Social Class Position

            I think the first time I was made completely aware of my social position in society was when I first went to visit my roommate’s house.  Their lifestyle was so different from anything I had ever known.  I walked into what looked like a museum to me but it was their home.  I am not saying that I was brought up poor; I came from a standard middle class family.  On average my parents annual income is like the national average each making between 60 to 80 thousand.  We lived comfortably but you also do not get the advantage of “daddy I want this” to everything under the sun like my friend.  I used to laugh when she called her father because I could not believe that people lived like this. That was my first slap in the face, safe to say, when realizing that I was not as well off as others. 

            On the complete opposite hand the first time, I realized how fortunate I was to have everything that I own was my first visit to my home country of Egypt.  I could not believe seeing the way people lived there.  I would go to a café with my friends and ordering what seemed to be the entire menu, while there are children within walking distance of me playing with garbage because they could not afford toys.  That was much worse than seeing people were better off than I was, because it affected me much more.  I could not even stand the thought of these kids sleeping, eating, playing around garbage and I am walking around with our house cleaner behind me.  Egypt was a total wake-up call as to not only my social class but also to the type of person I wanted to be.  The thing that shocked me most is that the separation of classes in Egypt is so great and the upper class has no remorse for the lower class.  I will never forget my cousin yelling at me for giving a child a pound.  Egypt is not like Europe the pound does not work the same way. The conversion rate is about one American dollar to six or seven Egyptian dollars.  I was giving a child what was ten cents to me and my cousin yelled and asked me why I would waste my money.  He was yelling because the second I did that another ten to twenty kids ran up to me asking for the same.  He was shocked that I gave all of them a pound.  It was less than two dollars for me but they could not understand how I felt. 

            I have never really been unaware of my position in society and I believe that the reason for that would be my upbringing. My parents raised my sisters and I very level headed and it is because of this that we know the value of money.  I think that the best thing my parents did was allow me to work when I wanted to.  I have been working since I was fourteen and when a child is taught to earn their own money it teaches them not to take things for granted.  

Sociology and the Media

Considering I got my wisdom teeth pulled out over the past few weeks, my use of mass media has severely increased.  While looking for the meaning of being socialized by the media I stumbled upon an intro to sociology page that defined sociology as “the process by which people learn characteristics of their group’s norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors” (Cheney). While watching TV, I noticed just how much the media around us influences our society.  There are, what I would define as, cultural norms that are taught to us by the media we watch.  If a new fashion comes out it is advertised over the television, radio, internet and every other form of media available to make us think that we have to look a certain way to be accepted. I did not realize how much the media have socialized me until these past few weeks. I started noticing that the more certain clothing commercials came on TV the more I wanted to go to certain stores and buy the merchandise that they were advertising. After taking a look around my room I realized just how much “junk” I’ve bought that had been at some point advertise on TV or in some magazine. You see advertising everywhere even while walking down the street. There are public ads plastered on billboards telling us where to go and what to buy.  It seems as though the entire world is run off advertisements.

Culture Shock

I’m Egyptian so I thought that being raised according to Egyptian culture was how my two sisters and I were raised. It was not until I went to Egypt alone for the first time that I realized how different the two cultures actually were. To start from the beginning I was born in Los Angeles, California. I have been living in New Jersey for the majority of my life. I would classify my family as a standard middle class family. For me, I felt that we had an ordinary life here, I mean it was nothing spectacular. That is until I went to Egypt. My parents had sent me there for my 16^th birthday. I spent a month there and from that one month I understood how hard my parents worked to achieve the lives they have today and how thankful I should have been for my life here.
Generally Egypt’s culture seems to be much stricter than the American culture. I believe that my first experience with culture shock with this trip happened while I was still at home. The reason I was being sent to Egypt was because I was going to meet a perspective fiancé. In Egypt arranged marriages are customary. Even though not all families still believe in the concept of arranged marriages, my family does. So when I first heard about this I believed it was a joke. It was not until I was actually in Egypt that I began to realize the situation. Along with this news, another aspect of Egypt that was culturally shocking was the airport. It sounds odd but at an American airport you expect terminals and severe organization and security measures. When I got to Egypt I was astonished. There was no terminal we got out of the plain using stairs and our luggage was on these little trolleys on the ground. The second I came out of the plane I was bombarded with people asking to carry my luggage to give me a taxi ride and just offering services. It was very strange to me seeing that many people willing to help. Little did I realize at the time, that was their only form of income.
The homes in Egypt are very different architecturally as well. There are no suburban style homes there. All the houses are in apartment buildings and wealthier families will own up to four floors in a building. On top of the houses there is almost a farm. Cages holding chickens, rabbits, pigeons and other small animals are used to provide food for the families because meat in Egypt is very expensive to buy. Another aspect about Egypt that shocked me was the antifeminism of the culture. I was not allowed to leave the house without either a group of girls or a male escort. On taxi busses women were allowed to sit anywhere but recommended to sit in the front and men were only allowed to sit in the back, the same rules also applied to trains and other public transportation.
I think the most shocking thing to me about Egypt’s culture was the religious differences. In America we see it today all over the news the controversy in countries in the middle east fighting over government and religion. There is no separation of religion and government there. It is a constant fight in the middle east to defend your religion weather it is Christianity or Islam. It is a war that neither my sisters nor I have ever actually believed because we do not come from a country or culture where discrimination based on religion is not acceptable. When I was given dirty looks once people knew my religious preference I was very surprised. Response Paper 2 : Culture Shock