In the information age, people seem to have more and wider channels to obtain information. In fact, on the contrary, we are more likely to fall into our familiar circles and block other circles, so we can only see the opinions and information forwarded by our friends. These views Otawa Your views are roughly the same, so you will feel that your views are right, and the information you are exposed to is the whole picture of the world.
This is to remind you not to forget critical thinking, not to question the rules and practices that we are used to, and not to forget to know and understand other people's cultures that we are unfamiliar with and look weird. According to the famous sociologist Mills, this is called "sociological imagination".
1. Your world is different from others'.
So, what do people without sociological imagination think of the world? They will feel that their world is the whole world, and that the whole world is their own world. However, this is wrong.
People think that with the advent of the information age, the improvement of social mobility and the level of economic development, people's understanding and tolerance of different cultures will increase, but this idea is too optimistic. In ancient times, people rarely left their own tribes or villages, which was a last resort. Nowadays, people rarely go out of their own circles, which is the result of active choice. People with different views from you will be hacked in the circle of friends, and the mobility of social classes is not increasing, but decreasing. In this case, we will underestimate our isolation.
You think that articles that are screened in a circle of friends may not be seen in another circle at all. The circle you don't know may be far more and more influential than you think. There is an idol group composed of several little boys called TFBOYS, which has many fans and strong mobilization ability. When these children celebrated their birthdays, the fans held a vigorous celebration. There is a little boy named Karry. He said, "I want to know what the universe is like." Therefore, fans took care of NASA and put Karry's photo billboard into space. Fans crowded with airplanes and giant screens in major cities around the world to promote their idols. In the eyes of TFBOYS fans, idols and themselves are the world.
But at the same time, they also feel that the whole world is just themselves. In the past, people in tribes and villages actually had their own personalities and hobbies, but there were various exchanges and interactions between them. In today's circle era, people in the same circle rarely have intimate communication and interaction. There is not much discussion between people who also read a screen-brushing article, and more is to forward and praise each other. There is no communication between people who attend the same singer's concert, but they come at the beginning and go at the end. In the circle age, people become more lonely and indifferent.
Mills said that everyone's life will have ups and downs, and few people will associate their troubles and pains with his or her background. Most people feel that their lives are so trivial that they can't have anything to do with the historical process. Due to the rapid changes in society, people feel powerless. The old values and the old system have collapsed, but the new bud is not clear. When ordinary people suddenly face the wider world, they will naturally feel helpless and unable to understand the significance of their times to their lives. Out of self-defense, people become more and more morally numb and simply pursue personal interests. This is a vicious circle. The faster the change, the more people want to guard against it, the more they want to guard against it, and the more they want to retreat.
2. What is the imagination of sociology?
The imagination of sociology is such an ability that you can see the social system behind your daily life and the problems that everyone encounters, no matter how specific, are deeply related to the grand social background. With the special vision of sociological imagination, you can not only perceive that each of us is in a certain social and historical environment, but also understand how our daily life is influenced and shaped by such an environment.
Mills said that in a city with a population of 65,438+10,000, if only one person is unemployed, it is his personal trouble, but in a country with a population of 50 million, if/kloc-0.5 million people are unemployed, it will become a public problem. If we only look at the divorce of a couple, it is their own problem, but if the divorce rate in a society soars and there are 250 divorces in every 1000 couples, it shows that there are some structural problems in the marriage and family system or other systems that affect them.
This tells us that if we want to understand our destiny, we must position ourselves in the times. If you want to know your own life, you must know the lives of all individuals in the same situation as you. If you want to know your society, you must know what people who are different from you are thinking and doing, and what are their direct or indirect connections with your life. If you want to understand the present era, you must understand the diversity of history, not only the history of your own country and nation, but also the history of other countries and nations.
3. What's the use of learning sociological imagination?
Intel Corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, but not all of Intel's R&D departments are engineers. It also has a laboratory called "Human and Behavior Research Laboratory", which is composed of a group of sociologists, including cultural anthropologists, cognitive psychologists and linguists.
An anthropology professor was invited to join us. She was puzzled and asked, why did you come to my high-tech company? The boss of Intel said that we need you to help us figure out two things. The first thing is what women are thinking, and the second thing is platoon. What is ROW? It is "the rest of the world", that is to say, only with sociological imagination can we truly establish a successful enterprise that understands customer needs and is oriented to customer needs.
Tell me another case. Previous sporting goods companies, such as Adidas and Nike, all cooperated with sports stars. From 65438 to 0936, Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, found Jesse Owens, a world-class track and field athlete at that time, and designed a pair of running shoes specially for him. Owens won four gold medals in Berlin Olympic Games in these running shoes.
Therefore, sporting goods companies feel that the secret of success is to cooperate with star athletes and sports competitions. However, this strategy obviously lacks the imagination of sociology. People's interest in competitive sports is declining, while the number of people signing up for fitness is increasing. Among the consumers of sporting goods, the number of women has surpassed that of men. Sales of basketball shoes and tennis shoes are declining, while sales of yoga clothes and gymnastics clothes are rising.
This tells us that even in order to make money and do business better, you should have sociological imagination. If you want to influence this society, you need a sociological imagination. Everyone who wants to live more consciously needs to cultivate his own sociological imagination.