Times Have Changed

Technology has continued its influence on our world throughout our existence. From the wheel to the i-phone they have all effected the world and the way it works. A good question our world should ask itself is "is all of this technology good for us?". Last year the question arose if smart phones were bad for our bodies because they use higher levels of waves, microwaves instead of radio waves. Many things have helped us continue to grow such as the Internet. In order to find the answer to something many people had to go to the nearest library and search for an answer but in this day and age, people can type into their smart phones and it will come up with an answer on the spot anywhere in the world. Technology has also saved millions of lives. Polio, anthrax and small pox used to be deadly diseases that were impossible to cure but they are now nearly wiped out around the entire world. Yet with all of these good things impacting the world, there have been some unfortunate things that have come with the advancement of technology. People are becoming less social in person than in the past. People used to talk to whomever was around them but in the 21st century with nearly 114 million smart phones being used in the USA which is more than half the amount of people with phones being smart phone users. In my own life I have noticed that my colleges at my lunch table have been less talkative because so many people are preoccupied using their smart phones. When I look at other tables even more people will be on their phones rather than talk to their friends. This is a frightening revolution to see people being less social in person. Technology has also increased the amount of social interaction between people too such as social media and websites like Facebook, Twitter, and My space. Technology has its upsides and downsides but overall, it has more upsides. Technology saves lives, allows more people access to information that they may not have otherwise and creates even more forms of entertainment. It has enhanced my own life far more than it has damaged it and technology has had more positive impacts on our world than negative ones.

Stereotypes: Skaters

As I walk through my high school on a late start many students are paying more attention to me, staring even. I walk to my locker and put away my carver board, basically a larger skateboard. My friends come up and are surprised as I put my board away and ask me why I would ever do something like that. I ask what, and they tell me "why would you skate?". Skating has been a hobby of mine for about the past year or two and I use it as a past time and a motive of transportation. I asked my friends and some of my acquaintances what they thought about skaters and their responses varied only slightly. They would say druggies, dangerous, drugs, mean, cocky, and rebels. I was surprised by their answer but then again they were surprised I was a skater. A certain stigma comes with being a skater and many people only expect something bad to come from someone who is a skater. The city of Chicago believes does not allow skaters in the business districts which is a great deal of Chicago. This is due to their belief that skaters were driving of business. I found this frustrating because not everyone who is a skater is a rebel or fit the stereotype. If anything, I am the exact opposite of the skater stereotype; I am the drum major of my school's marching band and I am also an Eagle Scout. Yet when I walk around school with my carver board people look at me differently and my friends were completely caught off guard when I told them. My parents began to worry that I was getting into drugs when I first started skating but I wasn't. People began to perceive things about me just because I was skating around even though it was just a hobby of mine, it did not define who I was or my personality. There are nearly 11.08 million skaters nation wide and yet this stigma seems to follow skaters. It is a shame that people fall back onto stereotypes because it is easier to do than learning who a person is even if that stereotype does not fit them. People must learn to stop listening to stereotypes and learn who people really are at their core.

IAT Tests

I believe the results I got were kind of far off. It said I had an automatic bias to European Americans. I believe that I do not, I have hardly even met anyone who is African American so it is difficult for me to see why I would have a bias in the first place. The page says that biases begin at the age of three, which is a surprising age for someone to begging having opinions yet even more interesting because sometimes they do not know that they have them. I believe that this does change some of my thoughts about the movie "I Sit Where I Want" because much of these biases are not conscious, they are subconscious. Many of the people that were in the movie said that they thought that they had no preference for black or white they just happened to sit with black or white people. I believe that they began sitting at their tables because they went with their gut instinct when they first went into high school. This would make them rely on their biases for the first little bit. After they got acquainted to high school they would then branch out but they would always stick with their roots, which is where their biases told them to be because the people you first meet you tend to have a greater bonding strength. Biases are interesting because it is difficult for people to realize that they have a bias but even more difficult for people to get over their biases and move on with their lives. What the school in the movie we watched was trying to do was help get rid of the biases people have by intergrating the schools and making a project to have all of the people in the lunch room sit together. I can imagine that trying to have another person get rid of ones biases is next to impossible. The person who has a bias must get rid of it. The problem with the school was that all of the students believed that the other race should come to them and get rid of their biases but they never wanted to do anything to help the other race either become rid of their biases or show them that they were similiar. Each race belived that the other race should do the work and show that they were not as they appeared to other people.