Memos are single-spaced essays (750 word minimum and no more than 10 font) and are due in the morning on Blackboard before we discuss assigned readings (a physical copy must also be brought to class). Memos are not mere summaries of course reading material but intellectual interrogations. They must reflect your ability to discuss central ideas, synthesize, reflect, and critically evaluate the central thematic points intersecting weekly readings. To assist in this process, below are discussion questions to facilitate your probing of the course readings and to help stimulate your written responses.
Ensure that you write in a grammatically correct manner and alignment and spacing utilized are in accordance with standard academic custom. Note that you must not utilize outside information (from the internet or otherwise). The only information to be utilized is assigned readings. Evidence to the contrary may result in an ungraded memo.
Guided Questions: Answer 2 or more of the following questions ensuring that you demonstrate knowledge of the major themes in the textbook and articles under discussion. Your answers should succinctly synthesize the interlocking themes across the assigned readings.
1) Explain the concepts of status, roles, social hierarchies, norms, rules and institionalization and path dependency? Of what meaning are these concepts to our lives.
2) Do social structures challenge the notion of free will? Explain and substantiate your answer with specific reference to the material presented in your text.
3) Discuss civil inattention and explain what Mitchell Duneier and Harvey Molotch found regarding social interaction on the street.
4) Have the advancement in social media and digital imagery transformed the social self? How do theories, such as the looking glass self shed light on our social media and selfie behaviors?
