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Social problems

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Social problems

Q 1 response: In “story of the stuff” video many social problems were highlighted but the three problems that are of major concern are as follow:

Advertisements: It is one of the main issues that has trapped all of us. People work day and night to achieve their goals, but when they are free, they tend to watch TV for entertainment purposes. Rather than being entertained, people get more depressed after watching a certain advertisement. These advertisements make us believe that everything is wrong with us, and the only way it can be better is to buy certain products.

Pollution: Due to the industrialization the rate of pollution is increasing day by day. This is also because consumers are increasing tremendously. Trees are cut down to clear the areas for construction purposes and also to make paper and other products. Another factor that is the reason for pollution is burning the trash. It is obvious that when there are lots of consumers, more products will be made for them, and during the production, all the wastes will be burned. Not only during production but also after the consumption, all the trash will be burned, thus causing major air pollution. This pollution will, in turn, produce toxins that will cause more health problems.

Contaminated products: As the pollution increases, many toxins are formed which will be consumed by the people. The video also highlighted that most of the toxins are consumed by newly born as breast milk is the most toxin product. Although breast milk is the main source of nutrients as the mothers are consuming toxic food, the milk their produce will be composed of toxins as well. Not only food but many other products, for instance, electronic devices that we purchase are also contaminated. Most of these products are made with harmful materials like lead, beryllium and, etc (Bush, 2018).

Q 2 response: The functionalist perspective describes that each part of society is interdependent and all the aspects contribute to the functioning of society. For instance, industries are making products for the consumers and to sell their products they need to make an advertisement. An advertisement should be compelling enough so that more people buy the product. When consumers buy products, they will benefit industries, and the cycle goes on. Similarly, according to the symbolic perspective theory, people are highly affected by the interaction they have with their environment. In this particular example advertisement is considered as a symbol as people are highly manipulated by the advertisements. They feel the need to buy certain products to achieve a standard of perfection that society has made by projecting certain skin type, weight type, and electronic products as a symbol of beauty and high status.

The main difference between these two theories is that the functional perspective is more of a macro perspective as in the above-mentioned scenario not only advertisement is the main issue but industries are basically causing this issue. To sell their products industries do not bother what consequences their product advertisement can cause a person and overall environment. On the other hand, symbolic perspective is more of a micro-level perspective; for example, in the above scenario it considers advertisement solely responsible for the issue (Costa, 2019).

Q 3 response: Conservatives typically solve any problem gradually and analytically while liberals believe in creativity and new ideas that even involves risks. Particularly to solve any social problems conservatives will follow the methodological approach, for instance, to solve pollution problem they will focus on different recycling methods while liberals will focus on banning certain things like the usage of plastic to solve the environmental pollution issue.

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References

Bush, E. (2018). All That Trash: The Story of the 1987 Garbage Barge and Our Problem with Stuff by Meghan McCarthy. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 71(7), 298-298.

da Rocha Costa, A. C. (2019). The Perspectives. In A Variational Basis for the Regulation and Structuration Mechanisms of Agent Societies (pp. 9-21). Springer, Cham.