29. April 2010 by student.

I will say that this is probably one of the least interesting topics to most people who will read it, but I was somewhat annoyed with one of my clients at work the other day and decided to post about it.

           As a tanning salon employee and manager of almost three years now, I have heard it all! From people swearing to the heavens that tanning in a tanning bed will turn out like it did in the “Final Destination” movies, to thinking that a certain bed is stronger than the others. There have been uncountable articles in the papers about the negatives of indoor tanning. There have been stereotypes that people who “fake bake” must be as fake as the tans they have. There have been spray tans gone wrong (okay, I will admit to that… it happens) where people turn orange because they do not follow directions. Allow me to state some positives and make some corrections.

            In today’s society, tanning indoors is considered very normal. Some people highly enjoy it, others are strongly against it. Some people do get carried away with how much they tan, but not everyone. It has been proven that UV rays and vitamin D levels increase levels of euphoria in a person for a short period of time as well as give them more confidence. Then there are the people who hate it and use examples of people, like the cast of Jersey Shore on MTV, to notify everyone they know that tanning is for “tools” and “guidettes”. It is seen as a waste of money to some people, but a time saver for others. Most people in the working world do not get the opportunity to spend hours on the beach for leisure time, so they come in and take a fifteen minute nap in a tanning bed and kill two birds with one stone.

In reality, the negative articles that are published swearing to high heaven that indoor tanning causes skin cancer are not 100% truthful. Did you know that regular sun exposure in moderation actually prevents a person from getting cancer? Regular sun exposure is actually good for you! Sun exposure is our best source of vitamin D. Last time I checked vitamin D is an important part of human survival. Regular sun exposure builds up a tolerance against the sun’s most harmful rays. Most of the studies that are publicized are from scientists who use people who are not exposed to the sun regularly and expose them to maximum UV rays for a maximum amount of time. Or they use rats. I still have no idea why rats are used in studies related to human beings that are not harmful. If you are pale, do not be naïve and think you will be brown within one session. No, you have to build a tan over time to see results, otherwise you’ll end up with a sunburn, just like you would if you go to the beach for hours with little to no SPF.

When it comes to the medical reasons to tanning, there are two completely different sides. Doctors highly recommend sun exposure to patients with depression, anxiety, type 1 diabetes, bone deficiency, and even Alzheimer’s. However a doctor will tell you, if you already have skin cancer or even a history or skin cancer, to stay out of the sun entirely.

            As many views and opinions there are on indoor tanning, the only thing I have to say about it is don’t knock it till you try it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

                              The death penalty is the most severe form of punishment. Until the 1890’s execution was done by hanging criminals. Currently, execution is more commonly done by lethal injection. In recent studies statistic show they are approximately 2.2 million Americans behind bars, costing the country close to a whopping 60 billion dollars annually.

                         The death penalty is an effective way to portray a message to the general public. I am a believer of the saying “If you kill someone you deserve to be killed”. Once there is plain proof of who has committed a murder the accused should immediately face death. According to fdp.dk 41% of prisoners voted to preferring the death penalty over life in prison without parole. What is the point of keeping worthless murderers alive? I personally do NOT care what the price is for the death penalty I will gladly pay my taxes to support it. With these murders dead we as Americans can feel safe in our homes. Like I stated before the death penalty is a strong message to portray maybe the other 59%  who voted life in prison without parole will think before they commit a murder if they have to considering dying themselves. 

Manny Fortunato. “Prison facts.” Hearts & minds. 26 Sept. 2006.  Web. 29 April 2010. http://www.heartsandminds.org/prisons/facts.htm 

Fight the death penalty in the USA. 24 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 April 2010. http://www.fdp.dk/

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29. April 2010 by student.

Lose weight! Lose weight! Lose weight! Tone those muscles! Get a six pack! Tone that butt!

That’s all I seem to see and hear lately and that’s great except for the fact that this “be skinny” movement can actually become dangerous. Some people are desperate to become skinny or toned in short amounts of time or through unhealthy means. These people will go to the extremes to lose the weight and be skinny. Some people refuse to eat or follow insane diet plans, or workout obsessively. Extreme attempts at being skinny could lead to eating disorders like bulimia,anorexia, and an obsessive working out habit(yes this is actually a disorder) or a type of body dysmorphic disorder (which is where you are never happy with the way you look or a certain aspect of your body to the point where it becomes obsessive and dangerous).The funny thing though (Don’t get me wrong, im not saying eating disorders are funny because they are very serious) is that you will only stay skinny from throwing up or starving if you don’t eat at all, EVER. So once you eat something, you gain the weight right back, and all that gross throwing up and starving didn’t do a single thing!

Are people, specifically women, this obsessed and determined to be super model skinny and built? So many girls want that perfect bikini body and I can’t help but wonder if this is really what they want or if this is just what society is telling us is acceptable. We see ads on the TV and on the internet, advertising diet programs like Nutri System, the Acai Berry diet, the Lemonade diet, and so many more!  Many workout programs out there also may or may not work. There are also pills you can take to lose weight like Alli, water pills, and Slimquick. Did you know that some people actually look up on the internet how to starve themselves and throwup as well! Oh my goodness! What is this world coming to! Peer pressure, society, TV shows, and the internet show kids and even adults that being skinny is better so people resort to what ever means necessary, like the unhealthy, life threatening ways, to be skinny and conform to what society dictates is acceptable. They will do ANYTHING to be like Lindsay Lohan or a supermodel who really looks like she could go for a big mac and some fries.

Being skinny and in shape is great but being healthy, and also loving who you are no matter how you look is better. Dieting is very simple for those with the will power and motivation to lose weight and BE HEALTHY. There are many resources to find healthy dieting plans and eating habits and healthy workout routines.So forget about those silly TV ads and what these super models and TV actresses look like!  Forget about the lemonade diet or starvation. Workout! Diet! But do it safely. It is more important to feel and look healthy than it is to be so skinny that your bones are showing.

Posted in Social Problems | 2 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

Choosing to medicate a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety has an opportunity to result in either good or bad consequences in health, social standing, and in a overall life quality. While some medications can help people adjust to certain situations, it is not a permanent solution. Fixing the problem, and when it cannot be fixed learning to cope is the first step towards healing, rather then medicating and ignoring them.

Many studies have been made to find the trigger of depressive symptoms and there is a plethora of correlations between parenting, body image, quality of life and even biological factors such as personality traits. Usually there is more than one cause and major life changes can take small, normal life hassles, and compact them into a much more cumbersome stress on a person, thus digging them into a depressive hole that is hard to get out of. When there seems to be no other alternative, some choose counseling, others will medicate, and some others will do both. Some people decide to take up smoking or drinking to try to fix long term problems with short term solutions.

A factor influencing adult depression and drug usage is their quality of life, especially in early childhood. Childhood treatment is a large factor of how a person perceives themselves as they grow older they tend to think the same way about themselves. When someone’s childhood consisted of maltreatment, that person tended to see themselves as a victim and have less self respect, making them more likely candidates for substance misuse and depression.

I think that when it comes to depression, and anxiety that people should work with life councilors to get through their problems and their worries about their lives. It is a healthier and more natural approach to problems, and it has no side effects unlike conventional medicine.

Posted in Social Problems | 2 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

Nobody likes being forced into something they don’t want to do, and yet there are expecting mothers everywhere taking substances that are harmful and yet nothing is being done to protect their babies. Children are innocent, and shouldn’t have to suffer the affects of second hand smoke or lifelong conditions caused by a smoking mother’s indifference toward the fact she is sharing her body with her unborn child. Pregnant women who smoke or drink have an increased chance of giving birth to a baby with an abnormality. In the womb, the unborn child is exposed to everything their mothers are. Breastfeeding mothers also expose their babies to the carcinogens that cause cancer when using tobacco. Avoiding these substances while pregnant would be beneficial to society as a whole by preventing unnecessary lifestyle based diseases in the innocent.

Government regulations may not be the answer for preventing tobacco and alcohol usage in pregnant women, for who is to say if one is pregnant or not. Some women don’t even know themselves until it is obvious that they are.

Our country recognizes that all men are created equal, therefore denying a pregnant woman her freedom of choice, weather moral or immoral can be viewed as wrong. Any man that walks into a store would be serviced immediately without question, providing he is at least a legal adult. With regulation, woman would be treated differently and that isn’t right. We all deserve equal treatment.

Even in our day and age, women smoking is seen as taboo. Although less so then in the past, women are looked down upon if they are smokers. I don’t think it should be this way. Woman have every right a man has to smoke, but it is only when you add the variable of putting another human being at risk for preventable diseases that I tend to differ.

It is not a lack of equal treatment that brings me to conclude that expecting women should not be allowed to ingest the carcinogens that are in tobacco and alcohol, it is quite the contrary. I believe that though unborn, babies should be given equal rights and not be subjected to the dangers of tobacco and alcohol use. Knowingly exposing them to those dangers should be viewed as negligence of the mother and she should be subjected to a punishment, just as if a negligent mother were to allow her already born baby get into danger.

I also think that more mothers should be educated about how their lifestyle affects their children, because I think there is an overall unawareness especially with young people today because it is easier to assume one’s bad habits only affects himself rather than think about the other people it actually does. Through education, women will understand the substances they ingest affects their children and will be more careful before they pick up that cigarette.

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

29. April 2010 by student.

Schizophrenia is a mental health disease that is co-related to excess levels of dopamine,serotonin, and glutamate in the brain. It is a disease that is not very common but when it is seen by the public, the person suffering tends to be outcast.

Schizophrenics are not much different people then non sufferers. The biggest difference is they see and/or hear things that aren’t there. Without treatment it is hard for schizophrenics to live with such a judgmental and factory made society. They see their hallucinations as no different then the world around them, and they can’t tell them apart. In their minds, their delusions are no different then the reality around them and that causes a big problem when trying to function in with others.

Without the social standards of today, schizophrenia might not be seen as such a serious problem. It really only has three different types of symptoms. The symptoms most associated with the disease are hallucinations whether auditory or visual. The less recognizable symptom is an emotional apathy. Somebody with this disease may say or do things that may seem weird to onlookers but is perfectly normal for the one doing it.

In the past schizophrenia was seen by the church as being possessed by the devil, because they didn’t understand why those people would act the way they did. In that time, they would perform exorcisms to no good effect. In the past schizophrenic people were also thrown into insane asylum to live the remainder of their lives, as we didn’t have the medications we have now. With the social isolation we unconsciously treat these people with, whose to say we do much better now for these sufferers then we did back then?

Posted in Social Problems | 2 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

When you think of an illegal immigrant, automatically a  Mexican comes to mind. It is sad but true! Yes it’s easier for a Mexican to cross the border everyday than any other race, but we are in a country that is directed at the illegal Mexican immigrants. Why is it that when an immigration officer  see a Mexican he goes up to him and asks him for his papers suspecting him to be an illegal, but they don’t even bother to come up illegal Irish or Russian immigrant just because they are white. I should know because I am of Hispanic race and I have had the chance to work with illegal Mexican immigrants and its hard for them because they are constantly getting robbed because the robbers know they cant put there money in a bank so they have to have the money on them and they can’t call 911 for help since they are illegal. They are just here to work for a living. That’s why i feel we should change our perspective on illegal Mexicans and any other race. I think our government should give each illegal immigrant in the U.S. today their green card, so we can stop making a big deal about it and remember the main reason why illegal Mexicans are here is because to find work not break the law.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 5 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

Scenario: It’s FINALLY the weekend! Friday night, a friend sends a txt to you and a couple others saying she is having a get together, not a huge house party, but is just having some friends over for a couple drinks, maybe go in the pool, or play a little Rockband. So you arrive, and you and your friends break open a case of beer. Everyone’s enjoying themselves and enjoying the drinks and maybe playing a little Rockband etc. As the night progresses, one drink turns into two drinks,two drinks turns into three drinks, three drinks turn into four drinks,and so on. You play some beer pong, do a couple, er well a lot, of shots…you and your friends are drinking more and more. Now its 4:00 in the morning and you are totally shitfaced. You all crash for the rest of, what is now, the morning. After sleeping in late, everyone leaves and goes about their day. Now it’s 5:30, Saturday evening, and another friend invites you out. You get shitfaced, again. Its Sunday, you maybe try to catch up on homework or housework or just relax. It’s 6:30 Sunday night, time to party! Six hours later you are shitfaced again trying to hitch a ride home (because you are being responsible and not drinking and driving) and you have a class the next morning at 9:00. Good luck getting up!

The scenario I just described is a normal weekend for a binge drinker. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a “Pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours.” Now don’t confuse binge drinking with alcoholism because it is not a dependancy on alcohol. Binge drinking is more common in the United States because of the drinking age. In other countries, alcohol is legal at a younger age, therefore, many kids in those countries do not view alcohol the same way as many teens and kids do in the US, which means they don’t need to get drunk every once in a while to quench their thirst.

According to national surveys

* Approximately 92% of U.S. adults who drink excessively report binge drinking in the past 30 days.2
* Although college students commonly binge drink, 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults over age 25 years.3
* The prevalence of binge drinking among men is 2 times the prevalence among women.4
* Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-binge drinkers.3
* About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 years in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.5
* About 75% of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.5
* The proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18- to 20-year-old group (51%).

Are there certain conditions that encourage binge drinking? Can binge drinking be hazardous to your health? Is it expensive?
The answer to all these questions is yes!

Some teenagers drink A LOT, but why? In the United States the legal drinking age is 21, maybe all these teens just want to be defiant and drink underage whenever they can and drink as much of the forbidden drink as possible? Binge drinking can be caused by genetic predispositions, environmental causes such as parent or sibling who drinks a lot at one sitting, social and peer influences, college traditions, and the easy accessibility of alcohol. Apparently it is “cool” to be able to drink and keep down enormous amounts of alcohol. Personally, I don’t think being hammered all the time, puking my brains out, and waking up hungover is cool, but hey, that’s just me. Many teenagers and college students drink because they don’t feel that they can stop without losing their friends or looking like a loser. When around a lot of people who are drinking, it is easy to think in the moment that getting “shitfaced” is normal, and it is easy to forget about the risks of over-intoxication.

Binge drinking can be very hazardous to your health as well! Binge drinking over a long period of time can cause serious harm your kidneys and liver because the kidneys and liver struggle to dispose of the toxins the alcohol brings into your body. Having to much alcohol in your blood stream can also cause alcohol poisoning and might lead to having you get your stomach pumped! Gross! Who wants to spend a night in the hospital sick because you drank to much?  Also, binge drinking can lead to drunk driving, where the lives of you and others are in your hands. Being drunk makes you unaware of whats going on around you and you have less control of what you are doing! Who wants to feel out of control on a regular basis? I sure don’t!

Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is also really expensive. If you are of the legal drinking age, and are a binge drinker, that means you put a lot of money into buying alcohol for either a party or when you are at a club or a bar. A cheap bottle of wine costs about $10, a 6-pack of Corona costs about $7, a mediocre quality bottle of vodka costs about $20, and it only gets more expensive as the quality and amount you drink goes up!

Yes, everyone drinks from time to time, everyone gets drunk from time to time, but when you do drink, ask yourself if you really feel the need to get totally drunk. Ask yourself why you are drinking because you might learn something about yourself and why you need to get shitfaced. Trust me, alcohol is not as great in excess as you might think. There is no need to drink until your wasted all the time. So take a step back, enjoy a drink or maybe a few, but why binge? Binging is not as cool as you might think.

Posted in Social Problems, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

50% of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce. 41%-50% off all first marriages end in divorce, 60%-67% for second marriages, and 73%-74% of all third marriages. Divorce rates are increasing at an alarming rate and continue with the main reason being infidelity. Divorce affects not only the two people involved, but the children. Over 1 million children will suffer the divorce of their parents this year.  With all these statistics, you would think that people would really think through their decision to get married, yet the divorce rate says otherwise. There are many possibilities and contributing factors to the reason the divorce rate is so high. A major problem with it is that divorce is accepted. I think society has accepted the fact that it’s okay to give up on marriage when it’s too tough. Marriage used to be a respected union of two people, and it used to be unheard of to break that bond. Now, it’s acceptable in society. It also seems like the divorce rate is higher in western countries and I think that’s because of the education and freedom of women in western cultures. Another contributor is the acceptance and popularity of infidelity. People see sex everywhere, like on the TV and on the internet. It tempts men and women and makes their mind wander. Another reason divorce affects society, is the fact that when families with children that were not poor before the divorce see their income drop as much as 50 percent. Almost 50 percent of the parents with children that are going through a divorce move into poverty after the divorce. Many people also don’t put their children first in their relationship. Studies show that children with divorced parents are more likely to commit crimes or drop out. They have higher rates of suicide and are more likely to abuse drugs. The list goes on and on of these effects, but the bottom line is that it can all be prevented. If couples waited to get married or courted longer, I feel like they could better judge whether or not married life is in their future.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

29. April 2010 by student.

The government is taking more and more steps to make the country tobacco-free. It’s even affecting our life as students, as Edison State College is making their campuses tobacco-free. There are also campuses all over the country following suite including the University of Maine and the University of Kentucky. I think a main problem in the schools movements is enforcing the rules. It will not be easy to go from smoking sections which are almost always full with students in between classes to no smoking on the campus at all. I don’t think many students are going to comply quietly either. It will take time and effort on the schools part to enforce this new rule. Last year, in September, a ban was put in place affecting all cigarettes containing ‘certain characterizing flavors.’ The move was to try to discourage and prevent children and teens from being more attracted to the cigarettes, but also caused a lot of unrest from countries across the world like India, because it is a major export for them. These flavored tobaccos can still be found and bought, so was it really worth it to cause the political unrest? Is it really discouraging the youth from smoking? This is a question yet to really be answered, and in my opinion if kids are going to smoke, flavored tobacco not being available is not going to stop them. California legislators want to ban smoking at state beaches and parks, and they’ve sent a bill to the governor that would do just that. In New York, it is apparent that the bans in the nightclubs and restaurants are not even being enforced. Many places just look the other way. This is proving that, unless enforced heavily, these smoking bans will not be effective and the people are speaking. All around the world, other countries are following suit. Poland is now considering it as well. Their parliament is debating a ban on smoking in all work environments and public places. When bar owners who would be affected by this ban were polled, over half of them were concerned about a decline in business. So, personally I think that the smoking bans are understandable because of the health issue of second hand smoke and the issue of the environment, but it can’t be completely effective unless people actually want these bans and I’m not sure that they do.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »