Week 8

This week in sociology, we discussed differences among cultures, and the idea of a subculture, which is a culture seperate from its "mother" culture. One subculture we discussed was the subculture of Our high school, which we said was different from other high school cultures due to many things that set us apart, such as the more of not stepping on the Patriot, different phrases we use that other schools wouldn't understand, such as FMP, ILC, and traveling, as well as things that we value at Our high school, such as hard work, college and extra curricular activities. all of these traits set us apart from other high school cultures, making Our high school's culture a subculture. I knew about this subculture, due to the fact that when I talk to my friends from different high schools, they say that the amount of pressure we face as students that are expected to excel in school is drastically different from the pressures they receive in their school. Another example of subculture that I see multiple times is the rural culture of Pennsylvania, which is separate from our metropolitan-Chicago culture(suburbia). Although the cultures are both a part of the American culture, and there are many similarities between the two culture's, there are still distinct differences among the cultured, which thud creates two different subcultures. In Pennsylvania, where I visit my grandma, the nearest chain grocery store, such as Target, is nearly a half hour away, and the closest city is Pittsburgh, which is an hour away. Due to this, the way the people living there value more "consumer products" is different from the way we value it, because we are surrounded by brand names everyday, whereas the local grocery stores by my grandma sell baked goods and other products that are made by a "friend of the owner of the store", rather than Frito-Lays, or Hostess, which are brands we are surrounded by everyday. Another thing that sets that culture apart from ours is their minimum use of modern technology. My godmother has nearly no knowledge of how to send an email, whereas here, four year olds would understand how to copy and paste a word document onto a blog, for example. The way in which we value technology is completely different from. The way in which is more rural community values technology, which then changes the way they communicate. Subcultures are nearly everywhere and all play a part in making the whole culture more diverse and fascinating.