Deadlocks on White People

Title: Dreadlocks on White People

Topic: Cultural Change

Relation: Ever since the 1970’s, when dreadlocks became mainstream more and more people of different races have been sporting them. Not just limited to the heads of people of African descent, it has become popular for white people to sport them. This represents a cultural change or as Wikipedia nicely put it, transformation of culture. Wikipedia defines cultural change as “the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces.”

Source: Conversation I overheard at a party and a video on YouTube about how African Americans feel about white people wearing dreadlocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQhZmbcskE&noredirect=1

Description: I am from Portland so I see both white and African American people with dreadlocks and have never thought of it. I never knew that some African Americans feel like dreadlocks are “theirs” and that seeing white people with them is disrespectful or that the person is trying to be black. This came to my attention Friday night while I was at a party. One African American gal started attacking a guy with blond hair asking him why he had dreadlocks, was he trying to black, that he was trying to steal the dreadlocks from the African Americans which was part of their culture and she just kept going on.  I was shocked at how angry the gal was. The guy was able to diffuse the situation quickly by explaining in a humorous way why he had dreadlocks that his hair is naturally curly and it is easier to handle when it’s in dreadlocks.

            Later in the night, I found him and started talking to him about what had happened. He said that he actually gets that a lot, people come up to him and accuse him of trying to be black and wanting to know why he has dreadlocks. 

            For this assignment I decided to go online and typed in the Google Search bar, “Do black people get mad when white people have dreadlocks?” The results were astounding! I never knew that people felt so strongly about this subject.

            I found a great YouTube video where the African American lady explains why when she was younger she would give “doo doo eyes” (glare) at white people with dreadlocks because she felt that they looked stupid and that they were trying to be like “us.” She admits that she was a racist back then and was ignorant. Now she works as a life coach and has changed her perspective and she loves the white people with dreads on YouTube. She loves the enthusiasm of them with their dreadlocks that they view dreads as spunky and fun. She believes that everyone should stop taking hair so seriously and just relax and have fun with it.

Final Commentary: I told the dreadlocks guy the night of the party that I viewed dreadlocks as cultures coming together and mixing. I don’t view it as a bad thing and hope that more people will see that. I looked up the history of dreadlocks and they have been worn all over the Old World for ages. So it’s not one culture’s place to say that dreads are only theirs to have. 

Facebook and its Psychological and Social Effects

Title: Facebook and its Psychological and Social Effects

Topic: Cultural Artifacts (Text)  

Source:  Psychology Today, “Facebook and Your Brain” by Eva Ritvo

Relation: In Anthro, on page 20, it talks about cultural text being a way of thinking about culture as a text of significant symbols-words, gestures, drawings, natural objects- that carry meaning. I decided to look at Facebook because 163, 071, 460 Americans use it which is roughly 52% of the nation’s population.

Description: Facebook is a website that’s purpose is be a social network where people can connect with their friends, family and people they don’t know.  Facebook users “friend” people they know as well as mutual acquaintances, total strangers, celebrities, and people they find interesting.   Users post “statues,” which are messages that their Facebook friends can view. These messages can be about anything, whereabouts, their days, exotic locales, their thoughts, actions or even the food they are about to consume. Their friends in turn can click a thumb up icon, which signals they “like” the status, or comment on the status. A person’s Facebook popularity is based on number of friends they have, how many likes their statuses have, how many likes their profile picture has and to an extreme how many different locations the person has been to, which shows they are a social and popular person.

            A Facebook user’s day usually consists of logging into Facebook once they wake up and consistently throughout the day to keep up with their friends’ lives, see how many likes or comments their posts have received or maybe just laugh at silly posts.

             Facebook didn’t begin until after my teenage years.  When I was a teenager, we kept up with our friends by calling them, seeing them at school or just hanging out with them outside of school.  It was hard to keep up with friends that moved out of state because you could only call and spend time with so many people. There was a natural limit and that kept your close friend circle relatively small by today’s standards.

            Now you can keep pace with an absurdly large group of people on Facebook by viewing pictures of their life, reading their public thoughts, and looking at the life they present online.  It helps you feel connected to loved ones you don’t see very often.

            Besides the perceived social benefits of Facebook, there is now evidence that there is a psychological effect on your brain when you view Facebook.

In “Facebook and Your Brain,” Eva Ritvo who is a M.D. in Psychology says that a chemical in your brain is released when you view Facebook. That chemical is dopamine, which is associated with feel good feelings.  In her words, “When we view an attractive face, dopamine is released in the same reward pathway that is stimulated when we eat delicious food, make money, have sex, or use cocaine."   We can carefully select our photos and statues to show the best representation of ourselves and give our friends that dopamine rush anytime they look at our personal page. 

On the other hand, you can post a status about a difficulty you are facing or if you feel down. This in turn, can draw out support from your Facebook friends reacting to the rush of oxytocin (“love hormone” as she called it) when they read your status.   This virtual comfort can help you battle the stress hormone cortisol.

            One last positive mental effect of Facebook is that Eva found was mirror neurons in the brain that are activated when a person sees a Facebook friend “expressing emotion” or  “engaging in an activity.”  The mirror neurons give off feelings of empathy and “imitative learning.” For example when you see a picture of your smiling friend, you will smile in return without realizing why.  Or reading a happy post, you will feel good inside because emotions are infectious.

Commentary/ Analysis: For all the positive affects that Facebook can have on a person, there can be negative affects. Since everyone is concerned with showing the best representation of their lives, it can lead to a person feeling like everyone is living a better life then them.  It can also make one feel like they can never quite measure up to the invisible, impossible standard. Facebook offers a sense of connection with others but can actually cause a person to feel lonely.  Eva in the article touched base on this saying that the online support shown during hard times can actually fool our brain into thinking we are surrounded by people who love us, which in long past times was essential to our survival. 

            Culturally Facebook is changing the way we interact with other people online and in real life.  Having so many Facebook friends and seeing their everyday posts and pictures can cause of feeling of deep friendship when in reality can be superficial if not kept up by in person hanging out or phone calls. Friendships are being changed from having several deep ones, to having a myriad amount that are shallow.  Spending time with a friend seems like too much work when you can just connect with the person online by looking at their pictures or statues. It can cause a person to become lazy in the friendship while in their mind they view themselves as being very active in it.

            We are also becoming defined by our online Facebook identity. Our sense of self is defined by how many likes/comments our statues and pictures have as well as the number of online friends we have. We can feel down if not a lot of people have showed interest in what we have posted or have not accepted our friend request. When in actuality, it is not a reflection of who we really are or how popular we are.