Social Media Sociology

America teeters on the precipice: our government is now captive to special interests and big money, twin cancers that threaten our democracy. This accelerating crisis is exacerbated by a toxic social media-fueled tribalism that has replaced “what do you think?” with “which side are you on?” Our crisis isn’t just political - it’s structural: as the pace of change explodes from gradual to non-linear, the organizations that dominate our economy - centralized corporations and government - become destined to fail.

Inequality is rising globally, and rising inequality is destabilizing. A status quo of increasing inequality self-destructs. To avoid this fate, we must answer this question: Why is the gulf between the wealthy and everyone else widening? The answer boils down to one word: privilege. There are many types of privilege, but they all share two characteristics: Privilege delivers benefits, wealth, and power that are unearned. Privilege is destabilizing for many reasons: The dead weight of privilege reduces productivity, generates perverse incentives, and fuels social injustice.

When it comes to confronting Eurocentric behavior quite a few Black Americans who have been weaned within the confines of a hostile society have developed a strong case of Stockholm Syndrome. Xavier James examines in detail this tragic psychological disposition. 

Your pregnancy should be a joyous time in your life. However, you're feeling alone and left out. You keep thinking that as soon as your stomach starts to show, he's not going to want to have sex with you anymore. What will make him cheat? Does he resent the fact that you're pregnant? Is there anything you can do to stop it? Should you take him back if he does? Is it your fault? These poignant questions are answered in this hard hitting analysis. 

Dr. Josh Luke is a former hospital CEO, industry disruptor, and award-winning healthcare futurist who breaks down America’s complex and greed-ridden healthcare delivery system. Health-Wealth: Is Healthcare Bankrupting Your Business is the guide to understanding how your company can provide enhanced, personalized, and specialized healthcare options for your employees, while at the same time reducing overall spending on healthcare. 

When we think about viruses, we think about diseases such as the flu. For the most part, the flu comes and goes—the body is able to fight it. For some, it can be deadly. There are of course more dangerous viruses out there such as Ebola that in some cases kills 90 percent of those infected. In today's world, viruses can spread very quickly and it's for this reason we must be vigilant. Carl Zimmer in his book A Planet of Viruses discusses what viruses are and why they are so hard to eradicate. He also explains how not all viruses are bad and are, in fact, vital to our survival. Enjoy!

America’s unique prosperity is based on its creation of a middle class. In the 20th century, that middle class provided the workforce, the educated skills, and the demand that gave life to the world’s greatest consumer economy. It was innovative and dynamic; it eclipsed old imperial systems and colonial archetypes. It gave rise to a dream: that if you worked hard and followed the rules you would prosper in America, and your children would enjoy a better life than yours. Incredibly, however, for more than 30 years, government and big business in America have conspired to roll back the American dream....

Researchers are now applying the lens of science to study heroism for the first time. How do biology, upbringing, and outside influences intersect to produce altruistic and heroic behavior? And how can we encourage this behavior in corporations, classrooms, and individuals? Elizabeth Svoboda explains how our genes compel us to do good for others, how going through suffering is linked to altruism, and how acting heroic can greatly improve your mental health.

Are we living the good life - and what defines good, anyway? Americans today are constructing a completely different framework for success than their parents' generation, using new metrics that TEDWomen speaker and columnist Courtney Martin has termed collectively the "New Better Off".

How do we make the judgment call between self-interest and caring for others? Drawing on the latest scientific research and interviews with social scientists, spiritual leaders, ex-cons, altruists, and philosophers, Matousek examines morality from a scientific, sociological, and anthropological standpoint. Each chapter features a series of questions, readings, interviews, parables, and anecdotes that zoom in on a particular niche of moral inquiry, making this audiobook both utilitarian and fun.

Are you offended by the elitism of the public schools? Do you believe parents not bureaucrats should control children's education? Are you appalled at the school system's abuse of pharmaceutical drugs? Do you feel confined by mandatory curriculum and compulsory education? Are you fed up with the lackluster education the public schools provide our children? Would you consider homeschooling and other alternatives to the public schools? If you answered yes to these questions, then this audiobook is for you.

Whether we need to make better financial choices, find the love of our life, or transform our career, crowdsourcing is the key to making quicker, wiser, more objective decisions. But few of us even come close to tapping the full potential of our online personal networks. Zoref's clients are using his techniques to innovate and problem-solve in record time. Now he reveals how crowdsourcing has the ability to supercharge our thinking and upgrade every aspect of our lives.

Chili peppers, Hot Mustard, and Horseradish delight the tongue like little else. Some people don't like spicy foods, but some of us can't live without them. This work praises a variety of chili peppers such as Habaneros, Ghost Peppers, Jalapenos, and Serranos, as well as Hot Mustard. If you enjoy spicy food, then you may love listening to these odes to all things hot!

For nearly 70 years, the suburbs were as American as apple pie. But in recent years things have started to change. An epic housing crisis revealed existing problems with this unique pattern of development, while the steady pull of long-simmering economic, societal and demographic forces has culminated in a Perfect Storm that has led to a profound shift in the way we desire to live. In The End of the Suburbs journalist Leigh Gallagher traces the rise and fall of American suburbia from the stately railroad suburbs that sprung up outside American cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries to current-day sprawling exurbs.

In 1973, when Wenguang Huang was eight, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death. Fearing cremation, she appealed to her family to promise to bury her after she'd died. This was in Xi'an, a city in central China, at a time when a national ban on all traditional Chinese practices, including burials, was strictly enforced. But his grandmother was persistent, and two years later, Huang's father built her a coffin. Over the next 15 years, the whole family was consumed with planning Grandma's burial.

Most of society's institutions, such as medicine, school, academia, athletics, and the legal system, violate God's laws. Given this, we can easily feel depressed, but we have hope. If we resist these institutions and build better institutions in their places, we can create a world that rocks.

When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools - and to solve the education crisis in every city in America - it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved - Newark's key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system.

In academic journals and on internet message boards, certain thinkers are laying siege to one of the great taboos. Could it be, they ask, that racism has a rational basis in science? These ideas are no longer limited to the fringe: race-based studies of intelligence have been discussed by thinkers such as Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, and Jordan Peterson. If true, it would provide an intellectual foundation for so many of the attitudes that characterize the right wing, justifying inequality and discrimination. Skin Deep demolishes the pernicious myth that our race is our destiny.

After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head-on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death by investigating Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Mayan temples, Colorado cremation pyres, Day of the Dead celebrations, Maori settlements, and tourist-destination graveyards.

When it comes to creating a great social media marketing plan, you need to make sure to try out a few different social media sites. While you may be used to Facebook marketing and Twitter marketing, nothing provides the number of conversions and sales you will get with Instagram marketing. This guidebook is going to spend some time talking about Instagram for beginners. Here we are going to talk about some of the basics that you will need in order to set up your very first business Instagram account and to start enticing the Instagram followers that you need.