I will not be minoring in Sociology

I scheduled an appointment with my career counselor earlier. She gave me some good resources and advice on whether or not I should minor in Sociology. I’ve been thinking about minoring in it since the curriculum interested me. It has classes for social work, counseling skills, human rights, multiculturalism, and social stratification, which are all topics that are important to me.

She mentioned that she knew an alumnus who also majored in Computer Information Systems and tutored people (mainly elderly folks) on how to use technology, and now they work with teachers on implementing some type of educational technology. I thought that was really cool, but she said that that specific alumnus did not have a Sociology background or necessarily need it. However, she also said that if I were to add it as a minor, it wouldn’t necessarily hurt me. To help with the decision-making, she suggested that I make a pros and cons list:

Pros:

• Sociology is very interesting to me. I like how there’s a lot of overlap with psychology and how it focuses on larger scale societal issues.
• It’s something I care about. I believe that if we better understand the underlying root of social issues, then we can work to fix them.
• Would connect me more with like-minded people.
• Would be an interesting complement to my major in Computer Information Systems.
  • The overlap between technology and Sociology is really cool with like computational Sociology, human factors in cybersecurity, human-centered computing, and tech advocacy and policy.

Cons

• Like my counselor said, I don’t necessarily have to minor in Sociology to do something good with computers.
• It would take an extra year since it’d be another 24 units.
• Extra tuition costs.
• I might not enjoy it. Learning about Sociology on my own vs having to study it in an academic setting are 2 different things. It could end up lowering my enjoyment for the subject.
• I could also get burnt out if I were to take another year.
• It probably won’t be directly beneficial to me career-wise.
• Added stress: It would be another thing to have on my plate.
• There’s also only a few classes I really want to take. I can look into auditing those courses without adding them as a full on minor.

Decision

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s worth it, as much as it pains me to say it. It’s not required for what I want to do. Not that it has to be, but if I were to take on a whole extra year and a minor, I’d need it to be something that I would be willing to fully commit to.

I think the best course of action for now is to take or audit the Sociology courses I like and then going from there. If I end up loving them, I’ll reconsider adding the minor.

The reason I went down this rabbit hole is that I remember my therapist telling me not to neglect parts of myself, since that could lead to some dissatisifaction later down the line. The example she used was a creative person (let’s call him Bob) not feeling fulfilled since he worked a job that didn’t necessarily value creativity.

Basically, she emphasized the importance of incorporating all aspects of yourself into your life. So even though Bob’s job does not require his creativity, he could still find some type of creative outlet that’s fulfilling to him.

She said it’s a similar principle to how it’s important to not neglect your cultural background either, since that can also lead to a feeling of unfulfillment and a loss of identity and belonging. I appreciated her perspective, and it really motivated me to embrace all of my interests and identities, rather than hiding them.

It was nice getting some encouragement from my career counselor and therapist, though. I’ve told other people before about my interest in both Sociology and computers, and some of them were puzzled or flat out dismissive of it. They were confused since they didn’t see the overlap between the two subjects, but I was drawn to them because I think it’s incredibly valuable to be able to understand both people and technology.

Although it’s looking like a minor in Sociology is not for me, I do still want to find some type of meaningful work that helps people with technology.