An important piece of technology

The piece of technology that I’m going to write about is the mobile phone. I don’t think mobile phones are my favorite piece of technology, but I have a lot to say abut them and I think they have an important place not only in my life, but in the lives of too many people.

The first mobile phone I got was in 2003. In that time I used it almost always to be connected with my parents. But with years I started to use it as an alarm too. When I grew up, I started to connect with more people: my friends, my boyfriend, my brother, etc. And I also used the cellphone as a planner and as a calculator. In 2007 I got al mobile phone with camera, so I could take pictures with my cellphone too!!! Finally in 2009, I got a mobile phone that allows me to listen to music. So now I use my mobile phone to be connected with people, as a watch and an alarm, as a planner, a calculator, a camera and a music player. I mean, with all that of course that my mobile phone has an important place in my life and I use it everyday, no matter if I like it or not. 

 

I think that life without my mobile phone in some ways would be more limitated. I would have more diffculities to be connectewith people. I would have to have a watch with alarm, a music player and a camera, or maybe I couldn’t have some of those things because it would be to expensive. And imagine how it would be the life of those people who has internet on their mobile phone!!! Anyway, life without cellphone would be more independent too, and more free. But it seem that with all the new technology it would take a lot of time to be without mobile phones.

Music

Music is important to society because many reasons. One of them is that music can be a speech that speaks for a lot of people. Too many people don’t have the chance to say to society what they think, but music can represent their thoughts and communicate them to society.  Also, music gets people together around tastes and is a huge expression of culture.

People listen to music because it causes and represents different emotions. People also feel represented by the lyrics and that’s another reason why people listen to music.

I don’t have a favorite type of music. I listen to a lot of different types of music. The type of music I listen to depends of the moment that I’m going thru. Lately I’ve been listening to “Calle 13”. Their music style is like hip hop with some Latin sound and protest lyrics.  You can hear them on http://www.myspace.com/calle13officialsite.

I listen to music because it makes me feel. It moves me. It makes me laugh, cry or dance. Beside when I listen to music I feel accompanied. Usually I listen to music when I’m on the computer, with friends or when I’m alone in the streets.  

"Carlitos" Marx

Karl Marx was born in May of 1818 in Treveris, Germany, inside a Jewish family. He studied law, philosophy and in 1841 finished his doctorate studies. Thru his life, he lived in important cities like Berlin, Bruselas, Paris and London, where he died in March of 1883. During his time in Paris he met his friend Friedrich Engels, how was the most important of his collaborators and give him economic support in many times.

Marx’s work goes thru history, sociology, economy, philosophy and politic. His most important work is “The Capital”, where he analyzed the course of political economic and capitalism as economic and social model in modern society. In this work we can find concepts very important for sociology like social class, work value, work worth, merchandise, capital, capital production, capital circulation, surplus value, absolute surplus value, relative surplus value, capital accumulation, etc.

Anyway, “The Capital” is not the only book where we can find his theory. There are other works like “The Communist Manifesto”, “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”, “Theses oh Feuerbach” and “The German Ideology” where we can learn and understand more about Marx’s thoughts.

I like Marx not only because his ideology, the socialism, which suggests that to end with overexploitation means of production, must belong to the proletariat and change the actual structure of our society. I think he is a sociologist that must be recognized because his work is a huge and very important contribution to social knowledge. He is one of the bases of modern sociology. And his studies are so big and deep that shows how smart he was. 

Films

People like film because of their stories give the chance to experience things out of ours realities. Thru films, people can live another life, be another person, or have a funny life if they have a bored one, for example. Besides, films make people to see the world with “glasses” that don’t belong to them. That’s why films can make people more emphatic and conscious, and give them some knowledge about other realities.

My favorite film is “Pride and Prejudice”(2005). It’s a love movie based in an English novel with the same name, written by Jane Austen. This film was directed by Joe Wrigh. The principal characters are Elizabeth Bennet, played by Keira Knightley and Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew Macfadyen. The story it’s about their love. When they met each other, her prejudice and his pride build a bad relation and they don’t get very well. But as long the story is going on, both characters do things that show the love that they fell.

This is my favorite movie because many reasons. First, I like a lot the fact that the characters break down the walls and accept their love. In second place, I think Jane Austen’s books are very good, they are part of classic English literature and are the inspiration for the most modern love stories. The other reason why “Pride and Prejudice” is my favorite film it’s because I love the way how it’s the movie made. I love the actors, the photography, the music, the places where it was filmed, EVERYTHING!!!

I leave you a photo from the movie so you can see for yourself how beautiful this film is.

Welcome

Hello and Welcome to everyone... 

My name is Manuela Jiménez and I’m a student of sociology at Universidad de Chile, in Santiago.

I’ve made this blog because it’s part of the work that I have to do for my English class. All my English classmates have a new blog too, so I’m not the only one with a new one. In ours blogs, me and my classmates are going to practice our English writing about different subjects of our interest. I hope this blog helps me to have a better English, because I know that this language is very important in ours days. I also hope have the opportunity to know what my classmates think about some subjects and create a space where we can share our similarities and differences. 

Anyway, today’s post is just an introduction and an invitation to keep reading us thru the semester. Later there will be comments about other things.

See you soon…