This letter is so true and relevant to society today. Many people make out labeling to be a juvenile, high school, type of thing but of course this is far from the truth. I think that most people see it as a high school thing because its just so evident there. You look at the different cliques from jocks, to nerds, to the musical kids, to whatever else and this concept of labeling is just so obvious. The cliques hardly interact and intermingle, because they all have already found their “label” and what kids think of them and chances are its not going to change. But labeling definitely exceeds high school. You look at college kids, such as here at Penn State, and the labeling might not be as bad because there’s just so many more students, but without a doubt, people are still labeled here by the way they dress or act. You look at the groups walking the streets and pretty much all of them are wearing similar clothes and acting in similar manners. But does this labeling stop after school? I know for a fact that my parents used to label my friends before they met them by the way they dressed or looked. I remember one time I brought home one of my black friends (my parents are conservative and white) and my mom seemed very surprised to see this kid wearing baggy clothes and having cornrows. She isn’t at all racist but until she got to know him she definitely treated him a little differently. So does all of society label? Most certainly.
I would also have to agree that these labels can easily define a person and the way they act. While some people are more susceptible than others, everyone is affected to an extent. The more people say what they think about you, or label you, the more people change what they think of themselves, and in turn change the way they think and act. Whether people like it or not, the labeling they receive more than likely changes them.

I think this man hit home on a sociological issue that I often have with the media. The media definitely has created an image of the man that most people men now strive to be. While yes, in some movies and television shows, the nice guy does get the girl, for the most part the male is portrayed as an asshole. However, women respond to the negative actions that men do to them in a positive way.
Who is really to blame for this problem though? Is it really the media’s fault for publishing this stereotypical image of a male or society itself, who so easily gets sucked into the images that media puts out? Honestly, I look more towards us than the media. Society should realize that obviously reality television, mtv, and movies are clearly not real life. But it becomes evident that society is so easily influenced by media because a lot of the stereotypes that they create actually become pretty true. Girls become attracted to a certain type of guy, guys become attracted to a certain type of girl, certain activities become “cooler” than others, certain looks are related to a certain personality. Its bad but true, the media plays a much larger part in our thoughts and actions than we realize. For society to change this, they really have to first accept that they are influenced by forces outside of their own freewill.
Especially here at Penn State, we still have this juvenile portrayal of what a man really is. Aside from casual hookups, there really is not much of dating scene here, and some could definitely put the media at fault. Cause in the media, between most of the sex, drugs, and violence, men don’t really have time for a relationship. This realization about life and relationships most likely won’t come to us until later in life, when we have experienced more of life and gain wisdom, as this man clearly has. Its interesting how this supposed “ruthless” lifers can have such a better understanding on life than us, but I guess that comes with more time spent living.

Like most of the writings I have read on this site, this one changed the way that I looked at life in prison. I had never before thought about how hard it must be for somebody in prison to be cut off from their family and friends, and pretty much the whole life they had before prison. Especially for this man, who seems like a genuine guy, who probably had many friends before going to jail. I was surprised to hear that he is still able to keep contact with people as much as he does because, let’s face it, lifers are not only sentenced to being behind bars for the rest of their life, but also forced to deal with the stigma that goes along with being in jail for life. I could hardly believe that his high school teachers were still in contact with him, in spite of this stigma he has to deal with. This stigma definitely causes people to distance themselves from the lifer and change the way that they look at them.
As I thought about why society has this natural tendency to look at people with life sentences, in the most negative way imaginable, I would have to agree that the media is to blame. Their portrayal of jail is pretty much the only way that society can learn about the atmosphere and experience of jail. However, their portrayal is clearly skewed after reading both this writing, and the rest of the writings on the site. It is a shame that the media is doing this to people like this man, who clearly do not deserve the stigma placed upon them. But hey, anything to make some green right?

I’m sure that like most other readers of this, I was very disturbed. Growing up in the household of a middle class family, with two supportive parents, and awesome siblings, I find a lifestyle such as this man’s so foreign and unbelievable. It is ridiculous to actually think about how it would be to live in such a negative, harmful environment. In all honesty, this man must be very strong to go as long as he did, before harming another individual. From a sociological standpoint, people who grow up with such terrible home lives and family members must be exponentially more likely to commit crime than somebody who grew up in a setting such as mine. I feel like most people who have bottled up all these terrible emotions of sadness, anger, and hatred would have snapped at a much younger age than this man’s.
While reading this, I also thought about the parents and the rest of the family, how could they be so evil and cruel? How could they possibly all conspire against one of their fellow family members? From what I have read, this man appears to be the “black sheep” of his family, the member of the family who thinks or acts differently from the rest, which I believe most families do have. I myself am without a doubt the “black sheep” of my family, being the first in my family to experiment with heavier drugs and the only to have a liberal point of view. I know what it feels like to be different, which at times can be depressing enough. But what could ever possess parents to treat their own child, black sheep or not, like this? I found it even more ridiculous that his parents were middle-class; which in a way goes against the sociological trend of this occurring more in lower class families. It makes me wonder his parents’ past and what they went through in their lives to ever make them want to treat one of their kids this way.

I found this writing to be very interesting. It forced me to redefine the views I have on people in prison. At first, I found it strange that this guy has accepted his punishment for his actions when he was not directly involved with the murder. However, as I continued to read, I started to realize that this man has been behind bars for a long time now and his lack of freedom has given him a lot of time to think. It makes me wonder if a majority of inmates with life sentences have similar views about their lives in jail as this mans. I feel like most of society do not truly know or understand what people in prison are actually like.
I also found it pretty surprising that this man was sentenced to life for what he did. Trying my best not to look at the situation in a biased way, I can’t help but wonder if at the age of 14, a kid should be tried as an adult for, not murder, but as an accessory. While yes, I realize at the age of fourteen, a kid definitely understands death and murder, and should be able to make reasonable decisions regarding them, this guys story makes it sound pretty ridiculous that he is sentenced to life. I would say that he is stretching the story, but the tone his tone of voice, modesty, and thoughts on life make me think that he really is telling the truth.
On the issue of life jail sentences, I find it somewhat disappointing that people like this man who actually have changed are still forced to spend the rest of their life and never experience life. On the other hand, people with life sentences have either directly or indirectly been involved with murder, and may deserve the punishment for their crimes. While I was reading this I realized that life sentences are in a way better than the death penalty because people like this man at least are able to die once they are finally at peace with themselves and their crimes.

Although you would think that in inmate sentenced for life would have a much different view or opinion of life than people living free lives, but I do not really think that this inmate has a skewed opinion compared to the average citizen. If you look at our own lives we are also driven by fear in many, many different ways. People do not commit crimes due to the fear of the consequences. Many religious people live in their faith due to the fear of hell or fear of whatever punishment their religion has for them. People act certain ways in fear of being judged by their peers in a way other than they want. People go to college in fear that they will not live a satisfying life otherwise. People will even base how far they will go or what they will do because of fear. Fear plays a huge role in the lives of human beings. Fear, an uncontrollable human emotion or feeling, affects and controls the lives of every single person in the same way that the “rules of society” and our “invisible strings” play a major role in our actions. In its own way, fear is an “invisible” string that helps shape and create human beings and their society, limiting the actions, thoughts, and so on that make human beings the way they are and create the predictable choices that human beings make.

I found the way that the author of this article progresses and argues against where the blame of his crime should be placed very interesting. He actually looks at many of the areas that a sociologist would also look at such as family, location, and drug use which can all be used to determine the likely hood of a person committing a crime. I noticed that he gives examples of people who beat their odds and come out with great lives, such as the boxers or his friends that went to college, but he does not look at all the people around him who did act the way that was probable for them to. There's always people who beat the odds of sociology like people who were beaten as children and don't beat their children, or who's parents were divorced and they don't get divorced, but the truth is that sociology isn't always one hundred percent accurate.
I also found it interesting that he comes to blame “sexual promiscuity” for the downfall of his life, especially since it wasn't really something that was mentioned in my sociology class. But as I read on about how he lied to his parents and found himself sneaking out of his house to get laid, I took a step back as teenage sex and realized that sex does lead people to do bad things. Even in looking at my own life, I saw how I similarly did the same types of things he did to have sex. I guess it really is an endless spiral because the more you cross the line and do bad things, the more you push and push and redraw the line of your morality, the easier it is to move further on to worse things you never, ever thought you would do.

While watching this video clip, I was not surprised at all to watch these people conform with everybody else and would I agree that I would undoubtedly have done the same. While the viewers of this video can watch this situation from afar and laugh at the subject's reaction, it is simple human nature for anybody who is in that situation to feel awkward as they stand in a unique position from the rest of the group. They are left with a decision between conformity or awkwardness, and for the most part, everybody is going to choose conformity.
In general, the “invisible strings” of our society guide us to not stand out and be an individual person, as we are raised up to do so. If you take a step back and actually look at our society as a whole it is almost too easy to see how much we really do conform with everyone else. Why is it that the wild clothing trends of the 80's, which were once socially acceptable, are now completely out of style and if they were to be worn by somebody now, that person would receive weird looks from many people? Style is one of the best ways to see how our society conforms because trends are always changing and society mindlessly follows these trends together. Give it ten or twenty years and nobody will be wearing ugg boots or tights. I would not be surprised if somebody wore them in the future and some stuck up bitch proclaims, “oh my god, is she seriously wearing that.” While right now, Penn State campus is flooded with girls dressing exactly the same in their North Face Jackets, Ugg boots, and leggings.
Am I above this conformity coming from society? Of course not. Just like everyone else, I'm letting the invisible strings guide me as I dress, speak, and act in a way that society will find socially acceptable and normal. Like I said, conformity is nothing more than human nature, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Soc 001

After reading this article, I'm not going to lie, I didn't really know what to think. Like everybody else reading this article, I found it touching that this murderer understands acts of compassion in a way probably greater than most people, and found it somewhat surprising that a situation such as this one would actually happen inside of prison walls. However, when reading this article, I could not help but think about the misconstrued views and perceptions that today's society. While I do believe that this is only one side of prison life and that there is still another side in which bad stuff happens, I have an even stronger belief that the media has created an image of prison far off from what it truly looks like.
Looking through the many comments for this, there is a clear trend that most others were, like myself, surprised after reading this. But why were we “surprised” by this? I'm sure most people to comment on this have never been to jail and probably don't even have any first hand experience, so to be surprised about a subject that we know little about just goes to show that our thoughts and actions are even less free than we thought.
The media has a tremendous amount of power over society. Without even noticing, people let the media shape their lives in many different ways from what they wear, what they eat, what they do, how they talk, how they act, how they think, or whatever else. I will even admit that I am not free from this influence, and there will be times where I self consciously let the media make small decisions in my life, even though I feel like these decisions are completely my own. As mentioned many times in Sociology 102 already, no decisions we make are completely our own decision, and I am in complete agreement with this because no matter what choice I make, I can guarantee that the decision was not purely my own.