9. November 2009 by student.

Many people know that Obesity has become a major problem in this country and others.  According to the CDC, more than a third of American adults are obese and up to almost 20% of our children are considered obese.  The epidemic part arises from the official definition of “obesity,” which is defined as an overweight condition that exposes or places the obese individual at risk for disease.  Diseases associated with obesity include, but are not limited to, non-Insulin dependent diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Attack and Stroke.  Furthermore, Cardiovascular Disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, above any type of cancer.  If more than a third of Americans are obese, how many are putting themselves at risk?On the other side of the coin, the media representation of the “normal looking” individual is extremely skinny, and tends to have a very low body fat percentage, which is also unhealthy.  Body fat is an important tissue; it produces many hormones, including testosterone and estrogen, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).  Many models are too skinny to adequately produce some of these hormones, which can cause several problems.  This is what most of the American population looks at every day; this is what we “think” we should look like.  Why? Yet, more than a third of Americans are obese.  How?These discrepancies may be due to a differentiating of society in social norms.  The individuals who have the ability to attain the too-skinny body do so at very high costs, but the individuals who cannot simply allow their bodies to slide into a different unhealthy state.  This may create two separate social norms in which to live, either the extremely thin or the overweight; this is because we try to be what we see every day, which is either what is portrayed through the media (the ultra-thin) or what we see when we go outside (the 1/3 of America that is obese, more of whom are overweight).  Neither of these social identities are healthy, yet everyone seems to fit into one of those categories, or is trying to.  Furthermore, this division can create a disparity among the two populations.  The successfully skinny people may begin to discriminate against the overweight individuals they see and meet everyday, or vice versa.  Because this discrimination would be based on how an individual looks rather than on heredity or some “uncontrollable” factor, once they begin it would be extremely difficult to dispel amongst a population.  Either way, the other category can be viewed as a lifestyle choice that implies something about the individual’s character or personality.  To a population in whose midst this disparity grows, it may lead to a division that changes not only the social norms, but the social constructs of that society.Can educating the general population help individuals to become healthy again? Can mass media and global communication change their images to a promote a healthier lifestyle?  We, as a population, would have to be willing to change our views and ideas, even our social norms and constructs, to a more moderate view.  As a communications major, I feel that this change for moderation and a healthier view needs to begin now, today.  This cannot wait until I graduate and get into the work force, because our ideas and views are being changed daily, not yearly.  This change needs to occur now, before our population divides anymore into one of two unhealthy categories.http://www.cdc.gov/http://www.nsca-lift.org/http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/299/20/2401

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9. November 2009 by student.

Tort reform is a necessity in our society if we ever intend to reform healthcare.It is a large component of the cost of our healthcare.  We spend millions of dollars annually conducting medical tests for “defensive” purposes instead of diagnostic purposes.In fact, it has been shown in states such as Texas, which has caps on malpractice awards, to have saved those state taxpayers millions of dollars.Why is tort reform not on the table?  It has never been shown that tort reform would in any way affect the quality of our healthcare.  It has, however, been shown to save the taxpayers millions of dollars.Frivolous lawsuits have been known to cost the American taxpayers upwards of 260 billion dollars annually. So why is tort reform not an integral part of the current health care reform?Perhaps it is because the Trial Lawyers Lobby is one of the most powerful liberal lobbyist groups in Washington D.C.  Once again, I am discouraged by the system.  It really is not about what is in the best interest of the people; it is about who donates the largest amount of money to the cronies in our government.We hear daily about the outrageous salaries of CEO’s of large companies or about the profits of insurance companies.  When was the last time the media discussed the huge profits that lawyers claim after “winning” a lawsuit?  Most lawyers take more than 50% of the awards given to the victim or clamant in a malpractice case.  Where is the social outrage?If tort reform is not made a major part of the current health care reform, then we have not propelled forward with this issue or in any way pursued truth in cost savings of health care to the American taxpayers.

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9. November 2009 by student.

While the standard for education increases so does the pressure among students to do well. Within the past 50 years cheating a dramatically increased. Cheating is said to be increasing because of pressure for good grades and increased competition among students. Surveys given in the 1940’s estimated about 20% of college students cheated in some way. Today it is estimated that 75%-98% of college students cheat on papers, tests, etc. There are significantly more reports of cheating going on in high school and college rather than elementary schools. This is probably because younger students don’t comprehend the concept of what cheating really is and to them telling a teacher is just “snitching” or “tattling”.  Online classes make it extremely easy for student to cheat by taking tests or quizzes with others in the virtual class. But who is to blame? Are students getting lazier or are colleges burdening students with unfair work loads. The way most college courses are ran, students don’t learn the material the class is intended to teach. Intstead students have been trained their entire academic career to simply learn how to beat the class.  So students continue to find ways to pass classes even if it requires them to go against the academic honesty policy, which is seen as a complete joke by most of the student body. Cheating is such a major concern that colleges spend millions of dollars to try to fight the issue by using companies such as turnitin.com. Most students including myself think this is completely unfair. Colleges are paying these companies with our tuition. So we (the students) are paying a company to use our papers to prevent anyone from plagiarizing, and these companies are making serious money off our hard work. Students whose papers are submitted should get some compensation from a company making money off their work.  As cheating continues so will the efforts to suppress it, but as students are continuously loaded with work it is easy to see why it could be a tempting alternative.

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9. November 2009 by student.

Video games and violence was by Dan Langfelder at fgcu sorry

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9. November 2009 by student.

In The U.S, 90 percent of kids aged from 8-16 play video games, spending about 13 hours a week. This is even higher for boys! So as you can see video games are a big deal in our society.  You may ask how this is effecting society? Research shows it’s having a neggitive impact.

Now a new study suggests virtual violence in these games may make kids more aggressive in real life. The study consisted of kids from The U.S and Japan and they observed before and after playing violent video games which I got from the CNN website. The children who were exposed to the violent video games showed more agressive behavior than their peers in the study who were not exposed. In the new study, Dr. Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., of Iowa State University in Ames, and his colleagues looked at how children and teen’s video game habits at one time point related to their behavior three to six months later. According to Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research “The findings are “pretty good evidence” that violent video games do indeed cause aggressive behavior.” This is comming from a man who has studied violence and agression in the media for thirty years.

The violence in these games are so real and they play it so often that experts say it desensitizes  violence.  It desensitizes them to gory image and they are not reconized as something bad but more like a common occurence.  The games may also encourage kids (and adults) to rehearse aggressive solutions to conflict, meaning that these thought processes may become more available to them when real-life conflicts arise, leading to a big social problem in our society. Its a baic fact that what your mind is fed is what it will think. Playing these games over and over again especially in kids who are still developing is a horrible idea.  I think video games are based around violence and people are getting pleasure from this violence. This reinforces the fact that doing something bad can feel good. Violence can feel good. I know that not everyone who plays video games maybe effected like this but everyonewho has a gun does not shoot somone but its still a risk and why have them. I believe that the more neggitivity we throw out there wheather its in videogames or whatever, cant do the world any good.

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