Author: esmadsen

I’ve only had Ms. Madsen for 3 classes; grade 8 English and Socials, and then now, grade 11 English. It was her first year when I was in grade 8 and although I haven’t had her every single year, I’ve noticed the large impact that she’s had on the student body as well as the staff. She brings a different vibe to the table which is a good change from the standard way of teaching which many students appreciate. My main reason is the fact that she taught in North Van then moved here to a small town. I’m interested in her experience and opinions on students surrounded with different learning environments and I feel that she is a valuable subject for this topic.      

I chose Ms. Doyle because she’s a freaking awesome teacher. She’s laid back when you’re on her good side. She’s funny and has a lot of character, and she’s recently new to grand forks so I’d like to get to know her more. She’s super sweet and has lots of ideas.

I chose my mom because she’s been all over the world and ended up in Grand Forks so I think it’d be interesting to hear about her journey. I thought that talking to her would be easy and interesting, and that her story would make quality content.

Some Points on Entertainment Media’s Influence on Adolescents

Digital media is quite a broad spectrum of outlets. You can have social media, such as: Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, to name a few. Although those are what most people think digital media is, there are other forms of it as well. I’m talking about Movies, Television shows, and Video Games. All of these hold a large amount of influence over adolescents, and this influence can be used in a good or a bad way.

Nowadays over 90% of teens have played a video game, and today they’re much more developed and require a constant focus. This constant focus can drag the player deeper into a game than a movie or television show. The video game industry is very popular; today it’s valued at roughly $93 billion, and that is a large amount of dough. A positive of video games is that they have been shown to improve computer literacy and manual dexterity. Now there’s always a negative, obviously if some people always are playing their games; they tend to not get much exercise. This is the same problem with movies and T.V. shows, and a lot of people are affected by this.

On to the case of violent behaviour, and how these medias are affecting it. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good action movie or show with the protagonist kicking some butt, but after, I feel the need to kick some butt as well. This is probably not that rare, but it could lead to some disastrous circumstances. If someone has grown up seeing people be killed on the screen; there is a chance that they could take that behaviour into the real world; it’s a scary thought, but it has happened. Just recently on February 14,2018, there was a shooting that took place at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida; 17 people were shot and killed that day. Afterwards, President Trump remarked on the possibility of it be connected to games and movies. He actually made a good point, surprisingly, that kids can’t see sex in movies, but they have a multitude of violent movies and games at their fingertips, which you could place a sort of blame on parents, but kids have ways of getting around things.

In order to stop this behaviour, I don’t think it’s a matter of just getting rid of these shows, movies, and games, but it’s teaching the audience of these medias to better understand that it’s not a good thing to just attack people. It’s a very touchy subject, but from my experience as an avid gamer and watcher of the movies and shows, I can say that, for me at least, I haven’t seen an impact from movies or shows, but maybe a bit from video games. When I play a game; I get quite competitive, and upon losing, could result in maybe something happening. Overall, I believe that it’s totally up to the person who watches and plays, than anyone else, obviously others can help calm, or make the person less violent or lazy. We as human beings are quite easily influenced by certain trends, and media, in which I don’t think we can help it, or at least it’s very hard to not become influenced.

 

How is digital media impacting adolescents?

So here is the first blog post we are required to post as a class. I don’t know exactly what to say without getting carried away on a rant. I just want to get one thing straight here, phones have been banned from gfss since second semester. All the students kind of had no say, however, it wasn’t anything anyone was going to upset over. I can see why the staff of Grand Forks Secondary feel as though us students will benefit from it; therefore, personally I’ve accepted the new rules surrounding phones right when they were put in place, with a few casual comments here and there about how it’s going to be hard to adjust.  I find that the school wants us to have the most clear understanding as to why those rules were put in place, by bringing the “no phone’” subject up all the time, during the assemblies, in class, in the hallways, and some Teachers even joke about it. I’m not sure how much improvement they have noticed, or if they have noticed any at all. I’m looking forward to knowing if they get the results they were hoping for.

These Rules were implemented due to the fact social media is truly affecting the adolescents of our generation, and it’s becoming more of an issue then a solution. Schools have their own individual policies concerning phones and technology. What I don’t understand is, if this is truly a world wide concern why is it up to the schools to make the difference. This is something society needs to take ahold of. School policies only have so much power, during school hours and on school property, what about after schools and on weekends. There is no true cure for the negative outcomes involving technology. Us as individuals have to make those changes on our own. And spread awareness of the effects technology could have on us currently and in the future.

I believe our generation relies on technology way to much and instead of our role models and people we look up to explaining this to us the potential negative effects, they are just as equally consumed in the technical world as we are. According to BBC, social media can influence more, stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, health, depression and in some cases the general mood of someone. 40% of the world uses social media. On average each person spends around 2 hours per day on technology. (1) With each negative fact about social media I’m sure there is a positive as well, however, we can’t ignore the negative aspect of it all. Many companies are selling their technological products without a clear advertisement of the negative effects of their product. They want to sell their products not explain them. That is where we need to take the time and do productive research before we choose to invest in certain technology, or invest in technology at all. It’s hard to imagine a world without technology, when our world is consumed in it. We can’t make a difference if people don’t know take the time to get to know the factual information they need to make a real difference.

I have found that this unit has taught me a lot about how technology and social media is impacting adolescents, and honestly it truly scares me for what is to come of the future. We all know how much technology benefits us, because of personal experience. However, we don’t know how much it can have a negative effect without the time we take aside to get to know our facts. I hope this post gives you a better understanding of what you may want to know when it comes to the technology and social media.

 

How are digital media impacting adolescents? This is a very important question to address in the age of digital media and technology; especially for people around my age range who have become addicted to their mobile device. Even I will admit that I have a reliance on my phone, and that when I don’t have it I feel like I’m missing something very important in my life. From the conversations in my English 11 class and from people around the school, many people feel the same. So now we ask the question, do the pros outweigh the cons? Or is it the other way around? First I feel we should look at the usage of digital media and then discuss some of the benefits and pitfalls. (1)

• In a study from 2011, 52% of children 0 to 8 years of age had access to a mobile device (although only 38% had ever used one).
• By 2013, only two years later this access had increased to 75% of 0- to 8-year-olds.
• 24% of adolescents describe themselves as “constantly connected” to the Internet and 50% report feeling “addicted” to their phones

Now that we’ve discussed some of the statistics for technology usage, I feel we need to address some of the benefits of digital media.

Connection, with the development of social media sites and apps connecting and talking to people all over the world is made much easier. Everyone who has access to these things is just one text away which makes friendships and even relationships easier to maintain. I know from my personal experience of being in a long distance relationship, that if I didn’t have access to my phone or any digital media I probably wouldn’t even be in a relationship with the person I am now.

Technology also gives access to support networks for people who feel like they don’t belong, like for example, if you are a part of the LGBT+ community or have some sort of mental or physical disability. It provides an escape where people can be themselves and be given support if they feel like they can’t in a school or family environment.

Social media like facebook for example, also makes it easier to catch up or gain knowledge on current events. Not many young people watch the news anymore so for many, social media is the only way they learn about what is going on in the world.

Overall there are many benefits that come along with technology and digital media but there are some significant risks and downsides as well.

Violence in children who watch or interact with violent media are more likely to be violent themselves. In other words, playing video games that are first person or third person shooter games or watching violent tv shows.

Studies have shown that adolescents (and even adults) who have higher social media use or who sleep with mobile devices in their room were at greater risk for losing sleep at night. This is due largely to blue light; chronic exposure to blue light at night can lower the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep.

There’s also real health risks that come along with digital media use like becoming obese and having cardiovascular problems. In 2008 a study was conducted and researchers found out that young boys who exceeded 2 hours a day of sedentary media use were 1.7 times more likely to be overweight, compared with those who had 2 hours a day or less of sedentary media use.

So should we just never use technology? My answer to that is, its all about moderation. There are many benefits to technology, as you have read; however, it starts to get dangerous when you use it in excess. Researchers have found you shouldn’t exceed 2 hours a day of sedentary digital media use, so keep that in mind the next time you go to pick up your phone.

 

I chose Mr.Grey because I remember him all that way back from grade 8. Just like me it was his first year at the high school (teaching). I had a real interest in science and drama. Coincidentally Mr.Grey was a science and drama teacher. I remember just how passionate he was to be teaching his science class. It’s because of him that I realised I had a potential to be a leader as he really believed in me; whether it be science or drama, to work with others and to show them how to do something and really take on a leadership role. He saw me as a leader and I seriously thank him for that. I had him every year of my high school career except for this current one. I feel like we have a really strong teacher student connection and I can relate a lot to his ideas and generally how he thinks. I know that when he was younger he was interested in going into the medical field and pursued sciences as his major in university and I plan on doing that same. He is one of the teachers that I will never forget because he really helped light the interest that I have now in science. In class he would always mention interesting stories and I feel like since he is a younger teacher we as students can relate to him a lot more. I just see a lot of things that we connect on and I would love to hear some of his stories and experiences in high school.

GFSS StoryCorps

 The Nicest Human Being in the School World

 In teaching, one of the best strategies to help students learn is modeling, providing an example. Sure, my students had the chance to explore the thousands of brilliant StoryCorps examples available on their website, but I wanted them to see a sample of a GFSS story to really appreciate our mission. Besides, this sounded fun and I wanted to try it.

The cool part is that I didn’t actually need to consciously think of someone to interview. I just knew: Mr. Nuyten.

Mr. Nuyten has been teaching Science and Biology at GFSS since 1993. But he’s so much more than a science teacher. He’s just about the nicest human being I’ve ever met.

I’m relatively new to the school, having moved from North Vancouver in 2014. It was not an easy adjustment, and Mr. Nuyten is memorably the first person who really made me feel welcome. That’s just who he is: Welcoming. Friendly. Kind.

And I know the students of this school share my fondness for Mr. Nuyten, so I can be sure they’ll actually check out the example. 😉

While the decision about whom to interview came easily, as the actual conversation approaches, I’m feeling a little nervous. Will my interview be good enough? Will it do justice in showcasing a true school treasure? So much pressure!

But I’m pretty sure it will be awesome. After all, what I want to show my students is the value in listening to people. Who better to listen to?! I want to share with them a lesson in community building. Who better embodies the good in our school community?! How can an interview with the nicest human being in the school be anything other than awesome. 🙂