Causal Rewrite – chickennugget246

Posted on March 29, 2023 by chickennugget246

Seat Belts Cost Lives

Seat belts are killing us. The use of a seat belt, while in an accident, has caused people to fracture bones, injure their necks, and even caused death. The most common injuries caused by seat belts are abrasions, bruises, and cuts. The more severe injuries are fractures, internal organ damage, and various soft tissue injuries. In addition, seat belts also can cause damage to the rib cage and chest areas, and they can even burn the occupants’ skin if the seat belts are made of flammable material. The more serious injuries are due to the drivers and passengers being impinged and/or crushed inside the vehicle, unable to escape the impact due to the seat belt literally locking them in place. Consider, for example, a driver wearing a seat belt when a severe impact occurs on the driver’s side door. Instantaneously, the driver could be killed as the interior driving area gets completely demolished, leaving no means of escape for the driver. Without a seat belt, that same driver could have maneuvered to the passenger seat and survived the accident.  

Even though seat belts are harming people, they continue to be installed in every motor vehicle as it is mandated that they be worn. If we were not forced to wear seat belts, these injuries and deaths could be prevented. When we consider that drivers have an enormous responsibility while operating a vehicle, the remedy is clear and it does not involve the use of seat belts. Drivers simply need to obey the laws, drive carefully, react cautiously, drive with alertness, and be very aware of their surroundings. According to “Car Accident Statistics: Fatalities, Injuries and Top Risk Factors,” “Nearly 1 in 10 fatal accidents are caused by distracted drivers.” According to the statistics by Studinski Law, it is estimated that about 33% of all deaths involved in car accidents are caused by reckless driving. Also, driver-related auto accidents include distracted drivers.

There are about 1,000 people injured and nine people killed every day because of distracted driving. Distracted driving takes the attention of the driver away from the task of driving. Such distractions include eating, drinking, and texting. Distracted driving alone causes 20% of car accident injuries, while 30% of all auto accidents are credited to the speed of reckless drivers. Information from “Car Accident Statistics: Fatalities, Injuries and Top Risk Factors,” states “These accidents are a direct result of negligence.” Examples of poor driving include speeding, failure to yield the right of way, running through stop lights, tailgating, erratic driving and racing, and texting or talking on the cell phone. Not only are these examples of reckless driving and the cause of accidents, they are illegal. In short, drivers need to respect the road. 

Consider that there is a seat belt found in every car, but not in any motorcycle. How do motorcyclists stay safe? They ride with great caution and alertness. According to “While riding a motorcycle, reflective clothing should be worn,” motorcyclists stay safe by using hand signals, wearing reflective or bright clothing, and driving in the daylight with activated headlights. Motorcyclists do not have any protection surrounding them while driving and therefore, must possess a lot more highway alertness to remain safe. While driving they must have clutch control, use two separate brakes, and keep the cycle steady and upright. Motorcycle riders must frequently check their blind spot before merging into a lane. This fear of the rider ensures an enhanced dedication to safety such as the check of their blindspot most, if not, all of the time.

All of these factors are performed to prevent a rider from having an accident with another vehicle. According to “7 Reasons Motorcycle Riders Make Better Car Drivers,” motorcycle riders are in tune to their ride, making them a better driver overall. The motorcyclist’s philosophy is to ride “like everyone is trying to kill you.” This motto allows the rider to anticipate and look for the most dangerous situations. As a rider, from the same source, states, “You learn never to trust another driver with your own safety and this makes you a better, more defensive driver.” This same philosophy needs to be accepted and implemented in the world of motor vehicle drivers. Comparing motorcycles to cars, cars have seat belts, airbags, and steel cages surrounding their occupants. While all of this equipment is installed with the intention of protecting the occupants from any impact, it gives the driver a heightened sense of security than that of the motorcycle riders, unfortunately resulting in a much lower level of attention on the roadway. 

The Peltzman Effect, as stated in the article “The Peltzman Effect,” is a theory which states, “when safety measures are implemented, people’s perception of risk decreases, and so people may feel that they can now afford to make riskier decisions. As a result, the phenomenon predicts that mandatory safety measures actually experience a lower benefit than we would expect, because the safety benefits brought about by these measures are offset to some extent by increases in risky behavior.” The article pointed out that drivers were more prone to drive recklessly due to the lower perceived risk when safety equipment was installed. Any benefit from placing safety equipment on vehicles was offset by the increase in the number of accidents due to the greater occurrence of reckless driving. Consequently, the mandatory safety measures failed to decrease the level of fatalities.

When we consider young drivers, it is even more evident that the method to make driving safer is by having safer drivers and not by the use of seat belts. According to “Car Accident Statistics: Fatalities, Injuries and Top Risk Factors,” “if we could change the manners and mentality of drivers, mostly young ones, there would be a significant reduction in reckless driving accidents.” Moreover, from the same source, it reports drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are three times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers over 20. In fact, teenage drivers cause significantly more accidents than senior drivers. In another study from yet the same source, “the US Census Bureau estimates that 12.2% of auto wrecks in the United States are caused by teenage drivers while elderly drivers over the age of 65 are responsible for 7.5% of crashes.” The reason is because young drivers are more likely to be distracted and to be less cautious on the roadways than older drivers.

Consequently, there needs to be more driving practice and stricter regulations on the roadways so there are less accidents and less injuries. With more education and better training for young drivers, the amount of accidents will greatly decline. Likewise, lessons need to be taught early on and better driving practices need to be implemented, similar to the ones held by motorcyclists. 

In conclusion, better driving practices, earlier intervention, and more highway alertness could help to prevent most accidents, and therefore, reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by the false reliance on seat belts.

References

Bishop, L. “Car Accident Statistics: Fatalities, Injuries and Top Risk Factors.” March 28, 2023.

Chandler, R. (2018, April 3). “7 Reasons Motorcycle Riders Make Better Car Drivers.”

“The Peltzman Effect.” Retrieved April 17, 2023.

“While riding a motorcycle, reflective clothing should be worn.” Retrieved April 17, 2023.

Posted in Causal Rewrite, ChickenNugget, Portfolio ChickenNugget | 8 Comments

Causal – chickennugget246

Posted on March 29, 2023 by chickennugget246

Seat Belts Cost Lives

Seat belts are killing us. The use of a seat belt, while in an accident, has caused people to fracture bones, injure their necks, and even caused death. The most common injuries caused by seat belts are abrasions, bruises, and cuts. The more severe injuries are fractures, internal organ damage, and various soft tissue injuries. In addition, seat belts also can cause damage to the rib cage and chest areas, and they can even burn the occupants’ skin if the seat belts are made of flammable material. The more serious injuries are due to the drivers and passengers being impinged and/or crushed inside the vehicles, unable to escape the impact due to the seatbelt literally locking them in place. Consider, for example, a severe impact on the driver’s side door of a vehicle with a driver wearing a seat belt. The driver could be killed when the interior of the driving area gets completely demolished, leaving no means of escape for the driver. Without a seat belt, that same driver could possibly maneuver to the passenger seat and could have a stronger chance of surviving the accident.  

Even though seat belts are harming people, they are installed in every motor vehicle and it is mandatory that they be worn. If we were not forced to wear seat belts, these injuries and deaths could be prevented. When you consider that drivers have an enormous responsibility while operating a vehicle, the remedy is clear and it does not involve the use of seat belts. Drivers simply need to obey the laws, drive carefully, react cautiously, drive with alertness, and be very aware of their surroundings. In short, drivers need to respect the road. If people could, without deviation, follow these driving practices, it could prevent a tremendous amount of accidents, which in turn, would stop the faulty promotion of seat belt use and would thus stop people from getting harmed by wearing seat belts. 

Consider that there is a seat belt found in every car, but not in any motorcycle. How do motorcyclists stay safe? They ride with great caution and alertness, using hand signals, and driving in the daylight with the cycle headlights activated. Motorcyclists do not have any protection surrounding them while driving. Comparing motorcycles to cars, cars have seat belts, airbags, and steel cages surrounding their occupants. All of this equipment is installed to hopefully protect against any impact and give the driver a significantly greater sense of security than that of the motorcycle riders, but a much lower rate of attention while on the road. 

A  motorcycle rider does not have any of the above protections, and therefore, must possess a lot more highway alertness to remain safe. Motorcycle riding requires skill, coordination, and attention. There is a lot going on at once while driving a motorcycle, such as clutch control, using two separate brakes, and keeping the cycle upright. Motorcycle riders have better driving practices, such as frequently checking their blind spot and doing multiple head checks before merging into a lane. If these exercises are not done often, the motorcycle will eventually come into contact with a car, causing an accident. This fear of the rider ensures an enhanced dedication to safety such as the check of their blindspot most, if not, all of the time. All of these factors are performed to prevent a rider from having an accident with another vehicle. Motorcycle riders are “in tune” to their ride, making them a better driver overall. The motorcyclist’s philosophy is to ride “like everyone is trying to kill you.” This motto allows the rider to anticipate and look for the most dangerous situations. As a rider, “You learn never to trust another driver with your own safety and this makes you a better, more defensive driver.” This same philosophy needs to be accepted and implemented in the world of motor vehicle drivers. 

According to Studinski Law, it is estimated that about 33% of all deaths involved in car accidents are caused by reckless driving. Also, driver-related auto accidents include distracted drivers. There are about 1,000 people injured and nine people killed every day because of distracted driving. Distracted driving takes the attention of the driver away from the task of driving. Such distractions include eating, drinking, and texting. Distracted driving alone causes 20% of car accident injuries, while 30% of all auto accidents are credited to the speed of reckless drivers. “These accidents are a direct result of negligence.” Examples of poor driving include speeding, failure to yield the right of way, running through stop lights, tailgating, erratic driving and racing, and texting or talking on the cell phone. Not only are these examples of reckless driving and the cause of accidents, they are illegal. 

When we consider young drivers, it is even more evident that the method to make driving safer is by having safer drivers and not by the use of seat belts. “If we could change the manners and mentality of drivers, mostly young ones, there would be a significant reduction in reckless driving accidents.” Moreover, “The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) reports drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are three times more likely to be involved in a crash then drivers over 20. In fact, teenage drivers cause significantly more accidents than senior drivers.” In another study, “The US Census Bureau estimates that 12.2% of auto wrecks in the United States are caused by teenage drivers while elderly drivers over the age of 65 are responsible for 7.5% of crashes.” The reason is because young drivers are more likely to be distracted and to be less cautious on the roadways than older drivers. Consequently, there needs to be more driving practice and stricter regulations on the roadways so there are less accidents and less injuries. With more education and better training for young drivers, the amount of accidents will greatly decline. Likewise, lessons need to be taught early on and better driving practices need to be implemented, similar to the ones held by motorcyclists. 

In conclusion, better driving practices, earlier intervention, and more highway alertness could help to prevent most accidents, and therefore, reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by the false reliance on seat belts.

References

Chandler, R. 7 Reasons Motorcycle Riders Make Better Car Drivers. 2018. www.ridenowchandler.com

www.tellrobert.com

Studinski, J. 2021. www.wisconsinlawyer.com

Posted in Causal Argument, ChickenNugget, Portfolio ChickenNugget | Leave a comment

Causal Argument-GoodMusician440

Posted on March 29, 2023 by goodmusician440

The Cause of Better Health from Music

Music is a very wonderful thing. It is a universal language that is part of everybody’s lives. People listen to music every single day, and they use it for various things such as performing with instruments or singing or even just listening to it while doing activities such as reading or studying. Places such as stores, sports stadiums, and restaurants also use music for the customers. Music is everywhere. A lot of people love to listen to music. That is a really good thing because by listening to music, music can bring a lot of good benefits to people’s lives. They can cause a lot of great improvements in your overall health, especially your physical health and your mental health.

The brain and music are basically connected to each other. According to Harvard, the brain is the one that collects soundwaves, and the waves go right to the eardrum. When the waves strike the eardrum, the eardrum vibrates, and that leads to tons of other chain reactions in our brain that cause us to perceive musical ideas like pitch, melody, harmony, chord progressions, chords, and other musical ideas. With these chain reactions, we are able to combine all of these ideas into what we call “music.” This is important to know here because it shows just how interconnected the brain and music really are. Because they are interconnected, it gives music the opportunity to really improve your health, especially in the mind. For example, the fact that music and the brain are interconnected allows music to calm down stress hormones. This is really helpful especially for those that have anxiety and/or depression. It is especially prevalent when we use certain kinds of musical styles such as classical music and jazz. Not all musical styles would be able to do that for obvious reasons. Some styles such as rap, heavy metal, rock, and some forms of pop would definitely not be able to calm down the stress hormones in your body because those kinds of music are so lively and so chaotic sometimes, that instead of being able to calm down the stress hormones, not only would they not calm them down, they would instead aggravate them and/or even create new ones. Classical and jazz music are definitely genres that can reduce stress hormones significantly because of their more relaxing and instrumental nature.

Listening to causes a lot of benefits to the body as far as physical health goes. In Shanghai University, the scientists were able to prove that music does indeed cause fatigue to be significantly reduced. They also proved, according to healthlin.com, that when the people were engaged into doing a repetitive task over and over again, the music helped them maintain good muscle endurance. There has even been proof of music actually boosting your overall performance on working out. It has been shown to help work out much more efficiently as well as much longer than usual. This is because of the fact that music can really help you relax and get rid of those stress hormones in your body. It kind of makes sense. We see tons of athletes listen to music all the time when they work out. They especially love to listen to high intensity music because it is very fast and intense as far as the tempo, rhythm, and the chord structure goes. If they listened to something like classical music, the vibe would not fit in. It would not help them workout more efficiently, but rather, it would help them work inefficiently. However, with fast songs that are very intense such as some pop songs, rock, and others, they will help a lot more due to the nature and feel of those songs.

Music also causes our emotions to be heavily affected. Certain songs and genres have certain styles and feels to them that do different effects to other people. This is important to note especially for those that have depression. Some songs will not work well for those with depression because they will be too sad, and those kinds of songs will just lead them to more sadness, which is obviously what we do not want. Rite of Spring is an excellent composition to use as an example of what not to show to a person with depression. The song is very chaotic and confusing. There are so many things that happen in that song as far as the harmony and rhythm goes, that it would simply confuse them, and drive them into insanity. Sad songs with sad lyrics would definitely not be good. The songs should have a positive theme in them or sound very happy and positive. Pharrell William’s “Happy” is an obvious example of a very happy song. The lyrics show a very positive message, and the song is in a major key, which helps it sound happy. 

Overall, it is very clear that listening to music causes many great effects to occur to a lot of people. Sometimes, certain genres are very good for improving overall health while others do not. Sometimes, songs might sound too sad or sometimes too crazy or insane, whereas some songs sound a lot happier and might take a more relaxed approach in order to get its message across. Music and the brain are very well connected, and as a result, when music is heard by the human ear, it can cause that person to experience tons of great side effects. Music can help you in your overall physical health, especially when you are working out and especially when you are listening to fast music because fast music is really fitting for the type of environment and feel that working out is. It is also known for helping those with depression and anxiety because the stress hormones are able to be calmed down. Music is a wonderful tool to have in your everyday life and it is not only something used to enjoy yourself, but it is also used to actually improve the health of oneself.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201408/5-problems-music-can-create

https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/music-and-health

https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-music#mood-boost

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/11/music

Posted in Causal Argument, Portfolio GoodMusician | 1 Comment

Causal Argument – ClevlandBrown

Posted on March 29, 2023 by clevelandbrown03

Police in School

In case of a school shooting, the presence of police officers armed with guns could allow for a quick response and immediate action to neutralize the threat. This would limit the number of casualties and save lives. Deterrent to potential attackers: The presence of armed police officers in schools could also act as a deterrent to potential attackers, who may be deterred from committing a crime in a place where they know they will face armed resistance. Proper training and evaluation: Police officers are thoroughly trained in the use of firearms and undergo regular evaluations to ensure they are fit for the job. This will minimize the risk of the weapon being misused and ensures that only those who are qualified to handle firearms are allowed to carry them. Police officers are responsible for the safety of the community, and their role in schools is no different. They are trained to protect and serve, and carrying a gun is part of that responsibility. The police in school’s topic have been an ongoing debate for several years now, and it continues to draw mixed reactions and opinions from various people. One school of thought argues that having police officers in schools increases the safety and security of students and teachers while another suggests that such a move leads to increased incidents of violence and discrimination. (Facts About Armed Guards in Schools Statistics – Safe and Sound Security (getsafeandsound.com). In this article, they talk about the percentage of high schools that have armed police officers in their schools. “From 2013 to 2014, 43% of all public schools had one or more security staff present in their buildings. This number increased to 56.5% in the period from 2015 to 2016. As for armed guards present in school, or security staff routinely carrying a firearm, statistics show 28.0% of all schools had armed security guards from 2009 to 2010. “ 

(School Shooting Tracker: Counting school shootings since 2013 (nbcnews.com).

This article says “110 people have been killed and 162 injured by gunfire in 57 school shootings, according to a school shooting tracker NBC News is making public. As of March 29, 2023, it has been two days since the last school shooting.” (What research shows about police in schools – Chalkbeat). This article talks about what different states’ stances are on police in schools. States like Dever said they didn’t want police in their schools, while New York and Chicago say they need police to give the students safety and order. And I can understand why Dever thinks like that but school shootings are a part of this generation’s problem, and they are getting more and more frequent. And any parent would rather their kid be in school and come home, rather than their kid goes to school and never comes back because there is a school shooter in the building and no one to save them. 

If the police were allowed in schools, this is how it could work. We would have a metal detector to see if there are any dangerous items in the kid’s bag and have a police officer with a guard dog at every entrance. The dog is there to sniff and detect if the kids have any weapons or illegal drugs on them. Also, if the shooter happens to fire the gun before the officer can grab theirs the dog will be able to take down the shooter. And if the shooter thinks to just wait and come in when the doors are closed, they will be sadly mistaken. The doors will be automatically locked, and you will have to show your school identification before they let you in. After that the officer and its dog will search you before you go into the school. And most people will say that you are treating the kids like prisoners, but to that i say how many more kids will have to die in a setting where they are supposed to feel safe. After 9/11, securities in all airports doubled so why haven’t that happened for high schools or for schools in general? After 9/11 there have been 0 plane hijacks, and you know why? The answer to that is because they have strict rules for kids and adults to make sure they board the plane safely and to make sure they have nothing harmful that can cause other passengers to die. 

Officers in schools logically make since because just in the last year 2022 alone there have been 27 school shootings, there has only been one plane hijacking that has taken place on American soil. Schools will continue to fail their students by not making the rules they need to secure the children’s and the teachers safety. And the fact is that schools don’t want kids to feel like their environment is unsafe to be frank they already are. In my school we had everything that I mentioned today. We had search dogs in our schools and metal detectors at the front. And have never had a school shooting in the entire history of the school. But another school that didn’t have all that stuff their school their school was shot in and two students were injured. (Heritage High School: Boy taken into custody after Virginia school shooting that left 2 wounded, police say | CNN). But if schools had trained law enforcement in the building at all times this might have never happened. Mind you the police will have to create a new branch for these officers that will specialize in how to deal with children. They will have classes that will teach them descalation and negotiation in fights between students without any physically toughing either student or whoever is in the argument. They will also learn how to disarm people without using lethal force, and basically teaching them lethal force is the last thing they need to do. But most importantly they need skills on how to talk with kids and they need to instinctively know when to be a friend and when to be serious. This in the long run will help kids see cops more as a big brother than a evil racist villain. 

References

(Facts About Armed Guards in Schools Statistics – Safe and Sound Security (getsafeandsound.com)

(School Shooting Tracker: Counting school shootings since 2013 (nbcnews.com).

(What research shows about police in schools – Chalkbeat).

(Heritage High School: Boy taken into custody after Virginia school shooting that left 2 wounded, police say | CNN)

Posted in Causal Argument, ClevelandBrown, Portfolio ClevelandBrown | Leave a comment

definition rewrite- pinkheart84

Posted on March 29, 2023 by pinkheart84

Late-Night Media Use Disrupts Sleep

Morning tends to come up before teens have even fallen asleep because they stay up so late at night on their phones. This means that teens stay up most of the night on their phones when their parents think they are sleeping. Sleep is the condition with which each of us is familiar from the very first hours of our lives. Sleep is essential for humans, especially teenagers because it is needed for our body and brain. Sleep is rest that is needed to restore the energy of brain cells after being awake. It is a physiological need of the body, which appears to be a deep protective inhibition, that prevents fatigue and can deplete the nerve cells. Sleep is one of the most important things as a human being. When teenagers refuse to put sleep first, it only hurts themselves. Sleep is something that needs to be taken seriously and the phones need to be put away before all teens become sleep deprived because of it.

Teenagers have becoming so addicted to their phones at night that it is affecting their sleep schedule. Some teens may even receive sleep deprivation from staring at the screens for so long. Sleep deprivation can have serious consequences for teens. It is a term often used to describe sleeplessness or lack of sleep. Teenagers suffer through this the most because they have a tendency to be addicted to their phones at night. An article shows how one of the consequences teens go through because of using social media at night is sleep deprivation. That same article states that, “In our analyses, we found that teens who spent more time online and on social media were more likely to sleep less. Time spent watching television had a much weaker link to fewer hours of sleep, and teens who spent more time with their friends in person or on sports or exercise actually slept more.” (Twenge, 2017). This quote explicitly shows how the teens that are consistently checking their social media at night are the ones who are becoming sleep deprived. Looking at texts and scrolling through all different platforms at night, is what leads to disturbed sleep. 

Do teens have trouble getting to sleep or sleep fitfully because their brains are busy processing the mixed signals of social media? Social media is an addictive platform that allows people to share their thoughts, information, and ideas. It is mostly videos, posts, pictures, and texts that people scroll through at night. It also contains personal information that people find intriguing. The brain is completely busy with all of the information it is bombarded with at night that it has no time to relax. The whole point of sleep is to rest your brain and body so that the next day it is refreshed and ready. Having trouble sleeping is very common for teens because they have become addicted to their phones. When teens are constantly looking at their phones and taking in all of this new information on the social media platforms, it is very distracting and hard for the brain to relax. 

Do teens sleep less soundly because their active brains are never calm enough for REM sleep? REM sleep stands for rapid eye movement. As stated in an article about REM sleep, “REM sleep plays an important role in brain development as well as other functions including mood, dreaming, and memory.” (Stibich, 2022). This shows how not having REM sleep will affect multiple parts in the brain. REM sleep also helps to ensure better mental concentration and mood regulation, which are two things that are important to your daily work performance and quality of life. During REM sleep, your eyes move rapidly behind your closed eyes, your heart rate speeds up, and your breathing becomes irregular. Rem sleep can definition make teenagers brains less calm especially if they were actively on their phones for half the night and not actually sleeping. Being deprived of REM sleep interferes with memory formation. However, memory problems associated with a loss of REM sleep could be due to overall sleep disruption, since those often occur together. Not having a sufficient sleep schedule and staying awake on the internet all night will also affect the REM sleep. An article states that, “following a sleep schedule can help maximize the amount of quality sleep, including REM sleep, that you get each night.” (Stibich, 2022). Not receiving REM sleep can be the reason that teens are sleeping less soundly because the brain cannot function and have REM sleep with the constant phone use at night.  

Does the alertness to possible notifications change the value of sleep for teens who are more interested in staying in touch overnight than being asleep? Notifications are the texts, emails, or calls that you receive on your phone. These notifications let you know what’s new, what you missed, or any other news. People will want to check their phones after ever noise which will be nonstop, and this can be deeply disrupting the time that they have to sleep. When people are ready for bed, they may stay alert in case of any upcoming notifications that may buzz throughout the night. This can be something that disrupts sleep because it does not allow our brain to fully relax or for you to be fully asleep. An article mentions, “It is not uncommon for notifications and alerts to arrive on your iPhone as you hit the bed for a sound sleep. These frequent text messages, apps, or email notifications can also affect your sleeping habits. That’s simply because we tend to check these notifications out of curiosity instead of avoiding them.” Because teens are so nosy and concerned for their notifications, they will jump up to check their phones while supposed to be sleeping. This is a major problem and the continuous notifications, buzzes, alerts, and other noises from the phone can become a gigantic distraction when trying to fall asleep and will make teens sleep deprived. 

References

Twenge, J. (2017, October). Teens are sleeping less. Why? Smartphones. PBS WHYY. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-teens-are-sleeping-less-why-smartphones

Stibich, M. (2022, November). What Is REM Sleep?. verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-dreams-2224258

Agarwal, M. (2023, February). How to Automatically Silence Notifications on iPhone At Night. WebTrickz.  https://webtrickz.com/silence-iphone-notifications-at-night/

Posted in Definition Rewrite, PinkHeart | 1 Comment

definition-pinkheart84

Posted on March 29, 2023 by pinkheart84

Late-Night Media Use Disrupts Sleep

Morning tends to come up before teens have even fallen asleep because they stay up so late at night on their phones. This means that teens stay up most of the night on their phones when their parents think they are sleeping. Sleep is the condition with which each of us is familiar from the very first hours of our lives. Sleep is essential for humans, especially teenagers because it is needed for our body and brain. Sleep is rest that is needed to restore the energy of brain cells after being awake. It is a physiological need of the body, which appears to be a deep protective inhibition, that prevents fatigue and can deplete the nerve cells. Sleep is one of the most important things as a human being. When teenagers refuse to put sleep first, it only hurts themselves. Sleep is something that needs to be taken seriously and the phones need to be put away before all teens become sleep deprived because of it.

Teenagers have becoming so addicted to their phones at night that it is affecting their sleep schedule. Some teens may even receive sleep deprivation from staring at the screens for so long. Sleep deprivation can have serious consequences for teens. It is a term often used to describe sleeplessness or lack of sleep. Teenagers suffer through this the most because they have a tendency to be addicted to their phones at night. An article shows how one of the consequences teens go through because of using social media at night is sleep deprivation. That same article states that, “In our analyses, we found that teens who spent more time online and on social media were more likely to sleep less. Time spent watching television had a much weaker link to fewer hours of sleep, and teens who spent more time with their friends in person or on sports or exercise actually slept more.” (Twenge, 2017). This quote explicitly shows how the teens that are consistently checking their social media at night are the ones who are becoming sleep deprived. Looking at texts and scrolling through all different platforms at night, is what leads to disturbed sleep. 

Do teens have trouble getting to sleep or sleep fitfully because their brains are busy processing the mixed signals of social media? Social media is an addictive platform that allows people to share their thoughts, information, and ideas. It is mostly videos, posts, pictures, and texts that people scroll through at night. It also contains personal information that people find intriguing. The brain is completely busy with all of the information it is bombarded with at night that it has no time to relax. The whole point of sleep is to rest your brain and body so that the next day it is refreshed and ready. Having trouble sleeping is very common for teens because they have become addicted to their phones. When teens are constantly looking at their phones and taking in all of this new information on the social media platforms, it is very distracting and hard for the brain to relax. 

Do teens sleep less soundly because their active brains are never calm enough for REM sleep? REM sleep stands for rapid eye movement. As stated in an article about REM sleep, “REM sleep plays an important role in brain development as well as other functions including mood, dreaming, and memory.” (Stibich, 2022). This shows how not having REM sleep will affect multiple parts in the brain. REM sleep also helps to ensure better mental concentration and mood regulation, which are two things that are important to your daily work performance and quality of life. During REM sleep, your eyes move rapidly behind your closed eyes, your heart rate speeds up, and your breathing becomes irregular. Rem sleep can definition make teenagers brains less calm especially if they were actively on their phones for half the night and not actually sleeping. Being deprived of REM sleep interferes with memory formation. However, memory problems associated with a loss of REM sleep could be due to overall sleep disruption, since those often occur together. Not having a sufficient sleep schedule and staying awake on the internet all night will also affect the REM sleep. An article states that, “following a sleep schedule can help maximize the amount of quality sleep, including REM sleep, that you get each night.” (Stibich, 2022). Not receiving REM sleep can be the reason that teens are sleeping less soundly because the brain cannot function and have REM sleep with the constant phone use at night.  

Does the alertness to possible notifications change the value of sleep for teens who are more interested in staying in touch overnight than being asleep? Notifications are the texts, emails, or calls that you receive on your phone. These notifications let you know what’s new, what you missed, or any other news. People will want to check their phones after ever noise which will be nonstop, and this can be deeply disrupting the time that they have to sleep. When people are ready for bed, they may stay alert in case of any upcoming notifications that may buzz throughout the night. This can be something that disrupts sleep because it does not allow our brain to fully relax or for you to be fully asleep. An article mentions, “It is not uncommon for notifications and alerts to arrive on your iPhone as you hit the bed for a sound sleep. These frequent text messages, apps, or email notifications can also affect your sleeping habits. That’s simply because we tend to check these notifications out of curiosity instead of avoiding them.” Because teens are so nosy and concerned for their notifications, they will jump up to check their phones while supposed to be sleeping. This is a major problem and the continuous notifications, buzzes, alerts, and other noises from the phone can become a gigantic distraction when trying to fall asleep and will make teens sleep deprived. 

References

Twenge, J. (2017, October). Teens are sleeping less. Why? Smartphones. PBS WHYY. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-teens-are-sleeping-less-why-smartphones

Stibich, M. (2022, November). What Is REM Sleep?. verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-dreams-2224258

Agarwal, M. (2023, February). How to Automatically Silence Notifications on iPhone At Night. WebTrickz.  https://webtrickz.com/silence-iphone-notifications-at-night/

Posted in Definition, PinkHeart | Leave a comment

Causal Rewrite- Gobirds115

Posted on March 29, 2023 by gobirds115

The Anabolic Answer

I fully understand the history of PED abuse in baseball and why Major League Baseball went to the extremes they went to in hopes to prevent the power trips and blatant abuse of steroids that we saw in the 1990’s and 2000’s. But there are cases where these banned substances are a necessary means of recovery for athletes. In “Major League Baseball’s Minor League Drug Prevention And Treatment Program” they have a section dedicated specifically to allowing players to take prohibited substances called “Therapeutic Use Exemption” or “TUE” which allows players to use certain substances if they really must. I believe that MLB should consider easing the process of getting an exemption and adopt a system in which post-injury evaluation system to determine if banned substances could make an impact on recovery rates.

In this system, players would have a baseline test at the start of every season. The tests would monitor their physical capabilities such as strength, speed, agility, and baseball related movements. A big part of these tests would also be drug testing before these tests to make sure players are clean for the baseline along with blood testing to determine levels of certain biological/chemical factors. Once players have a baseline test, they can be evaluated post-injury in comparison to their baseline tests. The league would have to create specific thresholds in comparison to baseline tests for exemptions. What I mean by this is that if a player experiences an injury that doesn’t completely diminish their capabilities but sets them back in a minor way, they may not qualify for use of a banned substance. Where if a player experiences an injury that sets them down quite a bit from their baseline tests, they may have a much higher chance of qualifying for an exemption. A system like this would obviously require major supervision and likely it’s own commitee but if it means improving injury recovery and keeping players on the field then it should by all means be considered.

One of the key reasons I’d like to see the MLB adopt a system similar to this is because of oblique injuries. In a study done on oblique injuries from the 2011 season to the 2015 season, 259 players at the major league level suffered oblique injuries resulting in 6,132 days missed. Batters/Position Players averaged 3 weeks missed per injury with over an 8% chance of re-injury. Starting Pitchers averaged nearly a month missed with a re-injury rate of around 5% and relievers averaged about 24 days missed with a re-injury rate of nearly 10%. The average days missed on recurrent oblique injuries is also higher compared to the days missed from the primary injury. These injuries are not a day to day type of injury and a statistical analysis of recovery methods shows that some players required injection of a corticosteroid, a legal steroid in Major League Baseball. However, administering the corticosteroid still didn’t speed up recovery process as it took players 30 days to recover post injection.

I think it’s quite interesting that players didn’t have any kind of improvement in recovery rates post injection from corticosteroids. So I decided to take a deeper dive into corticosteroids as a recovery method for sports injuries and stumbled upon a pretty informative article. The article “Recurrent hamstring muscle injury: applying the limited evidence in the professional football setting with a seven-point programme” by Peter Brukner, Andrew Nealon, Christopher Morgan, Darren Burgess, and Andrew Dunn discusses hamstring injuries among football players and the recovery methods used. They mention one player who used corticosteroids as a recovery method and here’s what they said “an epidural corticosteroid injection was performed…Postinjection the player reported a general improvement in his feeling of ‘freedom’ on the right side and felt able to swing his legs through fully…Five days later he started another pre-season game. After 5 min, he sprinted with the ball and crossed the ball with a whipping action and immediately felt some tightness in his hamstring, without an associated feeling of tearing or pain, and was thereafter unable to sprint with confidence.” Quite an interesting order of events as it seems that corticosteroids essentially mask the pain/ease symptoms but might not actually repair muscles.

Maybe corticosteroids may not in fact help with any kind of recovery, so let’s dive into the article “Taking Anabolic Steroids After a Sport Injury” by Samuel Mckenzie from the media outlet News Medical Life Sciences, which studies the effects of corticosteroids vs anabolic steroids in relation to muscle strains/contusion injuries. One specific experiment was conducted on rats who suffered muscle contusions and the results are quite informative. The article states “Initially, the corticosteroid group showed great improvements to twitch and tetanic strength, but later these improvement reversed and resulted in the degeneration of the muscle. The anabolic steroid group showed no initial improvements, but by 14 days showed significant improvements to twitch tetanic strength without the degeneration of the muscle. The authors concluded that that corticosteroids were helpful in the short-term but detrimental to long-term muscle repair and anabolic steroids could improve muscle repair and aid in the healing of muscle contusion injury.” If we know that corticosteroids don’t lead to long term healing and actually degrade our muscles, anabolic steroids need to be heavily considered for treatment. Baseball’s best players shouldn’t be off the field with injuries when we have proven remedies that are readily available to increase their recovery rates.

If we know one thing it’s that times are certainly going to forever change. With the changing of the times we learn from our pasts. I think Major League Baseball is far enough beyond the era of steroid abuse and the advances made in medicine, technology, and overall knowledge could make it so that we never see steroid abuse like we saw in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in Major League Baseball again. We’ve come to a time where we’ve essentially mastered the negatives of these banned substances so we’re probably smart enough to figure out a way in which only the positive effects are used in an appropriate manner.

References

“Epidemiology and Impact of Abdominal Oblique Injuries in Major and Minor League Baseball Christopher L. Camp,* MD, Stan Conte,†‡ PT, DPT, ATC, Steven B. Cohen,§ MD, Matthew Thompson,|| MD, John D’ Angelo,{ BS, Joseph T. Nguyen,# MPH,
and Joshua S. Dines,** MD. Retrieved March 29, 2023

“Major League Baseball’s Minor League Drug Prevention And Treatment Program.“. (2021). Retrieved March 29, 2023,

nn.“Recurrent Hamstring Muscle Injury: Applying the Limited Evidence in the Professional Football Setting with a Seven-Point Programme.” Brukner, Peter, Andrew Nealon, Christopher Morgan, Darren Burgess, and Andrew Du; British Journal of Sports Medicine. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine, June 1, 2014. . 

Posted in Causal Rewrite, GoBirds, Portfolio GoBirds | 1 Comment

Causal- Gobirds115

Posted on March 29, 2023 by gobirds115

I fully understand the history of PED abuse in baseball and why Major League Baseball went to the extremes they went to in hopes to prevent the power trips and blatant abuse of steroids that we saw in the 1990’s and 2000’s. But there are cases where these banned substances are a necessary means of recovery for athletes. In “Major League Baseball’s Minor League Drug Prevention And Treatment Program” they have a section dedicated specifically to allowing players to take prohibited substances called “Therapeutic Use Exemption” or “TUE” which allows players to use certain substances if they really must. I believe that MLB should consider easing the process of getting an exemption and adopt a system in which post-injury evaluation system to determine if banned substances could make an impact on recovery rates.

In this system, players would have a baseline test at the start of every season. The tests would monitor their physical capabilities such as strength, speed, agility, and baseball related movements. A big part of these tests would also be drug testing before these tests to make sure players are clean for the baseline along with blood testing to determine levels of certain biological/chemical factors. Once players have a baseline test, they can be evaluated post-injury in comparison to their baseline tests. The league would have to create specific thresholds in comparison to baseline tests for exemptions. What I mean by this is that if a player experiences an injury that doesn’t completely diminish their capabilities but sets them back in a minor way, they may not qualify for use of a banned substance. Where if a player experiences an injury that sets them down quite a bit from their baseline tests, they may have a much higher chance of qualifying for an exemption. A system like this would obviously require major supervision and likely it’s own commitee but if it means improving injury recovery and keeping players on the field then it should by all means be considered.

One of the key reasons I’d like to see the MLB adopt a system similar to this is because of oblique injuries. In a study done on oblique injuries from the 2011 season to the 2015 season, 259 players at the major league level suffered oblique injuries resulting in 6,132 days missed. Batters/Position Players averaged 3 weeks missed per injury with over an 8% chance of re-injury. Starting Pitchers averaged nearly a month missed with a re-injury rate of around 5% and relievers averaged about 24 days missed with a re-injury rate of nearly 10%. The average days missed on recurrent oblique injuries is also higher compared to the days missed from the primary injury. These injuries are not a day to day type of injury and a statistical analysis of recovery methods shows that some players required injection of a corticosteroid, a legal steroid in Major League Baseball. However, administering the corticosteroid still didn’t speed up recovery process as it took players 30 days to recover post injection.

I think it’s quite interesting that players didn’t have any kind of improvement in recovery rates post injection from corticosteroids. So I decided to take a deeper dive into corticosteroids as a recovery method for sports injuries and stumbled upon a pretty informative article. The article “Recurrent hamstring muscle injury: applying the limited evidence in the professional football setting with a seven-point programme” by Peter Brukner, Andrew Nealon, Christopher Morgan, Darren Burgess, and Andrew Dunn discusses hamstring injuries among football players and the recovery methods used. They mention one player who used corticosteroids as a recovery method and here’s what they said “an epidural corticosteroid injection was performed…Postinjection the player reported a general improvement in his feeling of ‘freedom’ on the right side and felt able to swing his legs through fully…Five days later he started another pre-season game. After 5 min, he sprinted with the ball and crossed the ball with a whipping action and immediately felt some tightness in his hamstring, without an associated feeling of tearing or pain, and was thereafter unable to sprint with confidence.” Quite an interesting order of events as it seems that corticosteroids essentially mask the pain/ease symptoms but might not actually repair muscles.

Maybe corticosteroids may not in fact help with any kind of recovery, so let’s dive into the article “Taking Anabolic Steroids After a Sport Injury” by Samuel Mckenzie from the media outlet News Medical Life Sciences, which studies the effects of corticosteroids vs anabolic steroids in relation to muscle strains/contusion injuries. One specific experiment was conducted on rats who suffered muscle contusions and the results are quite informative. The article states “Initially, the corticosteroid group showed great improvements to twitch and tetanic strength, but later these improvement reversed and resulted in the degeneration of the muscle. The anabolic steroid group showed no initial improvements, but by 14 days showed significant improvements to twitch tetanic strength without the degeneration of the muscle. The authors concluded that that corticosteroids were helpful in the short-term but detrimental to long-term muscle repair and anabolic steroids could improve muscle repair and aid in the healing of muscle contusion injury.” If we know that corticosteroids don’t lead to long term healing and actually degrade our muscles, anabolic steroids need to be heavily considered for treatment. Baseball’s best players shouldn’t be off the field with injuries when we have proven remedies that are readily available to increase their recovery rates.

If we know one thing it’s that times are certainly going to forever change. With the changing of the times we learn from our pasts. I think Major League Baseball is far enough beyond the era of steroid abuse and the advances made in medicine, technology, and overall knowledge could make it so that we never see steroid abuse like we saw in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in Major League Baseball again. We’ve come to a time where we’ve essentially mastered the negatives of these banned substances so we’re probably smart enough to figure out a way in which only the positive effects are used in an appropriate manner.

References

“Epidemiology and Impact of Abdominal Oblique Injuries in Major and Minor League Baseball Christopher L. Camp,* MD, Stan Conte,†‡ PT, DPT, ATC, Steven B. Cohen,§ MD, Matthew Thompson,|| MD, John D’ Angelo,{ BS, Joseph T. Nguyen,# MPH,
and Joshua S. Dines,** MD. Retrieved March 29, 2023

“Major League Baseball’s Minor League Drug Prevention And Treatment Program.“. (2021). Retrieved March 29, 2023,

nn.“Recurrent Hamstring Muscle Injury: Applying the Limited Evidence in the Professional Football Setting with a Seven-Point Programme.” Brukner, Peter, Andrew Nealon, Christopher Morgan, Darren Burgess, and Andrew Du; British Journal of Sports Medicine. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine, June 1, 2014. . 

Posted in Causal Argument, Portfolio GoBirds, Portfolio Tasks | Leave a comment

Definition Rewrite-tlap23

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Thomas Laperriere

FOMO: Is it Any Different Than Envy?

Since the beginning of life, it has been human nature for individuals to feel discontent or dissatisfied because of somebody else’s belongings or success. A term that can be connected to this feeling in every human’s life which has recently been studied in the past decade is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. FOMO can be described as a form of anxiety that is caused when an individual feels as if they are missing out on something exciting, particularly “reflecting sensitivity to the social cues”. Many people feel the pressure to keep up with societal norms and if someone is feeling behind, the natural outcome always forms anxiety. However, although FOMO has been directly correlated to social media, there is a common misconception that it is its own phenomenon, but it is no different from a person feeling envy. I want to simply prove that FOMO is a natural, inevitable occurrence in everyone’s life and can be correlated with almost any scenario in life.

 I want to research and prove how a false narrative is being created that it is a new concept caused particularly by social media. Although social media has become so popular and accessible to young teenagers, the idea of FOMO cannot be freshly defined and correlated to social media usage. Let’s take the app Instagram for example. Somebody could be scrolling through Instagram and see an ad of a multi million dollar vacation home and feel as if they are missing out on something they cannot have. However, society cannot blame this on Instagram. Twenty years ago, a person may pick up a magazine and see a similar ad and feel the same way. The purpose of advertisements is to provide a gaudy outlook to make someone feel envious towards the particular product. This feeling of missing out is a part of everyone’s human life and is something that can occur without you even identifying it. Some examples of how simple FOMO can occur is driving by a nice house that somebody may wish they could have, an individual missing a class or school day and worrying about what material they have missed, and many more.  

I reviewed an article published by Jon Elhai that includes a tested hypothesis on depression symptoms in individuals with severe FOMO conditions that pertain directly to social media. This study taken of college students found that depression severity could not be connected to extreme FOMO conditions. It is too premature to make conclusions on a teenage mental health crisis because of the fear of missing out and social media. The studies that are conducted include too small amounts of individuals in these surveys to be applied to a world scale. The new phenomenon that is FOMO must be compared to broad occurrences in life. It is simple to hypothesize that a teenager may feel depressed when they see somebody post themselves on an island, but it is not reasonable to look at it as something different than someone feeling envious towards something not seen on social media. Another reason why social media FOMO is not the only contributor to anxiety is because studies conducted on adolescents have not taken sex into account. This study displays results with sex differences, where men ended up scoring higher on the depression scale while women scored higher on the FOMO severity scale. 

Although social media has been the rage for the past decade, FOMO has been being studied heavily since the 2000’s being attributed to many normal life scenarios which is explained in Alexa Holte’s article The State Fear of Missing Out Inventory: Development and Validation. The article recognizes that there is a gap in the FOMO studies because it has only been studied as a dispositional trait. A study was conducted with 388 adults voluntarily responding to a survey where 34 similar situations to FOMO were given out. For example, one of the choices was “I cannot help but to think that I am absent from a rewarding experience.” However, there was also an option that was counterintuitive to the study: “It does not bother me if my friends are having fun without me.” The point of including this response choice is to illustrate that social media does not have to do with someone feeling anxiety because someone has something they do not, yet it is based on one’s own overall satisfaction of their own life. If someone is dissatisfied with their own life, it is easy to reason that they will feel envy from what others have more frequently.  

When correlating FOMO to social media use, people worry about adolescent’s health and performance because most things nowadays are found through a screen on apps like Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, and Youtube. A common theme that this is correspondent with is with friends. Simply scrolling through an app like Snapchat and seeing your friends doing something without you instantly causes a feeling of FOMO. This person feels anxiety because others are having a fun experience while they sit isolated with their phone. It is proven that social media users experience this effect much more compared to those that do not. The fear of missing out on fun experiences with others also contributes to mood swings and other small factors that all contribute to mental health. Although this effect has been examined and existed for several decades, it has increased rapidly with the popularity of today’s internet. Instinctively, everyone wants to do everything they possibly can in order to have fun, but this also comes from the fact that that person wants to make it look like their life is great. If they were to miss anything, it could form anxiety which damages their happiness. In a poll conducted in a study by Benjamin Riordan, 198 students were surveyed the question “what does fomo mean to you?” and 75% of the people surveyed correlated it to social media. However, something to note about these polls is that the majority of people voluntarily responding to these polls are young adolescents, and adults and elderly are not being taken into account.

References:

Christopher J. Budnick, Yildirim, C., Wolniewicz, C. A., Scott, H., Roberts, J. A., Ragsdale, J. M., House, R. J., Elhai, J. D., Berenbaum, H., Alt, D., Ajzen, I., Allen, T. D., Ashton, M. C., Bakker, A. B., Barber, L. K., … Gibbons, F. S. (2019, October 10). The fear of missing out at work: Examining costs and benefits to employee health and motivation. Computers in Human Behavior. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219303735

Yen, J. Y., Weiss, N. H., Rebold, M. J., Przybylski, A. K., Peck, J., Manos, R. C., Lu, X., Lovibond, P. F., Lepp, A., Lee, Y.-K., Kim, J., Harwood, J., … Gross, J. J. (2016, June 2). Fear of missing out, need for touch, anxiety and depression are related to problematic smartphone use. Computers in Human Behavior. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563216304125

Elhai, J. (n.d.). Anxiety and stress severity are related to greater fear of missing out … Retrieved April 12, 2023, from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56916e4805f8e207077fb3ed/t/6159ff9040f0171b2946a75e/1633288081649/ElhaiYangMontag2021+PSYCH.pdf

Posted in Definition Rewrite, Portfolio TLAP, tlap | 3 Comments

Definition-tlap23

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Thomas Laperriere

Needs a Title

Over the past decade, the world has seen an enormous surge of popularity throughout social media. Throughout the covid pandemic, many young individuals were in such isolation that everything was being given to them through a screen. Kids couldn’t figure out what to do, so social media was the most accessible thing at the time. However, something disastrous in particular that has been observed since the pandemic has calmed is the increase in diagnosed mental health disorders and suicides in adolescents. In fact, there has been a steady increase in suicides per year in adolescents, and social media is one of the biggest factors leading to mental health problems. Some underlying factors that contribute to these ultimately deaths from social media are FOMO (fear of missing out), cyberbullying, and the excessive use and access to phones in young ages.

If you are a teen and are living decently comfortably, I am sure you would have access to a cell phone or social media. Social media has emerged as the staple for young teens specifically over the past couple of years. What makes social media so problematic, however, is how easily accessible it is. As long as you have an email account set up, a social media account like Snaochat, Instagram, or Tiktok can be created, just to name a few of many. An ideal common fix to this problem would be a stricter guidance from parents, especially on children who have not reached their teen years. In an Influence Central’s study, it was shown in a poll that 11% of children had access to their first social media account at an age younger than 10.

However, the way that society has shifted, there is no other choice than for kids to get hooked on social media. The norm nowadays is to constantly be indulged in a digital life rather than experiencing it with your own eyes. I want to prove how social media addiction throughout teens has significantly contributed to the effects of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Several small factors eventually add up into something that is unbearable, and the world needs to understand how severe the problem has gotten.

The fear of missing out is often compared to social media use because most things nowadays are found through a screen on apps like Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, and Youtube. A common theme that this is correspondent with is with friends. Simply scrolling through an app like Snapchat and seeing your friends doing something without you instantly causes a feeling of FOMO. This person feels anxiety because others are having a fun experience while they sit isolated with their phone. It is proven that social media users experience this effect much more compared to those that do not. The fear of missing out on fun experiences with others also contributes to mood swings and other small factors that all contribute to mental health. Although this effect has been examined and existed for several decades, it has increased rapidly with the popularity of today’s internet. Instinctively, everyone wants to do everything they possibly can in order to have fun, but this also comes from the fact that that person wants to make it look like their life is great. If they were to miss anything, it could form anxiety which damages their happiness.

Let’s take a step away from FOMO for a second and take a deeper dive into another societal shift. Since the introduction of social media, students that have become addicted to their phones will commonly see a steady decrease in their academic performance. It should be noted that the pandemic shook up the younger population extremely with the introduction and eventually normality of “online school”, which was never a normal concept in any period of time. Poor performance in school inevitably gives the body feelings of stress, and the only way people seem to cope is by going back on their phones. This idea has been studied deeply among 

A common question that is asked is why does social media cause such high levels of stress? However, that question is almost impossible to answer due to the amount of things that can be corresponded with it. Cyberbullying is at an all time peak now, and much of this has to do with high levels of stress and addiction. Cyberbullying was first introduced not through social media applications but in things like video games, email, and messaging, and is intended to cause harm and distress to another individual. Many people often correspond cyberbullying with people you know, but in today’s world it has evolved into something that could occur without the person even knowing they are doing it and having no relationship with the victim whatsoever. A simple hate or unnecessary comment on a post can go a long way without the person even knowing it. The act of leaving a harsh comment somewhere on social media with no correlation to the person is defined not as cyberbullying, but cyber aggression. Cyber aggression has come up as a new term in recent years due to the increase in hate on social media. Comments like these will most likely affect the person in a negatively emotional way. 

In conclusion, the correlation between social media and mental health worldwide across teens is very prevalent in today’s society. It is an extremely serious issue that needs to be monitored closer than before. Most of this doesn’t come from only social media directly, but the people on there as well. People develop anxiety from FOMO after seeing their friends hanging out without them. Posting everything you experience on social media creates a false reality of life that adolescents fall into. The rising issue of cyberbullying and cyber aggression is seen every day on almost any “famous” social media influencer. People feel either jealousy or the need to live up to the standards that the other person is living, so the only way to do that is by bringing them down. The world needs to embody the mental health of our adolescents before it is too late.

References

Zhao, L. (2021). Social Media Addiction and its impact on college students’ academic performance: The mediating role of stress. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 32(1), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00635-0

Chatzakou, D., Leontiadis, I., Blackburn, J., De Cristofaro, E., Stringhini, G., Vakali, A., & Kourtellis, N. (2019, July 20). Detecting cyberbullying and Cyberaggression in social media. arXiv.org. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.08873

Alutaybi, A., Al-Thani, D., McAlaney, J., & Ali, R. (2020, August 23). Combating fear of missing out (FOMO) on social media: The FOMO-R method. MDPI. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/17/6128

Posted in Definition, Portfolio TLAP, tlap | 2 Comments