The Sociological Imagination

Abstract

The average person lives too narrow a life to get a clear understanding of today’s complex social world. Our daily lives are spent among friends and family, at work, play, watching TV, and surfing the Internet. No way can one person grasp the big picture from their relatively isolated lives. There’s just not enough time or capacity to be exposed to the complexities of a society of 305 million people. There are thousands of communities, millions of interpersonal interactions, billions of Internet information sources, and countless trends that transpire without many of us even knowing that they exist. What can we do to make sense of it all?