Final Exam

Ritual is defined by sociologists as ‘that part of family life that the family likes about itself, is proud of and wants formally to continue.’ Another text notes that ‘the development of a ritual by a family is an index of the common interest of its members in the family as a group.’

What has happened to family rituals, those regular, dependable, recurrent happenings that give members of a family a feeling of belonging to a home rather than living in it merely for the sake of convenience, those experiences that act as the adhesive of family unity far more than any material advantages?

Mealtime rituals, going-to-bed rituals, illness rituals, holiday rituals—how many of these have survived the inroads of the television set?

Marie Winn, Television: The Plug-In Drug








Marie Winn, author of “Television: The Plug in Drug” feels that television has poisoned our minds by changing our view of rituals. I agree with Winn that our rituals have changed, but I don’t agree with Winn when she says that it is because of television. One of the examples that I personally experienced in ritual changed during holiday season such as Thanksgiving. When I was younger, for thanksgiving, my parents would marinate the turkey and prep the side dishes a week in advanced. We would invite our friends and families one month in advanced to let them know, what time they need to be at our house. And on top of that, my parents would always give them the, “no excuse, you better be there,” lecture.
Now that I’m older my parents would either order precooked turkey or sometime we wouldn’t even have turkey for Thanksgiving. We would have ribs or some type of meat ordered to go. Just whatever restaurant that would be open on Thanksgiving Day, is our dinner. I also notice how the one month advance becomes one day advance. But if our friends and families can’t make it, that’s up to them. No lecture was given. Not only does this happen for Thanksgiving, but all holidays. It’s sad how I can see, what used to be family gathering urgency during the holidays, is now not a priority.
Reason why I don’t agree with Winn, that television is the reason for our lack of rituals is because for incidence like Holidays. I cannot see why televisions would want to ruin rituals such as holidays, because I notice that this is where advertisement happens and it is also where they get all of their shoppers, is during the holidays. Whether it’s Valentine, Halloween or a holiday that I mention earlier is Thanksgiving. This is where television makes their money. I don’t know about other families, but with mine, it been because of work, financial problem, and other priorities. This entirely can cause a lot of stress. My families are trying their best to keep family ritual, but it’s not television that keeping us from rituals. To me its society that is making rituals hard for us to keep, things such as; credit card, mortgage, personals, etc.
Some of the consequence in situation such as mine, regards to holidays is we never see my cousins, aunts and uncles. For our family, that used to be the only time we see each other. Since society has gotten us so busy, this is what I notice that we sacrifice… are rituals during the holidays.
I think that some of the things that would help with rituals such as holiday’s is we need to find a way to set aside time for families and friends no matter how busy life get for us. We need to recognize that family is important and they won’t be with us forever, but materials, bills, stress will always be a problem, its part of life. Society cannot manage this problem for us, but what we can do is definitely change our busy life by managing our time wisely and take on only bills that we can afford, this way stress is not taking over our time, and we are not working 24/7 to where we neglect our family ritual.