Social imagination refers to the ability to understand the interaction between man and the broader society by looking at the biography and history of an individual and the world respectively. It can distinguish between personal problems and social ‘epidemics.’ From past to date, society has been continuously faced with issues that are now seen as the norm in society as it affects a higher percentage of individuals. However, individuals that are faced by these social issues handle them as individuals’ troubles blaming themselves for what they have encountered in their life rarely thinking about the life of others and the society at whole. To understand the issues of society understanding a man’s at their level problems is important and vice versa.
Obesity is a major social problem affecting countries around the globe today and brought about by health issues and choices. Studies on obesity indicate that a society may influence an individuals’ weight or obesity directly and indirectly primarily through the social structure of the individual. This is known as ‘social influence hypothesis’ (Shoham et al., 2015). As much as it can be taken as an individual problem at a certain point, the surrounding individuals and society may have a more significant influence on the person with obesity. For instance, low wages or salary may affect an individual eating habit and may lead to obesity since it can be as a result of poor eating habits. Obesity can also be influenced by the society way of thinking in personal qualities and body status. In either way, the necessary step of understanding obesity is to understand man and society altogether.
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As much as the body’s appearance can easily be manipulated by dieting, exercise cosmetic surgery and clothing our bodies are taken to be simply an indicator of human personalities that is sex, age and gender and factors that affect appearances. Society often denounces fatness and appreciate and value thinness; thus cognitive society issues have an effect on obesity. (Shoham et al., 2015). The inter-relation between personal factors and those affecting the body appearance explains why weight is rarely acknowledged in society. A person may assume that the fatness of the body is an inherited issue or the fat body looks smart, attracting and sexy or society may believe that an individual may be overweight and healthy or thin and unhealthy not taking into consideration about the weight or ‘sizeism’ (Huston, 2016). Through this, it is seen that society has a hand in obesity as the social issue globally
Explanations that help out to further the understanding of the interaction between an individual’s troubles and social problems are institutional and structured settings. Structure settings refer to the relationships that are created in the society between individuals such as employer versus employee, doctor versus patient, male versus female and friendships in the community. Institutional settings are the rules and regulations that are set to govern society or to help in activities. Structure easily influences the issue of obesity as it mainly focuses on relationships among people in the community. They may easily influence a man with friends negatively or positively. For instance, if drunkards and lazy people surround a man, it most likely that most of the times they spent together they drink alcohol, and if lazy he will rarely do body exercises (Carey, 2016). The probability of this man being obese is increased as obesity is brought about by poor health and eating habits, in this case, consumption of too much alcohol.
In conclusion, to understand the world and problems encountered around the globe, the fundamental relationship between individuals and society must first be understood. Solving these social issues must start by answering it individually then spread to the broader society.
References
Carey G. (2016). Can the sociology of social problems help us to understand and manage “lifestyle drift.” Health Promotion International, 32 (4), 755-761
Huston D. J. (2016). Teaching critical perspectives on body weight: the obesity “epidermic” and pro- Ana movement in classroom discussions. Teaching Sociology , 45(1) 41–53.
Shoham D.A. et al., (2015). Modelling social norms and social influence in obesity. Current Epidemiology Reports, 2(1), 71-78.
