I was listening to the radio the other night and they had a guest speaking about our 'fractured society'. Issues such as the lack of respect towards others and sheer rudeness many of us experience from our fellow members of society was discussed. They were talking of possible reasons as to why the sociability of humans has changed over time and how helping others was once a given, but is now more rare. An example of how once upon a time we could leave our houses and cars unlocked and think nothing of it, now we have a lot of crime in the form of robberies and the majority would never think of leaving their house unlocked. I think it has become a sad world when we can no longer rely on others within out community. But is this really true or is the media focusing on the rare events that occur, from which thoughts of a 'bad society' snowball? Following from this, Australia then becomes quite sad from all of this negativity. I began to examine my own thoughts on why it is that our culture and society seems to be 'fractured' and/or divided like it is.
Point 1)I think possibly economics plays a role. The price to live these days is much higher relative to our wage. People are much more focused on finances. I feel that we have adopted a 'look after yourself' cut throte mentality, which affects the people we become and the things we do. Are people unhappy because of finances and increased crime?
Point 2)Is Australia as a society unhappy at all? Has depression amongst Australians increased-or is it simply that reported cases of depression have increased? I think the Media has something to answer for: the media guids our society; in a way it indicates or dictates what is acceptable within society by what and what isn't published. Is it putting us into some state of unhappinessby reporting on increased crime, fractured societies, mental illness; or is it a beat up?
I realise that we have been discussing the social self, culture and the like, so whether or not this fits into this subject I am unsure, but i feel that the media in some way plays a role in forming our social self, our cultre, our society.
What are your thoughts guys?
I also found this page: a bit of interesting reading: "Reasons for optimism in modern Australia"
http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/stories/s1951392.htm
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- jbn
- I am in my third (out of four) year of my double degree of Arts and Psych (majoring in economics and marketing)
2 comments:
hi jbn, wow, lots of interesting thoughts here and its great to see: a) you relating soc.psych to australia; and b) critically questioning of the mental health / well-being debate.
i'm still mulling over responses to your specific questions, but here's a couple of quick responses/ideas:
1. We're going to tackle this topic most directly in the final tutorial, in which we'll listen to and debate/discuss a speech by Hugh Mackay, called "Social Disengagement" about the social psychology of life in Australia. It draws on somewhat similar themes to a book called "Bowling Alone" focused on changes in US society.
2. Regarding happiness; there was recently a study of levels of subjective well-being of people in countries around the world - if you search for "world happiness map" you'll find articles discussing the study. But, I suspect there may be more value in looking at indicators which factor in GDP and/or ecological impact in achieving psychological well-being, e.g., check out the Happy Planet Index.
Hi jbn,
Personally, I can't even remember a time when we were ever able to leave our houses unlocked without fear of been robbed, or a time when it was completely safe for a girl/woman to wander the streets at night alone, though I have not completely lost faith in mankind or thought that our society was falling apart.
I do think that there are a great number of people out there willing to help out others in need. And I also think that for every horrible, cruel and rude act a person commits there will be more acts of kindness to counteract it.
For example, I happened to be in civic having lunch the other day when a lady died after been shoulder charged (i am sure you heard it on the news). Sure, the guy that shoulder charged the 71 year old woman would be a prime example of this "society gone bad" theme, but after witnessing this horrible event, my faith in mankind was actually restored. People ran from all corners of the shopping centre to help out the lady when they realised she was in trouble. So that one horrible act lead to about 100 acts of kindness (even though I think it was an absolutely horrible thing to happen).
I do agree with you that it is very sad that we feel we can’t rely on others, but I think that it is just that, a feeling, and that there is more good than bad in our society. This is where I think your idea of the media comes in. Why is the daily news bulletin always full of negative issues? If we are getting fed these negative thoughts all day of course we are going to start believing that we live in a society gone bad.
Anyway, just an opinion. I may be one of the rare few clinging on to the hope that Australian society is not turning evil : )
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