Family Guy and Sociological Imagination

This week in sociology, we talked about sociological imagination. To have sociological imagination is to be aware that when and where a person lives affects who he or she is. I am not who I am simply because of my personality or DNA. The many influences and experiences in my life have shaped how I deal with different situations, how I make friends, and even the type of music I listen to. For example, I believe that my dance teachers and friends have contributed greatly to my adaptability and openness to new people and situations. It's because of what they taught me that I am so comfortable with change. If I was born in a different time and place, such as during the Cold War, I might've been to preoccupied with the Soviet scare to dance and meet people to influence me that way. I might also be less open to people and ideas because of all the suspicion during that era.

I think a good example of sociological imagination is the Family Guy episode, "The Road to the Multiverse," where Stewie and Brian go dimension hopping and visit different universes. In every universe, they meet their family that essentially has the same genetic makeup and physical characteristics, but their personalities are different due to the changes in society around them. The parallel universes include the Walt Disney and Flintstone universes, and universes where Christianity or Frank Sinatra never was born. While everyone is familiar with the personalities of Stewie and Brain, their personalities altered in the different universes because of society around them. In the Walt Disney universe, The two characters are essentially the same, but are extra happy and cheerful because that is how the magical Disney universe affects it's inhabitants. While the multiverse episode doesn't specifically address the when and where ideas of sociological imagination, they still address the fact that a person's surroundings have a tremendous impact of who that person is.