Tinesha Deleston
3/6/13
Soc100 148


Chapter three and the article Teenage Wasteland are similar because they both deal with the issue of culture. Teenage Wasteland is about how four teenage boys was found dead in a car, it turns out that they weren't murdered but that they all committed suicide together. Apparently when the news got out to the community, the community thought nothing less of the situation. They thought that the boys were lose less teenagers who had no goals or ambitions with their life. In other words they were all losers. The community thought this because of the type of music they listened too, the certain type of clothing they were wearing, and the different types of hairstyles they had. In that type of community they were known to be weird, low lives, and hard around the edges. This was the assumption all because of their music and appearance. Now chapter three focus on culture and the different elements that consist of culture. Culture are our values, beliefs, knowledge, and norms. The people in the community thought that the boys wasn't normal because they expressed themselves differently than others did and because they weren't the typical Harvard looking guys. The real question, is What is normal? Is wearing baggie jeans, with some Ugz boots, and a Doo-Rag on your head not normal. Or is wearing a uniform, with a vest that says THE UNIVERSITY OF PRINCETON COLLEGE, and a black pair of shoes normal. This society has their own beliefs on what's normal and what's not. When you look at the situations for what it is you begin to ask yourself, Are these theories true? For example, the boys listened to thrash metal, had shaggy haircuts, and wore lots of black and leather. This is called Symbolic Interactionist Theories, the reason for this is it symbolizes a bunch of kids that was dropouts and druggies. Just think, this doesn't necessarily mean that. It might just mean that this is all apart of their culture. Your culture is you, and they were just being themselves. Everyone is different because of what their culture make them out to be. Not everyone is your typical Spelman university person. Being a Spelman university college student doesn't make you normal. It just makes you different from the next party goer you may know. To be honest nothing in the world we do is normal or not normal. It's just different. What's regular to you may not be regular to me.