SOCI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Consumption Of Tide Pods, Ice Bucket Challenge, Georg Simmel
7 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Day 8
• Fashion (Georg Simmel)
o Fashion involves imitation and differentiation at the same time
▪ Imitation: fashion allows social adaptation to a particular group (may be
conscious or unconscious, connects you to a group, can be different
groups: age, class, etc)
▪ Differentiation: fashion establishes distinctions between generations and
social classes (attempt at social mobility, need to have knowledge of what
is “in”)
o Transience of Fashion: as fashion spreads, it loses its distinctiveness
▪ People imitate the elites so then they change what they are wearing
because they are no longer distinctive
o What is the connection between fashion and modern society according to
Simmel? (micro to macro)
▪ Frequent changes of fashion are more common in modern societies, due
to an increased desire of differentiation
• Increased interaction between social classes
o Much more interaction between people in an urban society
than in a rural society
• Lack of common values and norms
o There is not morality to determine an identity for a social
group → need to create our own identity (fashion assists
us in this)
• Shift from ascribed to achieved social status
o Position we have is not necessarily the position we were
born with → possibility of social mobility
o Society is not as rigid and fixed as it used to be
o Fashion signals the change or desire to change social
classes
▪ People use fashion to adapt to new society
• Use fashion to signal who you are when interacting with so many
people of different classes
▪ In modern societies, fashion can include not only apparel, but taste,
theoretical convictions, and even the moral foundations of life
• Ex. if a new religious group emerges followed by elite groups,
other groups may start to follow it because it’s “in fashion”
• Discussion: Could this apply to health trends?
o Juice cleanses (very expensive, can only do it if you have
the money for it)
o Going to gluten free (not doctor recommended, just doing it
because friends or people you know started to do it)
o Cigarette population (larger population moved away, ads
began focusing on third world countries)
• Trending topics on social media?
o Ice Bucket Challenge- quickly forgotten, irrelevant now
o Disaster that happened in Puerto Rico: it was a big deal
but then forgotten even when the issue was not fixed,
posting because everyone else was not because they
cared
o “Hashtag Activism”
o Tide Pod Challenge
Document Summary
Day 8: fashion (georg simmel, fashion involves imitation and differentiation at the same time. Simmel? (micro to macro: frequent changes of fashion are more common in modern societies, due to an increased desire of differentiation. Ice bucket challenge- quickly forgotten, irrelevant now: disaster that happened in puerto rico: it was a big deal but then forgotten even when the issue was not fixed, posting because everyone else was not because they cared. Hashtag activism : tide pod challenge, culture as language, times up movement, language: comprehensive systems of symbols by which we are able to think and communicate with others, development of sense of self (g. h. Samoa"s concept of age: talked about in terms of continuous experience. Ie young age , age of fertility , old age : not concerned with specific birthdays, ex. Time in english and in hopi (native american)
