17. March 2011 by student.

In the life of kids and young teenagers and even some adults, video games are taking over their lives and causing lots of violence. People wonder why kids are taking guns to school and shooting people and why there is so much violence in our society. Many people blame our culture, drugs, sex and violence can all be found in many movies and TV shower that our children watch and they are especially seen in video game. 

I read a report that said that psychologists stated that the major problems of video games are that they are so violent and that it brings out aggressive behavior. Most children play on average 13 hours a week, the more hours they spend playing violent games, the more they think that that behavior is acceptable.

Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior, The violent video games may be more harmful than violent television or films because they are interactive, and require the player to identify with the aggressive character. Studies show that children who play more than 13 hours a week of video games are more hostile and more likely to think that violence, drugs and alcohol are okay to use at a young age. Young children and teenagers are part of the future and if we don’t change this then our society will just keep thinking that this behavior is ok and in years to come our society will believe that this behavior is the normative.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

15. March 2011 by student.

Japan only had a10-15 minutes before the tsunami hit

            A few days ago, a natural disaster hit Japan. An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0  struck Japan and then a tsunami followed killing and destroying people and the land. I thought this would be a good idea to write about because it not only affected Japan, but most of the people around the world. The tsunami and earthquake destroyed and affected much of the land and also the earth as a whole. Along with the earthquake and the tsunami, the disasters that struck can effect our world with global warming.

            It is different writing about something that happened when you did not know anyone involved, but my friend from soccer was in the Japanese airport when it struck, and my roommate had a cousin and an aunt there. My friend in the airport was okay, but my roommate’s cousin said his cousin’s apartment was ruined by the tsunami. It is so unbelievably sad to think this tragedy happened almost half way around the world but can affect us emotionally and physically by the damage. It is extremely sad to see that the death toll might reach over 10,000 victims. Along with the thousands of deaths, the earth was tilted off its axis, the country of Japan was moved, the nuclear power plants shutting down.

            The earth was titled off its axis by 25 centimeters. ‘It’s going to make minute changes to the length of a day. It could make very, very tiny changes to the tilt of the earth, which affects the seasons, but these effects are so small, it’d take very precise satellite navigation to pick it up.’  According to Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. This tilt can cause for the change in the seasons, along with global warming rising in the world which certainty is considered a social problem now a days.

            Also, the country of Japan was moved off the coast and shifted by 2.4 meters. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was so strong it shifted some parts of the earth off its coastline.

Friday’s earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. The epicenter of the earthquake was 373 km northeast of Tokyo and 130 km east of Sendai, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

            The third thing that affected Japan are the nuclear power plants. Millions of people remain without power, largely due to the shutdown of at least three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. One by one, each reactor has lost the ability to cool down, the latest on Monday. Explosions have destroyed the containment buildings of the other two reactors. People are now being evacuated within 20 miles from their homes near the nuclear power plant, and children and adults are getting iodine shots to help their thyroid from dangerous radiation in the air.

This is a horrible experience and disaster that struck the world. It not only affected people in Japan, but the world as a whole. It hurts to see our fellow brothers and sisters having their homes destroyed and families ripped apart.

Mason Weisberg

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

14. March 2011 by student.

A recent social problem that has arisen ever since the recession came about is unemployment. Unemployment seems to have the characteristics of a slippery slope. If unemployment strikes within your family, your beginning to have no income, struggles begin to arise with how to pay bills and get food on the table, and then poverty and homelessness could come from those. Unemployment, according to the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary last updated in 2011 is the state of being unemployed and the involuntary idleness of workers.  

I am very fortunate that my immediate family has not suffered from this social problem, but other family members of mine have dealt with the unemployment factor and being laid off. My cousin, recently graduated college two years ago, was working at Walgreens as an assistant pharmacist and recently got laid off from her job.  It is extremely shocking how fast this social problem epidemic hit the United States.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States is currently at an overall percentage of an 9.5% unemployment rate, last updated on February 2011.  Lee County, my hometown, is at a 12.5% unemployment rate. Not only are these statistics high, but it shows how the job market is going to be more specific and particular in picking their employees. Back in the day when my grandparents were looking for jobs, college education was somewhat rare to obtain and many people obtained jobs without any higher education than high school. Now a days, without a college education, or some form of college courses it is going to be hard to find a good paying job.

The hopes and dreams of many families are slowly ending up in the toilet of pending economic collapse. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get a “good job” or a “good education” in the land of plenty because unemployment rates and college tuition fees are steadily on the rise (Bay View Newspaper, San Francisco March 13, 2011). Now that jobs are truly hard to find, people have been resorting to going over seas to Europe, Asia, Central and South America to find good paying jobs that will keep their families supported. Profit is money and it does not matter where you find it

Now that the new unemployment epidemic has happened to the United States, it has allowed me to take life more seriously and focus harder in school. Without a good education and a solid foundation it is going to be a tough market to find jobs.

Mason W 

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

13. March 2011 by student.

Around 2 million people every year are arrested on drug charges according to the FBI. A third of the country’s prisoners are held for drug charges or crimes. One way to lower the amount of prisoners in the jail system and cut back on government spending is to legalize drugs. Drugs would be available to all, and more people would succumb to them, but others would prosper. Gang murders will drop, family members held for drug crimes would be released and able to finance their families, less money would be spent on the “War on Drugs”, and the a new drug industry would create jobs and tax revenues.Amendment 18 of the U.S. Constitution dealt with the Prohibition of Alcoholic substances. It lasted from 1919-1933 and was repealed in the 21st Amendment. Research shows that the consumption of alcohol did not decrease. This same example applies to the illegal status of certain drugs. Based on enforcement costs from the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy $40 billion goes to drug enforcement, and $2-$10 billion alone goes to controlling the production and consumption of Marijuana. Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer in economics for Harvard University predicts that the future $65 billion drug market for all illicit drugs could bring in around $10 to $15 billion in taxes.Legalizing drugs will bring better health regulations for drugs as the FDA will then monitor and regulate the production of drugs. Also drugs will be heavily taxes as are cigarettes to provide financial profit to the government. Toss your emotional beliefs aside and advocate the legalization of drugs!

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

8. March 2011 by student.

I know that you know as well as I do, that kids are mean these days, and the will do anything to make themselves feel better while putting others down because they are different. I believe that one of the main social problems that are arising in the United States is bullying among teens. Bullying is a form of abuse that is the act of making a weaker person to something. According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary bullying means to treat abusively or to effect by means of force of coercion.  I believe one of the most shocking stories of bullying is the stories of the gay teenagers committing suicide over bullying.  A recent studied showed that 160,000 children stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied at school (U.S Center for disease control and prevention). 1 out of 4 kids is Bullied.  The American Justice Department says that this month 1 out of every 4 kids will be abused by another youth.  

These few statistics about overall bullying in schools really caught my attention when researching the issue:

8% of students miss 1 day of class per month for fear of Bullies.

43% fear harassment in the bathroom at school.

100,000 students carry a gun to school.

Playground statistics - Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Adult intervention - 4%. Peer intervention - 11%. No intervention - 85%.

While these statistics are shocking, nothing was more shocking to me than to see all the different cases of gay teenagers killing themselves over bullying. For example, remember Tyler Clementi who jumped off the George Washington Bridge because he was being bullied about his sexual orientation. Lance Ludsten, 18 who committed suicide after being bullied in school. Jeremiah Laster, 14 who shot himself in the head in the school bathroom after being bullied by in school by his peers about his sexual orientation.

These teens committing suicide is a social problem that has arisen in the United States in the past couple of years. The rise in bullying in the United States has caused for the rise in bullying with kids who are different because of their sexual orientation. Suicide, gay teen bullying, and bullying in general are serious issues that need full attention to try to spot this social problem that is killing and harming our future generation. 

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

8. March 2011 by student.

The barbaric treatment of livestock has been an ongoing problem in the United States that has never found proper resolution.

Animals are forced to live for months and/or years in cages that don’t even allow room for lying down, turning, scratching themselves, or to presume any natural position.  Egg laying hens and cows used for milking have been reduced to nothing more than “machines” assigned with productivity goals, and once those goals are no longer maintained they are immediately slaughtered to make room for a new, more promising model.  These animals are forced to go days without food, are prone to infection and disease because of the inhumane living conditions, and often the vile and brutal slaughtering of the animals is being used as a means of entertainment for the workers.  This isn’t to say that all slaughterhouses and livestock farming is barbaric and lawless, but if there were only one using these practices- it would be one too many.

These animals are being sacrificed for food already, is it really so much to ask that they not be punished and tortured before they are slaughtered?  Is it too much to ask of the humans involved to practice humanity?

A 33-year old Federal law requires that livestock being slaughtered to first be stunned to render them unconscious and/or insensitive to pain, but much too often these minimal requirements aren’t met and the federal and state laws go ignored.  For many years it seemed this went both ways;  that the United States Government was also turning a blind eye to the growing problem.

Video evidence along with interviews from employees, documentaries covering the stories, thousands of citations meat companies received for endless violations of humane treatment has concluded that these animals are being cut, skinned, boiled, beaten, prodded, hanged, the list goes on and on- and all this happens during consciousness.  While the government and independent organizations are trying to take a better hold on the situation and inform the public of this demeaning trend, it is still a difficult situation to find peace and structure because of the difficulties in regulating the practice.  Public education about the topic and hitting the industry where it hurts the most with citations, violations, recalls, etc. seems to be most successful thus far.

While it would be unfair and totally far-fetched to expect the population to quit buying the meats and dairy products that fund these ruthless companies and immoral employees- the education of this issue can potentially help consumers go with companies that haven proven themselves in ethical practices that respect life and provide these animals with normal, healthy lives up until they are to be slaughtered and support practices that produce the least amount of suffering possible.

I greatly anticipate the day that “civilization” and “compassion” are words that can be used in regards to this industry and are not any longer in conjunction with “lack of” or the like.

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

8. March 2011 by student.

In today’s world there isn’t such a thing as an independent press.  Many years ago, a few corporation giants took control over our media, and the world presented serves interests of both the corporate media as well as the power elite.  Politicians and others in power can spin their webs of deceit without challenge.  In turn, the government gives the corporate media monopolistic control over information and immense profit.  Restrictions on ownership of radio stations, newspapers, networks, and TV stations by any one corporation were loosened; leading to even more mergers in a field with too few players already.  Without access to accurate information, democracy is impossible.  When the corporate media joins forces with the controlling power structures, the public no longer has accurate information, and democracy dies, not with a bang but with a whimper.

This affects anyone and everyone who trust in or depend on the news to provide accurate information to its viewers.  It affects the American people because corporations are allowed more power and control than needed.  It’s easy for us to depend on news controlled by authoritative powers considering it’s everywhere-  television, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, etc.  The result of this concentration is a flow of “news” that consists almost entirely of “infotainment.”  We are told more than anyone needs to know about where the president is vacationing or what celebrity got caught drunk driving, along with many other miscellaneous and irrelevant issues.  Our local media tells us about every murder and fire, sometimes stretching the concept of “local” halfway around the world.  What we don’t hear is much of anything that costs money, effort, and dedication to uncover. “It is far easier and cheaper to station a film crew permanently in the yard of a little Cuban boy in Miami, than to do an in-depth investigation of immigration policies.  It is easier and cheaper to give us endless coverage and speculation about hanging chads on Florida ballots than to examine, in depth, the disgraceful purging of eligible Florida voters, most of them minorities, on the basis of a report from a private firm with Republican ties.  It is easier and cheaper to depend on government officials for information about major issues, than to seek out other sources and engage in investigative journalism,” as quoted by Media Press.

Without news, democracy is lost.  All this leads to a public that is vastly under-informed about the issues that are essential to democracy, and without a steady flow of accurate information, real democracy doesn’t have a chance at survival.  We are now paying the price for allowing this to happen as the media allies itself to the political power structure, providing readers and viewers with a very distorted picture of the world.  “Thus we have presidents such as the moronic puppet George W. Bush that was portrayed as a leader with the stature of a Churchill or FDR, his incredible gaffes expunged from the public record.  Questions about 9/11 go unasked, the Enron scandal disappears from view, anthrax becomes a crossword clue, White House nuclear threats are treated as routine, and Bush’s embrace of Israel’s war criminal Sharon was covered as though it were honorable.  His Homeland Security, with the stink of the Gestapo about it, was treated only as a political/administrative project.  The ludicrous War on Everybody and Everything was treated with great solemnity.”  In short, the coverage is essentially only of the power elite.  Progressives and other dissenters are invisible.

In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the largest media companies in the world were handed several new channels in every market where they currently own one, a gift of public property worth as much as $70 billion.  On September 13, 2001, the Federal Communications Commission, also known as the FCC, launched a proceeding designed to eliminate or, at least, dramatically weaken two longstanding safeguards designed to ensure greater diversity of media ownership.  They include the rule that limits some of the power of the largest cable companies and a safeguard that prevents one company from controlling both a newspaper and a television station in the same market.  These rules, over the years, were altered and some completely disregarded to the point of extinction and this has allowed the corporations to reproduce the same format across the country.

Serious consideration of war and peace is missing from our ‘news’ shows.  Labor news is non-existent and there is very little coverage of the concerns of workers.  News of the economy is limited to resources found on the internet, and of course, the media is a constant cheerleader for globalization.  No cover of the dangers of the drug war, the growing gap between the rich and poor, and corruption in government is of no concern. Global Warming is treated as a day brightener, and third party candidates in the presidential election were virtually ignored.

A speech by John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff of the New York Times, was asked in 1953 to give a toast before the NY Press Club, it included: “….There is not one of you that dares to write his honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.  I am paid weekly for keeping my opinions out of the paper I am connected with.  Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.  If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.  The business of journalists is to destroy truth; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread.  You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press?  We are tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes.  We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance.  Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men.  We are intellectual prostitutes.”

We can use choice as control; meaning that the opportunity for choice limit’s the power of corporations.  If we ensure that such choices as to whether we buy this or that, whether we choose one company over another, etc. remain available, we will subtly be placing limitations on corporations.  As long as we keep pushing for the FCC to limit conglomerate power over ownership of media we can put up a fight against monopolization.  This is essential for the citizens of the United States to keep a firm grasp on the democracy that seems to quickly be slipping away.  The media may be controlled for the most part, but as long as we keep asking questions and learn that we can’t believe everything we hear just because the source is a higher power than ourselves, I think we’ll maintain.  “The censorship is inevitable, only the degree is in question.”

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

8. March 2011 by student.

                The matter of imigration whether legal or illigal is alwaays controversal.This  is a country that is built on the backbone of people who ALL come from some where else “except the American Indians.Funny how now these same Indians who are authentic are looked at as immigrants. Whats wrong with that picture ?

         It is easy to overlook the real picture of all men are equal…. but of course some are more equal than some.Surviving the game then is a matter of only the strong survive. An illegal immigrant has life REALLY hard in America.Can’t get a GOOD job without the correct documentations. Going to School is a big nightmere with those HUGE fees if you even get accepted in these schools.

              Another whopper is the inability to travel home to visit your home. True story; a young lady once asked the American Consolate if she could go home to attend her Dad’s funeral and was told YES…. on returning to the US she was stopped and denied re-entry at the Airpoat here.On further investing and much frustration she was told that she was told correctly , but , was not told that  re-entry would be an issue. The poor girl was stucked in her country (Jamaica )for several years.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

5. March 2011 by student.

Once in our lives we will either be subjected to or be a witness to a debate about the issue of gay-marriage.  Countless people will be against it and some will not be, but that is not the issue. What is the issue is that by forbidding gay-marriage we are undeniably restricting human rights. Religion and personal beliefs should not dictate whether  two people of the same gender came be involved in the “holy”  process of marriage. Marriage is after all a union of two people, regardless of love, age, or finances.One argument against gay-marriage is that the purpose of marriage is to procreate and have a family.  Do we deny elderly people, who are way too old to conceive a child, the right to marriage? Besides as of 2008 there are 123,000 children waiting to be adopted in America (Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families of the United States Department of Health and Human Services). By having the government recognize heterogeneous relationships there would be a reduction in the amount of children who are uncared for.Evidently religion plays a large role in this “moral” issue.  If the Bible, Torah, Qur’an all do say “Marriage is the union of a man and a woman” is irrelevant. These books have no constitutional value and should not be used as a reason against gay-marriage. In the United States  we have a plethora of religions and all should be respected, but not used in political matters.In the U.S. twenty-nine states have a constitutional ban restricting marriage to one man and one woman (Human Rights Campaign) and only three countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada) recognize gay-marriage.  ”Freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.” Former Vice-President Dick Cheney (R). Most experts estimate that America’s homosexual population is10% or less and to deny those people the right to marry who they want is ignorant. If you believe gay-marriage to be wrong or you believe it to be right, has little relevance.  Let people be with whom they want to be with.

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

3. March 2011 by student.

In this day and age, more and more teens are engaging in sexual activity. From teen pregnancy to sexually transmitted diseases, these issues are becoming a wide-spread controversy. Recent research from Ohio State University states that human papillomavirus (HPV) is the leading cause of mouth and throat cancers in the United States. A University of California study suggests that teens and young adults are more likely to engage in oral (and anal) sex, as opposed to vaginal sex. Put these two together and there is a recipe for disaster. But the big question is, how do we ward kids from becoming sexually involved, and if they already are, how do we prevent them from the dangers of cancers and STD’s?

Many teenagers go through a time of experimentation, whether it be drugs, alcohol, or sex. There is no doubt that this aspect of being a teenager will ever change. They’re faced with troubling decisions everyday and don’t always know the right precautions to take when faced with it. Majority of kids engage in oral or anal sex because they feel like it’s not truly “real sex”, and if they don’t have “real sex”, then there isn’t really a reason to be careful. It still allows them to be dangerous and test their limits without the danger of becoming pregnant or contracting an STD. This detrimental idea needs to be changed, and quickly.

“More than 80% of women will have an active papillomavirus at some point in their lives. There is an inverse relationship between age and HPV viral load (the younger you are, the more likely you are to have an active virus and vice versa). The largest increase in the demographic of mouth and throat cancers is in young, white males. There is an increasing trend among teenagers and youth to engage more in oral sex than in vaginal sex. Although we may not yet be able to draw a causal correlation among these elements, it doesn’t take much to see a fairly clear confluence of factors.”

We need to start communicating with the younger generation and stress the dangers in a clear and concise way. Be assertive and blunt with the subject matter. There is no need to diddle-daddle around it. You can’t tell someone that sex is dangerous and not explain to them the reasons why. All they see are the positive aspects to it, not the negatives. Kids are still going to drink, smoke, and have sex regardless of the information that is given to them. That’s why D.A.R.E. doesn’t work. But we can advise them without scolding, punishing, or blaming, and answer any of the questions they may have without cowaring and with maturity.

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/enlightened-living/201103/oral-sex-kids-and-cancer

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