Final 2nd 6 Weeks Blog

I did not pay for anything I am wearing today except for socks and boxers. I am wearing a shirt and hat that I got for free from sponsors,a jacket that I got as a birthday present, a pair of shorts that I found at my house, and an old pair of shoes from a friend. I think it was just nurture how I put all of this on. I have been around the snowboarding culture for the last 6 years of my adolescents and I think the style of clothing that most snowboarders wear has just grown on me. I now dress like what a "typical" snowboarder dresses like. I think this plays into my future job. I know that I am going to do something with snowboarding. It is my favorite sport and it is hopefully going to be my job too. I think it is nature how I like the cold. I have never really been a fan of warm weather. I think that nature and nurture balance out because nature takes over where nurture has failed.
As kids grow into their adolescence they also seem to have this need for social status power. They all need to fit in somewhere, and this is why we see different clicks start to form in high school. Different clicks have different ranks of power for each kid, and every kid is trying to make it to the top. To many adolescents, their ranking in their social group is the only form of power that they have. This is why it is so important to so many kids.
Today, kids have different ways of socializing. It is almost all through technology. Through the use of texting, facebook, and myspace, kids have nearly eliminated face to face conversations. This raises many concerns among adults, such as internet safety and exercise. Kids need to go outside and interact wit each other, not sit inside and socialize through a computer screen. Kids back in the day were forced to have face to face interactions because there was no such thing as the internet or cell phones. I think these concerns are pretty valid. I find myself on the internet too much. Even this blog I'm doing right now is obviously over the internet. I think adults are right to not want their kids on the computer so much.
Girls and boys socialize completely differently. Girls gossip and hang out with other girls, while guys play sports and don't talk about their feelings...at least thats what the stereotypes say. Stereotypes play into the roles of socialization a lot these days. Its what makes girls dress and act certain ways and it does the same for guys. I think that these gender roles have definitely played into my life. I act and dress the way that most of my guy friends do. I also see it affect most of my friends and other people I associate with.

Infantilization

I see infantilization all the time. Whether I see it on TV, in school, or at home, I feel as if it is all around me. Examples of how I see it on TV is in commercials. They always seem to appeal to the inner child in everyone. Mostly I see it in credit card commercials. They tell their customers to reward themselves, even though they only get rewarded by spending their money. They encourage people to spend money just so they gets points towards a reward, and people actually buy in to this.
Another place I see this is in our school. I actually encountered an essay prompt today that relates to infantilization. The question was, "Should students be graded on their ability to know facts or should they be graded upon effort?" In other words, should we reward students with good grades if they give it their best try? Also I think that students are given too much responsibility, yet we still receive punishment as if we were younger. We are expected to go and live on our own in a year when we transition into college, yet we still get i trouble with the deans over miniscule things.
Finally where I see infantilization probably the most is at home. My mom thinks that she is rewarding me when she lets me drive, even to work. Going to work is an adult responsibility, therefore driving to work and getting there on time should be expected. Teens and Adults are constantly being infantilized whether you realize it or not. It is throughout our everyday lives and we need to start realizing it, or else we will be taken over by these thoughts that we can be controlled as if we are infants.