6. December 2011 by student.

Facebook is a website that changed the culture of the 2004-2011 era. Facebook is a website designed to network people and allows them to post about their lives on the internet in an easy and organized format.  On Facebook people can join and create a profile that has a picture of them and everything from their relationship status to what types of food they like.  People are not required to fill in any information.  People can add statuses of what they are doing and comment on anything that anyone else is doing or writing.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and gained popularity at an incredible rate (wiki).  By the end of 2011 Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Facebook was launched in 2004 and the public did not have access to Facebook until 2006. In 2010 about 73% of the US population used Facebook each month.  Facebook is a huge part of the culture today and is only growing (Facebook).

Facebook has caused, or perhaps simply allowed people to give away incredible amounts of information about themselves for the first time.  When you create a Facebook account it asks you for almost every piece of information about you. Facebook asks you to post when you were born, where you were born, what books you like, what TV shows you like, and a host of other questions.  Facebook uses the information to network you with other people as well as target advertisement towards you.  Facebook can charge more for advertisements than most other websites because they offer targeted advertisement that most other websites cannot provide. Knowing what you like allows them to target you.

People are also giving this information away to anyone that wants to access it, not just to Facebook.  This represents a change in culture from being private guarded people to people that are willing to share themselves with anyone. (Cerminio)  This was a phenomenon because it was not true in reality as much as it was over the internet. People of this generation would not write down and hand all of this information to someone that came up to them on the street and asked for it but they were willing to post it on the internet for all of the same people to access it.  I believe that this is ignorance more than just a culture shift but only time will be able to tell that for sure.

Facebook has changed the way that people meet. Facebook has changed the way that people get to know each other more than how they meet. A friend could tell me that he is in Tennessee and met a girl that he likes, all he has to do is give me her name and I can find her on Facebook and see what she looks like and what her political and religious views are and give my opinion of her to him.  The fact that I have done this is frightening.  I know nothing about that girl.  All I know is what her Facebook profile looks like, for all that I know I clicked on the wrong girl and gave my friend an incorrect opinion of her.  We must be careful as a culture as we move forward in the world of Facebook.

This has quickened the process of getting to know people and shows some of our values today. Facebook shows how we value speed in our culture today and how we are quick to judge people today. I can go on Facebook and decide that I do not like someone before I ever meet them to have a potential opinion of them. We want to be able to find out about people the same way that we would find out about a scientific fact. To some extent Facebook is the Google for people. I make this comparison because on Google you type something in and get the answer. On Facebook you can search a name and know massive amounts of information about them.

In conclusion Facebook has made clear our cultures values of speed and how we see people. Facebook has shown that we see people as something that there is an infinite amount of and that we need to run a search to find the ones that we are interested in. Facebook has provided a way to do that. Facebook is a search engine for people and that is a dangerous thing.

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6. December 2011 by student.

I can understand why many Koreans today continue to hold a grudge against the Japanese. Something I often hear is: “they raped our women and killed our men.” This, of course, is a reference to the Japanese occupation of Korea, which began in 1910 and ended in 1945 with the conclusion of World War II in which Japan was defeated. Through a series of maneuvers, including the assasination of members of the royal family, Japan was able to gain influence in Korea and officially renamed Korea “Chosen.” So, it’s not really a surprise that South Koreans have negative feelings toward its neighboring country. My mother cannot bear to buy Japanese products, refusing to support Japan’s economy. A reason why Koreans from earlier generations might dislike the Japanese is because the school system back then would teach the young children to think of the Japanese as enemies or people who did their country wrong through history. However, I always believed that this hatred and dislike for Japan was a mentality of the older generations, something that affected less the youth of Korea today. So I was kind of surprised when awhile back when, two friends, who are international exchange students from Seoul also stated they did not like Japan. The reason why they had such resentment when the occupation was so long ago in the past, and they mentioned the current controversy between South Korea and Japan over the island of “Dokdo.” I researched found an article that talked about the then current state of affairs between Korea and Japan. It is depressing that two countries, sharing such a stormy history, still cannot truly make up. Obviously there is a conflict of power arrangements between the two countries due to their history so each likes to assert their dominance over each other whether it be through their economy or through their government. So when the dispute over Dokdo Island came about each country claimed it was there’s because it holds a symbolic value of whether or not one is slightly more powerful due to land and territory.

Koreans maintain they have controlled the islands for 1,500 years and insist that the area returned to Korean hands when Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945. Today Korea maintains a small maritime police outpost on the islands, which are also a designated nature preserve.Whether protests effectively unite other countries behind the Korean cause or not, and whether the Japanese national government heeds calls to intervene in Shimane prefecture’s declaration or not, the Dokdo controversy and the dispute over accounts in Japanese textbooks show that both countries have a long way to go before Korea and Japan are ready to celebrate their friendship.

Despite the conroversy with the Island, social integration is mixing between the two countries to much of the governments desmay. Korean pop culture is starting to spread all over the world and especially in Japan since they are so close in proximity and also through their culture and language. Companies bring their pop stars to Japan and translate their songs into Japanese because it is so close to their own language. The people of Japan are catching the ‘korean wave’ of their culture such as tv shows and music that their economy is being effected by this influence. People are starting to get more accepting of each other due to these interactions that give both the people of these countries something to relate to through the culture.

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6. December 2011 by student.

     According to the South Korean government, more than 40 South Koreans a day are taking their own lives, five times as many as in their parents’ day. The economy has been growing by an average of 7% since the Asian crisis a 10 years ago and despite a rapid rise in household debts, the country has not seen the mass lay-offs and economic stagnation which were blamed for suicide rates in neighbouring Japan. South Korea is now the world’s 12th largest economy. A place where you can surf the internet on the underground, dance the night away in a salsa club, and buy a decent cappuccino on your way to work. And yet people here seem less happy than during the years of hardship after the Korean War. So why are there increasing suicide rates in Korea?

Some analysts say there has been a move towards suicides among younger age groups, with some young people using internet sites to form suicide groups.

But the real question is why this is happening at all in a country that is richer, more stable and more influential than at any time in its history? From the beginning of childhood, the importance of money and achievement are emphasised by their parents. Kang-ee Hong, a child psychologist, says that over the past 40 years, South Korean parents have abandoned traditional values in favour of one single goal.

From the beginning of childhood, the importance of money and achievement are emphasised by their parents, so they feel that unless you are successful in school grades and a good job, good prestigious college, you’re not successful, and the parents behave as if they’re not their child. I often over exaggerate when I say that I must receive an A in my classes or else I will be disowned and bring dishonor to our family, but there is a grain of truth to this statement because of the korean social contruct which emphasizes the importance of studying and receiving good grades. Even young children typically work from early morning until late at night, and often at weekends too, to get into the best university they can and eventually secure a well-paying job. The pressure is intense, and the routine relentless for years on end. This has become a cultural norm in South Korea where young people in their society is forced to be the best in their class; parents even go far enough as to send their children away to America in order to learn English to get a heads up in the business world and get a good job because English is a prominent language. For parents, the pressure to push their children even harder has led to them overcoming the stigma of going to a psychiatrist. But they often come for the wrong reasons. They come to them to help their child work harder to have better grades by being treated for ADHD  because the school performance is so important. It’s sad to think that parents don’t even go to doctors for the intended purpose, but their obsession with grades leads to social instability with their youth which leads to drastic actions such as suicide either because those individuals feel like they can’t amount to the parent’s expectations or the pressure is too much to handle over a long years.

The Korean Government recently told the government to do more to tackle the problem, raising national awareness in a way that has not been seen until now. And money has started to flow. But this is a established problem that has grown rapidly throughout the country, some of the highest rates are in the rural areas and activists say it will not be anything like as quick to fix.

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5. December 2011 by student.

People against texting-while-driving bans say that the bans are too hard to enforce so they are basically worthless as law-enforcement tools; there is no easy way for police officers to determine whether a driver is texting or being distracted by something else. It is also unclear whether the bans are actually effective in reducing texting while driving.

People for texting-while-driving bans say that motorists who send text messages while driving put themselves and countless innocent drivers, passengers and pedestrians in serious danger. The risks involved in texting while driving are clearly established. Banning texting while driving would make the roads safer for everyone.

Text messages have become one of the world’s favorite ways of communicating. Once viewed as a luxury item for the wealthy, cell phones are now considered an essential part of everyday life. The rise of text messaging trailed the growth of the cellular phone market slightly, mostly due to technological limitations. But by around 2005, text messaging had become an essential feature of cell phones and an embedded part of U.S. consumer culture. The practice of tecting has exploded in popularity during the first decade of the 21st century, as more and more people use their cell phones to send short, private messages to their friends and relatives.

Texting has become socially ingrained into our lives that it is starting to replace voice calls, which by itself has minimized social interaction by pure convienvance of dialing one’s number. At least through calling the individual’s still have to go through a conversational system that forces both caller and receiver to interact.

The problem with texting while driving is obvious, it distracts the driver while he or she is operating a moving vehicle, which immensely increases the risk of crashing. Studies show that texting while driving creates a crash risk equal to that of drunk driving. In 2008, the last full year for which data are available, nearly 6,000 people died in car accidents that occurred because of driver distraction, and it is safe to assume that many of those accidents involved texting while driving. According to a September 21, 2010, report on the PBS NewsHour, at any given moment, an estimated 250,000 American motorists are texting and driving. Road-safety promoterrs have generally praised the laws, arguing that the distraction caused by texting while driving could lead to severe injury or even death. Critics, on the other hand, argue that the laws are unnecessarily restrictive and impossible to enforce. People against texting-while-driving bans maintain that such laws are pointless, since there is no easy way to enforce them. A driver who appears to be sending a text message may merely be looking down, which is not illegal, opponents note—so how will a police officer know which drivers to pull over?

Today, cell phone owners can use text messages to buy concert tickets, make restaurant reservations or vote for their favorite American Idol contestants. Many organizations, ranging from mass transit authorities to weather forecasting services, offer consumers the chance to subscribe to text message alerts, notifying cell phone users of subway delays or approaching storm systems. Although users of text messaging consider it a great convenience, many experts have argued that that convenience has come with a price. Specifically, some people have become compulsive texters, sending and reading messages at inappropriate times, particularly while driving a car.

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5. December 2011 by student.

Physical inactivity, unbalanced diet, and unhealthy lifestyles may cause lifelong obesity. Obesity, a widespread and growing problem in industrialized countries, has become an important medical, psychosocial and economic issue. Over the past 30 years, the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents has nearly tripled. Research has shown that physical activity during the period of adolescence to adulthood can prevent adult obesity valued as a treatment and preventative strategy. However, physical activity levels in school students are declining and this decline potentially carries over into the rest of the lifespan. Identifying potential risk factors for adolescent obesity and figuring out early interventions are important in managing the obesity epidemic. Still, individual behaviors that can be changed to promote weight loss and weight maintenance needs to be considered against background factors at societal and national level. Additionally, levels of watching television and playing video games remain consistently high throughout adolescence.

Adolescents have negative shifts in activity patterns, like decreases in moderate to vigorous physical activity and increases in leisure time of computer use. Video game playing and Internet-surfing have become more popular among adolescents. This is a cultural norm in the United States because the 21^st century has become the technological age where children at an early age learn the use of computers and other gadgets and depend on technology’s help for the easy way out. This means that instead of taking a 15 minute walk over to the store, a teenager might use their car for an easy 5 minute drive. Technology may have advanced a lot of aspects in our lives, but it has also brought more entertainment materials such as games, the internet, and cell phones; which is a social change from earlier generations where parents and grandparents had less forms of entertainment so they had more peer to peer interactions such as sports.

Sleep periods and obesity, a reverse relationship has been reported between length of sleep and risk of developing childhood overweight/obesity. The possible correlation of this is that people who sleep for short intervals have unhealthy eating behaviors and obesity. Consuming things like fried foods, cakes, snacks, sugared drinks and skipping breakfast  are important contributing factors to overweight in young people. Adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables, and having breakfast daily can protect against overweight and obesity. These are all rational choices that the adolescent has to make, but because adolescents are in the stage where their brains have not fully connected with all their neurons and sound judgment they may not see the consequences of their actions and continue their health degrading lifestyle.

Researchers identified that have having an obese parent is a prime cause for becoming overweight or obese during childhood and adolescence. Both maternal obesity and paternal obesity are associated with adolescent obesity. The factors that contribute to obesity include food preferences, frequency of family meals, parent-child feeding strategies, and genes. Health-related habits such as physical activity, sedentary behaviors, eating behaviors, and sleep duration are established at a young age. School and community nurses can play an independent, essential role at this critical point in the lifespan. They may initiate daily routines, such as measuring

body weight, and expand awareness, education, and management of obesity in the young based on clear cut-off points for sleeping and TV watching time for both sexes, and also vigorous intensity physical activity for girls.

sources:  Ann M. Meier, et al. “Overweight, Obesity, And Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Adolescents: The National Longitudinal Study Of Adolescent Health.” Pediatrics 115.2 (2005): 340-347. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 5 Dec. 2011.

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5. December 2011 by student.

 Reducing class sizes is a popular plan among parents, teachers, and lawmakers because it has always been viewed as a way to increase student achievement. But while shrinking the number of students can lead to higher test scores overall, it might not necessarily reduce the achievement gaps that exist between students in a classroom.I will cover if reduced classes were actually successful in an elementary through university setting. Later I will also discuss if a reduced classroom had any effect in the student success and why if it did or did not. Readers will need to know what the correlation between the classroom size and student achievement is. They need to understand why there is a classroom setting and how it was developed. The main goal will be to determine whether classroom size has any importance in student achievement. I want to prove that students can do just as well in a large classroom setting and may even achieve better in the real world. Economically it would impact schools because there would be more need for teachers to instruct a smaller class; more money would be used to pay them. Ethically, parents might not want to have their children ignored during class and feel that their tax money was wasted on the education.

 Over fifty-nine different articles relating to the class size and student achievement. Some of these articles were correlation studies comparing students’ class size and their grades in subjects such as Math, Reading, and Science. Other studies examined the difference of class sizes between grade school and university classes; supplementary studies looked at teaching practices in comparison of small and standard size classes. Finally, I read two articles written on the research and history of class size reductions. Most of the database and online research were articles that appeared in educational journals. These articles contained valid research statistics and had been reviewed by the journal before publication.

            The effects of class size on student outcomes have been studied and reported extensively in the past. My results showed that in lower grades particularly, researchers reported multiple advantages when there were no more than 18-22 students in a class (Noble). With this number of students, there was less hectic atmosphere, better teacher morale, more individualized instruction, and improved achievement for at-risk students. Many people believe that reduced classes will result in higher rates of academic achievement through rational choice. This is because it seems logical to have a teacher instruct children in a smaller environment in order to have less distractions that come with a larger class size and more attention towards the rest of the children.  In multiyear studies in Tennessee on the effects of small class size, researchers also found that students who were placed in smaller classes as part of Student Teacher Achievement Ratio project in the early grades also gained in reading and mathematics levels. A report of the U.S. Department of Education has called reduced class size the most costly and primitive method of enhancing student achievement. Still, there have been reports of improvement in achievements can be expected when class size drops to no more than 15 students (Jacobson).

Secondly,  conventional wisdom suggests that effective teachers should change their teaching methods to increase the probability that a student will learn. The question of class size was one of the first questions to be addressed by empirical research on college teaching. Teachers possess an entire range of teaching strategies, techniques, and characteristics that may or may not lead to student achievement. The focus of this analysis was to determine which strategies, techniques, and or characteristics of the teachers resulted in increased student achievement on different subjects. Studies took into consideration the fact that students are “nested” or grouped within teachers . The results indicated that there were specific observed teaching techniques that impacted student achievement in reading and language .The use of classroom management skills was a significant predictor of reading achievement. 

The first well-known study of class size (Edmonson and Mulder) showed mixed results. Students performed slightly better on essay work and mid-semester exams in smaller classes. On the other hand, performance on quizzes and final exams was better in larger classes. Since 1924, the experimental studies and reviews of research on class size effects have been open to doubt. Some reviews say that ‘‘class size is not a real important aspect when the teaching method is the focus of subject matter knowledge and academic skills (Pascarella and Terenzini1991, p. 87). Others say that the research results are mixed. Empirical research on class size usually selects final course grades, standardized test scores or course evaluation data as the outcome measures. Some of the studies show a negative influence of class size on student performance and satisfaction, while others do not. Sometimes even different analyses of the same data set provide different results.

My research showed that there are likely to suppose different relationships between class size and student performance. Because small classes give better possibilities for student engagement and student to student exchanges, they could be more effective. By contrast, large lectures could be effective from views the instructor’s behavior as a main factor in student achievement. Not all large classes are necessarily lecture classes without group work or active student involvement in the learning process, and not all small classes give off just the minimal information either.

Because of personal traits, some teachers can be more successful explaining material than involving students in a group project. Effective teaching methods are variable depending on the teaching purpose and the teacher. Previous studies shown  that class sizes and teaching methods differ depending upon the discipline. A student’s approach to learning in a discipline does not necessarily reflect professor’s way of teaching; meaning that it’s not only the professor’s fault if the student receives the low grade. (Nelson Laird 2008, p. 471). Students taking a class within their major might study harder. One instructor usually teachers several classes which adds on to the many factors that affect student achievement.

A negative association between class size and grade performance could be a sign of the  grading system. In larger classes, instructors are more likely to choose multiple-choice tests. In small classes, instructors could base their grades on term papers or participation in class. Instructors might also have different criteria to assign grades such as the level of performance compared to other students in class, the progress during the term, or achievement of certainpre-determined standards.A freshman might have a different approach to learning than a senior. Therefore, certain student characteristics should be considered and controlled for and can also be based on the number of credit hours, prior academic performance, and the discipline a student is majoring in. (Kokkelenberg).Things that might also determine how a student might attain success are for the following student characteristics: gender and minority status, and student level. It is possible that students have a greater chance of success in their major, because that discipline is within their interests and career choices.

            Based on this research, the author concludes that many policymakers and the public still favor and have expectations from class reductions. The academic benefits of small classes even seem to be the greatest during kindergarten and first grade, then gradually go down in 2nd and 3rd grades. Follow up studies have shown that children who were in the smaller classes continued to outperform those from larger classes. Students within a class that reduces the size seem to have an overall positive effect on groups of students that usually trail behind in academic achievement.On the other hand, class size does not affect students as much later in university level classes due to many factors such as gender and minority status, and student level.  Even most college professors are said to believe small classes to be superior to larger ones in many respects, empirical research has not provided constant evidence of the effect of the class size on student achievement.

 In conclusion,  reduced class size will actually increase student achievement, but only in the early grades of elementary. Therefore, the the media should stop blowing class reductions out of proportion because there is a number of factors that lead to student achievement and should be focused on instead.  A suggestion on improving this situation is, “Studying the effect of the interaction between student characteristics and class size on student performance by, for example, modeling different student groups separately. Examining student class interactions might describe students who are especially likely to be adversely affected by increasing class size“(Jacobson).

Ceci, Stephen J., and Spyros Konstantopoulos. “It’s Not All About Class Size.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 55.21 (2009): A30. Education Full Text. Web. 2 Dec. 2011.

Dillon, M., & Kokkelenberg, E. C. (2002). Web. 2 Decembe 2011.

Edmonson, J. B., & Mulder, F. J. (1924). Size of class as a factor in university instruction.                                Journal of Educational Research, 9(1), 1–12. Web. 2 December 2011.

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30. November 2011 by student.

How do you feel about being able to assemble your children from genes listed in a catalog? A lot of controversy and ethical issues occur around human genetic engineering. It is a very risky procedure that has not yet been perfected. The heart of the debate lies in who has the right to modify an unborn human. Some believe that every fetus has an inherent right to remain genetically unmodified; others believe that parents hold the rights to change their unborn child, while others still believe that every child should have the right to be born free from preventable diseases.

                Human genetic engineering is, “the alteration of an individual’s genotype (genetic make-up of a cell) with the aim of choosing the phenotype (an organism’s observable characteristics or traits) of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult.” It means changing the genes in a living human cell in order to introduce new characteristics, enhance existing characteristics, or repair genetic defects in the human cells. Human genetic engineering holds the promise of curing genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis, and increasing the immunity of people to viruses. It represents society’s first attempt to scientifically alter the human evolutionary process.

                Whether you support human genetic engineering or not, there are many advantages and disadvantages to this process-

Advantages include:

·         Helping to prevent life-threatening and incurable diseases like cancer, and Alzheimer’s

·         Better drugs could be produced that are disease or gene specific that attack the specific genetic mutation in an individual

·         A possibility to increase the average life span of an individual to live a healthy, long life, free of diseases and disorders

·         Make it possible to slow down or reverse certain cellular metabolism that may be able to fulfill the desire to remain ‘forever young’

·         ‘Designer babies’- Parents can choose the characteristics of their babies, for example: blond hair with blue eyes, high IQ, and fair skin

·         Cloning humans: illegal now, but it could be a quest to produce the perfect human beings

Disadvantages include:

·         Loss of identity and individuality, and human diversity

·         May end up producing ‘Super humans’

·         Smarter humans means larger brains – difficulty during birth procedures

·         Long life could lead to population problems

·         A division between genetically engineered humans and those that are ‘normal’

·         Human cloning could lead to problems in figuring out who’s who

Human genetic engineering could make or break our society. It’s incredible to think about how this could possibly work, and whether or not it really could cure diseases or life-threatening illnesses. I feel that if human genetic engineering becomes perfected and legal, I believe that people who are in a coma, who are in a vegetative state, who have traumatic brain damage, or who have a life-threatening illness or incurable disease, should be allowed this option. However; if you are someone who just wants this procedure so you can look young forever, or be smarter and brighter, or for those parents who want to choose what their baby looks like, I completely 100 percent disagree with human genetic engineering as an option. You are who you are, and it is your choice as to whether you want to change yourself or not for the better. There are many other ways you can overcome obstacles and better yourself such as working out, going to school and reading to become more knowledgeable, eating healthy, etc. to live the life you want. I think human genetic engineering will lead to more judgment in our society when used for perfecting and making people, ‘super-humans.’

                What’s your intake on human genetic engineering? Should genetic engineering be used to produce super-humans? Should we be able to determine the sex of our children? Should human genetic engineering be used for curing genetic diseases? Do you think human genetic engineering will affect our society for better or worse?

Sites Used:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/genetic-engineering-in-humans.html

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/humgeneng.html

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30. November 2011 by student.

While factors such as genetics and physical activity contribute to childhood obesity, parenting practices may have the largest impact on a child’s eating behavior.Parents directly influence their child’s eating habits. Parents, especially impact the development of a child’s preference for healthy foods as well as their ability to regulate how much they eat. studies of low-income families that an “indulgent” feeding style is strongly associated with childhood obesity. In this style, parents let their kids eat whatever they want and demonstrate a lot of nurturance during dinner, making it a very pleasant experience these low levels of control are associated with obesity. This could categorized as social stratification because the lower class families are at a disadvantage financially and therefore may not be able to afford healthier food choices, food choices like chips and soda are a cheaper alternative of feeding the family. Foods like that contain ingredients that facilitate increased weight gain and the desire to eat more and blocking the satiety area of the brain.However, high levels of control can also contribute to childhood obesity.When parents push children to finish their vegetables in order to get dessert, the dessert becomes more rewarding, other vegetables become less rewarding, children begin to like ice cream better, for instance, and beans less.

Another component of “high control” parenting includes frequently encouraging children to finish a meal and using excessive reasoning to make them eat more of a specific food such as vegetables. Additionally, when parents use restrictions to encourage healthy eating, such as withholding candy, soda-pop and other sweet beverages, children may want to eat or drink more of it simply because they know they cannot have it. This is clash between power arrangements and the children see eating junk food as a symbolic value. The parents are using their power as the adults and caregivers and almost forcing the children to eat the food which can become overused and almost authoritative. When deprived of something that children feel they deserve, they might start rebelling whether its conscious or unconscious and start sneaking in more junk food in their diet, or whenever they have the chance to eat it they will over consume because it is scarce in their home; which can lead to obesity.

Oftentimes, as parents put pressure on their kids to eat, the kids are focused more on what the parents want and less on their internal cues. As a result, kids are less attentive to their internal cues of being full and tend to eat more than they really need to eat.While too much control or not enough control is often associated with obesity, medium control appears to have a different, and desired, effect.Parents should provide availability of healthy snacks and give them choices such as two vegetables instead of one. They should also make meals about positive social interaction and quality family time, not about how much food is consumed.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2008/07/09/us-parenting-style-idINCOL96232120080709

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30. November 2011 by student.

There have been documentations of double eyelid surgery in Asia as early as the 19th century but became popular after WWII. After westerners started coming into Asia, the plastic surgery industry started to pick up because more people wanted to have features like the foreigners whom they thought were beautiful. Now, in the 21st century having plastic surgery done is very common in asian countries such as Korea, and service for this type of business can be found almost everywhere; with procedures that can take as little as 30 minutes to perform. When I asked among my peers in school if they have ever heard of Asian plastic surgery they had all replied no. This entry will discuss the perspective of surgery performed from a Korean native and how this issue is the influence of social stability or instability, social conflict, and interaction.

According to an online site, Medscape, ‘ South Korea has the highest ratio of cosmetic surgeons to citizens worldwide. “It has become so common that girls will get eyelid surgery as high school graduation present. I personally have a cousin who had double eyelid surgery during her eigth grade year and specifically asked “ Make it like the eyes of White people.” What made Koreans fall in plastic surgery this much? It has some kind of magical appeal to the, which is the promise of beauty. Women are often convinced that suffering and sacrificing things like the giant costs of the procedures is necessary and worthy in order to bear the fruits of beauty.With good looks, the Korean society believes that beauty leads to attracting a better looking partener, which leads to a better lifestyle and better looking children. And also, better looks equals better chances for competitive jobs, especially in the business field. Basically they believe that physical beauty equals happiness.

And in Korean, they also impossibly apply the same standards for beauty as the Western world does. A women should be tall, thin, with a milky complexion, chiseled facial features, long legs, nice big eyes, and perfectly angles nose. In a popular Korean movie titled,” 200 pounds of beauty,” It shows the struggle of an obese unattractive young lady that goes to the extreme limit of having her whole body done through plastic surgery in order to become a singing pop star and ultimately wish to have her manager realize her physical beauty and fall in love with her; despite her already graet personality and natural talent. The main character in unattractive in all the ways we might think such as her weight, crazy hair, no facial definition, bad teeth, and small eyes. The young woman believed cosmetic surgery is the key to her success with her career and ultimately her love life. However, Asian people experience similar internal dilemmas with their appearances too but do not live around white people to actually effect their opinions about themselves. So if environment is not the primary cause of this drive to look “whiter,” then what is?

The next closest thing to living around white people is seeing them all over TV, billboards, and magazines. With globalization alive and well in South Korean, Western pop culture has grown into every corner of the country. Lacost, Estee-Lauder, Ralph Lauren, and Chanel are some of the heavily sought Western brands. The Korean exchange their advanced electronic devices through companies such as LG, Samsung, and Hyundai in return for Western clothing, cosmetics, and pop idols like Britney Spears. However, Koreans do not just admire these Western idols, and purchase their albums and clothes, but they want to look like them. Maybe this explains why the majority of Korean celebrities have gone under the knife at least once. For instance, Korean Boa-Kwon, who now rules the female pop world in all Northeast Asia (Japan, china, and korea), got eyelid surgery and had her nose Heightened. So just like Britney Spears set the trend for mini plaid skirts for American girls and bearing their midriffs, Boa has inspired and assured many Korean girls that cosmetic surgery is normal and “cool” thing to do.

Korean pop culture is dominating Asia today with its soap opera series, movies, cosmetics, and technology In 2004, after the hit TV show “Dae-jand geum” many Japanese and Taiwanese women flocked to South Korea cosmetic clinics asking to look like the hit’s main character, Youn Hae Lee, who is known for her big eyes, small chin, and high nose.

Perhaps this beauty ideal is not a trend but a very real standard that is growing deeper in Korean society. Appearance is starting to play a bigger role in the workplace, where men are starting to get plastic surgery too.ABC new reports that cosmetic surgery clinics in korea are starting to get higher rates of male clients; the most surgeries are almost identical to those for women— eyelid and nose jobs. Therefore, the continuing high rates of cosmetic surgeries, and the growing number of Korean celebrities who look almost “white” as a result of these procedures, indicate the extent to which Western beauty standards have been ingrained into South Korea.

The quest for western beauty can also be political as well as cultural. Going back to the Imperialist era in the 1800’s, the idea of white supremacy is still in their minds since Western Nations like the United States are still the most powerful and wealthiest. Maybe even the idea of walking, talking, and looking like the white race is still there subtlely. For example, many countries around the world, including South Korea, are required to speak Enlisgh, the language we speak in the United States, which is looked upon as the world power. As a result, most South Korean student are reasonably fluent in English by the time they hit higschool.

Maybe the obsession with beauty is due to the fact that human nature always strives dor what is thought to be better. So Korean associate beauty with people of countires that are wealthier than they are as a result to be more like them. The fact that nearly half the population is somehow displeased  with their appearance and willing to undergo cosmetic surgery shows that something is culturally wrong here. Essentially, the face of Korean media needs to change. They need to stop promoting the message that beauty means to look like Nicole Kidman and Britney Spears.

Burt Herman, “ S Korea Boom in Male Plastic Sugery,” in ABC News Health, 2006; Sandy Cobrin, “ Asian-American Criticize Eylid Surgery Craze,” in Women’s E-news

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30. November 2011 by student.

Early last week there was a 16 year old girl that was caught prostituting organized by pimps. My question is where is the parents of this young girl who where supposed to be in school getting education, what was the condition for the girl to have to be engage in prostitution. As a parent we have to have better communication with our children,encourage,teach, and make them stronger, regardless of life situation.Parent have to engage them selves to know who your child frequente with, call for help before its too late. Children are often forced by social structures and individual agents into situations in which adults take advantage and abuse them.

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