Daily logs
Day 1(1/7/19)
My first day started off back at MV. It started slow with me finishing up my website and beginning to organize for the following weeks. I worked mainly on emails and planning things out for the next 3 weeks while also brainstorming ways to approach my question. Later on I did research on the man I am interviewing trying to figure out certain points that he would both like to talk about while also being able to give me information that could be useful for my study. For today I looked mainly at background and what his childhood was like trying to grasp and idea of how he was raised. I want this because I want to see how his views are on such things compared to how he was raised. I want to see if he has gone far away from what he grew up believing or has he stayed close to what he was raised on even with his rising up in economic class.
I then worked on writing a paragraph talking about the things he didn't have to say and to figure out plans on how to meet with him in person. It is likely that I may have to travel to where he is which is good because I can see the type of environment he normally is. I hopefully will be able to some at least some of the people he surrounds himself with and see how much he associates with his past. I want to know this so I can see how a more economically wealthy life could affect a person living in the United States. He will play a vital role on getting me to understand and partly answer my question that I want to be answered so I am very excited to move forward with this interview.
My first day started off back at MV. It started slow with me finishing up my website and beginning to organize for the following weeks. I worked mainly on emails and planning things out for the next 3 weeks while also brainstorming ways to approach my question. Later on I did research on the man I am interviewing trying to figure out certain points that he would both like to talk about while also being able to give me information that could be useful for my study. For today I looked mainly at background and what his childhood was like trying to grasp and idea of how he was raised. I want this because I want to see how his views are on such things compared to how he was raised. I want to see if he has gone far away from what he grew up believing or has he stayed close to what he was raised on even with his rising up in economic class.
I then worked on writing a paragraph talking about the things he didn't have to say and to figure out plans on how to meet with him in person. It is likely that I may have to travel to where he is which is good because I can see the type of environment he normally is. I hopefully will be able to some at least some of the people he surrounds himself with and see how much he associates with his past. I want to know this so I can see how a more economically wealthy life could affect a person living in the United States. He will play a vital role on getting me to understand and partly answer my question that I want to be answered so I am very excited to move forward with this interview.
Day 2(1/8/19)
I started off my day with more research. I also did scheduling for the next few as I may be traveling in the second week of my intensive. It is best for me to get an interview in person so I can look at details like body language and I also can control the environment a little bit more to make him feel comfortable enough so I can get the type of information I need. I’m aiming to see his mindset so I am doing background research now since I do not need his life story I need to see how that story effected him today. Next I worked mainly on questions. I am asking him things like how does he feel about the way he was raised, what was his later relationship with his parents and extended family like. How does he as a person think he made it to where he is now. Questions like these aren't meant to try and get into his head a little and see how he feels on such things like his economic position.
I spent the last half of the day mainly working on more research and planning for a offer I was just given by Dr. Case; my sponsor. She is teaching a small class right now at the University of Toledo that could be useful in the study and get me talking with other sociology students. She told me that the reading I have done is what they are doing for the class and all I need now is to plan ahead to make sure this can happen. I excited to see if I can do this class and learn more about this topic.
I started off my day with more research. I also did scheduling for the next few as I may be traveling in the second week of my intensive. It is best for me to get an interview in person so I can look at details like body language and I also can control the environment a little bit more to make him feel comfortable enough so I can get the type of information I need. I’m aiming to see his mindset so I am doing background research now since I do not need his life story I need to see how that story effected him today. Next I worked mainly on questions. I am asking him things like how does he feel about the way he was raised, what was his later relationship with his parents and extended family like. How does he as a person think he made it to where he is now. Questions like these aren't meant to try and get into his head a little and see how he feels on such things like his economic position.
I spent the last half of the day mainly working on more research and planning for a offer I was just given by Dr. Case; my sponsor. She is teaching a small class right now at the University of Toledo that could be useful in the study and get me talking with other sociology students. She told me that the reading I have done is what they are doing for the class and all I need now is to plan ahead to make sure this can happen. I excited to see if I can do this class and learn more about this topic.
Day 3(1/9/19)
I started off my day with even more research but then decided to leave MV’s campus to go to UT’s medical campus to work in the library. I began reading on the alienation of classes by starting of with Karl Marx's work on labor alienation. I feel like this would definitely be useful in my study over all since I’m trying to see the effects of class mobility in the United States and here I can see a little bit into what alienates a laborer. When I think of a laborer I think of someone working a job where they don’t own the thing they produce. Someone who works in the service industry would be like this; waiters/waitresses, bar tenders, and cashiers at restaurants are a good example of this. If the restaurant is more of a chain with general menus and doesn't have any local influence the worker doesn’t own anything there just produces labor. This can alienate the worker from things like social interaction because after a shift all he/she may want to do is rest and go to something that feels more natural like eating and sleeping. These are the types of theories Marx brings up.
I spent the rest of the day doing more work looking at social class and the economic and social divide in the United States. My goal is to get some research done for the paper I will be writing after the interview. If I can get all the information I need I can leave the interview with everything I need to start writing. I am leaving plenty of time on the last week to work mainly on that paper since it will have to be very detailed on both the interview and information I’ve gathered from other sources. I hope this plan works out and things remain smooth.
I started off my day with even more research but then decided to leave MV’s campus to go to UT’s medical campus to work in the library. I began reading on the alienation of classes by starting of with Karl Marx's work on labor alienation. I feel like this would definitely be useful in my study over all since I’m trying to see the effects of class mobility in the United States and here I can see a little bit into what alienates a laborer. When I think of a laborer I think of someone working a job where they don’t own the thing they produce. Someone who works in the service industry would be like this; waiters/waitresses, bar tenders, and cashiers at restaurants are a good example of this. If the restaurant is more of a chain with general menus and doesn't have any local influence the worker doesn’t own anything there just produces labor. This can alienate the worker from things like social interaction because after a shift all he/she may want to do is rest and go to something that feels more natural like eating and sleeping. These are the types of theories Marx brings up.
I spent the rest of the day doing more work looking at social class and the economic and social divide in the United States. My goal is to get some research done for the paper I will be writing after the interview. If I can get all the information I need I can leave the interview with everything I need to start writing. I am leaving plenty of time on the last week to work mainly on that paper since it will have to be very detailed on both the interview and information I’ve gathered from other sources. I hope this plan works out and things remain smooth.
Day 4(1/10/19)
I spent most of my morning working on interview questions. My questions are supposed to be a leader into discussion so I’ve tried to keep them general enough so that it keeps the conversation open while also learning the idea and topic of the conversation in a useful way. Some of my questions are focused more on his early years compared to now since I want to know what he thinks about his childhood. This information could be important mainly because if I can get how he feels about things like his early life and childhood, I can see a little bit into how he thinks about his moving “up” in social class. My other question also try and get him to talk about things like his position now and how he got there. I want to see his attitude towards these question in particular since it would help me see a real life version of how someone feels about their social class.
I've spent the rest of the day doing more background information trying to find studies on America's attitude to things like the upper/lower class, rags to riches stories, and the concept of the American dream. If I can find some relevant data on those topics it would be extremely helpful for this project and I’m excited to see what I can find. I plan on doing this research until the end of the week.
I spent most of my morning working on interview questions. My questions are supposed to be a leader into discussion so I’ve tried to keep them general enough so that it keeps the conversation open while also learning the idea and topic of the conversation in a useful way. Some of my questions are focused more on his early years compared to now since I want to know what he thinks about his childhood. This information could be important mainly because if I can get how he feels about things like his early life and childhood, I can see a little bit into how he thinks about his moving “up” in social class. My other question also try and get him to talk about things like his position now and how he got there. I want to see his attitude towards these question in particular since it would help me see a real life version of how someone feels about their social class.
I've spent the rest of the day doing more background information trying to find studies on America's attitude to things like the upper/lower class, rags to riches stories, and the concept of the American dream. If I can find some relevant data on those topics it would be extremely helpful for this project and I’m excited to see what I can find. I plan on doing this research until the end of the week.
Day 5(1/11/19)
Today started off with me in a coffee shop working on my questions some more. I have found that this is a lot of the same where I sit down over the course of days and do research which I enjoy greatly. I have gone through many topics to pile on top of this project and I hopefully have done research worth while. Most of the rest of the morning was spent brainstorming more conversation openings and prompts. I am trying really hard to get these questions to be able to lead into a good discussion because if they don’t my trip will have been in vein. If I can get the questions to where they can be useful they would be extremely handy for the study. By useful I mean general and more prompting than being an actual question where instead of him just answering it he can easily elaborate on his response. This would let me get more into his mind by being able to look at his language, body language, and tone of how he talks about certain subjects.
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about the individual in a society which is a section in the book “Mind, Self, and Society by George Herbert Mead. I’m reading this because I want to be reminded of what it is like to be an individual in a society from his terms and definitions. This will help me take into perspective the individual mind and feelings of a person when thinking about class mobility. It reminds me of all the little details I have to think about when you write about humans and how we think. I will use this moving forward.
Today started off with me in a coffee shop working on my questions some more. I have found that this is a lot of the same where I sit down over the course of days and do research which I enjoy greatly. I have gone through many topics to pile on top of this project and I hopefully have done research worth while. Most of the rest of the morning was spent brainstorming more conversation openings and prompts. I am trying really hard to get these questions to be able to lead into a good discussion because if they don’t my trip will have been in vein. If I can get the questions to where they can be useful they would be extremely handy for the study. By useful I mean general and more prompting than being an actual question where instead of him just answering it he can easily elaborate on his response. This would let me get more into his mind by being able to look at his language, body language, and tone of how he talks about certain subjects.
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about the individual in a society which is a section in the book “Mind, Self, and Society by George Herbert Mead. I’m reading this because I want to be reminded of what it is like to be an individual in a society from his terms and definitions. This will help me take into perspective the individual mind and feelings of a person when thinking about class mobility. It reminds me of all the little details I have to think about when you write about humans and how we think. I will use this moving forward.
Day 6(1/14/19)
I went back looking at the things I’ve written down and researched and so far many people seem to think that alienation is the result of class mobility. This got me thinking this morning on why this happens. What do people do when alienating a individual or group for moving up or down in social class, and what do the people do who have moved in class. This is something I may leave for my own time as it seems to be more on the side of getting off track. Next to prepare with the interview coming up I read over a few articles about body language during an interview. It was interesting to see the different ways people position themselves based on how they feel and I think this will be very important during the interview.
I did more research on my interviewee as I am still trying to find out about his childhood but information is very scarce. I found very few things about his childhood which has made background hard but maybe this could leave me with good questions about his past. I do want to know the things like where he grew up and things like that going into this interview so I will keep searching for a little bit longer just to see if I can find many things useful. I hope something will come up but if not I should be fine.
I went back looking at the things I’ve written down and researched and so far many people seem to think that alienation is the result of class mobility. This got me thinking this morning on why this happens. What do people do when alienating a individual or group for moving up or down in social class, and what do the people do who have moved in class. This is something I may leave for my own time as it seems to be more on the side of getting off track. Next to prepare with the interview coming up I read over a few articles about body language during an interview. It was interesting to see the different ways people position themselves based on how they feel and I think this will be very important during the interview.
I did more research on my interviewee as I am still trying to find out about his childhood but information is very scarce. I found very few things about his childhood which has made background hard but maybe this could leave me with good questions about his past. I do want to know the things like where he grew up and things like that going into this interview so I will keep searching for a little bit longer just to see if I can find many things useful. I hope something will come up but if not I should be fine.
Day 7(1/15/19)
I began my day off looking at different way to make the person I interview comfortable and more open to conversation. Using things like food and drink get people more relaxed if they life the food. It is kinda risky but if I could get a way to get him to be in a place where it is quite enough and getting food he likes would definitely be very important. I brainstormed a little and I may bring him out to eat before hand so we can get him relaxed and comfortable. This could help with the interview as if he is relaxed and comfortable he will be easier to talk to.
I spent the second half of the day preparing for the interview. Now I spent a day with this man in his hometown and I figured a few important things out about him. He doesn't like talking about himself, he is very much a fan of food so the whole sitting down with food idea came from that. His life is one who has had many ups and down both economically and socially. He started off economically at the bottom so his perspective goes from top to bottom giving him a great perspective of class mobility in America. He will be very useful in the discussion and research on class mobility that I will be working on.
I began my day off looking at different way to make the person I interview comfortable and more open to conversation. Using things like food and drink get people more relaxed if they life the food. It is kinda risky but if I could get a way to get him to be in a place where it is quite enough and getting food he likes would definitely be very important. I brainstormed a little and I may bring him out to eat before hand so we can get him relaxed and comfortable. This could help with the interview as if he is relaxed and comfortable he will be easier to talk to.
I spent the second half of the day preparing for the interview. Now I spent a day with this man in his hometown and I figured a few important things out about him. He doesn't like talking about himself, he is very much a fan of food so the whole sitting down with food idea came from that. His life is one who has had many ups and down both economically and socially. He started off economically at the bottom so his perspective goes from top to bottom giving him a great perspective of class mobility in America. He will be very useful in the discussion and research on class mobility that I will be working on.
Day 8(1/16/19)
I am finalizing things for the interview and have started to plan the last week of my independent study. Things have gone smoothly so far but the thing about that is I’ve been going to the same places and doing relatively the same thing for the past week and a half. Next week I will be traveling and putting things together for my final project and that will require a lot of notes to be organized and written into a essay form along with getting that essay into a video form. I am honestly pretty stressed as this will be the start of a lot of work plus the fact that I have to make this appealing to high schoolers which is hard for a subject like Sociology.
I spent the rest of my day sending emails and working mainly on the preparations. I organized my notes for the interview into one doc so that I could keep everything ready for the interview. Along with that I contacted the man I am interviewing so I can get times and dates correct. This is honestly work that seems extremely different from the school norm and does feel more challenging in a certain way. It will be useful the next week as a learning time to figure out how I can approach this project.
I am finalizing things for the interview and have started to plan the last week of my independent study. Things have gone smoothly so far but the thing about that is I’ve been going to the same places and doing relatively the same thing for the past week and a half. Next week I will be traveling and putting things together for my final project and that will require a lot of notes to be organized and written into a essay form along with getting that essay into a video form. I am honestly pretty stressed as this will be the start of a lot of work plus the fact that I have to make this appealing to high schoolers which is hard for a subject like Sociology.
I spent the rest of my day sending emails and working mainly on the preparations. I organized my notes for the interview into one doc so that I could keep everything ready for the interview. Along with that I contacted the man I am interviewing so I can get times and dates correct. This is honestly work that seems extremely different from the school norm and does feel more challenging in a certain way. It will be useful the next week as a learning time to figure out how I can approach this project.
Day 9(1/17/19)
I started off by making a big compromise. It seems like I can’t travel to where my interview was supposed to be so we are now planning on using Skype. This is something I feared but we will be going with the back up plan and doing the interview in a series of Skype conversations. This won't be as effective as seeing him in person but its the best we can do. I am sad that I couldn't travel to meet him as it would have added a lot to this experience along with making the interview more effective. But I still will be able to get the information most needed from this interview. We have scheduled it Tuesday in the evening which I find is a good time for a interview like this. All I can do is hope that there aren't any more surprises like that for the rest of the project.
I spent the rest of the day preparing for this interview. So I recovered my old skype account and looked for a webcam since my computer doesn't have a camera. These preparations where kinda last minute as I was working on this second plan when I learned that I had to use it. But so far it is working out fine as I try and collect the information I need plus the equipment to get this interview done with.
I started off by making a big compromise. It seems like I can’t travel to where my interview was supposed to be so we are now planning on using Skype. This is something I feared but we will be going with the back up plan and doing the interview in a series of Skype conversations. This won't be as effective as seeing him in person but its the best we can do. I am sad that I couldn't travel to meet him as it would have added a lot to this experience along with making the interview more effective. But I still will be able to get the information most needed from this interview. We have scheduled it Tuesday in the evening which I find is a good time for a interview like this. All I can do is hope that there aren't any more surprises like that for the rest of the project.
I spent the rest of the day preparing for this interview. So I recovered my old skype account and looked for a webcam since my computer doesn't have a camera. These preparations where kinda last minute as I was working on this second plan when I learned that I had to use it. But so far it is working out fine as I try and collect the information I need plus the equipment to get this interview done with.
Day 10(1/18/19)
Today was the day I went to a class my sponsor is teaching. The class is called Symbolic Interaction and the class is about the theories social scientists like Mead made famous because of his theories on symbols. She explains in the class that some sociologists think that our societies are built through symbols. I learned a lot in this class and in the end I learned plenty of things that have to do with my case study. It surprised me to think that even our language is a symbol that we as a group of people agree on. This thought surprised me and got me thinking about my own study and what I found was interesting. I found that with class mobility it is all man made and if full of symbolic influence. For instance money is a symbol that we all agree has worth and this interests me greatly because it has made me think of other question I can ask. Question that try and get how people feel about symbols like money mean to them. The person I am interviewing has mentioned that he wasn't planning or aiming to make big money when he started his career so I wonder how many other people feel this way and if there is a trend.
I also learned from this class social scripts and I will be watching for them during and after the interview. I will especially be looking at this during the intensive fair as social events like that are places that you see this alot in. A social script is the common language we follow as people like saying “hey, how are you”. People break this script by reacting in ways like telling someone all of their trouble after they ask “how are you?”. This breaks the social script and if someone does this it alienates them because people don't feel comfortable when people break the norm. These things I learned in this class today will be useful during the interview and also when I am presenting at the fair.
Today was the day I went to a class my sponsor is teaching. The class is called Symbolic Interaction and the class is about the theories social scientists like Mead made famous because of his theories on symbols. She explains in the class that some sociologists think that our societies are built through symbols. I learned a lot in this class and in the end I learned plenty of things that have to do with my case study. It surprised me to think that even our language is a symbol that we as a group of people agree on. This thought surprised me and got me thinking about my own study and what I found was interesting. I found that with class mobility it is all man made and if full of symbolic influence. For instance money is a symbol that we all agree has worth and this interests me greatly because it has made me think of other question I can ask. Question that try and get how people feel about symbols like money mean to them. The person I am interviewing has mentioned that he wasn't planning or aiming to make big money when he started his career so I wonder how many other people feel this way and if there is a trend.
I also learned from this class social scripts and I will be watching for them during and after the interview. I will especially be looking at this during the intensive fair as social events like that are places that you see this alot in. A social script is the common language we follow as people like saying “hey, how are you”. People break this script by reacting in ways like telling someone all of their trouble after they ask “how are you?”. This breaks the social script and if someone does this it alienates them because people don't feel comfortable when people break the norm. These things I learned in this class today will be useful during the interview and also when I am presenting at the fair.
Day 11(1/22/19)
This is the last day before my interview. I am preparing now to see how I can make this less awkward and more useful for me. Hopefully if I make him feel comfortable I can get him to open up more a speak his mind. I skyped him today to talk to him and plan out the times for the interview tomorrow and I recognized something very interesting about him. He is very direct and real which is something I can work with easily. He helps with bringing the conversation into reality and on track what I am worried about is that he may not be comfortable enough to talk openly. I went over my questions with Dr, Case and she says they are fine so that part of the interview seems to be fine.
I honestly don't have anything else to do until after the interview tomorrow so I will leave this here. I hope everything goes as smoothly as I'm hoping for and hopefully I can get the information I need.
This is the last day before my interview. I am preparing now to see how I can make this less awkward and more useful for me. Hopefully if I make him feel comfortable I can get him to open up more a speak his mind. I skyped him today to talk to him and plan out the times for the interview tomorrow and I recognized something very interesting about him. He is very direct and real which is something I can work with easily. He helps with bringing the conversation into reality and on track what I am worried about is that he may not be comfortable enough to talk openly. I went over my questions with Dr, Case and she says they are fine so that part of the interview seems to be fine.
I honestly don't have anything else to do until after the interview tomorrow so I will leave this here. I hope everything goes as smoothly as I'm hoping for and hopefully I can get the information I need.
Day 12(1/23/19)
Today is the day I interviewed Bob O’Dell. I spent the morning working on my questions and going over my notes. Later that day I set up the recording software and got the equipment I needed for the interview to be recorded properly. So when the interview started the only thing that went wrong was the internet freezing every now and then but thankfully it didn't get in the way of the interview. Now the interview itself want smooth as Bob and I began to talk about his life and the way he moved up economically. We talked about is opinion on things like wealthy people and also what his past opinions where on such things. I tried to get a little into his past mind seeing what being born at the bottom of the economic food chain in the United States could do to someone. I wanted to see the effects money and being able to do things he wasn't able to before changed him. In the end his conversation was extremely useful and helpful giving me the information I needed and a good reference when I write this paper.
Today is the day I interviewed Bob O’Dell. I spent the morning working on my questions and going over my notes. Later that day I set up the recording software and got the equipment I needed for the interview to be recorded properly. So when the interview started the only thing that went wrong was the internet freezing every now and then but thankfully it didn't get in the way of the interview. Now the interview itself want smooth as Bob and I began to talk about his life and the way he moved up economically. We talked about is opinion on things like wealthy people and also what his past opinions where on such things. I tried to get a little into his past mind seeing what being born at the bottom of the economic food chain in the United States could do to someone. I wanted to see the effects money and being able to do things he wasn't able to before changed him. In the end his conversation was extremely useful and helpful giving me the information I needed and a good reference when I write this paper.
Day 13(1/24/19)
Today I worked on my paper and video for the most of the day. It is interesting to listen back at the interview since the man has a very specific language that needs to be learned underneath his english. He said some very interesting things about his upbringing along with how he was exposed to people from different social classes. He was extremely humble about how he got to where he is, putting most of the reason for why he was economically successful on other people. This is very interesting since this fits a lot of people’s view of what a humble hard working American looks like. And this is exactly what I need since I can now get behind that norm and into his head. He mentioned exposure for being a main reason why he was able to get to where he was. He says that he had people around him who wanted their kids to do better than themselves. This is big in a sociological mindset as when a group of people strive for something better things actually happen. This mentality is something we don't see much anymore especially as the poverty gap is getting greater in America.
This has shown me a lot for how about how people think as a whole. Bob’s early life has a lot to do with community and he told me a lot about how this community worked. He showed me what community can do and change such things like economic status. These findings will be extremely useful moving forward.
Today I worked on my paper and video for the most of the day. It is interesting to listen back at the interview since the man has a very specific language that needs to be learned underneath his english. He said some very interesting things about his upbringing along with how he was exposed to people from different social classes. He was extremely humble about how he got to where he is, putting most of the reason for why he was economically successful on other people. This is very interesting since this fits a lot of people’s view of what a humble hard working American looks like. And this is exactly what I need since I can now get behind that norm and into his head. He mentioned exposure for being a main reason why he was able to get to where he was. He says that he had people around him who wanted their kids to do better than themselves. This is big in a sociological mindset as when a group of people strive for something better things actually happen. This mentality is something we don't see much anymore especially as the poverty gap is getting greater in America.
This has shown me a lot for how about how people think as a whole. Bob’s early life has a lot to do with community and he told me a lot about how this community worked. He showed me what community can do and change such things like economic status. These findings will be extremely useful moving forward.