Everyday Sociology

By Marci Cottingham and Chau Anh Chau Anh Nguyen is from Hanoi, Vietnam and currently a senior at Kenyon College majoring in English and sociology If we take words of the year as indicators of the current zeitgeist, then what can sociologists make of brain rot, Oxford’s 2024 word of the year? It is defined as … Continue reading Resistance and “Brain Rot”

By Karen Sternheimer We’re all amateur would-be social scientists. We make observations of the world around us and draw conclusions. This is not social science: science involves creating hypotheses, or educated guesses, and then testing our hypothesis using a systematic empirical method. We also have to be open to being wrong. Always. Many of us … Continue reading Armchair Experts vs. Social Scie…

By Karen Sternheimer We have written a lot about social roles on the Everyday Sociology Blog. Back in 2020, Jonathan Wynn wrote about the role a department chair plays within a university. Within this post, he described Robert Merton’s definition of social role sets: A role might be a patterned set of expectations, but a … Continue reading Social Role Shifts and Starting College

By Stacy Torres If you see one movie in theaters this year, make it I Love Boosters, Renaissance man Boots Riley’s wildly inventive, absurdist comedy crime caper and love letter to the San Francisco Bay Area. What’s a booster? Musician, writer, producer, filmmaker, and activist Riley (Sorry to Bother You) defined the term in The … Continue reading Challenging Inequality: Why We Should All Love Bo…

By Karen Sternheimer When I was a child, I really wanted to see Mel Brooks’ The History of the World, Part I. The ads on TV looked funny, and other kids I knew allegedly had seen the movie and talked about how good it was, re-enacting some of the funnier bits. Alas, it was rated … Continue reading The Sociological Importance of Mel Brooks

By Stacy Torres My father was from Chile. Five years after his death, I’ve adapted to the past tense when referring to him, but it’s still not automatic. Was. Every time that three-letter verb of no longer being catches in my throat, I notice the slight delay even if my conversation partners don’t. I remember … Continue reading Global Culture, Immigration, and the World Cup

By Karen Sternheimer Back in 2008, I wrote a post called “A Modest Proposal to Save Journalism.” Almost two decades later, it has never been more critical to have an independent “fourth estate” but it probably won’t return in its previous form, due to political and economic pressures. Case in point: the “Thursday night massacre” … Continue reading The Paper: Journalism and the Future

By Rob Eschmann Author Andy Weir, best known for his books The Martian and Project Hail Mary, both of which were turned into successful science fiction films starring Matt Damon and Ryan Gosling, has recently been enmeshed in controversy surrounding his anti-woke comments and insistence that politics has no place in fiction. Though they’re just … Continue reading The Sociology of Science Fiction:…

By Stacy Torres During the past year-plus of wars, U.S. National Guard deployments, ICE detentions and killings, strikes on Venezuela—I’m just waiting for frogs to rain down—I’ve found my blissful reprieve in Pedro-mania. I’m talking about the meteoric rise of actor Pedro Pascal, whom I’ve finally discovered and who’s helping me tap into my own … Continue reading In Praise of Pedro-Mania: How Ped…

By Rob Eschmann The news cycle in 2026 feels straight out of a dystopian science fiction film. New AI models are so good at hacking companies hesitate to release them to the public, and the construction of new data centers force people off their land, pollute the environment, and take up natural resources as citizen … Continue reading When Science Fiction Becomes Real: Walter Mosley’s Futureland …

By Karen Sternheimer As a social scientist, I like data. If you can quantify something, I’m interested. Data is the foundation of sociology: we are not making casual observations and calling it science; we empirically gather data and look for patterns. You might have learned about the concepts of validity and reliability in a research … Continue reading When AI isn’t so I: Health Data Reliability…

By Rob Eschmann Spoiler alert:  This post includes plot details about Project Hail Mary Project Hail Mary, the 2026 science fiction film which garnered a 94% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has made over $670 million in the two months since being released, is one of the most well-received blockbusters in recent years. Ryan … Continue reading No Such Thing as “Apolitical” Art: Project Hail M…

By Monica Radu Imagine someone losing a loved one and you send them a message generated by AI. Even if the words are thoughtful and appropriate, something about it might feel… off. Maybe even a little cold. I think we would tend to read that act as impersonal, as if the emotion doesn’t fully “count.” … Continue reading When Is Emotion “Real”? AI, Condolences, and the Social Rules of Caring

By Karen Sternheimer We all know that volunteering is good for the group or organization we are helping. They get our free labor, leaving more specialized tasks for paid employees. But what if you could gain more from volunteering than you give? Would that make you more likely to share your limited amount of free … Continue reading Be Selfish: Volunteer

By Karen Sternheimer There is no shortage of hand-wringing about social media sites like Instagram enabling people to compare themselves with others, presumably leading to outcomes like depression and other mental health challenges. But social media did not start social comparison—it is woven into the fabric of many of our social institutions. As it is … Continue reading Social Comparison: It’s N…

By Karen Sternheimer When driving, we interact with other drivers in ways that are often distinct from our other interactions with strangers in public. For one, our language is more limited and less nuanced than in other interactions. We might use hand gestures (friendly and rude), flashing lights, or in extreme cases, aggressive maneuvers like … Continue reading Driving While Human

By Monica Radu I have been waiting years to write this. Tell Me Lies has wrapped after three seasons; For those unfamiliar, the TV series follows a group of college students as they navigate relationships, friendships, and identity over several years, with a central focus on Lucy and Stephen’s complicated and increasingly destructive relationship. The main timeline begins in 2007, when Lucy start…