Social Identity
The Dichotomy of a Teenager
Age is a very important element in our society. It can affect how you are treated by others. Being an average teenager can be very stressing. When I am with my family, I am expected to be a perfect child. Being around my friends is the opposite of being with my family. When I am with my friends I like to do fun, stupid things. For example, my hockey team and I were staying in a twelve story hotel with an atrium in the middle. We were standing on the balcony of the tenth floor, and we were trying to see who could get a paper airplane into someone’s hair while they were walking through the lobby. Of course the manager didn’t find this as fascinating we did. Another time, my lacrosse team and I took several lawn chairs from the patio and threw them into the pool to make a bridge. The goal was to get across the pool without falling into the water. Not the best idea the day before a lacrosse game. I don’t know what it is about doing stupid things as a teenager but it can be so much fun. However, when I am around my family I am expected to act respectful and responsible. With my family I have an obligation to do well in school and be a role model in society. The reason why I have chosen this element is to show the conflict between the yin and the yang, the good and the evil, and the light and the dark in the life of a teenager. We want to be treated and respected as young adults but we still sometimes act like children.
A problem about being a teenager is that you are expected to contribute financially for the things that you want to have. Therefore, I need a job to pay for those things. How am I supposed to do that if I can’t get a good paying job until I’m 16? It seems that the only jobs available to fourteen year olds are odd jobs around the house and the pay is pretty poor. I believe that people will not hire a 14 year old because they are considered violent, arrogant, disrespectful, and not trustworthy. As an example, when I was getting a soda at a gas station, they asked me to empty my pockets because they thought I was trying to steal something. They did that because they had some robberies, and because I was a teenager, they thought I was trying to steal something. Because one teen stole something, now every teenager is considered to be like him or her. As teenagers, we feel the need to acquire expensive items such as guitars, skis, mountain bikes, and dirt bikes, yet we are not old enough to work for a decent salary. We want independence but we end up being dependent on our parents for the things we want.
My mask is representing how age has a dark side and a light side in society. The dark side represents the bad things that happen with your peers or in life. The light side represents the good things about being a teenager, such as how you act in society.
The yin and yang symbolize the lightness and darkness in the mask. The light side shows the pictures of what I like to do. It shows pictures of the good things that represent me. I have a picture of a skier, a guitar, piano, mountain bike, dirt bike, lacrosse stick, and a hockey stick. These things are very important to me and they represent who I am.
The pictures on the dark side represent the things that I hate about being a teenager, like peer pressure to do drugs, tests that you take in school that decide your future. I never have any money to buy the things that I want. I can’t drive so I depend on my parents for rides, which affects my independence.
The horn represents when you are around your friends, the peer pressure that comes with it and how you wish it couldn’t happen but it does. So the horn represents the evil things about being around your friends. The halo represents the great things that this age has. We don’t have too many responsibilities, so we still act like kids. We still do stupid things and get to have fun with our friends.
The red tears represent how you don’t want the bad things to happen but they do anyway and you can’t do anything about it. When I was hanging out with some friends they wanted me to do something illegal, and I said no. Because my friends wanted me to do something to get a rush and I didn’t want to, they judged me for being a wimp for not doing it. I hate how it works that way but it does.
Age is a very important element in society. You can be judged by people just because you are a teenager and of a certain age. Writing this essay has helped me to analyze the positive and negative aspects of being a teenager. There is a dichotomy, meaning the two differences between a subject, about who we are and what we want to be. Before this project I didn’t realize the importance of age in our society. I have a changed perspective on how age is treated as a social class after doing this project. Stereotypes about age are a part of our society. It would be a wonderful thing if people could see us for who we really are.
Project Reflection
This project has been similar to my science fair projects. They are similar because I put a lot of work into each of them, I had to do a lot of research for each to understand what I was going to do and say. This project was different in a way because how I was taught to work through it. For science fair I did all the work at home and no help from the school that I went to. While doing this project I had a lot of help from the teacher and my class mates which was a very important to me personally.
The habit of heart and mind I would have to work on would have to be refinement for me, even though my peers had told me that my mask came out well, I thought I could have done much better. I could have made my ask a lot smoother and had all the pictures fit in better, rather than having them all just jumbled up on the mask.
I’m proud of how it has the light and the dark side on the mask and how clearly it shows. It really ties in with what I’m explaining in my essay. I am also glad how the horn and the halo turned out; it really shows the 3d imagining of the mask.
“My mask is representing how age has a dark side and a light side in society.” I am particularly proud of this quote because it is what my mask is based around. My presentation with my mask on exhibition was based around this quote, I described how the light side of my mask is representing what I like about being a teenager, on the dark side it shows what I don’t like being a teenager. That’s why I am most proud of this quote because it is a simpler way of describing what I based my project on.
I want to take from this project is what I have thought about the sociology category age. It shows a reflection of how it relates to me. It has made me realize how it has had such a major affect on being a teenager. When I first started this project, I didn’t think that the social categories were that important. But after doing my project and seeing the other projects it has made me think about these sociology categories from a different perspective. I now realize how important these categories are after doing this project.
Age is a very important element in our society. It can affect how you are treated by others. Being an average teenager can be very stressing. When I am with my family, I am expected to be a perfect child. Being around my friends is the opposite of being with my family. When I am with my friends I like to do fun, stupid things. For example, my hockey team and I were staying in a twelve story hotel with an atrium in the middle. We were standing on the balcony of the tenth floor, and we were trying to see who could get a paper airplane into someone’s hair while they were walking through the lobby. Of course the manager didn’t find this as fascinating we did. Another time, my lacrosse team and I took several lawn chairs from the patio and threw them into the pool to make a bridge. The goal was to get across the pool without falling into the water. Not the best idea the day before a lacrosse game. I don’t know what it is about doing stupid things as a teenager but it can be so much fun. However, when I am around my family I am expected to act respectful and responsible. With my family I have an obligation to do well in school and be a role model in society. The reason why I have chosen this element is to show the conflict between the yin and the yang, the good and the evil, and the light and the dark in the life of a teenager. We want to be treated and respected as young adults but we still sometimes act like children.
A problem about being a teenager is that you are expected to contribute financially for the things that you want to have. Therefore, I need a job to pay for those things. How am I supposed to do that if I can’t get a good paying job until I’m 16? It seems that the only jobs available to fourteen year olds are odd jobs around the house and the pay is pretty poor. I believe that people will not hire a 14 year old because they are considered violent, arrogant, disrespectful, and not trustworthy. As an example, when I was getting a soda at a gas station, they asked me to empty my pockets because they thought I was trying to steal something. They did that because they had some robberies, and because I was a teenager, they thought I was trying to steal something. Because one teen stole something, now every teenager is considered to be like him or her. As teenagers, we feel the need to acquire expensive items such as guitars, skis, mountain bikes, and dirt bikes, yet we are not old enough to work for a decent salary. We want independence but we end up being dependent on our parents for the things we want.
My mask is representing how age has a dark side and a light side in society. The dark side represents the bad things that happen with your peers or in life. The light side represents the good things about being a teenager, such as how you act in society.
The yin and yang symbolize the lightness and darkness in the mask. The light side shows the pictures of what I like to do. It shows pictures of the good things that represent me. I have a picture of a skier, a guitar, piano, mountain bike, dirt bike, lacrosse stick, and a hockey stick. These things are very important to me and they represent who I am.
The pictures on the dark side represent the things that I hate about being a teenager, like peer pressure to do drugs, tests that you take in school that decide your future. I never have any money to buy the things that I want. I can’t drive so I depend on my parents for rides, which affects my independence.
The horn represents when you are around your friends, the peer pressure that comes with it and how you wish it couldn’t happen but it does. So the horn represents the evil things about being around your friends. The halo represents the great things that this age has. We don’t have too many responsibilities, so we still act like kids. We still do stupid things and get to have fun with our friends.
The red tears represent how you don’t want the bad things to happen but they do anyway and you can’t do anything about it. When I was hanging out with some friends they wanted me to do something illegal, and I said no. Because my friends wanted me to do something to get a rush and I didn’t want to, they judged me for being a wimp for not doing it. I hate how it works that way but it does.
Age is a very important element in society. You can be judged by people just because you are a teenager and of a certain age. Writing this essay has helped me to analyze the positive and negative aspects of being a teenager. There is a dichotomy, meaning the two differences between a subject, about who we are and what we want to be. Before this project I didn’t realize the importance of age in our society. I have a changed perspective on how age is treated as a social class after doing this project. Stereotypes about age are a part of our society. It would be a wonderful thing if people could see us for who we really are.
Project Reflection
This project has been similar to my science fair projects. They are similar because I put a lot of work into each of them, I had to do a lot of research for each to understand what I was going to do and say. This project was different in a way because how I was taught to work through it. For science fair I did all the work at home and no help from the school that I went to. While doing this project I had a lot of help from the teacher and my class mates which was a very important to me personally.
The habit of heart and mind I would have to work on would have to be refinement for me, even though my peers had told me that my mask came out well, I thought I could have done much better. I could have made my ask a lot smoother and had all the pictures fit in better, rather than having them all just jumbled up on the mask.
I’m proud of how it has the light and the dark side on the mask and how clearly it shows. It really ties in with what I’m explaining in my essay. I am also glad how the horn and the halo turned out; it really shows the 3d imagining of the mask.
“My mask is representing how age has a dark side and a light side in society.” I am particularly proud of this quote because it is what my mask is based around. My presentation with my mask on exhibition was based around this quote, I described how the light side of my mask is representing what I like about being a teenager, on the dark side it shows what I don’t like being a teenager. That’s why I am most proud of this quote because it is a simpler way of describing what I based my project on.
I want to take from this project is what I have thought about the sociology category age. It shows a reflection of how it relates to me. It has made me realize how it has had such a major affect on being a teenager. When I first started this project, I didn’t think that the social categories were that important. But after doing my project and seeing the other projects it has made me think about these sociology categories from a different perspective. I now realize how important these categories are after doing this project.