What is a Social Construction? (in less than 4 minutes)

This video explains the social construction of Justin Bieber (and reality) in less than 4 minutes. It is a bit of a trial run with youtube for me, any feedback is welcome!

[@discountconsulting]

This video explains so clearly that talking about things in terms of their social construction has nothing to do with whether they are real ontologically or not, yet there are still comments debating whether something is either real or a social construct. This is a perennial strawman argument that will never go away because, for some reason, some people hate the social constructionist approach and want to turn it into an opportunity to assert that things are real over and over again.

[@Mind101]

I think that people are provoked due to the common misunderstanding that social constructionism refers to the ontological status of things. It is an unfortunate language issue.

[@discountconsulting]

The point isn't that some things are social constructions and others aren't. The point is that humans take and make information, which they socially construct into forms they take for granted as realities. If they make a plan for a building, for example, they can construct the ontological status of the building as 'yet-unrealized' while having constructed real plans, which they socially construct as part of a 'real plan' for a building and not just a 'design.' Then, when the building is actually constructed out of physical materials, you can socially construct it as being more than 'just a social construct,' but that in itself is a way of socially constructing it as "more real than a social construction." You see, every act of defining or otherwise asserting the ontological status of something is itself a process of social construction, so it's senseless to debate about what is and isn't a social construction, because the very debate then becomes a social-construction process, and thus a moot discussion.

[@discountconsulting]

Forget about classifying things as different types of constructs. Start with social interaction and then take note of how social interaction brings different things into being in different ways. Construction workers might bring a building into being with their labor and bricks, but tourists make bring the same building into being as an icon using cameras, postcards, etc. Humans take things and re-construct them into various forms, physical and conceptual, and then circulate and use the constructs in various ways. So there is nothing that humans use, know, or conceptualize that's not a social construct. The only question is how various aspects of things are used as materials to socially construct meanings and objects within human life, or even non-human life if you read Bruno Latour.

[@discountconsulting]

Berger and Luckman called their book, the Social Construction of Reality for a reason. It is about how real things are constructed socially; not how social things are different from real things because they are constructed.

[@MyBeautifulBeauty]

Thank you. you explained it well

[@climxfo975]

I like everything you said, but one things hit home to me. You said something about God, and kind of made it seem as if people don't believe in Him. I just wanted to clarify that, there are people in this world who still believe in God, like me, I believe in God, and I believe he created the world as we socially construct it to be.

[@raequalls218]

I love how you took 2 generally opposing extreme realities and merged them together at the end there. That was fantastic!!!

[@garrettevans8841]

I like how you distunguish explicitly between ontological and social reality--although if my understanding is correct, the reason it is called social "reality" is that it is very difficult in practice to tell the difference. This may be a bit off topic, but do you believe there is any way for us to access "reality as it is"?

[@Mind101]

+Asher Evans I often find that it is not very meaningful or necessary to talk about an objective or absolute reality. What empirically works still works without assuming that we have accessed the "thing in itself," right? It's an interesting question, but it has received far too much attention in the philosophy of science debates, where we should be focusing on how to produce more/better knowledge (in the pragmatic sense) rather than finding out the true state of the world. Science has, as far as we know, never discovered any ultimate truths, but it has certainly made progress nonetheless. So my answer is that we dont have to access "reality as it is" for other reasons than curiosity, perhaps :) But who knows, maybe future methods somehow can verify things in ways that we can't imagine?

[@GallonMilkProductions]

No because psychologically speaking we will always interpret things the ways we want to. Our beliefs are our reality as opposed to the reality of what happened. Look up faulty eye witness testimony for example. Things that are given in good faith of reality end up not being factually true and we can prove it. Therefore, the experience vs the reality is a moot discussion as it is the experience that humans are only able to comprehend.

[@lunadrurie6686]

This is great! I would love if you would do some similar videos on other research paradigms

[@Mind101]

Thanks Ashley! I am deep in the MBTI swamp at the moment, but I have intended to explain relativism in an accessible way (in different forms, cultural, moral, scientific etc), and different views on what makes something scientific.

[@holleyjane7993]

Nope, still confused. Must be the blonde hair. I'm studying Psychology and my exam question is: describe experiences of children and young people in different international contexts and explain how these show that childhood is socially constructed. Be great if I understood what the question was referring to! Maybe do a video on things like that for students that are looking for some examples on certain aspects of psychology or whatever you're educated in, as there's lots of us students on youtube looking for someone to expand on lots of different bits and bobs. Great video though, you made a lot of sense. Just hard when asked something specific based of social construction.

[@Friendlyneighborhoodguy]

Childhood is a social construct because even thought all humans go to biological stages different time periods and societies define childhood differently compared to how you look at it biologically. Also the length childhood should last is different in many societies

[@leighanneramirez5866]

One of the best simple explanations for those who do not want a 1/2 dissertation but just need clarification.

[@THEVOID5044]

I love the conciseness

[@robd3470]

So you assume there is no postmodern political perspective that drives the approach ? That a group of socialists got together and formulated a way of instilling their political narratives back into the academic world (Frankfurt school) ..??

[@sci-fishipcontroller2426]

I always hated reality :)

[@N-2-A_]

Thank you

[@tempressbooks1858]

What is real? Is it electrical signals interpreted by your Brain on what you can see, touch, taste. You tell me .

[@1theguitarfreak]

You're awesome

[@sojourn5606]

jb watching this for a course like 👁‍🗨👄👁‍🗨

[@Xgy33]

nice video I loved it! Liked

[@Mind101]

Thank you! Should make more of these :)

[@jimeladorakialo8083]

Actually this makes teaching and learning more fun.

[@Mind101]

Happy to hear!

[@WhateverWhateverwtghvh]

so, social constructs dont exist in reality huh? got it.

[@julia2k8]

There is no such thing as a "social construct"

[@farouspopoola]

♥

[@sandysutherland2182]

Who in the fuck is Justin Bieber?

[@Mind101]

A social construct?

[@younanm]

sc=gibberish

[@Mind101]

Did you actually watch and understand the video?

[@younanm]

@@Mind101 yes , no..don't need to understand delusional constructs

[@Mind101]

@@younanm So you're just throwing opinions about things you don't understand? Got it.

[@younanm]

@@Mind101 correct as I already have two degrees I don't need a sociology degree or check my mind at the door to know b.s. when i hear it

[@Mind101]

@@younanm The point of the video is that it its such a simple concept that you dont need a degree. If you think knowledge isn't socially transmitted then you're the one who's delusional here. Ever heard of this thing called fake news? Its pretty big right now.