Self & Society
Sociology 130, Winter 2016
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• 11am-2:30pm Saturdays, January 9, 16, 23, 30 & February 6: 218 1010 Westwood Center
• 6-10 pm Thursdays, January 7, 21 & February 11: 3115 Rolfe Hall, UCLA
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Instructor: Email: !
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Terri Anderson
doctorta@gmail.com (please title your subject heading “re: Soc. 130”)
Course Statement
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“Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.” Walter Lippmann
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"Man has delegated his activity to machines. To them he has forfeited even his faculty of
thought...Machines are responsible for working such unimaginable effects on people under the
influence of speed as to alienate them from their slow selves." Louis Aragon, Night Walker
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"The constant streaming in of the thoughts of others must confine and suppress our own; and
indeed in the long run paralyze the power of thought."
Schopenhauer
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Who are you? Why are you? How do you know?
Surely you've heard the phrase "nature vs. nurture." It's about the ongoing quest to figure out
how much of a human is genetic, biological, and chromosomal (nature), and how much is a
product of socialization (nurture). To what extent are you your society? To even consider that
question, we must examine the society itself, the individuals that produce it, and how the two are
connected. !
The society and selves we will be examining are our own - in particular, the society and selves of
today’s youth. How does the world you're facing today make you who you are? How do the
technology and media through which you learn about your world permeate, shape, and structure
your everyday experience of self and society? Who do you want to be, who will you end up
being, and what kind of world will you create?
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Course Readings
There are 6 softcover books and 1 course reader required for this course. You may also receive
some emails with links to online articles. These are also required reading.
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1. Nancy K. Baym, Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Polity Press, Malden, MA,
2010.
2. Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. Basic
Books, 1991.
3. Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.
Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. 1991. 4. Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking. Vintage International, New York NY. 2006.
This book is a useful example of course theory, and should be read early in the course.
5. Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from
Each Other. Basic Books, 2011.
6. Jean Twenge, Generation Me. Free Press, New York. 2006. !
Full references for reader materials at end of syllabus.
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The reader is available at Westwood Copies, which is at 1001 Gayley Ave., Suite 104, in
Westwood, (310) 208-3233. M-F 8:30 am -8:00 pm, Sat 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Next to and behind
the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Easiest entry (and parking) are in the alley behind. !
Complete readings prior to the class meeting for which they are assigned!
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Because lecture requires your full attention, no wireless devices of any kind can be used in class. No laptop computers, cell phones, blackberries, and so on. Please do not text in class.
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Journals
Two journals are due, both on Saturdays: S 1/16 & S 1/30. Because you may find this
sociological exploration of your self and its social origins to be unexpectedly intense, personal
and powerful, paying attention to how your own experiences connect with the course readings
will be very useful for you in tying your own life to the academic subject. With this in mind,
type three or more informal pages (more is okay too, but at least 3 solid pages) addressing course
issues. You must clearly use, reference, and illustrate applied understanding of several course
readings in each journal. This is not intended to be a high-pressure assignment; rather, my wish
is that you take the topic with you when you leave the classroom, and continue to consider it as
you go through everyday life. !
Journals are to be turned in on the instructor’s desk at the beginning of class, before class
begins. Please do not turn in journals while class is in session. Each journal will receive
between 0 and 5 points.
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Grading
Assignment
Experiment: Doing Nothing (3 pp.)
Midterm Essay Rough Draft
Midterm Essay (7-8 pages) Final Essay Rough Draft
Final Essay (7-8 pages)
2 Journals (3+ pages each) !
Percent of Total Grade
10% 5% 35% 5% 35% 10% (5% each) Due
Saturday January 9
Thursday January 21
Saturday January 23
Saturday February 6
Thursday February 11
S 1/16, S 1/30
Readings should be widely and deeply referenced IN EVERY WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT. Your work WILL be graded with respect to how well it integrates course readings.
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Good grammar, spelling, and punctuation count towards your grade. Proofread. !
Assignments are due by the beginning of class. If you turn in your assignment after class has
begun, it will count as 1 day late. Any excuses for late or missed work must be accompanied by
verified documentation (like a doctor’s note), or 2 points will be taken off for each weekday
the assignment is late. Assignments that are more than 1 week late will not be accepted at all,
and no late papers at all will be accepted after the final week of class.
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Academic Dishonesty
"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." - Amelia Earhart No plagiarism, please. Plagiarism is using the words and/or work of another as your own - that
is, without citing the other person as the author of those words. Anything you take off of the
internet must be cited. Always do your own work, and reference any words that did not
originally come from you. If you are caught doing or turning in plagiarized work, your work
will, without exception, be turned in to the office of the Dean of Students. Do not expect the
outcome to be positive. !
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The Course in Short
Meeting 1
Introduction: Your Generation
Meeting 2
Who Are You? Who Are We?
Meeting 3
What Is Self? The Role of Others: Self and Relationship
Meeting 4
Communities Old and New
Meeting 5
The Shifting Self
Meeting 6
The Shifting Face of Self
Meeting 7
Connecting and Disconnecting
Meeting 8
Selves in Social Context: What Next?
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A Detailed Road Map (Plans are subject to change, but the course is very likely to go just as stated below.)
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Meeting 1: Thursday, January 7, 6-10 pm, 3115 Rolfe Hall, UCLA
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Introduction: Your Generation
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My Generation
• The Zimmers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY
• The Who (the original): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594WLzzb3JI
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Note: try to read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion early in the course.
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Meeting 2: Saturday, January 9, 11am-2:30 pm, 218 1010 Westwood Center
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Who Are You?
Required Reading !
Texts
• Modernity and Self-Identity, Anthony Giddens, pp. 169-179 • Generation Me, Jean M. Twenge, Introduction, chapters 1-3
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, Introduction, ch. 1
• The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen, ch. 1
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Reader
• Hello, I'm Special, Hal Niedzviecki, Introduction
• The Un-TV and the 10 MPH Car, Bernard McGrane, chs. 1-2 !
Recommended Reading
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, chs. 2-4
• Be Yourself/Non-conformist, http://www.truthdig.com/images/eartothegrounduploads/
FISHNonConformist5.jpg
• “Narcissism: On the Rise in America?,” Dr. Jim Taylor, 5/28/11, http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jim-taylor/narcissism-america_b_861887.html
• “7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable,” David Wong, http://
www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html
• “A Generation’s Vanity, Heard Through Lyrics,” John Tierney, April 25, 2011, http://
www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/science/26tier.html?_r=1
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Due: “Unoccupied, Unemployed” Experiment
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Meeting 3: Saturday, January 16, 11am-2:30pm, 218 1010 Westwood Center
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Who Are We?
Required Reading !
Texts
• Modernity and Self-Identity, Anthony Giddens, ch. 1
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, chs. 5-6
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Reader
• Hello, I'm Special, Hal Niedzviecki, ch. 1
• Raymond Williams, “The Technology and the Society”
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Link
• “Gen Y’s Ego Trip Takes A Nasty Turn,” Larry Gordon and Louis Sahagun, February 27, 2007,
Los Angeles Times, http://articles.latimes.com/2007/feb/27/local/me-esteem27
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Recommended Reading
• “Person of the Year: You,” featured story, Time Magazine, December 25, 2006. pp. 38-80,
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570810,00.html (explore the links)
• “Alumna sues college because she hasn’t found a job,” Jason Kessler, http://www.cnn.com/
2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html !
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What Is Self?
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“The self, as that which can be an object of itself, is essentially a social structure, and it arises in
social experience...it is impossible to conceive of a self arising outside of social experience...
It is the social process itself that is responsible for the appearance of the self; it is not there as a self apart from this type of experience.” George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society
Required Readings
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Text
• Modernity and Self-Identity, Anthony Giddens, ch. 3
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Reader
• David M. Newman, Sociology, Chapter 5, “Building Identity: Socialization.”
• Milan Kundera, Identity, ch. 16. Harper Perennial, 1999.
• George Herbert Mead, “The Self, the I, and the Me,” pp. 121-125 in Jodi O’Brien, The
Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction (5th Edition), Pine Forge
Press: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2011.
• Charles Horton Cooley, “Looking-Glass Self,” pp. 126-128 in Jodi O’Brien, The Production of
Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction (5th Edition), Pine Forge Press: Thousand
Oaks, CA, 2011.!
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Due: Journal
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Meeting 4: Thursday, January 21, 6-10 pm, 3115 Rolfe Hall, UCLA
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The Role of Others:
Self and Relationship
“Each person you come to is a different mirror.” Robert Pirsig, Lila
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“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Carl Jung
Required Reading
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Texts
• The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (you should have finished it by now)
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, ch. 7
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Reader
• Robert C. Solomon, About Love, pp. 13-28, 62-69, 140-160, 189-208, 223-238 • Phil Blumstein, “The Production of Selves in Personal Relationships” !
Recommended Reading
• “E-Dating Bubble Springs A Leak,” Alex Williams, New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004, sec. 9,
pp. 1-5, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/fashion/12DATE.html
• “After 59-Year Marriage, Couple Die Moments Apart,” http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/
DOC-369925
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film: Persona
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Due: Rough Draft of Midterm Essay
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Meeting 5: Saturday, January 23, 11am-2:30pm, 218 1010 Westwood Center !
Communities Old and New
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“Solitude has but one disadvantage; it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one's self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have.” Lord Byron
Required Reading
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Texts
• Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Nancy Baym, chs. 1-4
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, ch. 12
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Reader
• Loneliness, John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, chs. 1 and 5
• The Peep Diaries, Hal Niedzviecki, ch. 1
• “The Tutu Connection,” Brad Pitt and Desmond Tutu, Vanity Fair, July 2007, pp. 96-98.
• UTNE Reader Feature on Cyber-Community: “Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood,” UTNE Reader,
March-April 1995, pp. 50-71
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Link
• “Popular TV shows teach children fame is most important value, UCLA psychologists report,”
Stuart Wolpert, July 11, 2011, http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/popular-tv-shows-teachchildren-210119
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Recommended Reading
• “Neighbors thought dead man's body was part of Halloween display,” Los Angeles Times,
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-marina-death17-2009oct17,0,3558556.story
• “My Declaration of Disconnection,” Daniel Sieberg, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielsieberg/my-declaration-of-disconn_b_413477.html
• Hazel Davis, “I've got 668 'friends' on Facebook... but I don't know any of my neighbours,”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1234932/Ive-got-668-friends-Facebook--I-dontknow-neighbours.html
• “Faux Friendship,” William Deresiewicz, http://chronicle.com/article/Faux-Friendship/49308/
• “Internet surfers caught in a web of depression,” http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/
Internet-surfers-caught-in-a.6034994.jp
• “S Korea child 'starves as parents raise virtual baby,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/
8551122.stm
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Film: Peep Culture: The Doc
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Due: Midterm Essay
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Meeting 6: Saturday, January 30, 11am-2:30pm, 218 1010 Westwood Center !
Shifting Self, Shifting Culture
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Required Reading
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Texts
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, chs. 8, 9, 11
• Modernity and Self-Identity, Anthony Giddens, ch. 6
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Reader
• Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman, ch. 1
• “Privacy, Secrecy, Intimacy, Human Bonds -- and Other Collateral Casualties of Liquid
Modernity,” Zygmunt Bauman
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Link
• The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity, https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=09gR6VPVrpw
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Film: Shaking Tokyo
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The Shifting Face of Self
“Every man possesses three characters: that which he exhibits, that which he really has, and that which he believes he has.”
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
“Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.” Robert Brault
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“Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer.” Mignon McLaughlin
Required Reading
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Texts
• Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Nancy Baym, chs. 5-6
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, selections
• The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen, ch. 3
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Reader
• David M. Newman, Sociology, Chapter 6, “Supporting Identity: The Presentation of Self.”
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• Erving Goffman, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: Selections,” pp. 262-271 in Jodi
O’Brien, The Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction (5th Edition),
Pine Forge Press: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2011.
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Recommended Reading
• “Crafting your image for your 1,000 friends on Facebook or MySpace,” Stuart Wolpert,
November 18, 2008, http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/crafting-your-image-foryour-1-71910.aspx
• “First Person Plural,” Paul Bloom, November 2008, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/
multiple-personalities
• “Second Life affair ends in divorce,” November 14, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/
europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
• “Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn: Multiple e-dentity Disorder,” Austin Carr, http://
www.fastcompany.com/1665951/twitter-facebook-tumblr-linkedin-multiple-e-dentity-disorder
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Film: Synthetic Pleasures
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Due: Journal
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Meeting 7: Saturday, February 6, 11am-2:30 pm, 218 1010 Westwood Center
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Connecting and Disconnecting
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“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” Isaac Asimov
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“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” T.S. Eliot
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"People like to imagine that because all our mechanical equipment moves so much faster, that we are thinking faster, too." Christopher Morley !
Required Reading
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Texts
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, chs. 10, 13, 14
• Modernity and Self-Identity, Anthony Giddens, ch. 4
• The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen, chs. 6-7
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Reader
• Technopoly, Neil Postman, ch. 1
• “The Subject and Technology,” ch. 11 in Subjectivity: Theories of the Self from Freud to
Haraway, Nick Mansfield. New York University Press, New York, NY, 2000. 9 of 11
• Loneliness, John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, chapter 14, “The Power of Social
Connection,” pp. 247-269
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Recommended Reading
• “Radio Makes People 'Happier' Than TV or Internet, New Study Finds,” Lucas Kavner, http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/20/radio-happiness-tv-internet-happy_n_904122.html
• “Generation Why?”, Zadie Smith, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/
generation-why/ • “The Anti-Social Side of Social Media”, Patrick Oppmann, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/
social.media/11/22/social.media.isolation.project/index.html?hpt=C1
• “Florida Teen Abraham Biggs Live-Streams His Suicide On Internet,” Rasha Madkour, http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/21/florida-teen-live-streams_n_145499.html
• Did you know?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
• “Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink,” Rio Palof, March 31, 2009, http://
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology
• “Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books,” David Abel, September 4, 2009, http://
msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/docs/b_globe/2009-09-04_bglobe_cushing_bookless_library.pdf
• “Why Are So Many Students Still Failing Online?,” Rob Jenkins, May 22, 2011, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Are-So-Many-Students-Still/
127584/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
• A Vision of Students Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
• http://www.graphicmania.net/wp-content/uploads/11022010/dg4jg7n5_443fts8xtf6_b.jpg
• Kindle vs. The Book - Green Apple Books, http://thegreenapplecore.blogspot.com/2009/07/
book-vs-kindle-part-1-of-10.html
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Film: We Live in Public
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Due: Rough Draft of Final Essay for in-class Peer Editing
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Meeting 8: Thursday, February 11, 6-10 pm, 3115 Rolfe Hall, UCLA
Selves in Social Context: What Next?
Required Reading
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Texts
• Alone Together, Sherry Turkle, Conclusion, Epilogue
• The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen, chs. 8-9
• Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Nancy K. Baym, Conclusion
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Reader
• Hello, I'm Special, Hal Niedzviecki, ch. 8 and Conclusion
• Technopoly, Neil Postman, ch. 11
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Due: Final Essay
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Full References for Reader
• Zygmunt Bauman, “Privacy, Secrecy, Intimacy, Human Bonds -- and Other Collateral
Casualties of Liquid Modernity,” pp. 20-29 in The Hedgehog Review, Spring 2011.
• Phil Blumstein, “The Production of Selves in Personal Relationships” by Phil Blumstein from
The Self-Society Dynamic (pp. 305-322), edited by J. Howard and P. Callero, 1991. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
• John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, Loneliness. W.W. Norton, NY, 2008, chs. 1, 5, 14.
• Charles Horton Cooley, “Looking-Glass Self,” pp. 126-128 in The Production of Reality:
Essays and Readings on Social Interaction, ed. Jodi O’Brien. SAGE / Pine Forge Press, Los
Angeles, 2011.
• Erving Goffman, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: Selections,” pp. 262-271 in The
Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction (5th edition), ed. Jodi
O’Brien. SAGE / Pine Forge Press, Los Angeles, 2011. • Milan Kundera, Identity, ch. 16. Harper Perennial, 1999.!
• Nick Mansfield, “The Subject and Technology,” ch. 11 in Subjectivity: Theories of the Self
from Freud to Haraway. New York University Press, New York, NY, 2000.
• Bernard McGrane, The Un-TV And the 10 MPH Car. The Small Press, Fort Bragg, CA,
1994. Chs. 1, 2.
• George Herbert Mead, “The Self, the I, and the Me,” pp. 121-125 in The Production of
Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction, ed. Jodi O’Brien. SAGE / Pine Forge
Press, Los Angeles, 2011.
• David Newman, Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life (8th edition). Pine
Forge Press, Los Angeles, 2010. • ch. 5, “Building Identity: Socialization,” ch. 5 / pp. 126-158 • ch. 6, “Supporting Identity: The Presentation of Self,” pp. 159-184 • Hal Niedzviecki, Hello, I'm Special (Introduction, ch. 1, ch. 8, Conclusion) (2006) and The
Peep Diaries (ch. 1) (2009). City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA. • Brad Pitt and Desmond Tutu, “The Tutu Connection,”Vanity Fair, July 2007, pp. 96-98.
• Neil Postman, Technopoly. Vintage Books (Random House), New York, NY, 1992, chs. 1, 11.
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, ch. 1.
• Robert C. Solomon, About Love. Madison Books, Lanham, Maryland. 2001. pp. 13-28,
62-69, 140-160, 189-208, 223-238
• UTNE Reader Feature on Cyber-Community: “Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood,” UTNE
Reader, March-April 1995, pp. 50-71
• Raymond Williams, “The Technology and the Society,” #9 in The New Media and
Technocultures Reader, ed. Seth Giddings with Martin Lister. Routledge, London, England,
2011.
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