Month: June 2020

I will be writing about the ted talk video. So if you are a Gen Z then you are born from 1996 to 2015. There are good things on the internet like how to speak different languages. And there are also neutral things on the internet like conspiracy theories. And there are bad things on the internet like school shootings and protesters and ways to die and stuff like that. Most of the news is about negative stuff like people going to jail and deaths and global warming and stuff like that. People who work for the news are telling us too much stuff about negative things so we are scared about everything and our anxiety levels go up. Like if you hear like a story of a school shooting or like there are murders everywhere and like bad stuff, you would get scared. and it affects everybody in gen z. Like for example, in the video, they were in history class and they heard a big pop and they thought it was a gun and a school shooting was going to happen, even though they knew it was from the science class where they were popping balloons for a science experiment. This shows how easy it is to get frightened if you knew about any of these negative stuff, like kidnappings and school shootings, and serial killers and stuff like that. We need to tell the news to not give us too much negative information.

The ideas that Victor gets in the short story “Seventh Grade,” are flawed. It is pretty obvious that Victor is trying to get Teresa to like him by impressing her, which, fair enough, is a way to get somebody to like you. The problem is his methods, which we will be talking about later, and the effect on him in general.

One way that Victor tries to get Teresa to like him is looking better. The problem his what his idea of looking better is. His friend gave him the idea that all handsome people scowl. Therefore, people who scowl are considered handsome. Victor thinks this method works after trying it out, and seeing that girls look at him more often. The problem is that this obviously does not work, as even he thought that scowling would not make him look better when his friend first described this to him.

Another thing that Victor does to get Teresa to like him is to appear more knowledgable then he really is. Specifically, pretending to know how to speak French. His teacher immediately called Victors bluff, to which Victor responds in some very uncertain and made up French. This then results in Victor being completely humiliated in the first couple minutes of class. When the bell rings, Victor is too embarrassed to even look at anyone. Although one thing has gone his way: Apparently, Teresa does believe that Victor knows French, and his teacher is nice enough to let Victor get away with it.

The problem is the effect that this has on the way other people see Victor. Contrary to Victors belief, girls are not looking at Victor because they think that he is handsome, but rather because they think he looks weird from scowling. Victor then proceeds to ensure everybody in his french class that he has no idea of what he is doing by pretending to know french. This, if continued, will lead to his reputation being destroyed. Teresa may end up liking him, but will soon realize that the way Victor behaves is all an act, which will leave without Teresa and without a good reputation.

For the past few months, we have been trapped inside our houses, unable to attend school, let alone anywhere with more than three people. The Coronavirus, or COVID-19 has ravaged the country, or so some think, and has shut down businesses across the country. Everyone knows this, probably even the illiterate Cro-Magnon living in the basement level of some dilapidated parking lot. In short, this pandemic has affacted society in more ways than many, but it takes its toll on us individually in the form of cutting off social connectivity.

Solitude is nice. It’s a break from the agonizing screams from parents, siblings, or both, a pause button for life’s worries and stress. However, on the contrary, isolation is, well… boring, not just as an annoyance. When society lacks social contact, datrimental effects befall on us people.

In “Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger,” by Scott Barry Kaufman, MIT researchers conducted an experiment in which 40 people were instructed to spend 10 hours away from any and all forms of social contact, and the results showed that the participants experienced a feeling of hunger or withdrawl in the midbrain, not dissimilar to an experience of going long periods of time without drugs or food, creating a craving sensation. Earlier in the article, it states that, “If the need for connection really is a basic need, then its deprivation should show similar effects on the brain and behavior as the deprivation of other basic needs such as food and sleep.” Thus, taking the research into consideration, it is safe to assume that human nature has a specific requirement or need for social contact.

As humans, by nature, are social animals, this craving of being with friends, or even making new ones out of strangers, seems completely normal and evident. However, in an event such as COVID-19, in which we are bound to our couches at home, TV remotes, or computer mice in hand, it becomes extremely obvious that social contact is necessary.

At this point in time, we are both fractured from society as a whole, but are more connected than we ever were, thanks to the existence of a very helpful tool: the Internet. Modern technology has made it possible to talk to, play with, or see almost anyone you know. Most people end up online as a result of seperation in the real world, causing more socializing to occur, more friends being made, and generally, a higher usage of computers. Although connectivity is so easy, simple methods of communication can also distract us from work, or other things that are more important than chatting online.

Despite this pandemic tearing us apart in terms of social connection, it also brings us together in a more convenient, albeit less healthy way of being with the ones we love.

Throughout my middle school and freshman years, I have witnessed many students express that they want to kill themselves. Most of the times, they mean it in a joking way, and the others around them chime in about how much they can relate. Combined with an unhealthy amount of self pity, this attitude can be very degrading.

A lot of times when a student says that they want to die, they are just following an ongoing trend. Just like the emo scene from the early 2000’s, being depressed is an aesthetic. Many people will try to act sad or empty just to fit a certain vibe and be popular among friends. Whether or not they are actually struggling with something, previous generations have never voiced their depression as much as Gen Z. I have heard many blame it on stress, but I do not think that is the case. In our time, one can still live in a privileged and safe area with opportunity regardless of whether they went to a good college. However in my immigrant parent’s generation, they needed to get into a top college in order to escape their developing country and find jobs in America. Like me, the vast majority of my school has parents that came from an Asian country. Our parents had much more riding on their education, therefore stress should not play a part in our obsession with depression.

I think the problem is that we are too sheltered, and have never needed to experience any hardships in our comfortable life. That is not necessarily a bad thing, since we will get used to the real world soon enough, but maturing high school and middle school students sometimes can’t handle obstacles that previous generations were accustomed to encountering. However, I do not think that our parents should blame us for being “soft”, because they were the ones who put us here.

Behavior

Social behavior includes how an individual’s thoughts, feelings and behavior influences, and is influenced by, other people. Creating social relationships is central to human well-being, and not just due to the pure joy of being with friends, or when learning social norms. It is argued that experiencing social behavior, and engaging in social interaction, is vital during childhood development. However, many children, for various reasons, are not able to participate in, or experience, the social behavior that is crucial for their well-being, mental health, and development.

The absence of social relationships and behavior have been shown to affect child development in various ways. For example, previous research has revealed that socially isolated children tend to have lower subsequent educational attainment, be part of a less advantaged social class in adulthood, and are more likely to be psychologically distressed in adulthood. This text will focus on how long-term social isolation is closely related to loneliness and physiological illness, and how it affects a healthy development of the brain.

Stress response

If a person is not able to experience the necessary level of social contact and behavior, they can experience social isolation. Social relationships are critical to the maintenance of health, and a lack of them often correlates with feelings of loneliness . Loneliness, in turn, has been linked to higher levels of stress.

The primary function of the human stress response is to protect the body from the environment. When a person is socially isolated, as it is a basic human need, the body will perceive the situation as a threat. The body cannot release stress hormones and protect the body from stressful situations for unlimited time. Having an active stress response over an extended period has been proven to increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, elevated blood pressure, infectious illness, cognitive deterioration, and mortality. These are some results from being prone to stress over time, and they are typically experienced in adulthood. High levels of stress are therefore regarded as a threat to a socially isolated child’s health, not only in their early years of life but also in adulthood.

Brain development

As argued, socially isolated children are at increased risk of health problems in adulthood. Furthermore, studies on social isolation have demonstrated that a lack of social relationships negatively impacts the development of the brain’s structure. In extreme cases of social isolation, studies of mice and have shown how the brain is strongly affected by a lack of social behavior and relationships

Early on in their development, the mice were socially isolated for several weeks to further investigate the relationship of social isolation. The researchers found deficits in the communication chains in a type of cell called oligonucleotides. In other words, these cells had impaired neuron-to-neuron communication in the prefrontal cortex. The function of these cells is dependent on social interaction to develop the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain which is associated with a variety of cognitive functions, such as planning, higher-level thought, and social interaction. The researchers argue that if the development of these cells and areas of the brain are disrupted, children can also possibly develop deficits in these areas of the brain.

Social support

The studies described in this text demonstrate the importance of social interaction, and how social isolation damages not only the physiological functions of the body but also the development of the nervous system’s support cells, which in turn affects the development of cognitive functioning. However, there are reasons to believe that the human need for social interaction is not only the risk factor but is also the “lifesaving factor.” When the human stress response is activated, multiple stress hormones are activated. One of the hormones that are released has the function to force us into social contact. As the need for social connection is important to everyone, in a vulnerable situation, this contact is so important that our body forces us to socialise.

Previous research has investigated how social support affects people who are prone to stress. Studies show children can cope more easily with high levels of stress. Research has also shown that social support is strongly associated with feelings of mastery and the ability to deal with stressful situations, as well as strongly associated with increased quality of life. Thus, by increasing the amount of social interaction, support, and contact they receive, children who experience social isolation avoid the potential harm of physiological illness, cognitive impairment, and feelings of loneliness.

Summary

This text has described how social behavior can be a risk factor for health if there is lack of it, but also how it can be a lifesaver to those struggling with social isolation. This demonstrates the fundamental need of human beings for social support, care, relationships, and behavior.

Why i think this is because he want to be the best he can be and always want to Impress people like Teresa. How i know this is because when the french teacher asked “does anyone know some french?” I think it is because when the teacher asked that only Victor said me i know, and when the teacher asked him some questions he really did’t know how to answer them answer he was saying gibberish. Another way is at the end of the story he went to the library and started to check out french book so than he can get better at friend and impress Teresa in his skills or french. He was also acting very sheepishly whenever he talked to teresa

Another reason is because obviously you all know that victor “likes” Teresa and just want to impress her. Well he want to be handsome and look good. So he started acting different and must more “cooler”. There are many types of people in the world but not everyone is the same in there personalities.

So from this story i am pretty sure now that Victor is someone that likes to impress people. and also like just like what is done is done and you can’t go back and do the things that are done.

This is just a normal life lesson and not to make yourself what you want to be and make yourself what you right now this very second.

In my opinion, middle school reading material really sucks. I don’t like it because one, they are chock-full of hard vocabulary, two, no matter where you are, in school, at home, in camp, you are expected to write an essay about it, and three, I strongly dislike most of the content in those stories.

First of all, I don’t like the fact that I have to take the time to search up so many words that I don’t understand. I think my vocabulary is pretty decent one day and then suddenly I read something on a middle school level, and boom–my self esteem drops by a ton. It takes too much time and energy to flip open a computer (hardly anybody uses dictionaries anymore now that we have Google), type in the word, and somehow try to comprehend what comes up. When I can’t understand even the meaning of the word, I look at the synonyms and then scold myself because I feel dumb. And–look at the time! It’s been three minutes. And because the stories I’m reading are so full of these kinds of words, a block of text that should’ve taken me only twelve minutes to read ends up being around thirty.

Second of all, we are expected to write something about every single story that we read. In school, we have opinion essays, graded essays, timed essays, long essays, short essays… I dislike that we have to write so much about whatever we read. I would like to just read a book in class for the fun of it instead of in preparation for some writing assignment to come later in the year. At home, (Well, I don’t know for you, but for me) I get asked to do this random thing and then the next second I get asked to do that random thing and–who knows what you’re going to be asked next! I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to do some other sort of writing assignment later. My mom signed me up for this camp so I guess this could count as assigned essays, because the whole point of this is so that my writing and reading can improve.

Third of all, I don’t like what I’ve read so far with middle school content. If it’s not kidnapping, shooting, poisoning, or other forms of killing, then it’s probably stuff like what I read today about Victor and the french scowling. And I’m not a big fan of either, if you get what I mean. During my years at the lower school, I quickly grew fond of series like Harry Potter, The Mysterious Benedict Society, or even Wings of Fire. These stories revolved around things like magic, mysteries or riddles, or adventure instead of just poisoning, and they weren’t even that realistic. It’s much creepier reading a realistic story of kidnapping and then asking for ransom from a rich guy than reading a book about mythical color-changing dragons who sleep and bask in the sun twenty-four seven, lazily eating fruit, and occasionally rolling their eyes because some queen from 100 miles away died.

But then again, that’s just my opinion on things like the vocabulary, the amount of work associated with the reading, and the content of middle school stories.

In the short story “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, Victor, the protagonist, has a major crush on a girl called Teresa. Just so he could be in the same class as her, he signs up for French class, even though he already knows Spanish.

It is the first day of school and he looks for her in the hallways to try and catch her attention. His friend Micheal told him that scowling will make him handsome and therefore catch the attention of girls. He tries it out and keeps on practicing once he sees a girl looking at him.

He is also constantly daydreaming about Teresa. Once, when his English teacher calls on him to give an example of a noun, he immediately says Teresa!

During lunch, he fakes reading a math textbook and looks for Teresa. When he spots her, he moves to a table next her and daydreams about taking her to the movies. After lunch, he follows Teresa to her next class, French class.

During French class, he even lies that he knows French, when he really doesn’t, to try and impress her. Fortunately for him, Victor’s French teacher had once used up all of his money borrowing cars in order to drive a different one each day to make a girl think he was rich. Because of that similar experience, Victor’s teacher did not reveal that Victor did not know French. Teresa actually believed that Victor knew French and wanted him to help her with French. He is so happy to get the chance and studies French textbooks so he could help her later on.

According to Madi Hammond, many of the Gen Z (1996-2015) population lives in fear every day since the internet is always talking about the bad events that happen in life. In addition, the mood of these young people is usually depressing, and phrases like, “I wanna die,” are commonly said. For example, she showed a news site, and more than half of the articles were about shootings or people losing money. However, she believes that we can use these depressing stories and turn them into a positive change. She gives several examples of young Gen Z people who are creating an amazing change in the world, like Malala Yousafzai, who fought for women’s education and Greta Thunberg, an activist for global warming. 

I completely agree with Madi Hammond as I have definitely heard the words, “I wanna die,” come from several Gen Z people, but I think that once all this information is used in a positive direction, it can make a much better life. Because Greta Thunberg was faced with all the upsetting facts about how global warming is ruining our world, she decided she was going to do something about it. She was able to set up the largest strike for climate-change and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She could have easily just looked at the news and ignored what was going in the world, but she decided to speak up, and it was a beneficial choice. The other activist Madi Hammond talked about was Malala Yousafzai. Even though she was shot by people who disagreed with her, she continued to fight for education for girls. She was the youngest person ever to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Although this information may only matter to Gen Z’s, everyone who cares about the future of our economy and world should look more into this topic. 

This ted talk about generation z has made me become aware of the things that are happening and it has shed light on many ways technology is bad for people. Generation Z, also known as gen z is the age group of people born within 1995 and 2015. I am a gen z and this video has really related to me and my life within the realm of technology. I had never really thought about how bad technology was for me, I have only thought about the positive side. I always thought of technology as a blessing, something to help me learn new things and expand my knowledge, however after watching this ted talk; the amount of negative impacts from technology seemed to compound every time I think about it.

The first point she talked about was memes on the internet that only gen z seems to find amusing. There were memes of death, which seems to be a subject talked about repeatedly in my classes. My peers talk about how they would rather die than complete this one homework assignment, which isn’t even that hard. It must have been so hard to take in for my teachers, as one of my friends have told our human skills teacher that she even considered suicide once. The look on my human skills teachers face was ghastly; and for me to think about it now is extremely hard. Since I know how hard it is and was for many people to get food on the table and survive, it’s extraordinary that people in gen z are thinking about taking their lives.

The main reason why death and suicide is such a common thing in the gen z community is because of the stories, horrifying things we hear and see on the news, social media apps, and google. The ted talk brought up many examples, one of them was a screenshot of the news on a normal day, however the negative stories were circled in red. How many red circles there were was a paradox. I couldn’t believe my eyes, more than half were stress-causing stories, wars in Iran, why Trump’s tariffs were causing bad things, a school shooting, an interminable list. However, this is not the only negative affect of technology, the internet is replete with stories similar to the ones I listed above, and those aren’t even the worst.

The ted talk speaker gave a personal anecdote, in 2016, there were stories about these killer clowns who would kill you if they found you. A very photo of these clowns would give you nightmares for months. For the speaker, she was afraid to even leave her house, afraid to even speak or write the word clown! You can see that technology can have such a immense impact on your lives, the speaker was even afraid saying a common word like clowns. It may not have been true, but whoever put the story out must have been in a state of inebriation to have even thought about ruining a child’s life like that.

The main lesson from the ted talk was instead of focusing on the negative affects of technology, turn the technology into place full of positive and helpful things. There are people in the gen z like Malala who have already accomplished so much, and they have been helping the world through many ways and means, from singing songs, to creating non-profitable organizations, to even just educating the public about the current situation and the dangers of technology. The main takeaway for me personally is to change the negative things into a place where anyone can educate themselves, read about people’s amazing journeys, and other positive things that can brighten ones life.