Sociology Scholars

“I don’t like this expression “First World problems.” It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.

“Sociology is possible only because human behavior is patterned. Students in a classroom tend to sit in the same part of the room each day - often in the same seat. Concertgoers tend to applaud simultaneously and at appropriate intervals. Elevator passengers almost invariably face the front. The potential gift of sociology is to uncover the patterns and regularities from among many incidents and observations so that perhaps people may recognize their own isolated experience within the context of the experiences of others. But the path of each individual life is unique and unpredictable.