Today’s corporations have found a way to become an essential part of human life, even if their products aren’t necessary for the survival of our species. On June 29th of 2007, Apple came out with the first iPhone that would go on to change the world forever. The iPhone would result in the further development of industries such as the gaming industry, the movie and television industry, and even the health industry. This new technology paved a road that many other companies would go on to follow. Apple has since then become a cultural pedagogue, teaching its consumers specific lessons regarding their lives and consumption habits.

Apple has made it possible for everything to be in the palm of one’s hand. Before the creation of the iPhone, the gaming industry reached its consumers through the means of a gaming console or a PC. The Apple iPhone made it possible for companies to reach their consumers through a platform that was already in the palm of their hands. This made it possible for companies to expand their markets, reaching consumers that didn’t own a gaming console or a PC. This idea of having everything in the palm of your hands can also be seen when we look at what Apple has done for the television and movie industry. Companies like Netflix and Hulu are now able to reach their consumers through cellular devices, this has, in turn, expanded their profits by having “multiple screen” features as part of their payment plan. Apple has served as a cultural pedagogue by insisting that the only device you’ll ever need is an iPhone. Although other smartphones do exist, such as the Android, Apple has taught us that its products are the most luxurious on the market. I remember being ashamed that my first phone was an Android, plausibly because of the ideology that the iPhone is elite. Even today, Apple strives for the luxury look by selling iPhones that come in all different colors such as rose gold, silver, and matte black. The work that goes into making these iPhones, however, poses a lot of health risks for its workers.

Apple primarily manufactures its phones in China and recently, there have been claims that the company’s employees are made to work long and grueling hours for inadequate pay. The claims also mention that employees are being exposed to chemical hazards. The factories that these iPhones are made often do not provide their employees with adequate safety equipment such as goggles. This is dangerous considering the instances in which employees have had chemical cutting fluids and metal particles splash into their eyes. Corporate ideologies have influenced the belief that employees who work at this level do not deserve to be paid as much as the company’s CEO. We often do not see the work that goes into making the iPhone because we are bombarded with the finished product and the promise of having everything in the palm of our hands.

McDonald’s, for the most part, has changed very little in the last 20 years of my life. This excerpt by Robin Leidner explains the uniformity that has driven Mcdonald’s success from a burger stand in San Bernardino, California to a billion-dollar corporation with nearly 40,000 stores worldwide.

From the beginning, McDonald’s has strived to serve a small selection of affordable food items of strictly uniform quality. Modernization has allowed for these standards to be taken to the next level as technology has now given companies the power to easily keep track of inventory and cash as well as other important factors such as labor. Modern technology now makes it easy for employees to cook burgers at the correct temperature without any prior experience working in a kitchen. Technology allows for a consistent product that can be delivered on a global scale. In terms of taste, a six-piece Happy Meal has the same flavor and consistency today than it did 10 years ago. This predictability is what makes McDonald’s so attractive to its consumers. Instead of trying new things, people gravitate back to the golden arches because they know what to expect. Nothing is worse than spending money on food that isn’t good, McDonald’s promises to deliver the same product for every one of your visits.

As soon as I was able to work, the first job I ever applied for was McDonald’s. I did so because I had seen other people my age working behind the counter, I felt like this would be a comfortable environment for me. According to Leidner, “Almost half of its U.S. employees are under 20 years old.” (Henslin, P. 499) The reason for their being such a high demand for teenagers is because people my age are typically looking for part-time work. This allows companies like McDonald’s to cut down on labor as much as possible, and also avoid factors such as benefits and higher wages. Teenagers are often willing to work fewer hours with less pay, their schedules also tend to be more flexible than say a 30-year-old single mother. By hiring part-time teenagers, McDonald’s is saving itself a lot of money, there’s also the idea that a youthful look is what the company is striving for. In all the McDonald’s I have visited over the years, I have seen only a few people that looked to be over the age of 20. I never got the job, but I figured it was for the best.

In this excerpt, Barbara Ehrenreich sets out to discover what life is like for the poor. She begins her journey by leaving behind everything that she knows, her home, her career, and her reputation are all to be forgotten. The first task on Barbara’s list is to find a place to live, she settles for a $500 a month cabin that is forty-five minutes away from the nearest employment opportunities. It takes Barbara three days to find a job when she is hired as a waitress at a family-owned restaurant. The job will pay $2.43 per hour with the addition of whatever tips she makes on a given shift. Barbara’s experience working at a restaurant is similar to what most waitresses might encounter daily.

Being a waitress, I was able to put myself in her shoes as I understand the exhaustion that comes with working an eight-hour shift without having the chance to sit down. Something I’ve always found frustrating about working in the restaurant industry is that managers rarely do anything, yet they can fire their employees for doing nothing even if it’s a slow day. This is something that Barbara mentions as she says that she flinches at the thought of being “under the surveillance of men (and later women) whose job it was to monitor my behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse.” (Henslin, P. 415) At my current job especially, I had an experience where I got a write up for eating while I was on the clock. This is something that I had seen multiple employees and managers do before, there is even a table reserved in the back for employees to set down their food on. I was eating my food when my manager poked her head out of the office and yelled at me for doing nothing, I responded by telling her that we are never given breaks, even when we work eight-hour shifts. She looked at me with so much anger on her face because she knew that I was right, I still got a write up later that day for “wasting company time.” I had worked 6 hours that day, and under California law, my employer must provide a 30-minute unpaid meal break every five hours. If I exceed these five hours, the system automatically assumes that I took a 30-minute break and will deduct 30 minutes from my pay. Not only is this money taken away from my paycheck, but I have seen managers waste company time without having any pay deducted from their paychecks.

Another point that Barbara brings up is the living situations of her coworkers. She finds a pattern in which women who don’t have partners tend to work multiple jobs to support themselves. This pattern is also one that I have observed in my workspace as those who hold more than one job are often single or are no longer living with their parents. I work with many single moms as well who often work more than two jobs just to get by. Although the pay might be somewhat high for a waitress in Lodi, the average rent is through the roof standing at $1,337 a month. This is nearly impossible for someone to bear on their own considering other expenses that might include, schooling, car insurance, health insurance, and other costly bills. In the end, Barbara found that being poor in America isn’t easy, and the common assumption that jobs will solve homelessness isn’t true, especially when one job just isn’t enough.

I begin the search for a “Made in the U.S.A.” tag by looking at the clothes I already have on. To my surprise my thrifted top, by Rebecca Virtue, was made in the U.S.A. which baffles me because I thought it was going to be a while before I found something that wasn’t made in a foreign country. My Levi’s jeans, which are supposed to be all American were made in Sri Lanka. My jacket from American Eagle was made in China, which is contradictory because American is the literal name of the brand. I don’t have to do too much searching to figure out that most of my wardrobe was made overseas. After doing some research on my car, the 2011 Ford Focus, I found that it was supposedly assembled at an assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan. I figured that the parts for my car were probably made elsewhere, as far as I could find they were also built at the assembly plant in Michigan. Looking through my closet was probably the most interesting as I found that I only own about three things that were made in the United States. This makes me think back to the chapter on blue jeans in which we learned the hard labor that goes into creating these products in foreign countries. I don’t necessarily love the idea of another person having to suffer just so that I can have a pair of blue jeans. It makes perfect economic sense as to why corporations choose to move their manufacturing overseas, labor is cheaper and regulations are more lenient. Although these products might not be made in the U.S.A., the foreign countries they are produced in are getting the short end of the stick.

Consumer culture is incredibly important when it comes to a growing economy. Important factors like the idea that more stuff equals a better life is what drives people to but new products. There are different values associated with different areas of consumerism. For example, the automobile industry might have different values associated with it compared to those shared values that drive the beauty industry. Regardless of these differences, the desire for new products remains constant among all areas of consumerism.

The beauty industry in the United States is said to be valued at approximately $532 billion, a number that continues to grow every day. The beauty industry would be nothing without the key shared values that drive its economic growth. Makeup has always been a part of my life. Television commercials are slammed with makeup ads claiming to make women more beautiful. The most recognized slogan for a makeup line says, “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline.” This slogan suggests that the woman in the commercial might be naturally beautiful but it’s probably just the makeup that could be credited for her looks. The slogan is a prime example of the shared value in the beauty industry that suggests natural faces are no longer good enough. You can always add a little more blush here, a little eyeliner there, or better yet, change your face completely by investing thousands of dollars on cosmetic procedures. The possibilities are endless in the beauty industry.

Perhaps the most powerful weapons that these companies have are their ambassadors, women such as Kylie Jenner, Gigi Hadid, and Selena Gomez, most of which have had cosmetic procedures, are put on the cover of magazines that market products such as shampoo, volumizing mascara, or lip gloss that plumps your lips. Years of marketing have created a set of beauty standards that are entirely unrealistic yet are still desired by the majority of women in America. These beauty standards have emphasized desired features such as a tiny nose, large breasts, plump lips, or a beautiful white smile. These shared values in consumer culture are the primary force behind why the beauty industry is worth so much. The companies that market these products often take advantage of a woman’s insecurities by telling her that she might feel more beautiful if she spent $200 on a wrinkle cream that probably won’t yield results. The beauty industry claims to exist on the basis of making women feel more beautiful, however, they fail to recognize that they are the reason women don’t feel beautiful in the first place.

I am going to present and compare multiple scenarios in which I believe my persona changes drastically. The first of which will be who I am when I’m interacting with people at my job. I like to describe my waitress persona as having only a “sprinkle of Yesenia.” This version of me is mostly fabricated. When you’ve worked in a restaurant for so long you learn that there are different types of customers. After many years of studying customer behavior, my personality has been tailored to meet my customer’s needs. After working in Lodi for so long, I have found that this works best if I want to be tipped well. This personality that I have created consists of me being very formal and using words like “sir” and “ma’am”. This version of me laughs at everyone’s jokes, even when they’re not funny. This version of me is the people-pleaser because at the end of the day, getting tipped is my priority. When dealing with tables, I’ll turn on what I like to call my “white person voice.” I don’t use foul language, I don’t use slang, and I’ll make sure to speak as properly as I can. I’ll use words that I normally wouldn’t use around my friends, words like “wonderful” and “awesome”. This personality type, however, doesn’t apply to everyone that I meet. There are very special times where I meet a customer that makes me feel comfortable enough to take my mask off, this is where the “sprinkle of Yesenia” comes in. It is with these customers that I can joke around with and share a little bit about myself, these customers are drawn in having a conversation rather than just biting down on their food.

A very different Yesenia comes around whenever I’m talking to my coworkers. A change of setting makes a huge difference when it comes to how I present myself. When I’m in the kitchen I’m more prone to using inappropriate language that I would never even think of using in front of my customers. In front of my coworkers, I share things about my personal life that I wouldn’t share with a table, such as relationship troubles, mental health issues, etc. This kind of conversation would be deemed inappropriate around anyone of my customers, this is the part of myself that I tend to mute as much as I can.

The question is, which one is the real me? I don’t believe that either of them is, I don’t even really believe that there is a “true identity” within any of us. Human beings are constantly adapting to new environments, the real me is who I am in the moment. However, I do recognize that there are parts of myself that have been fabricated, such as the way I act when communicating with a table. These parts of me are not the real me, they are simply character traits I take on when it’s time to perform.

Obedience is the act of submitting to another’s authority. Children are taught to show their parents obedience from a very young age. They are constantly told what to do and are given consequences if they fail to follow their parents authority. Obedience is engraved into our brains and as we grow older, it seems like we only accumulate more and more authoritative figures. In my life right now, I can think of a good handful of people I must show obedience towards almost every day, my professors, my managers, my parents, my grandparents, etc. There is, however, one authoritative figure that we all share, our government. The question that Philip Meyer poses in this excerpt is to what extent are people willing to obey authority?

In this excerpt, Meyer explores the experiment that was conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in which the frequency at which a person would electrocute a complete stranger was measured. In the beginning, Milgram was interested in the Shirer thesis which says that Germans have a basic character flaw which allows them to obey authority without question, posing a possible explanation for the Holocaust. The results of Milgram’s experiment were astounding as he found that obedience was consistent among most of his participants. The shocking thing was that people were willing to hurt complete strangers at the authority of another stranger, even with the awareness that they were harming that stranger severely. Milgram thought that perhaps the participants would stop at a certain point once they realized that the man being electrocuted was in pain, it turned out that only a small portion of participants disobeyed authority in pursuit of what was morally correct.

If we compare the results of Milgram’s experiment to the Holocaust, we can see that perhaps the Germans weren’t flawed in their character. Inside everyone of us is a natural instinct to obey authority. Outside of the situation, it is easy for us to believe that the Germans were evil, corrupt people. However, Milgram’s experiment has proven that we are all capable of committing questionable acts under a powerful enough authority. If Milgram’s subjects committed these acts under a complete stranger, who knows what a group of people would do under the command of their government. Humans are so easily swayed and that is because we are told that a lack of obedience can result in serious consequences. The times that I disobeyed authority always resulted in trouble, whether that involved losing my job or even getting my car taken away. People are so afraid to disobey authority that they are willing to perform questionable acts to avoid consequences. This could perhaps be the explanation as to why Germans were so eager to obey their government.

As children, we pay little attention to the things we wear. We throw on whatever is bright and colorful, paying no mind to the itchy, bothersome tags. As we grow older, these tags increase in personal value as we begin to shop for brands specific to our taste.

We can observe the importance of brands in our lives by reflecting on our up pasts. Up until I was about 9 years old, brands didn’t mean anything to me unless I was shopping for toys. Once I grew old enough to care about what I was walking out of the house in, I gravitated towards a brand called Justice. I mostly resonated with this brand because my friends did, when you’re younger you tend to wear clothing that is the most popular among your peers. At this point in my life, I was very much into the color pink, I liked sparkles and all things girly. My favorite show on television was Hannah Montana and I refused to wear colors that were dull. The brand allowed me to express this side of myself and i specifically remember having a pink lace trim tank top that I wore at least twice a week to school, it was my favorite. The thing I liked most about it was that it had the justice logo embroidered on the bottom of the top. I wanted people to know that I was wearing brand name clothing, it made me feel good about myself.

Now that I’m older, my tastes have changed drastically. I no longer go crazy for bright colors and sparkles, I care a little less about brands, I’d rather my clothing look good than cost me a fortune. Being a college student means that I’m on a very tight budget, I shop at thrift stores more than anything where i occasionally score name brands like Guess, Levi’s, and Lucky Brand Jeans. These brands are an exciting find for me as they are good quality and not to mention stylish. I usually stray away from brands like Hollister and American Eagle due to how mainstream they are. I don’t like to wear clothes that everyone else has on, I prefer my jeans to be unique in their own ways. If I am shopping at a mall I’ll go to stores like Forever 21 where they have a variety of styles. I consider Converse to be a brand that is very near and dear to my heart. I have been wearing Converse shoes since middle school and I’ve always had a pair every year since then. I can’t really say what it is about the shoes that attracts me so much, it fits me because now I’m not really the girly type anymore. I hate sparkles and flashy things, so I enjoy a basic pair of sneakers. They are the only things I will spend more than $50 on, they are a necessity in my closet.

As teenagers, there seems to be an obsession within all of us to fit in. We have this need within all of us to feel like we’re part of a greater whole. We’re convinced that to be a part of this, we must accumulate useless material possessions. Every year, there is a new product on the market that promises your inclusion into these social sectors. If you want to hang out with the jocks, pay $200 for this uniform so you can play on the football team. If you want to hang out with the popular cheerleaders, pay $700 for a uniform and a trip to cheer camp where you’ll learn to yell “Go team!” at the top of your lungs. As teenagers, we beg our parents for the latest iPhone, the latest pair of True Religion jeans, or the NBA 2K game that was released last month. We do these things not because we need  them, but because we need to feel like we’re part of something. 

Up until my senior year of high school, water bottles came in all shapes and sizes and no one cared whether or not you had paid $30 for yours. It wasn’t until 2017 that the Hydroflask was introduced and took Lodi High by storm. Suddenly, a water bottle was cool and people were spending up to $50 for hydration and style. I was never interested in buying one, mainly because I couldn’t afford it, but I was gifted one by my high school boyfriend. Upon receiving the water bottle, I realized that this meant something, perhaps it made me look like I came from a family with money. I made it a point to hold my water bottle instead of carrying it in my backpack, it made more of a statement. I decorated the bottle with stickers, I washed it daily, I made it my own. The water bottle became a necessity at one point, I didn’t want to leave the house without it.

As time went on I stopped bringing the water bottle to school, I realized it didn’t do anything for me in terms of fitting in and feeling a part of that greater whole. Maybe I didn’t want to be a part of it anyway. Now that my sister’s starting to grow older, she’s at a point in her life, at ten years old, when her peers are going to become extremely influential. One day I noticed the water bottle missing from the cabinet, it had been a while since I had used it. My sister came home later that day, water bottle in hand, instead of inside her backpack, she had decorated it with her stickers, she had made it her own.

As a young girl, I believed that a funeral home was a place where people went to die. My idea of a funeral home was extremely skewed because I was a young girl who could not yet handle the reality of death. As I grew older, my understanding of what a funeral home was came from outlets like the internet or my peers. I find it interesting that death isn’t something our parents talk to us about, even though eventually we’ll all have to deal with the death of our parents. It is for this reason that working in the funeral home business is so stigmatized, death itself is considered taboo.

In this excerpt by William E. Thompson, we are given a glimpse into the lives of those who work in the funeral home business. Those who work in the field are well aware of the taboo behind their profession, so they find ways to manage the stigma. One way in which funeral home directors can diminish stigma is by practicing symbolic redefinition. Practicing symbolic redefinition is important when it comes to avoiding the use of the words “dead” or “death.” Instead of directly saying something these terms, funeral directors will say things like “time of sorrow” or “hour of sadness.” Again, death is something that we often do not talk about in our society, the subject of death makes us feel uncomfortable. Funeral directors are aware of this so they stray from using the word “death” at all. The word “death” carries a dark and somewhat depressing undertone for many people, avoiding the word can be seen as a sign of respect for those who have lost a loved one.

Another way funeral directors manage the sigma of their profession is by emotional detachment in the workspace. I can imagine that working in the industry, one might see a lot of traumatizing things. One of the funeral directors shared an experience he had embalming a little girl who was the same age as his daughter.

At first, I wasn’t sure I could do that one-all I could think of was my little girl. But when I got in the prep room, my whole attitude changed. I know this probably sounds cold, and hard I guess, but suddenly I began to think of the challenge involved. “

Henslin, P. 254

The funeral director, rather than attaching himself emotionally to the little girl, began to see the little girl as a challenge, he got into the mindset of getting the job done. The same funeral director said that in his profession, you can’t think about things too much, otherwise you’ll never make it in the industry.

If I were to apply these sociological concepts to my own life, I could bring up the fact that I work in the restaurant business, where emotional detachment is extremely valuable. Although the seriousness of my job isn’t on the same level as a funeral director’s, there are certain similarities in the way we perform our jobs. Working at a restaurant requires a strong skillset in face-to-face human interaction. The industry is not built for people who take things personally. Every day, I deal with someone who has had a bad day. In order to make it in this industry, you have to detach yourself emotionally, if you are someone who gets their feelings hurt easily, you will have a hard time dealing with these people. The similarities in both industries are that you cannot think about things too much, otherwise, you’ll never make it.