So know you don't get an easy A. What I am talking about is Merton’s manifest and latent functions via "An Easy A". Most of you are familiar with the movie mentioned above. I chose the story of Easy A, to illustrate Merton’s concepts of manifest and latent functions. This tale of rumors and reputations is about how high school student Olive Penderghast’s decision to help a friend out brings a series of unexpected events and consequences. Olive’s decision to help her bullied friend out by saying they had hooked up, could be viewed as the manifest function, or the intended purpose. However, the repercussion of this act was a suddenly tarnished reputation and the requests from a lot more of her less than desired and troubled peers, which could be regarded as the latent function or the unintended consequence. Watch the trailer below to gain an understanding into the concept.
And here is a link to a Sociology project that explains how Reality TV has changed the norms of society. There are some examples of symbolic interactionism, conflict theory, and so forth.
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