Culture Blog Post: Prompt 1

In recent American culture, there have been many different things that have changed the types of values and norms we uphold. Cellphones, for example, have played a big part in the type of society that we are. It's rare to fine an adult without some type of smartphone to call their own. With this way of living comes new phrases and words for us to use in order to better relate to technology. During the lecture on language, we talked about how different cultures have different words for things that are important to them. This new type of American society includes both real and slang words for our machines. Cellphone gets shortened to phone, and we just call our laptops "MacBooks". If you were to go to another country, perhaps a poorer one, you may come to find that would have no idea what a "MacBook" is.
In the film "God Grew Tired of Us", the Lost Boys had really no idea on how to use electricity at all. The boys experienced a bit of culture shock when thrown right into another country's way of life. Things that most Americans grow up knowing how to do, the boys had to be taught. The man teaching them the ways of our electronic culture had to have some cultural relativity. He didn't have a right to think they're uneducated just because their way of life is different than ours. Also, some norms that the Lost Boys were used to would not be considered acceptable here. For example, when they sat down for dinner and ate all of their food with their hands, even the ones that were almost liquid. In America, we separate finger food from what we call "real food". Finger foods are typically things like pizza or burgers, and are not really considered "classy". You can't get too messy while eating finger foods, either. The Lost Boys, however, probably ate almost all of their food with their hands simply just for convenience. With most Americans having an ethnocentric mindset, the boys would be judged harshly for eating all of their food with their hands in a public setting. One folkway Americans have is eating neatly and respectfully. No elbows on the table, no chewing with your mouth closed, and using silverware are just some examples. Without having cultural relativity, the boys' actions could be considered rude and uncleanly. But as one of them explained, they continued to eat with their hands so that they can keep some of their traditions. It is one of their values that they consider important, whereas in America, it is more important for us to continue changing and adapting our way of life.
American culture has definitely change significantly over the years. In the early twentieth century, it was frowned upon for women to work and not stay at home. They were expected to cook and clean. Nowadays, however, it's not unusual to see female CEOs and women playing professional sports. Had this changed not occurred, I'm not sure what type of path I would be going down in my future. I enjoy things like English, math, astrophysics, and art. With the taboos that used to exist in America, I would most likely not be able to pursue any of those things to the extent at which I could pursue them today. Including women in the progression of American culture is important because it nearly doubles the possibilities of our society. Double the number of minds working together to solve the world's issues, both globally and locally. Also, because America is a world power, other countries followed in our footsteps towards gender equality.
Overall, I hope more changes happen in the future. Hopefully one day, our values will shift and things like racism and sexism will be long behind us as a distant memory. Not only in America, but everywhere.