On my previous blog post  I talked about feminism and how it should be a common goal for everyone, and not a battle of the sexes.

Since the last time I posted a lot of things have happened in the media that relates to feminism. The hashtag #HowToSpotAFeminist has become viral. People use this hashtag to share their thoughts on feminism and express their thoughts, concerns, or even disagreement about this topic. It became more popular when people started to create memes and pictures that would appeal to a younger audience, and would catch their attention through humor.

Even though it's great to see people become vocal on this topic, new issues have arisen as well. A couple weeks ago a high school suspended a girl over a moderately modest dress because “plus sized bodies must be fully covered” As seen in the image below, the girls dress covered her up really well besides some cleavage which is something she can't help because of her size. “ #IAmMoreThanADistraction” is what I want to hear people like her say and share on social media. I want people to become aware that's it's wrong to shame women for their attire and their bodies. She can't change herself, so why should she be punished?

Earlier this week I sent out a survey on feminism with questions like “do you know what feminism is?” and “do you believe that genders are currently equal”. My results were something I expected, but still shocked me as well. 5 out of the 26 people I surveyed said they did not know what feminism was, and 4 out of the 5 people were males between the ages 14-15. 12 out of 26 people who took the survey said they dont believe theres gender equality, and unsurprisingly they were mostly women. For that exact same question, 3 out of the 26 people who were surveyed (excluding the 12 who said genders are not equal) said they are not sure. 2 out of the 3 were males. These results show me that many men are unaware of feminism, and is probably why they don't fight for it. My goal is to try to spread awareness and educate everyone, of all ages and genders, about feminism.

These results made me feel more aware of my own topic. This shows me that even though this is a topic i'm passionate about, I could still learn more about it. For my agent of change project I want to spread the hashtag #IamMoreThanADistraction all over social media, and to take photographs of girls and women with labels written on them so I can make digital posters for people to post on their social media with the hashtag.

​In my first blog post I talk about how to much screen time before bed can lead to difficulty in getting to sleep depending on how long you are using or watching the device.  A Study showed that teens who spend an hour on their screens before bed usually take an hour to get to bed.  I also talked about how teens who play violent video games after a while even if they don't start out this way tend to get more violent and aggressive because of what the game is showing them.  I discussed how tv shows give kids a biased perspective on life and how things should or should not be.  For instance if you watch a news program a lot they would probably have a lot of sad and depressing news.  

For my original research I interviewed lots of classmates like Elias, Johny, Kara, Fabian, Jorin, Alexa, Elani, Sandra, Java,Mehki, Eli, Obie,

I interviewd these people to ask them sort about their daily lives and how they interact with screens.  I also interviewed a man named Jeff Adams who works for Google specifically Google Maps.

This hyperlink is snapshots of the conversation I had with Jeff)

My personal opinion is that screens themselves are not the issue it’s how we use them that's the issue.  Say I watch TV for an hour a day and use the computer for 30 minutes a day that would be fine that is barely any time at all, unfortunately that is not the case for most teenagers.  I think the general vibe is if it’s made it’s better and “I” need to update my old device.  Teens will look for any exuse to get a new phone not even if they want it but because it’s made makes you want have the earge to get it, so you look for every small detail wrong with your current phone and say that the new phone doesn’t have those so you get it.  You get even though there absolutely no difference from your old phone to the new phone. Now I don’t actually have an Iphone so I can’t speak to this example but I am sure that plenty of you would agree.  I would say I agree that many of parents decisions to cut their child's screen time however I had a discussion with my brother in April and he was defending screens using teens and brought up many interesting points; such as if a person [teen] is being forced into a conversation where they know the people will not take their side of course they are going to want to talk to their friends because their friends will support that person.  I agree with this statement somewhat however if you know someone is not going to take your side that is a debate right there and that could be fun.  I have a cousin who before he is a teenager spends more time on video games in one day than I have probably in my life.  I am quite worried for him because he can finish a whole DS or XBOX game in half a day.  Whenever we go to visit him I usually babysit him and we usually end up playing role playing games taht are about whatever game he finished that day and it usually ends up with me being killed or injured in some way because I like to play out my part.  

Screens are good sometimes to good you should moderate yourself when using them even if it is a school project.   

I have personal experience with sleep deprovision aspect of the effect of screens on teens before bed because I always watch videos on youtube and finish my homework before bed.

I am curious about  gorilla glass I know some about it but I would be fasinated to see how it is made.     

This is a hyperlink to y annotated bibliography

Information I have gathered from my original research indicated that youth are aware of stereotypes and some are bothered by them. When asked “have you ever heard a stereotype?” 100% of people answered “yes”.

For my original research I have conducted a survey. This survey was sent to the 9th and the 11th grade class of SLA. It included a question asking for a personal definition of the word stereotype. More than twenty people took the survey and majority ruled that stereotypes were “false statements that are generalized or expected out of a certain group of people.” Sources from the internet concluded that a stereotype was an “over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people”. I and a few others and definitely agree that these two definitions are pretty similar. The results have also shown that majority of stereotypes witnessed were portrayed in Reality/Public which includes social media. Since my last post, I have also found that 91.3% of the people that took my survey make use of stereotypes.

I think doing a survey was the best choice to do. Doing a survey allowed me to collect a lot of information that helped me understand that majority of youth are aware of stereotypes. Even though 91.3% of people said they make use of stereotypes, 83.4% of people said that they were bothered by them. I believe that people are unaware of their wrong-doing until they are pointed out to them. If you do not want anyone stereotyping you, then you should not stereotype anyone else.

Annotated Bibliography

In Blog Post #1, I have written about the general definition of what my topic is, Sex Trafficking. I stated my findings on the matter, specifically: statistics on the occurrence of the issue, and also ways this concern could be prevented.

I have recently discovered this organization in which deals with sex trafficking victims up close. They listen to their personal encounters and help them move past it. This is their website, and I genuinely recommend that you check it out. Thankfully, I have gotten the chance to interview a member, as well as explore their website in great depth, and received amazingly informational responses. I decided to do an interview for my original research. My previous research had to do with personal encounters from victims of sex trafficking, therefore doing an interview with someone that is an expert in the area gave me further insight on the issue. The interview went as so:

What connection or involvement do you have with child trafficking?

The organization I am apart of mainly focuses on listening. They listen to survivors of sex trafficking. Members say “We’re particularly focused on understanding patterns of vulnerability and successful reintegration of survivors.”

In your experience, can you tell me what the typical age of someone that is exploited to this is?

The typical age of someone that is exploited to this ranges from the age of 18 and under.

Who do you think the typical recruiter is? A male or female, stranger or friend?

On their website it states “Too often the stories we hear involve pastors, diplomats, youth leaders, law enforcement, and educators—perpetrating unspeakable crimes against children, using their power and connections as protection and facade. They come from various walks of life.”

People doing the recruiting, do they most likely get the victims through kidnapping, false promises, or by taking advantage of the family because they are poor?

“Most often, children are trafficked through vulnerabilities.”

Once the victims are in the process, do you think they feel as though there is no way out, in your experiences?

What do you think are the long term effects of a victim who later runs away or is rescued?

The long term effects of a victim who is rescued, based on their experiences involve: “Drug and Alcohol Dependencies, Depression and Anxiety, Revictimization, Unplanned Pregnancy, Health Complications, Addiction to Money, Trauma Bonds and Stockholm Syndrome” and many more.

The process for conducting this interview was not easy though. I have in total contacted three people who I thought could help me get through this action. The first expert organization I contacted responded to me quickly, which I was excited about, though saying that they could not fulfill my needs and actually were too busy to be interviewed. The second person I contacted, yet not an expert, knew more information on the topic then them regular person, things did not work out. After this, I was stuck for a long while trying to find someone else to contact and I ended up finding an organization in which I happened to feel very passionate about. After looking through their site, I contacted them and got great results in which I have shared previously.

Some things I am still left wondering about after I have conducted an interview along with the research I have done is how effective are these organizations towards the victims and how many organizations are actually out there and aware of this issue. I also am curious of finding out the locations of these organizations and if there are these people trying to help right in the area of the trafficking. And I expect to find this out in further research.

My plan for bringing awareness to this issue is to make stickers and/or posters containing statistics of some sort of Sex Trafficking. I intend to post these throughout the city and possibly around the school to attract a wider range of people. These stickers/posters will also be promoting the organization I have showed to you today in this blog post.

This is the front cover of the organization that I got results from for the interview > website

 In my journeys into finding out more about the ever so secret investigations of Internal Affairs, I decided to interview Kelvyn Anderson, the acting director of the Police Advisory Commission to have a frank and honest talk about the issues of the Philadelphia Police Department.

In my Blog Post, I introduced my topic for the “You and The World” project. It is about animal abuse. I mentioned my experiences on the animal abuse topic and included online research and informational facts about abused animals. I talked about an animal in my Blog Post #1 named Lincoln who was brought to a high-Kill shelter. On 5/10/15, I visited the SPCA center on Erie Ave PA 19134. This building is a no-kill shelter. A no-kill shelter means the shelter does not “put down” animals to make more room, or doesn't have the rule, “If this animal does not get adopted in “a certain amount of time” it will be “put down”, or does not “put down sick or injured animals.” A high-kill shelter is the opposite of a no-kill shelter. On 5/10/15 I have learned a lot about the topic of animal abuse from the Paws building and the SPCA. My tour guide has sent me a slide about their information on animals and abused dogs. I have learned that some animal shelters do not rescue their animals themselves. Instead, they receive the animals from an animal control team. If not for shelters like Paws, who receive their animals, most animals would be “put down.” For my original research, I decided to do an interview and a field observation. I have recorded my Interview, I have come up with these questions:

Do you  work with abused animals?If so, what is your specific job?

Have any abused animals come in recently?

What is the average amount of abused animal coming in?

What is the ASPCA doing to prevent animal abuse?

How do abused animals act once they are in the aspca building?

Do you think that a little discipline is necessary?

How long does it take for an animal to get used to the facility?

Do owners bring in their abused animals or do bystanders bring them in? Or is there a team from aspca who go out and search for signs of abusement and or abused animals?

For my Field Observation I received a tour from Jennifer Johnston, a SPCA worker. Also visited a PAWS- Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society building.

                                                                                             This is Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter now is now paws with an ear infection, The animal control group does not support injured animals, if Paws did not save him he would have been put down. Now in better hands, paws have nurtured him and put a dog cone on him so he does not scratch his infected ear.

This is Robin, Robin has an eye infection, He was rescued from the animal control group. When he came into Paws both of his eyes were swollen shut and covered in gunk. He was kept in the back until he has healed. Two days ago today (5-9-15) he came out into the open, but he is extremely shy because he wasn't used to the attention. Also, he is afraid with all the dogs barking.

Plum was found caught in a fence, on April 15th she needed surgery to cut of her leg. She is now in the Paws- Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. If Paws did not help Plum, The animal Control group would not bother to heal or care for her.

At the SPCA building, I was given a tour. I took recordings of our conversation and videos of parts of the facility. My original research helped inform me on my issue from the specific animals I have met and the interview. I have learned about how SPCA gets animals and how they react in the buildings. I now understand more about what animal shelters to to prevent abuse and what they do to treat them. My personal Opinion is about the animal shelters and animal control groups and animal mills. I think the animal mills and controls group should be illegal, what is the point of having a storage for animals where they are starved and caged. But I think the animal shelters are doing there best at keeping animals safe and healthy. I think they have the right idea on helping the poor animals who don't have a right to say what happens to them. I am still left wondering about what drives people to abuse animals and when and why do they get a thought to. Do they enjoy injuring animals? For my Agent of Change, I am thinking of doing some sort of teaching lesson where I would go to schools and day camps and teach children/teenagers about my issue and show them the right way to treat animals.

All of my online research is in my Annotated Bibliography.

After learning many startling numbers, and scary facts about gun control from my first blog post, I began to wonder about what further research I could do, to look at a different view of this. I started thinking a lot about gun control, and what I could use what was right in front of me all along. I did some further research, and found that over the years, that teens usage of firearms have been increasing. With that said, it brought me to a question, if more teens began to get involved in these sorts of incidents, maybe they don’t know what they are really in for. In our “You and the World Project”, we have to make our own difference, and do our own research, so in that case, let me tell you what I did. The fact that I am focusing my project on a younger audience, I found my myself in the best place to do my own research. Surrounding by teenagers, from all different backgrounds, exposed to a variety of different things, I made a survey about gun control.

I decided to do my project on misunderstood kids who also might struggle with Social Anxiety and Depression. This topic is something that people that many know about but don’t understand. Often times kids are judged, mistreated, and left out of things simply because people can’t comprehend what they are going through or how they feel. Sometimes jokingly calling a friend “ugly” or “fat” can mean a lot more than what you think of it. I really want to reach out to people regarding this subject because social anxiety and depression are both things I struggle with and also something people should be more aware about. This is significant because others don’t realize how much the things they do or say affect others. It is important for people to know this because this has ruined people’s lives.