The sociological imagination is a practice that can be defined as the ability to think outside of our own personal perspective. This allows us to be aware of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society. It also allows us to look at our familiar practices in a way that is critical.
I have often used my sociological imagination to think about our means of transportation. We often take for granted how incredible cars or airplanes are. Even after the Industrial Revolution, it could take a person several months to travel across the world. Nowadays, we can do that in about a day. Moreover, developments such as the bullet train have made long journeys extremely quick and easy. I have used my sociological imagination to think of our love of travel, and how easy it is for everyone nowadays to travel abroad or across the country. This is a recent practice that appears wasteful, unnecessary, or simply incredible when I look at it from the perspective of sociological imagination.
