Jordyn Allstun

March 1st, 2016

SOC 1101.112
Bakkum
Reaction Thinking in a Sociological Way
In this video, there was a man with the name of Joshua Bell who is considered one of the
best musicians in the world, playing a 3.5 million dollar violin in downtown Washington D.C. He
had his case lying on the floor for tips as people passed by at the metro station. There was a lot of
culture demonstrated which includes, values and social norms. Other things that were shown in
the video was socialization, and conformity.
While people were walking by Joshua, the majority passed him and didnt acknowledge
that he was even there. Because of the social norms that people are accustomed to in this time
and era, nobody stopped to recognize the remarkable talent that was standing right in front of
them because it would be out of the ordinary to take time out of their day and walk over to
Joshua and really listen. Values play a role in this too because they are considered the right and
wrong things in our society that are generally accepted to be so. There were people who didnt
stop because of this, it would have been considered wrong.
Socialization was shown in this video as well. An example of this was when some of the
small children who were really intrigued by the man in the metro station playing his violin
stopped and wanted to watch and listen but were forced on by the parents. This is teaching the
child that it isnt normal to stop and appreciate the smaller things such as this, therefore, it
becomes another wrong thing to do. This then equates to them being socialized by society.

In addition, conformity is a large aspect in this. As Joshua Bell continued to play, it took
more than a half an hour for people to start paying attention to his musical abilities. One person
stopped to admire the music and then another. This started a larger crowd to stop and appreciate
what was happening right in front of them. Everyone who started to stop most likely stopped
because they saw other individuals stopping which leads to the next point of conformity.
Conformity is when someone obeys the abstract ideals that are considered to be the correct way
to act or be in a certain situation or area. This then leads back to and connects to norms and
values.
Overall, after the forty five minutes of playing music, there was quite a bit of sociological
topics directly demonstrated. This was a great example of how people go throughout their daily
lives conforming, using their knowledge of right and wrong that has been placed through society,
and their values to act a certain way out in different places and in front of certain people. All in
all, a valuable lesson has also been learned. Dont be afraid to stand out and set apart yourself
from the social norms because it could potentially lead you to appreciate the smaller things in life
that you might not have noticed if you conformed to the rest of society.