Summary Of Social Imagination By C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills created the term social imagination to describe the action of relating our own personal experiences to the greater experience of society and historical forces. By doing this, we can question habits that may seem natural or do the opposite by making things that seems weird more familiar. Social imagination changes our perspective of the world; a person could assume that someone living across the world would be completely different from them but through social imagination, they can compare their lives and see similarities. Some people can find this as a source of comfort while others may feel as though it makes them feel ordinary or not special. Mills also talks about how social imagination can allow for people to step outside what is happening to observe others. By doing this, a person is able to see the ways in which the world is constantly shifting. The textbook gives the example of comparing our lives to somebody who lived in the 1960s to see the ways in which society is constantly changing.
When I travel, I often look at the other people in the airport and wonder why or where they are traveling. Everyone travels for different reasons; some may be traveling for business, another person maybe going on vacation, someone could be visiting family, etc. Another way to look at this is by comparing the reasons why someone traveled in the 1960s to the reasons why people travel nowadays. In the 1960s, traveling was more of a luxury and was done when necessary whereas now people may travel just to get away for a weekend.
An even greater example would be comparing your own traveling experience to someone who was alive before airplanes were even invented. By comparing our life experiences to theirs, we are able to see all the changes that have happened over