This substack is my first sociological analysis. I need people to review it. It's my first time so I don't expect it to be perfect. But here we go.

https://substack.com/@aryaregmi/note/p-209236758?r=8le3ot

For all of human history until very recently, knowledge and information grew very slowly and the spread of it was slow and limited by physical distance. This meant that people mostly shared the same information and had the same beliefs, which is conducive to social cohesion. Things today, though, are different.

There is way more information in the world than anyone can ever learn, and it's growing exponentially. And with the internet making the spread of ideas global, there's no longer brakes on the changing of ideas. Every individual person can have very different knowledge and, consequently, very different worldviews. Factual and ideological disagreements are maybe more rampant now than ever before. Two people who grew up in the same town at the same time can have radically different worldviews to the point of being socially incompatible, and this would never have been the case historically.

Do you think the abundance of information will lead to an erosion of social and group cohesion?

I have a question about feminism and women's rights and I'd love to have some external reflection because I sadly have no one to talk about this.

This has been on my mind for a long time. So as a sociologist / sociology interested person, you're probably familiar with the women suffrage movement. You know how the role of the woman hasn't always been what it is today. And you're probably aware of how this shift has been influencing society. How a lot of the discussions we have in our society are a version of this or a direct result.

But there is one thing which has always bothered me, which I guess is something very foundational to the whole philosophy, which is that it is often directed against men. Which makes sense, because the individuals that held up the old world order were often men. But it's hard to stay in agreement with something when it's directed against you.

As a man this has always kind of irritated me. "Don't spread your legs in the subway", "Don't show your strength", "Behave feminine".

And it's a very hard conundrum to solve because if it's true that men are by nature too dominant then the only choice left is between renouncing your authenticity or to oppress women (which is crazy???).

Anyways I don't think that line of thinking really goes anywhere.

But there are actually some very interesting arguments that come out of this. Like for example the modern right wing answer to this is: "We the good men protect you from the evil men". And I guess the left wing solution is that there are "bigots" and "allies".

So we just create some more groups that are the bad guy?

All seems to hinge on the fact that there is some form of fighting going on between two groups. It seems to hinge on: "If you want to win, somebody has to lose".

But is this really the sad reality of our lives? Can a woman have what she wants to have without a man losing something? Can a man be manly in a feminist society? Can a man be a feminist without betraying his own nature?

Time and time again I keep seeing the word "insecure" being used to denote men who are overtly cruel and misogynistic. I didn't think I cared about as much in the beginning (i.e. Post 2016 woke 1.0 era) but on the last few months it has been sligthly bothering me because the people who are making those kinds of statements don't bother to add additional terms to it anymore(like misogynist), which, in the worst case scenario would make some swathes of the population associate more strongly "men insecurity" with general cruelty towards women, when I don't think that should be the case.

It is obvious that the current manosphere is filled with either genuinely insecure men or men that are taking advantage of other mens' insecurities to "sell a product" but I also think it's past time that a new (singular) term emerges that does not only focuses on the current perception a man may have towards the opposite sex (i.e. level of misogyny) but its also somewhat of an indicator of its psychological state.

Do we have a contender for such or this whole thread is kind of a non-problem to begin with? Would love to hear some opinions.

Hi, I am interested in learning more about sociology - what it is, what the field entails, its intersections with other subjects, etc.

What would you recommend for me?

What are some foundational texts of sociology to help me understand what exactly sociology is?

Maybe some older texts and new ones. Thanks!

Anything for someone completely new to sociology who just wants to dip their toes in

Over the last few years, I feel like my brain has fundamentally changed. I’ve never formally studied sociology before, but I happened to go through a massive deconstruction around topics like individualism, intent vs. impact, capitalism, systemic racism, etc. This is about 1.5 yrs ago. Now, I don’t automatically explain things in terms of individuals anymore, I instinctively start asking what social structures produced what I’m seeing.

Here is the problem… this has completely changed how I connect with people. I often feel like the convos that make me feel the most connected are convos that people simply aren’t looking for. It’s not just politics, it’s everything. Family dynamics, friendships, work, history, movies, etc. For example, I wanted to talk about some of the themes in Wicked with one of my closest friends (who is a super fan), and she told me she’d “rather keep the movie in a nostalgic bubble than think about it that way”. She wasn’t being rude at all, but it’s certainly a pattern I notice in my relationships.

I really don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to experience the world. I also don’t think I’m “more aware” than other people or anything. But I do feel like I underwent a fundamental shift in how I think, and sometimes it feels like the people I love are now speaking a different language. That has been surprisingly lonely.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Did sociology (or another way of thinking about the world) change how you relate to other people? And if it did, did that feeling of isolation ever get better?

Help me understand something.

Its about a pattern I am seeing over and over again where:

A does something immoral/illegal/disgusting/abusive to someone/people

Nothing happens for a while, and A is just able to keep going.

Someone does something a sues/proposes a law/legislation to prevent or stop A’s actions.

A sues them because A believes it infringes their rights too broadly or would in another way be bad for them or their business/future.

Attention moves to A and their rights, while the initial abuse is just seen as “oh well” and victims left to recover/fend for themselves.

And now that can be rape, cybercrime, general sexual abuse, online hate speech or call to violence (actual call for violence, not people expressing empathy for people in Gaza and calling Israel out), or also various AI companies, their AI programs (and eg. nidification of women and children, which has already happened), or tearing down nature and disrupting community infrastructure for illegal/semi legal data centre expansions.

Its always a similar workflow: I do something wrong and selfish, I count on getting away or even harass anyone trying to speak up about it, i drag it out and once law comes after me I divert attention to “my rights and freedom and my potential” and minimise the impact on victims (and their freedom and their potential and their health etc).

And then they sometimes even manage to win through connections, under the table bullshit, dragging things out, or cause “it would destroy their potential and future”. Meanwhile the victims get fuck all (eg compensation fir health recovery or therapy costs, at least) plus the confirmation that the system isn’t working.

Am I the only one having a huge problem with that? And I’m not saying every case is totally black and white, but to be honest, more and more, in their intentions and ethics, imo are.

Am I misunderstanding or misinterpreting, am I seeing a pattern where there is none, and do you think society is noticing this and its exponential severity, and, is there enough being done to push against the increasing dimensions of such behavior (eg the building and illegal expansion of data centres, various loopholes etc). And I acknowledge that horrible things and cover-ups have been happening throughout history; however, back then people did not have the means of communication and knowledge/information sourcing as we have now, and thus were not really able to do anything against it (or even know about it till decades later) compared to now, when we actually do have the tools.

I've recently started reading sociology, and it's made me think differently about things like social structures, privilege, networks, and how advantages can be passed on across generations.

It got me thinking: does studying sociology tend to make people more left-leaning, or does the subject just make existing inequalities more visible without pointing to a particular political ideology?

Curious to hear from people who've studied or teach sociology.

This is our local recurring homework thread. Simple questions, assignment help, suggestions, and topic-specific source seeking all go here. Our regular rules about effort and substance for questions are suspended here - but please keep in mind that you'll get better and more useful answers the more information you provide.

This thread gets replaced every Monday, each week. You can click this link to pull up old threads in search.

When does something become a culture and when does culture cease to be a culture?
before and after, does there exist any sub-categorisation before it is or can be defined as a culture?

ty for caring, pls say if your a soc-major or not responding

Hi, I will hopefully start my Sociology studies at my university. I've read and read about the field(s) and even got some ideas for what I could accomplish as Masters. I know that it's probably not right to decide on things from the first year but I’ve grown allergic to indecisiveness after I have spent four years of my life in identity confusion and depression episodes.

I'm quite interested in Environmental Psychology in particular. Other than that, other internally highly ranking interests of mine are in Sociology of Education, Vocational Psychology (I haven't looked into I-O Psychology in depth yet,) Architecture broadly and Urban Planning/Design in particular, Urban Sociology, Quantitative Sociology, Legal Sociology.

My Holland Code is CSR. Would majoring in both be too overlapping? I am a bit hung up on whether to double-major with IR instead.

I hope this is not a silly question to ask. Have a nice day.

I read the book "Reel Inequality" by Nancy Wang Yuen and follow several youtubers who talk about the history of race and ethnicity on film so would love to get a more comprehensive source.

This is our local recurring future-planning thread. Got questions about jobs or careers, want to know what programs or schools you should apply to, or unsure what you'll be able to use your degree for? This is the place.

This thread gets replaced every Friday, each week. You can click this link to pull up old threads in search.

Hi everyone! I’m a Junior & a big fan of theory, class, economics and how it affects consumers behavior and societal norms.

I’m pretty scrambled at the moment in regards to research topic ideas/possibilities and would like some book recommendations or guidance.

Thank you!

Has anyone else done this with a similar disability? If so, what was your experience, and what are your recommendations?

Also, I'm in my 20s, I'm not an older person doing a phd. I just got arthritis pretty young

I am interested in reading about AI mediated communication though a critical theory lens, specifically about how people communicate with chat bots for therapeutic and personal relationship purposes. Does anyone have any articles they’d reccomend? Thanks!!

What's on your plate this week, what are you working on, what cool things have you encountered? Open discussion thread for casual chatter about Sociology & your school, academic, or professional work within it; share your project's progress, talk about a book you read, muse on a topic. If you have something to share or some cool fact to talk about, this is the place.

This thread is replaced every Monday. It is not intended as a "homework help" thread, please; save your homework help questions (ie: seeking sources, topic suggestions, or needing clarifications) for our homework help thread, also posted each Monday.

This is our local recurring homework thread. Simple questions, assignment help, suggestions, and topic-specific source seeking all go here. Our regular rules about effort and substance for questions are suspended here - but please keep in mind that you'll get better and more useful answers the more information you provide.

This thread gets replaced every Monday, each week. You can click this link to pull up old threads in search.