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I'm Embarrassed to Be a Sociology Major

This was originally published on Medium on February 1, 2023 (https://medium.com/@non-monetized_together/im-embarrassed-to-be-a-sociology-major-a5ea683a2f40?source=friends_link&sk=27c2adb611375a6c23b8d2dcb21d4ef2)

#sociology #power #academia #education #cringe

Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

Now that I’m finally about to graduate university, I can look back and say it was a mostly positive experience. Nevertheless, it has led me to lose faith in academic sociology. I am also majoring in sociology, which is an uncomfortable fact for me to accept. Don’t get me wrong, sociology is interesting, and I’m looking forward to finding work somewhere in the field, but I really don’t want to associate with the academic side of it.

I’ve came to the conclusion that it is just another way for the well-to-do to impose their power on everyone else by depicting their social platform as science. Yes, even the so-called radical socialist academics. I’m sure there are many researchers who don’t intend to participate in that, but they are caught in the institutional apparatus. As someone who has no business fighting in either side of the class conflict, I just want to push that to the side and move on with my life.

In my five years of attending university, I’ve read enough papers to know that the people who write them don’t give their readers any room for interpretation or inspiration. The publishers wouldn’t greenlight that. Every article is trying to say, “shut up and listen to me.”

The researchers will sometimes study ordinary people, but will never cite them, even when they are their academic “specialty.” And worse, the academy does not believe citizen experts are credible. Instead, the academics only cite each other. As a result, attending university narrowed my perspective instead of broadening it.

I have asked my sociology professor Nancy Mandell if an academic paper could get published if it cited sources outside the academy. She said no, universities are not interested in publishing that. She also said that they won’t publish articles that encourage the reader to come up with their own interpretations of the research.

Sociology really isn’t all that complicated. Anybody could learn it. What differentiates academic sociologists from everyone else is that they can use specialized terms and can get away with being a smartass about it. It has nothing to do with the value or intelligence one brings to the field.

I’m in a position in my life where politics, social services, and the economy are mostly afterthoughts. But since I sat through a bunch of lectures and read through some papers, I’m considered a better authority on these subjects than somebody who has to directly deal with them daily.

Non-Monetized Together aims to fill in this gap of knowledge formed by academic sociology. By encouraging an active comments section, it is not just a blog, but an online community, a virtual classroom, and an opportunity for readers to volunteer their stories. I wanted to build a space where people of all walks of life can build off each other’s knowledge, create their own theories, and prove that they can be intellectuals too.

Just remember, we are all equals here.

Discuss...

Medium comments:

The publishers wouldn’t greenlight that. Every article is trying to say, “shut up and listen to me.”

Yes. I am an academic. So true.

Brian G (aka 'bumpyjonas') – he/him


Mr. Kevin,
I can show this essay to a dear friend, a retired professor of Sociology, and can imagine the response. “There's no data to back that up”.

We love her to death, and I have had real exchange over issues in life. Although I may have years of personal experience behind my 'working opinion' on the subject, there's no data to back it up. I believe that means, 'tested data' gained and published.

True. My data is collected personally: seen, felt, repeated over time. Perhaps empirical, and with my own observations as verification.

She is right of course. There are always variables that can alter my personal findings. If my data hasn't been published to be scrutinized by others, then it remains a theory.

So I live my life in question whenever I remember to do so. My impressions are indeed valuable. We ought to all proceed without closed opinions. Life is better.

dick

Yeah, you don't need a sociology degree to collect data.

Kevin the Nonmonetized