Examples Of Social Imagination I Have Experienced
Sociological imagination “allows us to look beyond a limited understanding of human behavior to see the world and its people in a new way and through a broader lens than we might otherwise use. ” For me, being in college has really allowed me to look beyond my own personal views of the world to view different situations as others do. I have learned that we must have an open mind and be able to look past our own beliefs to expand our knowledge.
For example, in society today, obesity is a great issue. Publicly, obesity is a huge factor because our whole lives revolve around food. We as American’s eat more fast food because it tends to be more convenient with time and cost than healthier foods. Going into a fast food restaurant, we usually purchase the cheapest item on the menu, which is usually the unhealthiest. For those that cook at home, usually resort to cooking quick meals such as frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets because they do not have time to properly prepare a healthy meal because their lives are so busy. Some can say that obesity is more of a personal problem. It can be the person not controlling what and how much they consume. It is also a personal issue because you are the one in control of your actions. No one can make you exercise, you must make that choice yourself.
Another good example of sociological imagination is teen pregnancy. Most people view teen pregnancy as something that could have been prevented before it even happened. In the public eye, many people judge teenagers who become pregnant so young. They may say that the pregnancy could have been avoided by using the right contraceptives or abstaining from sex all together. When taking a step back and looking at the issue from the teens point of view, being more personal, there may be other factors that contributed to the pregnancy. From the teen’s view, the pregnancy could have been caused by rape or other unwanted factors causing it to not be the teens fault in the first place.
An additional example of sociological imagination, that I recently experienced, is when one of my closest friends chose to work instead of going to college. Before I took a step back and looked at this situation from his perspective, I judged him for not wanting a better education. I thought that there was no way he could make a decent living by just getting trained on the job. From looking at it from his point of view, he will make more money than me, an aspiring nurse, in the first six months of his job. Society today is pushing for more people to get a higher education because it is harder to find work without it, but by looking at Zach’s viewpoint, I now realize just how successful he is at welding.
Overall, I have learned to look beyond my view points and take into an account of how others view things.
