However, sociology texts and summaries seem to leave out the idea that some actions, thought patterns and mindsets that are cultural and/or societal in nature make little to no logical or basic sense in the grand scheme of things. However, perhaps a covering of that dynamic would be too prone to bias and what not for a textbook like this (Giddens, 2011).
Chapter Three
The third chapter of the Giddens text is a very good read because it focuses on something that is a common thread to us all, that being socializing with other people including family and non-family as well as general life course and aging. This is something that everyone needs to know but, maddeningly enough, a lot of people fail to grasp completely, if at all. However, one kvetch about this chapter is a fairly casual summary of life course, how important it is and what actions can truly throw one's life off-kilter is not covered nearly as much in depth as it should be. This is not to say that the book should be a motivational book or proselytize to its reader. However, there are a lot of people making decisions that are clearly bad for their future such as having kids too early, having kids out of wedlock or not finishing high school and that vein of thought is not really covered all that well given that it's clear that such actions are highly destructive and counterproductive to a solid and promising future. I guess Giddens was trying to avoid controversial statements and/or appearances of bias but clearly stating facts is not bias. it's not that hard to leave race and gender out of the discussion while still making the point (Giddens, 2011).
Another thing is that the book's third chapter is perhaps not modern or inclusive enough of real-world situations...
They really should be mentioned in this chapter or at least covered more in-depth than they are. The heavy (some say over-use) of the internet for social circle creation and fostering, cyber-bullying, online dating, the introduction of technology to children and so forth are all modern issues and/or problems that should be covered at great length when speaking about socialization and so forth. There are entirely too many people that live their lives too much or entirely online and it's not healthy. Again, maybe Giddens' intent was to focus more on summarizing the terms and the common theories but if one truly wants to make a different with sociology, and that is the stated purposes of the social science professionals more often than not, then the persons making the statements and summarizing what's going on need to make more profound statements. This is possible without "stepping in it" from a controversy perspective (Giddens, 2011).
Conclusion
All in all, the text being reviewed in part in this report is quite good but it's scaled a little higher than it should be given the likely audience that the book would or should have. This is not to say the book is bad because that is certainly not the case. However, between the lack of proper modern context as well as how this book is a tad too advanced, it should probably be scaled down a bit with a better explanation of the topics involved and how they can be easily applied to society through the use of examples and more focus on explanation rather than just skipping to the next topic (Giddens, 2011).
References
Giddens, a. (2011). Essentials of sociology (3rd ed.). New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton.
