Social Context
While reading "Value/Evaluation", by Barbara Smith, I was most struck by the idea of social context. Smith says, "the 'force' of our judgments in every sense - that is, their meaning and interest for other people and their power to affect them - will always depend on, among other things, the nature of that context and our relationship to the people we address" (4).
I work in retail pharmacy. It's a fast-paced, loud, and busy job where any conversation is punctuated by customers, ringing phones, crying children, beeping fax machines, drive-thru customers, and more ringing phones. I work with primarily women, aged 23-60. We all read in our free time, and a sort of impromptu book club/Netflix binge-watch club has started. While we don't all read the same book or watch the same show at the same time, books do get passed from person to person, hours of sleep are lost between shifts, and they are discussed between the phone calls and assorted crises that inevitably arise at work.
Barbara Smith's ideas about social context in particular prompted this question; Why do I seem to enjoy most of the books and shows recommended to me at work? While we all share gender and occupation, we come from different age groups, different social classes, different areas. We are college students and grandmothers. We are married and the eternally single. We are Republicans and Democrats. The genres of these books and shows fluctuate from romance to action to drama to sci-fi. So why?
Because of the 'relationship' that I have with these people? Am I more likely to enjoy their suggestions because I like them as people? I think so. I think that because I see value in them, I see value in what they enjoy. I know these people well enough to know what to expect going into it.
I work in retail pharmacy. It's a fast-paced, loud, and busy job where any conversation is punctuated by customers, ringing phones, crying children, beeping fax machines, drive-thru customers, and more ringing phones. I work with primarily women, aged 23-60. We all read in our free time, and a sort of impromptu book club/Netflix binge-watch club has started. While we don't all read the same book or watch the same show at the same time, books do get passed from person to person, hours of sleep are lost between shifts, and they are discussed between the phone calls and assorted crises that inevitably arise at work.
Barbara Smith's ideas about social context in particular prompted this question; Why do I seem to enjoy most of the books and shows recommended to me at work? While we all share gender and occupation, we come from different age groups, different social classes, different areas. We are college students and grandmothers. We are married and the eternally single. We are Republicans and Democrats. The genres of these books and shows fluctuate from romance to action to drama to sci-fi. So why?
Because of the 'relationship' that I have with these people? Am I more likely to enjoy their suggestions because I like them as people? I think so. I think that because I see value in them, I see value in what they enjoy. I know these people well enough to know what to expect going into it.
