Brian

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QADXewfLnsU)

Rutgers Bus Etiquette

As Rutgers students and active bus riders, Asia, Brian and I, have notice that some of us don’t know proper bus etiquette. I’ve always thought this type of thing to be common sense but many of the people on the busses included myself sometimes forget some of these basic techniques. In our video we give you a short do’s and don’ts list, along with some pictures and example video. We also used some simple soothing music so the video is not so “in your face”. I hope you guys enjoy the video.

When we think of food, as college students we often think of the easiest meal to make or of the food that we can order from a take-out service, however for our blog post, we wanted to explore how to actually make food and we mainly focused on food that would be healthy, easy to make, and affordable. Teresa,Susan, Nicole, and I sought to look for something that would appear to be delicious while still being healthy. The search was easy enough, as cooking websites have specific categories that are healthy and delicious, however money became the main issue. We decided on making something that was healthy, delicious, and affordable. We are trying to show that millennials and students are not bound to just eat ramen, or delivered take-out but that we have the capacity to make food that is healthy and affordable. 

If you like the young lions above, do not believe that food can be both healthy and delicious while not putting a huge whole in your wallet, do not despair, we seek to show you that the impossible is indeed possible. What we are trying to right, are the food choices which often seem easy, but increase chances of obesity, and ignore the nutritional guideline which we must always take into consideration. Although out post will not focus on the people that do not have access to these food items, it will focus on helping those who do have access but have no drive, to help them make better choices. We are assuming a level of privilege in creating this video, one of middle class audience members. Our video is to inspire a choice but not to remedy a lack of choice. We are choosing to do this because we are addressing college level individuals who should generally expect a higher standard of living, where access to healthy  food items will be higher. 

Lately, when given open assignments, I have found it difficult to pick a topic that I particularly want to talk about, let alone enjoy. Something that comes to mind quite often (and something I’ve talked about previously) is the concept of depression. Psychology is my second major, so it intrigues me from both a clinical standpoint as well as a personal one. I decided to visit informational videos on the illness to try and understand the condition.

The first video I settled on was titled “The Science of Depression.” Giving background on a condition that was once seen as “simply being a ‘chemical imbalance’ in the brain,” the video segways into discussing the biological causes of depression. The human brain is shown to have noticeable differences from those of an individual who isn’t suffering from depression. The encouragement of neurogenesis, the development of new brain neurons, and the regulation of serotonin are seen to have positive effects on individuals with depression. However, the condition is believed to have an even more biological connection- it is passed down genetically. In my case, both of my parents have been diagnosed with depression, so it was pretty expected for me to exhibit similar mood patterns. This particular video uses cartoon drawings to animate the narration, which does make the information a bit easier for the average viewer to watch.

In opposition, I chose to watch something a little less structured by choosing a Buzzfeed video titled “What It’s Like Living With Depression.” I must admit, I didn’t have high expectations of how well the video depicts depression- it’s a Buzzfeed video, how accurate could it possibly be? It follows a young lady as she tries to go about her day, but a second woman, who represents the girl’s depression, is constantly around convincing her that there’s no true reason to be happy. From telling her the outfit she’s wearing makes her look fat to telling her that no one understands her, depression constantly is following her and making her reevaluate how she lives her life. It ends with the pair walking past a pair of men, and it implies that the men are in an identical situation- one is real, one is depression.

As millennial college students we can sometimes find ourselves struggling in our classes. For a generation so connected to the internet it is only natural that we seek help with our studying online. Youtube had been my go to site when it comes to getting a more visual representation for something I didn’t quite understand in class. However, not all videos are created equal. Some videos are very easy to understand. They have a nice flow and are step by step explanations. Others are more like historical stories to help you with your history homework. But sometimes you can get, some pretty, not so helpful videos that can sometimes bore you to death! Here is an example of one of those videos.

I’ve, therefore, decided to use the video below to make a list of do’s and don'ts.  

Do make your video about history…. if you want…. 

Don’t make it painfully boring! 

Do make sure to speak clearly. 

Don’t speak in a mono-tone voice.   

Do use fun pictures and movie snippets to get your point across 

Don’t use horribly acted out scenes and 1970’s, reading rainbow style, music. 

Do have fun making your video. 

Join me and the band Vampire Weekend in our pursuit to navigate a controversial worldwide grammatical debate: who cares about the Oxford comma?

The people over at Ted-Ed do! Enough to make a compelling video, in hopes to inform English speakers everywhere about this hot topic. So, what is the Oxford comma? It is the comma used to differentiate a list from descriptors. And its use has elicited some pretty strong reactions.

Whether you have been conditioned to use the Oxford comma or not, this video was interesting and informative. It managed to keep me captivated as it described the origins of the debate, and exactly how both sides argued.

Although this video was longer than the previous video I shared, it was just as triumphant in its educational objective. I think it was the graphics that were animated specifically for the topic and the fun examples used that helped over 300,000 people enjoy the video. It was lighthearted and it did not feel like it was droning on, which could have prevented me from finishing the video. 

Overall, I think Ted-Ed is a superb channel for watching tid-bits of information. Check out the Oxford Comma one:

(via https://soundcloud.com/susan-627772661/opening-for-podcast-for-sound-cloud?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

Susan, Teresa, and Mengjie 

The Millennial generation is known as the generation of technology.  Since birth we have all grown up with various sources of technology at our fingertips.  We have been around for the birth of social media and it has now become any everyday part of our lives. Social media comes in many forms, from text posts and blogs, to images, and videos.  We focused specifically on the social media outlets of tumblr, instagram, and snapchat. We found that individuals use these social media outlets a lot, specifically to share things about their everyday lives. Here we interview individuals and give our input on how social media effects the way individuals actually view themselves.  

Works Cited

Buckley, Olivia. Teens and Tumblr: What’s the Issue?. N.p., 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-buckley/teens-and-tumblr-whats-th_b_1224867.html>.

Clasen, Anthony. Why is Instagram so Important to Millennials . N.p., 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 2015. <http://blog.iconosquare.com/instagram-important-millennials/>.

Ehmke, Rachel. Teens and Social Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 2015. <http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2013-11-26-self-esteem-and-anxiety-digital-age>.

Let’s Chat . N.p., 9 May 2012. Web. 2015. <http://blog.snapchat.com/post/22756675666/lets-chat>.

As Millennials who are all about to start entering the real world work force (it’s a scary thought, isn’t it?), it’s only natural that we should be looking into the availability of jobs, their longevity, and their prospect towards our planned futures. Likewise, as college students, we are expected to be making choices that will lead us where we want to go. It’s a pretty obvious plan, but is it something that is feasible for us to do? Are we even going to be able to use our college degrees in the work force? In our Podcast, Generation Jobless, we give our personal stories about how we are trying to prepare ourselves for the potentially daunting work lives we are going to lead, and insight to how we feel that it might be to pursue any job once we leave school. Featuring some valuable narratives from Peter, who gave us a bit of pointers and evidence that getting a job after college might not be the scariest notion in the world.

Work Cited:

“A Look at the Labour Market – Then and Now.” A Look at the Labour Market – Then and Now. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.

“Millennials: More Educated, Fewer Employed than Gen X.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.

“Rate of Job Changing Slows as People Age.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.

Rowley, Laura. “Baby Boomers To Blame For U.S. Job Market Weakness: Study.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 Oct. 2015.

Trehan, Rita. “Hiring Millennials: Surfing the Next Wave of Talent.“Washington Post 29 June 2015. Web. <https://jobs.washingtonpost.com/article/hiring-millennials-surfing-the-next-wave-of-talent/>.

Wallace, David F. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion About Living a Compassionate Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2009. Print.

Weissmann, Jordan. “Indisputable Evidence That Millennials Have It Worse Than Any Generation in 50 Years.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 11 Feb. 2014.

The millennial, often described in terms that imply privilege, becomes a category that perpetuates the colorblind policies that often ignores the racialized policies and social relations that still prevail in America. Is the millennial a category capable of addressing the different realities that different demographics face or does it serve to justify a myth of laziness that once again dis-empowers the minority individual? In this podcast we explore the policies that created the racial structures that still exist, look at the way that they create a standard that the minority is always at opposition with, and finally look at the power of social media in the creation of a space and a voice for the millennial of color. 

To stumble upon a video that reflects the work that Simone de Beauvoir started a century ago, is on a personal level a disappointment, but on an academic level an exhilaration: both feelings are centered on the narrative of progress that at once sells us women a lie and yet prove that work remains to be done and that culture has not reached a point where science and mathematical equations resolve all problems. We like to think that the information age is free of all contradictions and yet man is still at the center of the world and woman is at the margins getting the charitable bed crumbs that society dictates must be given to women. The problem begins with the system of sex categorization. A bigger problem is that while people are categorized into two categories, society is never reshaped to fit women’s needs. Bathrooms are never made with the wide diverse needs of woman (breast-feeding, natural cycles) and instead focus on the needs of men. 

Chemaly the speaker in the video refers to such a dynamic as epistemic injustice where woman are expected to be pleasers and not knowers: woman cannot make her society through her experiences and instead finds herself isolated from the inability to claim categories that are made with men at the center. Women are meant to be silent in such a structure of society and their representation in authority bodies is limited and disproportionate to men. Chemaly points to the way women in power only speak 30% of the time and that men speak 70% of the time and yet still claim that these women are too assertive just for having more talking power. The problem with the division of the sexes that does not give woman agency is ontological. It is at the development of individuals that the construction of gender is reinforced and maintained. To think about the imbalance of power and the violence both systemic and individual that stems from such an imbalance shows that the equality that we claim exists only serves to perpetuate the violence and imbalance. Knowledge, Chemaly claims is based on categories that men use to describe the world that they continue to make in their own image. At a point the camera looks at words that have the root word testes showing the direct relation between knowledge and men. 

Social relations between men and women are still not equal. The availability for woman to exert her sexual autonomy seems to point to a holistic equality that is simply not real. One can look at the way man has made woman equal and wonder how that has only increased his power: birth control for example allows a man to exploit a woman sexually without fear of consequences. We are still living in a 19th century world. The situation may have bettered but it is still not complete. We as women have to fight not just for bread crumbs but for the control panel. As academics we must make categories that put the female perspective into focus and as women in society we must begin to make the way for a new ontological project where we push women to have agency and exert the traits that allow men to thrive: rather than to make pleasers, we must make knowers. 

           Now, I don’t know about how you all feel, but for me, it’s just plum difficult to get out of bed more often than not. And I don’t just mean I’m too tired to get up. This is a kind of exhaustion that goes beyond the physical; it’s left me mentally drained, physically weak, and with a lack of desire to do anything. I’ve barely been eating, my sleep schedule has hit a bare minimum, and my work habits have been drastically slacking. This sort of thing is known as clinical depression, and it isn’t just me who is feeling the effects of this illness.

           While I felt the effects of depression when I was much younger, these more difficult side effects have emerged in my more recent college years. This college emergence of depression is incredibly common, and it’s believed that at least 44 percent of college students have experienced symptoms of depression. The article talks about Millennials as being the products of “being groomed to be academic overachievers, but became, in reality, emotional underachievers.” While it acknowledges the feelings these Millennials have, it seems to focus more on this concept that we need to learn how to cope.

           I agree somewhat- some people don’t have the coping capabilities of others, and those are skills we learn with experience. However, feelings are valid, regardless of how extreme they might seem to an outside party. In my case, my motivation to do anything has drastically declined, and I’m constantly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Sometimes I go through phases where it is easier to encourage myself to get out of bed and be productive with my day. Sometimes one event takes my life by storm and my sadness flares back up in ways unimaginable. Sometimes it’s difficult to do anything when you don’t have the energy to- likewise, when you don’t have the energy to begin with, it is difficult to do even the most minute of things you set out to.

           Depression is often concurrent with levels of stress and anxiety, and Millennials most definitely feel the repercussions of these issues as well. There are higher demands of Millennials in both school and the work force, and that certainly adds to what makes us as a generation anxious and overwhelmed.  While my stress and anxieties aren’t necessarily a result of my hefty workload (I have been overextending myself for years), it does have something to do with the prospect of not feeling adequate in my planned field of study. I ideally would like to go into art therapy, which is a form of psychology. With all of these issues I’m attempting to tackle, sometimes things seem incredibly bleak. I often find myself wondering if I would ever be able to help someone else if I feel like I am incapable of helping myself. Being depressed is often sugar coated as merely “being in a funk,” and that it can be easily overcome. Sometimes it can. Sometimes it takes work: a LOT of work. But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel (and if you’ve managed to get through this entire blog watching me rant a little, bless your little souls).