Essay Sample on Ethnographer/Own Experience

The activities a college student performs during school life can be categorized into four primary aspects. The various activities include education, socialization and leisure, creativity, and personal maintenance. Personal maintenance entails activities such as exercise, regular health undertakings, and grooming, while education comprises time spent in the library, lectures, and other time spent on doing assignments. Socialization and leisure include time spent interacting with my family and friends, playing golf, surfing social media, and attending other activities such as group meetings such as church. Creativity entails participating in drawing, molding, and designing, which helps the subject to be more productive in various aspects. The predictions are formulated based on the subject’s personal life, including the student, the subject is a golfer and expressed interest in drawing and design activities. Daily, there is a specific amount of time allocated to each activity even though sometimes there is consistency in the undertakings.

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Socialization and leisure are significant aspects that help an individual connect with other people and the environment. It shows how an individual values connection with other people who an individual interacts with due to the benefits it derives. Social activities may involve various tools and objects, even though in certain activities, they are not necessarily required. As a result, the requirement has to do the specific action that an individual undertakes and the interaction of the people involved in it. Socialization provides a connection to the subject, depending on the requirement for networking. Thus, the time spent together leads to valuable impact. As such, allowing someone to function more effectively in various activities is a significant aspect. Nevertheless, the benefits of socialization may be realized based on long-term context, even though in the short-term, it creates friendship and companion to alleviate boredom.

Developing friendships requires the subject to spend more time in various social activities such as leisure, parties, and religious to ensure consistent demand for each party befriended. The increase in time of the activities spent on multiple activities does not imply the usefulness of the long-term benefits. Spending increased time on socialization and leisure suggests that an individual’s main objective is to meet social needs. As a result, it makes friendship functionally more significant to the subject than the other priorities the subject intends to meet. If an individual indeed values friendship to a level that makes it a priority, the lifestyle would make sense, and therefore time spends on social activities as opposed to education or creative activities are maladaptive behaviors of an introverted person. A comparison of the patterns and actions, it is possible to reveal the degrees of social leisure and functional activities. According to Lee, it is impossible to define abundance even though one index is whether a population exhausts all the food available from a specific area (32). As a result, establishing ample time that the subject spends on relationships and friendships would be difficult due to the complexity of the issue.

Obtaining food is a significant aspect of the survival of an individual. For instance, the! Kung Bushmen devote an extended time of up to nine hours weekly, getting food (Lee 37). Nevertheless, diet selectivity provides that if the Bushmen were living close to the starvation level, they would exploit available sources of nutrition without selectivity ((Lee 35). Education is a significant aspect that would help the subject obtain food. Also, playing professional golf, even though it fits in the category of leisure it fits in the element of securing food. The subject spends an extended period of daily education. As a result, it would appear as a functional level of social activity in the subject’s life and that of the !Kung. Also, more time is spent playing golf, which is part of socializing, which alleviates the ability to concentrate on education. However, the aspect of socialization at home is limited since the subject has one parent, which limits the number of individuals available for interaction. Nevertheless, if the parent is committed to the subject’s social activities, it would lead to less productivity and an inability to sustain economic needs. Also, in comparison with the !Kungfu, if they spent less time obtaining food, they would experience challenges getting food, which would severely affect their population.

Additionally, creativity is a significant aspect of productivity. Even though the activities in the creativity aspect do not offer much to the subject, especially on a large scale, they assist in the development of crafts that would be significant in the long-term. As a result, the subject dedicates more time to education than creativity, which implies that more time is dedicated to developing future potential than creating in the present. Giving education more priority over other aspects reveals that career is more significant that would be useful in the future for ensuring economic sustenance. According to Sahlins, considering the poverty in which hunters and gatherers survive shows that Bushmen living in Kalahari enjoyed material plenty (84). Comparing the Bushmen, in this case, would imply that if the subject does not invest in education, it will lead to challenges surviving in the long-term. The amount of time spent in class activities versus the time spent on creativity relates to the respective potential of the subject’s career growth.

The rise of technology has created a different setting for fulfilling social needs. Also, the subject can develop other skills such as drawing and design, which are significant to the subject’s society. Much of career work involves an increased level of academic writing, and therefore it leaves few opportunities for success through creativity. Lack of opportunities for work in the life of the subject provides an opportunity for mentoring others to support society. Even though all activities appear productive in the life of the subject, social interaction ranks lower before education despite replacing a great deal of time. Despite the environment demanding increased effort, the subject cannot work more than the body could handle. As a result, the issue works to support personal lifestyle while other aspects such as family and scholarships, supplement the remainder. Even though finding a job would lead to more financial freedom, it would affect the subject’s education, and therefore, it is considered unnecessary.

Socialization provides a sense of belonging to the subject and acquaintance with the norms of a specific social group. An individual can survive in various social settings regardless of the level of civilization due to the nature of humans. As such, they are developing social connections is a significant aspect of life, even though the subject experiences less socialization at home due to the nature of the family setup. Also, the world was developed in a way that would allow human beings to interact even though some limiting factors inhibit the achievement of the socialization goal. Achievement of social objectives does not imply forgetting to pursue the primary purpose of economic performance. Similarly, the !Kungfu ultimately spends some part of their lives with others as opposed to experiencing independent leisure. Achievement of a specific goal is a valuable aspect, more so when others are around us to motivate and help us celebrate.

Works Cited

Lee, Richard, and Irven De Vore. “What do hunters do for a living, or how to make out on scarce resources.” Man the Hunter, Aldine Publishing Company, 1968, pp. 30–48.

Sahlins, Marshall. "The original affluent society" (abridged). The Politics of Egalitarianism: Theory and practice, ed. Jacqueline Solway. NY: Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 79-98.