as I skipped home with my latest additions. So it’s not surprising that as an adult, I would come to love bookstores.

Bookstores, especially independent ones, are what sociologist Ray Oldenburg  referred to as “third places.” Third places are virtual or physical spaces outside of home and work/school where people gather, organize, and find and build community. In independent bookstores, it’s not uncommon to find people sipping coffee, working, or quietly sharing space with others who have bookish affinities. Madeleine Roberts-Ganim identified third spaces as places that can “affirm our identities and build empathy for identities different from our own.”

Continue reading “Love Letter to the Indie Bookstore: Radical Third Spaces “ →

The High School: An Analysis of Yearbooks

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Michael Messner’s new book, The High School: Sports, Spirit & Citizens, 1903-2024 is a great example of how artifacts of everyday life can become data for sociological analysis. As a scholar of gender and sports, Messner realized that yearbooks serve as a window to view past constructions of both sports and gender.

His own high school, Salinas High School, seemed like a natural fit, as he had about 30 years of books—not just his own, because his father served as a coach for nearly 30 years and other family members attended, he had decades of books. The book blends the author’s memories (and occasionally his niece’s reflections, who attended more recently) with content analysis of the number of pages spent on boys’ sports compared with girls’ sports.

Continue reading “The High School: An Analysis of Yearbooks” →

The Role of Military Chaplains in the Ukraine War

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Religion, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

By Jan Grimell, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Umeå University and Research Fellow at Linnaeus University, Sweden

For decades, Europe has lived under the illusion of lasting peace, where full-scale war on the continent felt like a distant part of history. Since the end of World War II, armed conflicts—both in Europe and in more remote parts of the world—have required military interventions from European countries, NATO, and allied forces. But we have been spared the total war in which an entire nation’s existence is at stake. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed this.

Continue reading “The Role of Military Chaplains in the Ukraine War” →

We Need More Empathy for the Emotions of Animals

On By econnellIn Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social Psychology3 Comments

By Amanda Gernentz, Sociology Graduate Student, Texas Woman’s University

There is an episode of the kid’s show Rugrats that is burned into my brain. It’s called “A Dog’s Life,” and features scenes from the Pickles family dog’s point of view.

Spike (the dog) continually tries to protect baby Dil from a contraption that his father, Stu, built for him to play in, despite being repeatedly scolded. When the audience hears things from Spike’s point of view, the words the humans speak are gibberish (other than his name), but the tone is clear. You can feel Spike’s emotions, how he hates getting in trouble, but he is so loyal to his small companion that he continually risks the scolding. It really shaped my childhood understanding of the life of a pet and showed me what love and loyalty were from a companion animal.

Continue reading “We Need More Empathy for the Emotions of Animals” →

Teaching and Learning during Catastrophe

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Crime and Deviance, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy Torres4 Comments

By Stacy Torres

The unease that greets me each morning, as I brace myself for the latest chaos erupting in higher education, listening to the radio and eating my oatmeal, feels both new and strangely familiar. I recognize this dread and the chronic fear of further attacks from living through September 11, 2001, in New York City.

But now that terror comes from my own government, with a torrent of executive orders and memos banning DEI, freezing communication, canceling research funding opportunities, terminating active grants, and capping NIH indirect research costs. The recent ICE detentions of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk and Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, my alma mater, sends another chill through me as I consider the repercussions of such intimidation for dissent and free speech.

Continue reading “Teaching and Learning during Catastrophe” →

A Complete Unknown: Art and Activism in Uncertain Times

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Rob Eschmann, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

By Rob Eschmann

A Complete Unknown, a 2024 film nominated for 8 Oscars, explores the life and music of Bob Dylan (played by Timotheé Chalamet), as he makes the personal and professional choices that would go on to define him. With a star-studded cast, stories of Chalamet learning to play the guitar and sing for five years in preparation for his role, and a marketing plan that made even this hip hop head/purist start streaming Bob Dylan songs, the expectations for this film couldn’t have been higher. And it delivered, as expected.

What I did not expect, was this film, set in the early 1960s, to speak so poignantly to the issues facing the United States in 2025, as we confront what can feel like an unprecedented attack on democracy and American freedoms.

Continue reading “A Complete Unknown: Art and Activism in Uncertain Times” →