by Aneudy Abreu Reynoso, Elements of Sociology 1101-1776
The XLVI Super Bowl
The super bowl, rather than being just a popular event is like a holiday for most people. The food and drink sales reach astonishing levels. The famous chicken wings turn into a temptation really hard to avoid. The majority of companies take advantage of the vast number of viewers to present their commercials, which are always funnier, more attractive, and certainly more expensive than usual time slots. According to Yahoo!®Sports, the XLVI Super Bowl had 111.3M viewers and 166.8M who watched at least part of the game. Some of those people watched the game for the commercials or for the half-time show on which Madonna was viewed by an average of 114 million. Whether they watched it for the commercials or because they really follow the game, what is certainly true is that a lot of people from different cultures, customs and countries were more than just watching the same game but having something in common. This is one of the events on which the social status, economic position or even your ethnic group does not matter. That day we all were either Giants or Patriots. Almost all of New York was dressed up with blue colors, even the Empire State was illuminated blue.
The eve before the game some of my friends told me that the Super bowl was one of the most important events for the American people. This statement drew me to the following questions? Is it really important for American people only? Does anyone else watch the game? Why do they watch it? I did not find the answer browsing the Internet. Instead, I woke up Sunday morning early, grabbed my pad and went out to survey people in the streets. I live in a crowded sector of Hispanic people so I started with them. To my surprise I found that 6 out of 10 young people were going to watch the game. When I asked them why they were watching it, some of them told me “because I like the commercials,” others were a bit more sincere and confessed to not knowing anything about the game, but they did not want to miss it. I also interview some others Hispanic people who told me they were planning not just to watch the game but to go to a bar with friends and enjoy the classic big screen, a lot of chicken wings and beer.
While doing my survey all day long I met people from totally different cultures where American football is not practiced but they were still watching the game that day. After seeing the result of my survey I looked back to my first days in New York. My brother took me to Times Square to see all of the huge billboards and all of the stunning lights. I remember I wasn’t that amazed but at some point when I started to look around I found myself staring at a woman whose skin hue was totally unfamiliar to me. Without exaggerating she seemed to me to have an orange color. Then I noticed that I was surrounded by people from all over the world. None of us shared anything in common except for one thing; we all wanted either live in or visit New York City. We all wanted to be a New Yorker. That is where the sociology perspective comes onto the scene. According to an article posted on http://www.CliffsNotes.com “sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels and from different perspectives. From concrete interpretations to sweeping generalizations of society and social behavior, sociologists study everything from specific events (the micro level of analysis of small social patterns) to the “big picture” (the macro level of analysis of large social patterns).” It’s at that macro level that the social phenomenon of the Super Bowl has become a mass-media event. Either by their own way or via the “standard” way of following and enjoying the game, people go through the same social patterns.
The XLVI Super Bowl
References
Anthony Riccobono, Sport&Starts, Super Bowl Ratings: How many people will be watching in 2012? (2012) <http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/292823/20120203/super-bowl-ratings.htm>
CliffsNotes.com. Three Major Perspectives in Sociology. 10 Feb 2012
<http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26837.html>.
Yahoo!®Sports, Super Bowl draws record 111.3M viewers on NBC (2012)
< http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-superbowl-ratings>
Aneudy Abreu 