JJ's World Views

Tag: Social

  • Incentives

    Incentives

    It seem that there are many people who believe that money is the only way to incentivise people to be productive members of society.  This is just not true.  Me for instance I am not like that at all.  I am incentivised by helping people and trying to create a better world to live in not just me but for all our sisters and brothers around the world.   The people that think that money is the only incentive I feel have been corrupted by greed.  They project their own desires away from themselves and on to everyone else.  It is a shame that for most of the worlds history this is how the leaders have chosen to incentivise the people. For to me greed brings out the darkest parts of our nature. It fosters hate, fear, war, famine and disease.   It cuts us off from each other, dividing us to the point where we can love one another and bring peace to the world.

    Those who focus on altruism and charity bring light into a society that is filled with grief and despair.  They are the glue that binds us all together and strengthens social bonds.  People like this do not worry about if people like them for themselves and not for what they give others materially.  Looks are dashed for their inner beauty shine through, and people want to be around them for who they are.  These people give with their hearts not their pocket books.  These people see the darkness and do not shy away from what others think or say about them.  This is a constant struggle with temptations and hurdles, which are put in their way.

    Some people have a desire to learn and gain as much knowledge as they can.  This is to help inform and teach the others to become better people as well.  Their are also those who seek knowledge to use against others and gain power over them.  Their hearts are dark with a smidge of light or no light at all.  There are those who are lead by being to discovery, searching out adventure and seeing new things.  Some seek adrenaline to which they skydive and compete in different events.  Some explore the reaches of our minds in order to heal themselves or others.  Others crave physical power over others through fighting or personal physical growth, to feel confident in oneself.

    Many of these incentives overlap with one another.  The people who driven by overlapping incentives can be some of the most balanced of individuals or off centered as well.  It all depends on which of the incentives that guide them.  If someone allows greed and knowledge they may use the power they gain in destructive ways.  Whereas, those who are guided by altruism and knowledge may try to enlighten the population.  Giving of themselves to better the human condition.

    These motivations can be combined in a multitude of ways and used for the betterment of society or it’s demise.  We have to choose for ourselves how we are incentivised and how we would like to use what we have gained.  Whether, it be for selfish or altruistic reasons.  Let me ask you “How do you choose to be Incentivised?”

  • Depression: The Invisible Killer

    Depression: The Invisible Killer

    The deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade this week brought have to the surface my own battles with Depression.  I have been diagnosed with clinical depression and been battling it for the past 24 years.  Those who do not suffer from this condition can have a hard time understanding why those with the affliction can not just cheer up.  I have been told to cheer up numerous times and that it is just an emotion.  Well, I am here to tell you it is not just that.  Yes, there is the emotion of depression but this usually lasts a couple of day or may be weeks.  When you are dealing with the condition it lasts for 6 months or more.  It continues day by day and year to year.

    Let me ask you have you ever felt alone in a room filled with loved ones?  Have you battled just to get out of bed asking yourself what is the use? Have you ever looked around and thought of different ways of ending your life? Have you ever spent weeks or months or years not taking care of your personal hygiene?  Wallowing in your own filth only cleaning yourself to keep up appearences? Thinking no one cares or tries to understand you? Have you ever felt like if I were gone no one would miss me or that they would be better off without me? This is what depression the condition feels like.  I continually feel this way.   It is a constant struggle fighting yourself for a glimmer of hope.  I have attempted suicide before, a couple of times actually.  Thank goodness I never owned a gun or I would not be writing this blog right now.

    It is difficult living with depression as you can see, but it can be done.  It takes time, patients, medication and talk therapy for the person who is dealing with depression.   For those who love them it takes understanding, acceptance,  and empathy.  Never looking down on them because you think that it will pass.  Too those who love someone with depression you must learn the differences between the emotion and the condition.  I have been told in the past by friends and family that “you just need to think positively and this will pass.”  It is not that easy.  That to a person dealing with depression pushes them further from you and leaves them thinking, you just do not want to deal with them.  Which increases their chances of taking their own life.

    This part is for those who suffer from depression.  Your friends and family can only do so much to help you.  You must be willing to work on yourself.  I know many do not want to take prescriptions, hell I hate being dependant on them myself, but they can help.  Make sure you are telling you doctors how these drugs are affecting you.  This way they can change the script or rise or lower the dosages.  You will also have to work on changing the way you think.  Understanding the things that set you off is key to this as I have found out.  This way when the feelings come back you have the tools to stop the unhealthy thoughts.  This is not easy and takes a lot of practice.  You must be vigilant in your own mind.

    I was fortunate enough that I had the Veterans Administration to help me understand and train me how to change some of my thought processes.  It was through a class called Cognitive Behavioral and Social Skills Training  (CBSST for short).  I know many people do not have this type of support because of insurance costs, lack of employment or any other hurdles that may stand in your way.  Please know this my brothers and sisters out there that there are people who are willing to help.  That many people are pushing to get healthcare for all which would include mental health.  I know for me forcing myself out into the world more and more has helped me.  Also, find something you are passionate about.  If first thing you try doesn’t work try something else.  Me I like photography, learning and helping others.  This is why I have gone back to school to become a teacher and am working as an educational assistant dealing with special education students.  Left me tell you this path is not for everyone.  It is one of the toughest jobs I have ever held.  But, to see the look in a child’s eyes when the when they finish a project or realize that you are there for them it fills my heart with joy.  Even though they can drive me mad at times.

    In closing if you are someone who has or is considering suicide please get some help.  Below I have a list of websites and phone numbers to call.  Please remember if know one else tells you this that you are loved and, we are all brothers and sisters and we should care about each other in this manner.  Life is worth living and we all matter.

    https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org                                                                                         tel:1-800-273-8255

    https://afsp.org                                                                                                                                 Toll-Free: 1-888-333-AFSP (2377)

    https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention/index.shtml                              1-800-273-TALK (8255)

    https://www.samhsa.gov/suicide-prevention

     

  • Journal Entry 8

    This came from my old wordpress if it seems out of place.

    Ok so this is not a requirement for the course I am taking at school, but it is in the book “On Course” for which I am using in my paths to college success class.  I should have started it sooner, but I didn’t want to put more work on myself then I had too.  I am now doing this for myself.  The next entry’s I make are going to be journal suggestions from the book.

    In these journals, I am going to try using their guidelines for writing a meaningful journal entries till I find one that I like better.  These are accepting personal responsibility, discover self-motivation, master self-management, employ interdependence, gain self-awareness, adopt lifelong learning, develop emotional intelligence, and believe in my-self.

    Take inventory of your personal strengths and weaknesses as revealed in your self-assessment questionnaire.

    In your journal, write the eight areas of the self-assessment and record your scores for each.

    38   Accepting Personal Responsibility

    42   Discovering Self- Motivation

    27   Mastering Self- Management

    26   Employing interdependence

    43   Gaining Self- Awareness

    44   Adopting Lifelong Learning

    36   Developing Emotional Intelligence

    40   Believing in myself

    Write about the areas on the self-assessment in which you had your highest scores

    These scores were out of 80 points each, so none of my scores were rather high most hovered in the mid to lower point ranges.  I knew I had a lot to work on even before I took the assessment.  My highest scores were in discovering self-motivation, gaining self-awareness, adopting lifelong learning, and believing in myself.  I have been working on believing in myself for years going to therapy off and on for my major depressive disorder It just had not sunk in till started going to CBSST (Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training) at the VA.  The next one up would be discovering self-motivation.  This is so true of me my mind races so fast that I hardly have time to write ideas I have down and I do get bored easily.  Gaining self-awareness and lifelong learning are at the top of my list thanks to the internet.  You may be saying how does the internet help create self-awareness; well I don’t just use it for cat videos and viral videos I watch a lot of things that give me pause for thought like the Crash Course series and the multitude of independent news feeds and if I have questions about something I just check their sources or research it on my own if I Want to know about a subject.  Doing this give me insight in to who I truly am as I have lost myself through the madness of life.

    Write about your lowest scores

    Employing interdependence, mastering self-management, developing emotional intelligence, and accepting personal responsibility these are my lowest scores.  Employing interdependence, I understand why this one is low it is one that most older generational men deal with. We hate to ask for help this is the way we were taught “real men don’t need to ask for help I can do this on my own”.  This is something we are taught just by observing our fathers and other male role models.  The way I am combating this is by going back to school you have no choice in college you need to work with others if you want to survive.  Mastering self-management, I have always had issues with this.  It is no secret among those who know me I am a slob and my time management sucks.  This I am working on through today I was finally able to get some things out of my room and in the shed.  I also reorganized my room for a better study space; doing school work in the kitchen with 2 other guys in my mobile home made it challenging.  I put things on my walls to inspire and keep me on track like a world map with the places I would like to help when I join the Peace Corp and a work schedule for school work.  Developing emotional intelligence this has been a pain for me because I tend to bottle things up till I blow (and not in a good way).  This usually takes the form of a fight and I hate to fight I don’t want to hurt anyone or myself that is one of the reasons I am posting this in a public forum.  I want to be open and not hold in the all my feelings and if I can help anyone else who has these problems I am happy.  I do sometimes cry for no apparent reason I think that is my bodies way of relieving some of the pent-up emotions I still carry and don’t realize it.  Accepting personal responsibility, I have often blamed many things on my passed experiences for why I do or don’t do thing and more often allow other to dictate how they think I should live.  Dealing with this one is hard I have had to remove certain people from my life for now so that I can find myself and do the things I want to do.  Certain people I have allowed to have too much control over me and let them guide to who they think I should be.  I can’t let that happen anymore I realize the more I allow them to have control the more I hate myself.  I feel I am at a pivotal juncture in my life where I need to focus on who I am and who I want to be.  I cannot allow them to have so much influence on me or I may slip

  • The Social Effects of Media

    This was my final Essay for Freshman Comp. last Semester.

    Introduction

    Media is everywhere: it is in our homes, places of work, and even on our phones.  With this in mind I ask the question; what type of influence does media have on how we view society?  I grew up as a child in the 1980’s and as a teenager in the early 1990’s.  It was at this time that there was a lot of chatter about how much television being watched could lead to violence.  There were others who talked about how violence in Television and movies makes kids more violent.  I had always thought that it was neither of these and depended more on the individual state of mind over the shows themselves.   I mean I watched all the violence in TV shows cartoons and movies and I was never violent.  In fact, over the years I have seen plenty of positive effects of TV and movies.  One of the major contributors I have seen in TV and movies that has made a positive effect on society, at least in a technological way is Star Trek.

    Ok now this is where I will let my geek flag fly.  In the Star Trek series, of which there are four of them, were the inspiration for many gadgets that we either have today or have been surpassed.  Examples of these are the flip phone, which we see in the original series; tablets, which we see in the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager; and the 3D printers which are the precursor to the solid light replication system they use in all three series.  These are just some of the technological advances that Star Trek inspired.  The show also was on the fore front when it came to social issues as well with, the first interracial kiss broadcast between Capt. Kirk and Lt. Ohura.  This is not the only show that brings social issues up in this manner.  I found out about a Social Studies teacher who learned his whole class watched The Walking Dead, so he turned it into an extra credit learning experience about the history of civilization.  I found out about him on The Talking Dead, which is a discussion show after the airing of new episodes of The Walking Dead.  This is pertinent to me because he is working in the same field I want to get into Social Studies Education.

    One of the other things I noticed over the past few years are how many military commercials there are on TV.  Then I noticed that there has been little to no Peace Corp. Commercials on TV. Of course we very rarely here about the United States Government talk about peace.  Of course the military also sponsors pro-football as well.  So the government could without even knowing be pushing more violent tendencies as well, through the media. I know it is a little conspiratorial, but then again these are just a few of the thoughts I have had about that matter.  Which leads me to the question of; How has TV and movies helped to promote violence and/or altruism?

    Preliminary Research

    My first search terms I used were television media effects on society in the search terms.  I got over ten Million hits.  I found a site that is about the impact of media on youth, Mass Media and it Influence on society.  There are many studies that popped up, and they all looked like science journals.  In fact, there was a whole separate page that led to the journals on Google.  I found plenty of sources on the negative effects of television on our society.  Studies that focus on how the violence on television and movies creates more violent kids and adults.  I have taken a few history classes and have seen that we were violent well before television and movies ever were invented.  I wonder does media violence really make us more violent or do we make violent media because of the real violence in our world.

    Next I looked on You Tube to see if there were any videos on there that might answer my question a bit better.  Again I found plenty of stuff on violence in media.  I also found a few that added to that talked about media (television) and obesity.  Especially because we spent more time sitting in front of the television and less time outside.  Another reason was that we are inundated with commercials about fast food, sugary cereals and other assorted foods.  This not the type of influences I am looking in to.  I want to focus more on the prosocial and antisocial effects of television and movie media.

    Further Research

    In an article by Barbra Wilsons article Media and Children’s Aggression, Fear, and Altruism, she makes the point that it is the type of programming that children watched is more important than; how much time is spent watching media.  This view-point is backed up by Erica Bailey and Bartosz W. Wojdnski’s article Effects of “meaningful” Entertaining Media on Altruistic Behavior: Investigating Potential Mediators.  “Specifically, viewing entertainment with portrayals of moral beauty has been shown to lead to altruistic intentions as well as behaviors that involve helping others. (Bailey and Wojdynski, p. 604) Wilson looks at a study of children from grades kindergarten to second and third to fifth that says kids learn more emotional lessons from shows with no humor; than from sitcoms that may are supposed to have the similar content. She says that humor can distract from the main points and make it harder to relate to for kids. (Wilson, p.90, 91) She also states that girls learn emotional lessons better than boys do.  I personally think this depends on the individual myself I knew some pretty unemotional girls and I was an over emotional boy myself.

    In Bailey and Wojdynski’s study into altruistic behavior they took 106 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 26.  To see how willing they are to help both an in-group and out-group professors in their research.  They showed them one of two clips of the T.V. show Rescue Me.  One of the clips was of the main character Tommy (played by Denise Leary), as he goes through a divorce and the loss of his cousin on 9/11.  Another clip where he and his fellow firefighters prank each other. The first clip saw higher levels of “meaningful affect” and elevated the “physical response” than in the more comedic clip. (Bailey and Wojdynski, p. 609-610)   When they were done they were given the option to help the researcher they were randomly assigned too.  The first researcher was a young white male professor from their college.  The other was an older black male professor from a different college.  It turned out that those who saw the more dramatic clip were more willing to help (at 98%) than those who saw the more comedic clip (at 61%). (Bailey and Wojdynski, p. 613) So this study shows that when we watch a more dramatic T.V. shows that we would be more willing to help people out more.  Of course this is but one study and even the researchers that did this study that more studies need to be done on this subject. (Bailey and Wojdynski, p. 616) One reason I can see right off the bat is the size of the group.  This was a relatively small group of people so there could be other variables involved.

    Wilson talks about a study done by Mark singer in the Journal of the American Academy of child and Adolescent Psychiatry that studied fears and phobias in the long-term. This was a study of over 2000 grade school and middle school kids.  This was a “self-reported” survey that showed kids who watched more than six hours a week were at more risk of “anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress.” (Wilson, p93) In my life I have watch well over that per week as a kid and as an adult.  And I do suffer from both anxiety and depression but was it from watching too much television or from other events in my life.  This may be caused by combination of both; I could not say for sure.  She also mentions a survey of parents who allowed their children to watch television before bed. Wilson stated that these kids had a hard time falling to sleep and were more prone to nightmares. (Wilson, p.93)

    In the article: The effects of Media Violence on Society by Craig A. Anderson and Brad Bushman they talk about the “casual connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in children” (Quoted from Joint statement on the Impact of Entertainment violence on Children).  According to Anderson and Bushman, J.G. Johnson did a longitudinal study that linked exposure to television to media violence effects adolescence and young adults as much as young children. This I can see when I reflect on my preteen and teenage years.  I remember that when I was a kid; when I would watch the WWE with my friends and brother, we would pretend we were wrestlers and throw each other around the yard.  My Trio counselor James Kircher who was a Social Studies teacher in a previous life say he thinks that the younger groups “have a propensity to mimic” what they see.  He feels that even anti-war films can lead to kids mimic the violence they see.

    Wilson cited a study by John Wright and Athena Huston that stated: “children who perceived television as highly realistic had mental “schemata” for real world occupations such as nursing and policing that were similar to TV portrayals of such jobs.”  Schemata is how we store and structure knowledge to make sense of new information. (Wilson, p. 91) This was most likely the case when it came to me joining the military.  I had seen many more comedic films about the military growing up like “Stripes” and the constant bombardment of U.S. military commercials that helped me to make a decision about joining the army.  When I actually got to basic training reality hit.  The yelling and screaming of the drill sergeants were no long humorous they were now terrifying.  The reality that I may actually have to take another’s life scared and saddened me.  In this way the media warped my perception of Army life and lead to negative consequences for the rest of my tour of duty.

    It seems as though that the type of media one consumes has an effect on how empathetic someone may be.  According to Wilson people who prefer fiction have more empathy than those who prefer nonfiction. (Wilson, p. 92) Though they are not sure if empathetic people are drawn to fiction or if the fiction creates more empathetic people.  If we look at the way kids view characters in movies or television shows they have a tendency to gravitate to characters that are more like them.  This could be because they are more easily relatable to them.  This could be how kids start to learn empathy.  According to Wilson: “Empathy” is developmental by nature, so it is based upon “the child’s ability to recognize emotions.” (Wilson, p. 91) Wilson state the example of how babies cry when they hear other babies cry.  Have you ever been to a hospital nursery?  It can be all quite until one baby starts to cry.  Although, this could just be from them waking up from a sound sleep by another baby crying.  So, does that mean that if a baby does not cry when another one does that they have no empathy or they are going to grow up to be someone who does not care.

    Since 9/11 there have been some studies on how news media affect children according to Wilson.  After the tragic events on that day “parents found that 35 percent of American children experienced one or more stress symptoms”.  (Wilson, p. 94) They do find that how close kids are located close geographic location are to the site of a terrifying event, increases how much they identify with said event.  As an example if there were a mass shooting in St. Paul, Minnesota kids in the nearby suburbs, would then be more scared of mass shooting than if they were in Austin, Texas.  In the era of if” it bleeds it leads” news mentality and the twenty-four-hour news cycles; they have found in a study of “sixth graders suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder” as much as two years after an event like the Oklahoma City bombing. (Wilson, p. 94) We are living in a world that is growing increasingly together through the media.  I am not quite sure what to make of this.  I have become a news junkie over the past couple of years.  For me I see tragic stories like these and I wonder how can we stop events like these from happening since they seem to happen so very often.

    Recommendations and Conclusions

    Does media effect our society in a positive or negative way?  This is a total mixed bag I feel.  Media can help us to understand the human condition and train us in ways we do not even realize.  When I asked Kircher: if he thought that media could help to make positive or negative changes in our society?  He said that “I am yet to be convinced that this” type of media” is not just filler”.  He does not feel that these forms of media really challenge us to see other “perspectives and critical thinking skills.” (Kircher, interview) For me one of the biggest things we can do is to not glorify the most heinous of acts.  This is hard though; we need to have the news report situations accurately.  So as far as the news is concerned it is a balancing act between the” if it bleeds it leads” mentality and leading with more human interest stories.

    Maybe we should focus more on the individuals rather than society as a whole.  It seems to me that everyone wants to blame everybody else for the issues of the world without really looking inward at ourselves.  I personally think that maybe we need to just get away from the media as a whole.  Then spend more time reflecting on who we are and what we can do to make this world a better place for everyone.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Works cited

    Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. “The Effects of Media Violence on

    Society.” Science, vol. 295, no. 5564, 2002, pp. 2377–2379. www.jstor.org/stable/3076147.

    Bailey, Erica, and Bartosz W. Wojdynski.  “Effects Of “Meaningful” Entertainment On

    Altruistic Behavior: Investigating Potential Mediators.” Journal Of Broadcasting &             Electronic Media 59.4 (2015) 603-619. Academic Search Premier. Web 2 Nov. 2016

    Kircher, James. “Media Effects on Society.” E-mail interview. 10 Nov. 2016. Trio SSS

    counselor and former Social Studies teacher

     

    Wilson, Barbara J. “Media and Children’s Aggression, Fear, and Altruism.” The Future

    of Children, vol. 18, no. 1, 2008, pp. 87–118. www.jstor.org/stable/20053121.

     

  • Should we Break up the States?

     

    I have heard a few of my old friend say that the states should become their own countries.  These people also think they are patriots.  In some ways I kind of agree.  I mean our constitution is set up like a treaty if you really think about it.  Most of the states where not there at the time of the signing of it.  This would ease the tax burden on people a bit, not having to pay federal taxes.  We would only have to pay state taxes, which would be federal taxes I guess at that point.  Every country would have its own currency which would be easier to keep a closer eye on it.  This way the few would not have so much control over the many.

    This would also give many that still lived in a democracy more control over their government.  This would promote more activity in the political process which could be much better thing.  People would be more willing to stay informed if they actually thought they had a say, unlike the current system we have now.

    We could give the new countries there national guard back.  If there was a war the individual countries could come together and fight side by side.  May be do drills together annually, this way if the militaries of the countries train together they would be less likely to want to fight them.  So, there are a couple of positives but I feel there are some major drawbacks to this.

    One of the major problems I see right off the bat is what to do about the nukes.  Does anyone really trust the south with nukes?   The KKK would definitely rise to power again and the right wing religious fundamentalist, would want to kill anyone not like them or believe the same way they do.  We would be more like Europe was in the dark ages.  Hell I consider the time we are living in now the Social/Technological Dark Ages.  I is little doubt in my mind, if it were not for our current level of technology we would already be in the dark ages.  We have not yet learned how to live socially yet in this new world.

    Slavery might come back into play if we were to divide up.  I do not think it would be successful though.  The countries which did not legalize it could put major economic pressure on them.  Which brings us back to the nukes again.  How many people think that there would be a leader that might try and play that card just out of spite.  Look at our political climate right now it is crazy.

    Though slavery most likely would not last long I think, Segregation would definitely make a comeback in many parts of the country.  I feel many leaders would try to become permanent dictators, or at least try.

    I want to say right now I know that not all people in the south are bad people.  I lived in Florida for 10 years I know plenty of people from the south.  It is the people they elect that scare me.  I am a Humanist I believe in our potential as a species.  I feel we are not ready yet as a country or s species to do something like that in this country.   Then again people usually only learn when bad things happen to them, so maybe we should, just for the wake up call.