I was born in 1986 in Anchorage, Alaska. My parents had just moved up to Alaska from Dallas, Texas. My father worked for an oil company, and there were many new job opportunities in Alaska because of the discovery of oil there in the 1970s and the subsequent construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the early 80s. I would almost certainly not have been born and raised in Alaska if it weren't for this discovery and subsequent construction.
Another way in which broader society affects my life is actually one that that Newman noted in chapter 1: my rights as a gay citizen. I have been with my partner for over 5 years, and honestly, if same-sex marriage was legal in Minnesota (which it is not because of a legal precedent from the 1970s) and was recognized by the federal government (which it would not be because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which states that the federal government only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman), we would probably already be married. Because we are not married, the follow things have happened to us the last few years:
--I could not be added onto his health insurance he has through his job, so I went without health insurance for 2 years after I graduated undergrad.
--We cannot combine our federal or state income taxes; as a result, we pay thousands of dollars more in taxes per year than if we were married
Let's fast-forward (or rewind depending on where you want to start from) to January 1998. I was just turning 12, and was actually living in McKinney, Texas at the time, a suburb of Dallas. I spent just one year there today, and it was pretty traumatic on a personal level. On a societal level, however, there was an even greater tragedy afoot:
Oh my gosh, they're ending Seinfeld. How will we laugh again!?
But really, the January 12, 1998 issue of Time magazine has some interesting and portentous articles. There were two articles on the Asian economic crisis, an event that would rock the global economic climate and in some ways signaled the beginning of the end of the great era of prosperity and growth that marked most of the mid-90s. Yes, the Internet economic bubble was just beginning, but just 3 years the bubble burst; 4 years later the country was reeling from 9/11 and the economy was dipping.
Another article from this issue I found interesting was an opinion piece on the new ban on smoking inside bars in California; the author likened this new ban to the prohibition of alcohol in the 20s. I found this piece ironic not only because this ban still exists, but that this policy has been adopted in many other places in the countries and indeed the world.
While the Asian financial crisis did not affect me personally in any big way, 12-year-old me was definitely bummed out about the end of Seinfeld. That show helped shaped my humor and gave me and my family something to bond over throughout my upbringing. Thinking more broadly, the California smoking ban led to other public smoking bans throughout the country; when I traveled abroad to Germany in 2006, I was shocked and unprepared for the overwhelming amount of smoke in German bars. The shocking newness of being in an actual smoky bar helped define my time in Europe, to the point where when I returned to the United States after my trip, the smell of a cigarette actually made me feel nostalgic for Europe rather than just feeling like my lungs were being assaulted.
This concept of "sociological thinking"--thinking deeply about how societal factors have shaped my life--is actually tremendously fun, but also essential to understanding the value of sociology as an academic discipline. Only by making these connections between broader society and individuals can we see the use of sociology.
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