The term "Sociological Imagination" was coined by an American sociologist named C. Wright Mills in 1959. Mills described the "sociological imagination" as "the vivid awareness of the relationships between personal experience and the larger society.” The goal of using the sociological imagination is to gain the ability to analyze different things in society and become capable of discerning different or similar patterns between society and oneself. With the sociological imagination, you are able to create a broader perspective to see factors in how different changes or norms in a society affect the average person, allowing you to see the whole picture rather than a single point of view. An example to better understand this concept is a company that fires its employees. From the individual worker's perspective, they would wonder how much effort they made to keep their job or what they could have done to keep their job. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay However, if the worker looked through a lens with sociological imagination, they would be able to see that losing their job is not a result of weak character, but the result of their jobs being handed over to labor at low cost to another country, a massive outsourcing of jobs. (The example is from Macionis 9.) Using the power of the sociological imagination, people are able to better discern the similarities and differences in social trends and personal experience. On Friday, July 13, 2018, my family and I went camping with a group of family friends in Livermore, California. I knew little or nothing about the people we went with; they were all complete strangers to me. When we arrived and finished setting up the tents, my parents introduced me to one of their dear friends, Chi Nguyen. Chi Nguyen is a 63-year-old Vietnamese woman who loved making people laugh and was surrounded by a friendly and welcoming aura. She was a short, pale-skinned, energetic woman who definitely acted much younger than she actually was. Chi grew up in a poor, Catholic area of ​​California. His mother worked in a newspaper printing plant and his father worked in the field. They often had trouble putting food on their plates some nights and didn't have the technology that was so prevalent in their lives. Education was weak and a good education was reserved for the privileged growing up. Despite this, he worked a lot in schools. She was one of four children and received a lot of love from her parents and neighbors, even though the love was divided among four children. Who remembers how small his community was on his street and how he treated everyone there like some sort of family, and how they had some houses with open doors and lots of conversation. They often exchanged goods, washed each other's clothes, and held lunches or religious gatherings. Her life, as she described it, was hard, but still peaceful and beautiful. Who met her future husband Khan at community college. They stayed in a single house with his relatives. At the time, for her, she only saw Asian Americans and African Americans residing in her area. Chi married Khan at age 24 and they had the first of three children when Chi was 25. This decision to have so many children was never something he had to think about, he wanted a large family because of how much family meant to him. Who has never divorced anyone, as she never believed in this concept and loved her husband dearly, possible due to his religious affiliation. Finding a stable job with her husband wasdifficult and his family was poor. They had very little, and Chi worked part-time as a cashier in a grocery store, but spent most of her time at home raising her children. At the same time, she was going to community college to earn her bachelor's degree. Chi's time finding work and housing was difficult. They were constantly moving from house to house because of the uprising. Despite the obstacles, she slowly worked her way up, starting as a cashier, then a seamstress, and finally a public nurse after years of hard work. She is a very religious woman and says that Catholicism has helped her stay on track to creating a better future for her family. He attends Mass and Confession every week and has enrolled his children in a Catholic school. Apparently, her parents were also heavily influenced by Catholicism, and she was somewhat forced to conform to their Catholicism due to strict parenting. It was clear that religion was a major driving force for Chi, and apparently still is today. Chi is a very positive and hard working woman who has had to overcome many obstacles to get to where she is today. It's easy to see that my life is very different from Chi Nguyen's. Hearing Chi tell me about all these things, like the difficulties of finding a job and growing up in a poor environment, made me feel really grateful for what I have and recognize my privilege of living a much easier life. My life growing up as one of two lower-middle-class children in Berkeley, I never had to worry about getting enough food every night or finding a stable place to live. A good education has been a privilege for me, and the rise of media and technology has become one of my main ways of socializing. My life was peaceful and free of struggle. To start, we have just one thing like this. The only similarity we share is that we are both Vietnamese Catholics. However, I didn't have to conform to Catholicism as much as Chi. Chi and I are completely different in almost every way. One of these differences that sets us apart is technology. Growing up for me, technology was becoming one of the main ways to communicate with others. Emails, phone calls, text messages, etc., have pretty much erased the concept of face-to-face discussion that Chi so often had. As a result, many face-to-face connections and bonds were unusual for me, as I had the ability to talk to my friends or make new ones at my fingertips. I grew up not knowing any of my neighbors, as many other millennials did because we no longer need to knock on someone's door. Not needing to socialize with your neighbors because of texting and media became the catalyst for the disappearance of face-to-face, and the things Chi did for socializing like lunches and gatherings disappeared for me. Another difference is the social environment. Who grew up in a poor area of ​​California, in a time when minorities and whites lived in separate sections. For this reason he saw mainly Asians, African Americans and Christians, unaware of the great diversity of cultures and religions. Because of this, she grew up ignorant of other norms and cultures. She told me how she was forced to conform to Catholicism and its culture, and she complied because it was simply the only religion she saw around her. This is very different for me. I grew up surrounded by diversity. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay I would look around and always see a person completely different from me, both in religion and in.