Have you ever thought that bullying would lead to behavior issues that would go all the way into a person’s adulthood? I have always wondered that because I have personally seen what bullying can do to a person. This I why I care so much about the topic of bullying because I feel that we need to stop the vicious cycle from continuing and creating lasting behavior issues that can go into adulthood. Having a familiar background with bullying, I wanted to focus on the topic of how it leads to behavior issues in adulthood. Bullying is something that I hate because it is something that is happening in schools around the world. The number of children that are bullied has risen over the years. About 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year. That number to me is huge which tells me that our society is not doing enough to educate children about bullying which is why this argument is so important because it shows people just how dangerous bullying really can be to a person’s adulthood when it comes to their behaviors. The part that catches my attention is the fact that people who bully really do not take into consideration their actions and how they affect the victim in the long term. About 75% of school-shootings are linked to harassment and bullying. This percentage just goes to show that bullying is like an infection that spreads until the victim decides to take action whether it is by a school shooting or a suicide. I was able to find out that both males and females can be both victims and offenders in regards to bullying. Helenius, Helstela, Piha, and Sourander, researchers, did a study that showed that 15% of boys and 7% of girls were bullies and about 12% of girls and 13% of boys were victims of bullying (pg 873-881). As you can see, both sexes can be both a victim and an offender. It is important for us to understand bullying so that we can prevent any further harm from being done to others. Bullying of any kind has lasting effects that can lead to behavior issues all the way into adulthood.

To begin with, let me give a brief description of the many different types of bullying that there are. One type bullying is cyber bullying. This kind of bullying is through the internet and websites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter in the form of threatening messages. About 43% of children have experiences of online bullying. According to iSafe Foundation, 1 in 4 kids are cyber bullied more than once in their lifetime. Second type is verbal bullying. When someone is called names or threatened to make himself or herself feel bad is considered verbal bullying. It can lead to self-image issues as well as self-esteem issues. Suicide is also a common outcome from verbal bullying. Third type is physical bullying. This type of bullying leaves scares that can last forever as well as lead to emotional damage. These scares are physical ones that are left on a victim but they are too afraid to say something about it for fear the bullying will only get worse. It can also sometimes borderline sexual assault.  A fourth type of bullying is indirect. Spreading rumors can lead to a ruined reputation for the victim even if it is not true which is what indirect bullying is really all about. This can leave emotional scares for the victim. Another type bullying is intimidation. This is mainly installing a sense of fear into someone whether it is from fear of harm or injury. According to S.A.C.K., 160,000 children skip school every day because they are afraid that someone at school might intimidate them. Finally, there is social alienation.  Leaving someone out of games and deliberately ignoring them by making them feel as though they are an outsider is what social alienation is all about. Although bullying has many different forms, these occur the most in schools around the world.

Second, there are many different types of behavior issues that come along with bullying that can go into adulthood. Bullying has been associated with emotional and behavioral problems in many different studies. Research has proven that bullying leads to anti-social behavior along with violence and delinquency in adulthood. Bullies are four times more likely to engage in criminal activities in their adulthood as well as develop suicidal thoughts. Researchers, Bender and Losel, both agree with me that there is a relationship between school bullying and long-term criminal behavior into adulthood (pg 99-106). It helps to make the statement that criminal activity can stem from bullying that has taken place in a person’s childhood. Another example of this is school-shootings because the bullying leads a person to shoot up a school full of either kids that have participated in the bullying or those who have stood by and watched idly. This just goes to show that bullying is a real issue that can lead to many different types of behavior issues in adulthood. Both researchers, Bender and Losel, believe that criminology research and school bullying should be considered together because they seem to be linked together based on their study (pg 99-106). Another reason for this delinquent behavior may be a result of verbal bullying. Those that are verbally bullied have been known to get a temper quicker than those who have not been bullied. Knowing this makes the notion that verbal bullying can cause a person to become aggressive which in turn can lead to violent or delinquent behavior in adulthood.

On the other hand, some say that bullying may be a good thing and that it does not have any links to behavior issues in adulthood. Have we as a society really underestimated the abilities of bullies? This was the case for Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham who are researchers that conducted a study on bullying and how it enhances a child’s social and cognitive skills. They believe that bullying is good for cognitive and social skills development. I find it very interesting that one of the articles that I found went in a very different path compared to my thoughts on bullying in regards to behavioral issues. Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham took a stand in saying that bullying does help bullies to obtain better cognitive and social skills. They believe that bullying is a means of manipulation as well as a way of understanding the minds of other people. This notion would lead a person to think that bullying is a good thing for children to endure during their school years. To me I found this statement to be crazy because they are promoting bullying instead of stopping bullying. This causes me to think that these people have not really done a good job of doing their research on bullying and the effects that is has on an individual. Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham wanted to challenge the minds of people who view bullying as a stereotype and challenge them to think that these bullies know exactly what they are doing and are gaining a better understanding of individuals (pg 117-127).  The perspective that they are trying to change is that people have underestimated bullies abilities to see a social situation from a different perspective. After reading this article, I was able to see where they were coming from.

Finally, there are many different ways that we can prevent behavioral issues in adulthood that stem from bullying. In our society, bullying has become so severe that children begin to skip school for fear that they might end up getting bullying. This is the kind of fear should never be an issue for a child ever. Our schools need to hold classes that educate its students on the lasting effects of bullying. In these seminars they could watch movies like To Save A Life which deals with social alienation and how it lead a young man to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head in the middle of school. Its movies like this that really stresses the point about whom bullying hurts and how it can affect a person. We also need to take a stronger action in regards to those that do bully so that they can really see that what they are doing does have an effect on another’s future. Bullying affects both the victim and the bully because it can lead to a victim having behavior problems in their adulthood and for the bully it can lead to them engaging in criminal activities that could potentially land them in jail. Along with the precautions that our schools take, we also need to make sure that our communities are also getting educated as well. This is because when they see bullying happening within the community they are able to handle it in a respectful manner.  When people are well educated on bullying they are able to recognize the signs early before any harm is ever done. They also need to make sure that criminology is brought up with bullying, so people can really begin to understand how these two relate to one another. I feel that if they were to do this that some of our criminal offenses would decrease in regards to the ones the stem from bullying. When schools have programs that are geared towards stopping bullying they do not take into account talking about crime prevention along with child and family oriented programs. If schools would do this, we would probably see a decline in criminal activity that stems from bullying. If this world is going to start taking a stand, we are all going to have to start with baby steps. With that being said, we are all going to need to be willing to make sure that we ourselves are not doing the bullying. When it comes to the subject of bullying, people tend to want to shy away from the topic because it is something that our culture has become immune to over the years. In order for us to break the vicious cycle we are all going to need to do our own part to help stop bullying no matter what form it may come in.

In conclusion, you can see that bullying leads to behavior issues in adulthood. In doing my research on this topic I was able to see how bullying can lead to behavior issues into adulthood. By understanding the different types of bullying, we can begin to see what kinds of effects they can produce. Six main types of bullying occur in this world. These six types of bullying occur in schools around the world that can affect a person’s life in some form. Bullying is associated with many types of behaviors.  Some of these behaviors are anti-social, violence, and delinquency. Research has proven that bullying does create emotional and behavioral problems. A study that was done proved that there was a link between bullying and criminal activity in adulthood. Bender and Losel both believed that bullying created violent, delinquent, and anti-social behavior that went all the way into a person’s adulthood. Some believe that bullies are severely underestimated which was the case for Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham. They believed that bullying was a good way of developing better cognitive and social skills. This is because they thought about it as though bullying was a way of manipulating and understanding another person. You could see that they are trying to get people to think outside of the box. This kind of thinking is going to be hard because our society has always been accustom to over the years and this kind of thinking is going to take some time to before any kind of change can occur. To prevent children from having behavior issues later on in their adulthood we need to take firm action and stand against bullying. We need to educate our children on what it really means to be a bully. By making sure that our children go to seminars that are on bullying, we can install in them that bullying really does cause problems that can lead to behavior issues in adulthood. The more we surround or children with awareness of bullying the more they will become educated on the matter and prevent it from happening to anyone else around them. In order for this to happen, we need to make sure that our communities are all educated as well on the subject of bullying. In the end, bullying can really cause a huge amount of personal issues that can cause a tremendous amount of behavior issues that can go all the way into adulthood.

Hi my name is Stephanie Lincoln-Baines. Today I am going to be talking to you about how bullying affects an individual into adulthood. We all have either witnessed someone get bullied or have been victims of bullying ourselves. In today’s world bullying has adapted to our culture. For instance, there is cyberbullying, verbal, physical, indirect, intimidation, and social alienation. Have you ever thought that

that leads to long term issues in adulthood. Everyone knows what bullying is and has probably seen it happen to others maybe even to yourself. I know that I have seen both sides of the issue first hand. In elementary school I use to bully people around. I did it because I thought it would make me look cool. Eventually I lost all of my good friends and I made it impossible for others to even be friends with me. It was after that I finally realized that bullying people was getting me no where. Once I had stopped bullying people around I began to be bullied myself. Some of my peers that it was funny to call me and Oreo or a Brownie. I would always ask them why they had to call me names but I never got an answer back at all. After awhile I began to just ignore them and eventually they left me alone. You see bullying me was giving them something that they wanted most which was a reaction from me once I started to ignore them that attention that they so desperately wanted from me was no longer there and available so they stopped.

As you can see from my experience I was able to see the issue of bullying from both sides of the fence so to speak. I saw it from a bullying standpoint as well as from a victim standpoint.

There are many different kinds of bullying that can take place.

One type of cyberbullying. About 43% of children have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had cyberbullying happen more than once.

Second type is verbal bullying. This can affect ones self image and cause low self esteem issues. It can also affect a person’s temper, meaning that they are older they could  get aggrivated easier than a normal child would. It could also lead to substance abuse, which in itself effects you all the way into your adulthood. Suicide is also common, yet tragic, outcome of verbal bullying.

Third type of bullying is physical bullying. This effects some for life leaving lasting scares and emotional damage. It can also borderline sexual assault sometimes.

Fourth type of bullying is indirect bullying. Starting rumors about someone even if you do not know them. As a result this can and most likely will ruin someones reputation.

A fifth type of bullying is intimidation. 160,000 children skip school because of this kind of bullying because they fear going to school and getting bullied.

Last but not least is social alienation. This kind of bullying leads to alienating a person on a social level which can be detrimental to a persons social level.

All of these types of bullying each have an effect on a person in some shape of form. This is why we need to make sure that we really educate our children as to why bullying is so bad.

Bullying does lead to behavior issues in adulthood. For instance, verbal bullying can cause a person to engage in criminal activities in their adult life. It can also lead to them having emotional problems as well. Bender and Losel who are researchers believed that there is a relationship between school bullying and long-term criminal behavior into adulthood. This just goes to show that bullying can lead a bully into a criminal activity that lands them in jail.  Research has proven that bullying leads to anti-social behavior along with violence and delinquency in adulthood. Bullies are four times more likely to engage in criminal activities in their adulthood as well as develop suicidal thoughts. Another example of  how it leads bullies into criminial activities is school-shootings because the bullying leads a person to shoot up a school full of either kids that have participated in the bullying or those who have stood by and watched idly. This just goes to show that bullying is a real issue that can lead to many different types of behavior issues in adulthood as well as criminal issues that in the end could lead to a bully doing some jail time. Both researchers, Bender and Losel, believe that criminology research and school bullying should be considered together because they seem to be linked together based on their study. To me this seems like a valid point because we need to educate our children and tell them that bullying can lead to criminal activities as well as behavior issues in adulthood.

To prevent this from ever happening we need to educate our children by making sure that they know what bullying is and how it can affect a person all the way into a person’s adulthood. Schools really need to have seminars on bullying but along with that we need to make sure that we talk about how criminal activities are linked with bullying so that they understand that bullying can create a lot of issues for a person that go all the way into adulthood. I feel like we need to show movies and one movie that really hits the point as to how bullying can affect a person is the movie To Save A Life. In this movie a victim of social alienation is eventually lead to making the decision of taking his life by shooting himself in the head while school was in progress. This movie really shows that bullying is something that we need to stop. It also shows how one young man who had known the victim stood by idly and did nothing and how he decide to make a change and talk to people who were outside of his clique. He did go on to make a difference and at the end of the movie he ended up saving another victim of social alienation from committing suicide by overdosing on pills. So you can really tell that this movie is inspired by true events which is why we need to show our children these kinds of movies. This will really help them to see that a change is needed in order for bullying to stop occurring in schools around the world.

In conclusion, these are the the types of bullying that can lead to serious issues in adulthood which stem form behavioral issues. I would like to ask that if you see someone get bullied that you would step in and stop the bullying. People don’t really realize the damage that bullying can really cause to a person. This is why I am truly against bullying of any form.

On the day of January 8, 2013, I received a picture message from my best friend. It was a picture of a positive pregnancy test indicating my worst fear, she was pregnant. I was in complete shock when I saw it and could not believe my eyes. She had been at the local Planned Parenthood when she was texting me that early afternoon. I was the first person to know that she was 6 weeks pregnant. From that day forward her life would be completely changed forever. It wasn’t too long before I received another picture, the first ultrasound of my future godchild. This unplanned pregnancy was a result of improper use of contraceptives. Teen pregnancies have affected millions of lives and continue to everyday. Some girls abort their pregnancy while others either keep the child or give him/her up for adoption; nevertheless it is not an easy decision. These hard decision-makings are a result from the improper use of contraceptives or from no use at all. It is beneficial that teenagers today use birth control and condoms, but when they are used improperly they are ineffective. Sexual awareness is the key to educating young teenagers, which will ultimately lead to decreased pregnancy rates.

It is obvious to say many teenagers are currently sexually active. What is not well known is if they are being safe by using protection while having sex. Teenagers are naïve and tend to think they are against the odds of getting pregnant. Adolescents are fortunate today to have easy access to contraceptives and have no reason to not take advantage of that. If teens are sexually active they should be using birth control, taken by females, and/or condoms to not only protect themselves from an unwanted/unexpected pregnancy but also from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).  Birth control is a contraceptive that comes in many forms and is not as effective if not used correctly. If taking the pill, it needs to be taken everyday and around the same time. Some girls take them everyday but at different times, others make the huge mistake of taking two at a time if they accidentally skipped a day. Take more pills than as directed at a time can lead to over dosing the body with hormones. Condoms could, at times, break without obvious signs. Just because the girl may be taking birth control does not mean the boy should not be using a condom. Birth control can fail or become defective at anytime. Using birth control and condoms together substantially decreases the risk of getting pregnant and spreading STIs. Teenagers take for granted the possibility of the consequences of having sexual relations. It is so easy to live in the moment without thinking about what could result from these actions.

Not only are teen pregnancies unplanned, they are also a major heath risk. Between the ages of 8-14, girls start going through puberty and changes occur as the body mature (“Kids Health”). A girl can get pregnant when she starts having her period, but just because a girl has the ability to menstruate does not mean her body is ready to go through something so physically, emotionally and economically demanding as a pregnancy. The young girls are not emotionally nor physically mature enough to be responsible for another human being. A girl’s body needs time to develop completely before being able to have a healthy pregnancy. Often times, the young girls pelvic area is too small for a natural birth or her breasts are not fully developed to start lactating. Most importantly, her body is just too small for an embryo to grow into a fetus. At age of sixteen, Leah Messer got pregnant with not one, but two babies. She had twin girls; one was born healthy while the other has developmental issues. On the MTV show, Teen Mom, viewers see Leah’s struggle to find what is wrong with her daughter as well as raising her other daughter. Her doctor mentioned that her daughter’s defects could have been a result of Leah’s 16-year-old body not being mature enough to handle two babies at the same time. Her body was too small to have room for the twins. In a recent article, Doctors Phipps and Nunes talked about risks that teenage pregnancy can cause. They surveyed 300 pregnant adolescent women if they intended to get pregnant, on emotional response, and readiness. Results showed that adolescents who were not emotionally ready had increased odds of inadequate prenatal care, delayed prenatal care, and self-reported depression at the time of the first prenatal doctor visit. They suggested that emotional readiness rather than pregnancy planning had more factors as to the maturity of pregnant adolescents (Phipps, and Nunes 1820-1827). Teen pregnancy is not just a result of a lack of sexual awareness; it also has short and long term consequences. Adolescent girls are not ready to have children at their young age. They are not independent, economically stable and, most of the times not mature enough to start a family. Depression is a huge risk with unplanned pregnancies, as well as inadequate prenatal care, both of which can affect the fetus’s health.

Parent involvement plays a major role in their adolescent’s sex lives. Most often parents feel shy or embarrassed to educate their children about sex or even openly communicate. Parents are, in a way, also naïve about sex. They believe that if they don’t talk about sex to their children it will result in their children not having sex, but that is incorrect. Teenagers and human beings in general, are sexually curious and will have sex at one point or another in their lifetime. It is a natural instinct to pro-create. The lack of communication between the teenagers and their parents can cause spontaneous pregnancies and/or STIs. It is extremely beneficial when parents have educated their children about sex in an environment of openness. Studies have shown that it has enhanced children’s understanding on the subject, including protection. Further, children are likely to follow their parents’ advice and approach them in times of difficulty. Davis researched how parents’ involvement in their children’s sex life has affected them. He and his colleagues found that parents who are more willing to talk to their children about sex often can influence their children’s’ decisions about sexual behavior (Davis, et al 97-106). Parents’ involvement can make a big difference and can potentially reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy.

The lack of awareness is not just from lack of communication between teenagers and their parent’s, but also from the social media. The social media impacts everyone’s lives one way or another. Young teenagers are far more susceptible to “brain wash” compared to educated adults. Teenage girls seeing teen moms on the cover of major entertainment magazines only portray teenage pregnancy as glamorous (McKay). They put out the message that teen pregnancies need to decrease with shows like 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom. These shows were meant to show what a struggle it is to have a baby at a young age in hopes of young people viewing it and protect themselves more, but the plan backfired. It wasn’t long until the teen moms in the show began appearing on magazine covers like People and In-Touch. These “normal” girls weren’t normal anymore they were becoming celebrities.  What does this teach young girls? That getting pregnant young and appearing on TV makes you rich and famous? Instead of worrying about their own children, two of the girls on the show were more worried about their appearances. Farrah Abraham, mother of Sophia, had a breast augmentation as well as a nose job and a chin implant. On a recent episode of Teen Mom 2, Janelle Evans, mother of Jace, decided on getting a breast augmentation because of insecurity reasons.  If these girls weren’t on the show they wouldn’t be able to afford these medical procedures and possibly worry about their children more than their appearances.

Many often look down upon seen clinics like Planned Parenthood. People see the clinic as an encouragement to have sex rather than preventing it. But in reality, the clinic is, for many, the last resort they have to get birth control and STI testings. It is a non-profit organization that provides reproductive health and mother and child services. Young girls from 18 and under can get free birth control; as well as for girls who are 17 and older can get abortions without notifying their parents, which has been a controversy for many years. Although the clinic has some non-supporters, it does not compare to how many millions of women have benefitted from their services.

In conclusion, sexual awareness is the key to stopping unplanned pregnancies from happening. Although contraceptives are easily accessible, they are not always used properly. Before women get birth control they need to be explained the proper way to use them and what the risks are if used improperly. Men should be taught to use condoms whether their partner is on birth control or not. Not only will they be protecting themselves from an unplanned pregnancy but also from sexual transmitted infections.  With the spread of awareness there would be little to none unplanned pregnancies.

Tom Hanks once said, “Truth is, I’ll never know all there is to know about you just as you will never know all there is to know about me. Humans are by nature too complicated to be understood fully. So, we can choose either to approach our fellow human beings with suspicion or to approach them with an open mind, a dash of optimism and a great deal of candour.” Every day we walk around campus here at Washington State and we see hundreds and possibly even thousands of faces. To us most of these faces are just people in a crowd, people who to us mean nothing. We see them one day and wouldn’t know if they were gone the next but every single one of these faces has a story behind the mask; they all have a reason for being here and many of those reasons will never be heard. Could this change if we paid a little more attention to each and every person? There are nearly 20,000 students on campus here at WSU-Pullman so for me I think that would be a no; For me it is not important to reach out to all 20,000 students because when I look at my life it is much more important to me to be surrounded by people who know me, care about me, and love me. It is often said that the people with the most fame and fortune are often the least satisfied and this is because of the lack of solid and caring relationships in their lives. There are relationships we all have in our everyday lives and those relationships are the ones that matter the most. I believe in the power of friendship, family, and marital relationships because my life would not be anything without the relationships I have made along the way.

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” A famous author named Elbert Hubbard said this quote long ago. To me this shows that through time friendship is one of few things that have stayed the same. We see all these people coming and going but our true friends are the ones walking next to you day after day. True friends know everything about you but stay with you through thick and thin just like Hubbard said. Friendship is a very fragile type of relationship. Many times relationships require commitment but with friendship it is an option. Friends are always allowed to leave which can be our biggest problem with them. Often times we take friends with a grain of salt. We are never too eager to dive in because we are never sure whether they are worth the time it will take to build the friendship or not. We tend to have very closed minds when it comes to new people and for some people this can be a huge problem when leaving home for the first time and coming to a school like this with 20,000 students. It can be very overwhelming at first but in order to survive on a campus that large we need a support group, we need friends. Friends are the way that many people deal with their problems. Without college friends it is very hard to survive and deal with everything on your own. The stress of college is way more overwhelming than anyone would ever suspect and that really got to me first semester. I was struggling in classes and failing to meet the personal standards I had set for myself. I don’t expect myself to be perfect but I know how smart I am and I know my limits and the work was within my limits and was nothing I couldn’t do but yet I looked at my work and just couldn’t focus and couldn’t think and couldn’t study properly; I was frozen minded and it didn’t go unnoticed. I was very lucky to be on a floor of guys who cared about me and asked me if I needed help. I was struggling but they helped me get back on my feet and figure out what worked best for me and how to move forward without looking back. If it weren’t for these guys I don’t know if I would still be at Washington State today. They encourage me even today to get my work done and to focus on school first and everything else can fall in after that. This is the only way to survive in college and by their advice and actions I have learned this. Friendship is almost always positive and while it can be very hard to open up to and deal with it will be worth your time because in the end it will often save you time stressing about a project or a paper that they can help you with. Friends are always by your side even while walking through a sea of face and knowing nothing of them, they are your supports and will love you even knowing everything about you, goods and bads, ups and downs.

Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files, once said “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching — they are your family.” I couldn’t agree more with Jim here. My family has been with me through the worst of the worst parts of my life. They have seen me breakdown and they have seen me give up but they never leave or break me down. For me family is there to stay and I know that this is different for every individual because every family is different but a family is a family and no matter what happens blood will never change. I have witnessed this first hand in my mom’s family. My grandma on my mom’s side grew up as an orphan. Her mother passed away while she was in high school and it was very hard on her. She will openly admit to you that she was somewhat of a rebel and she never felt like she fit in in her foster families and that caused her trouble with her foster parents and the law several times. My grandma had my mom when she was very young and had my mom’s brother only two years later. When my mom was late into grade school her mom and dad got divorced. My mom although her dad left them is still blood to her and she doesn’t ever forget that. Although her dad was not the best person in the world he was her father and she would never forget him. She loved him because he was her blood and that will never change. Although she was so forgiving of her father, her brother was not. Her brother began drinking early into high school and hardly passed through high school. We had not heard from him for 7 and a half years until just this past December, just a few days before my mom’s birthday, she got a call from him and he asked about us kids and they talked for over an hour. When my mom told me he called I was in shock. I couldn’t stop thinking why did he call? What did he want? Why now? There was so much time lost and so much that couldn’t ever be made up. I wasn’t sure what to think and I laid in my bed that not and it wasn’t anything he needed or wanted but he was blood. He is family and although it had been a lot of time lost he is still family and no matter what happens he is still my uncle and although I feel the pain that he has put into my mother and grandmother, I know they would accept him back in a heartbeat. Family is forever. It is three small words and I know lots of people have bad family experiences abut no matter what happens you can’t change who your family is. Your mom and dad will never change and even if you despise them they created you and they are half of who you are. Letting go of a parent that wants to be part of your life is like letting go of half of who you are and that is not fair to anyone, especially your parent and yourself.
Forgiveness can be very hard but is necessary. Family is forever.

One of my favorite childhood characters, Winnie the Pooh, was quoted in the book by A.A. Milne saying, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” Marriage is a process that is so much more than a single day or a once a year anniversary; Marriage should be celebrated every day. Marriage, to me, should be between one man and one woman and it is a ceremony to celebrate the love that they share but at the same time it is so much more than that. Marriage is a commitment that should not be broken. It’s a commitment acknowledging that you are prepared to spend the rest of your life with a person. Through marriage you must not only cherish, respect and be thankful for all the amazing things about your partner but you must also accept the things that aren’t positives to you. For someone to be truly perfect the must not but always correct or always do or say the right things but you must have a mutual agreement that you will accept each other’s flaws because in the end you know how much the other person truly means to you and when this is true the positives will always outweigh the negatives of the relationship. A marriage is not easy but nor is any other relationship in life as we have seen so far. A marriage binds two people together who were either put there but fate or fortune. Marriage is supposed to be a happy ceremony celebrating two lives joining together for the rest of their lives but this isn’t always the case. I have a friend who this did not happen to. She was just 19 when she found out she was pregnant and her parents were not happy with it. She was in love with her boyfriend who was also the baby’s daddy and she was ready to move forward. Her dad would not let them move in together however unless they were married. They went to the courthouse and got a marriage license and were married in the court. Now this is not ideal for anyone but this was the best option for her in this situation and they are still married with their baby boy and everything is going good but you have to think about what if it didn’t. Marriage is such an incredible journey that to waste it would be tragic. Marriage puts the other person first and therefore wants the other person to live for one more day than them so they down have to live without each other.

Rachel Kleypas in The Blue-Eyed Devil wrote, “I no longer believed in the idea of soul mates, or love at first sight. But I was beginning to believe that a very few times in your life, if you were lucky, you might meet someone who was exactly right for you. Not because he was perfect, or because you were, but because you’re combined flaws were arranged in a way that allowed two separate beings to hinge together.” I believe that this applies to all types of relationships, though it is geared towards marriages, I think you love your family and friends in the same way. Love is at the core of all the relationships in our lives. It is different for everybody and different in every situation but with respect, honesty and courage we can love anyone either as family, friend or more. The power of relationships is overwhelming and can last forever with some work and a little love. Anything is possible with the power of relationships and just like Tom Hanks said, although you don’t know everything about me doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an open mind about me.

Torture is, without a shadow of a doubt one of the most profoundly atrocious acts against natural-born human rights.  Often, torture has been shown to provide false confessions or unreliable information as the victim will say nearly anything in order to end their pain.  In 1881, a man accused of a crime was tortured until he implicated two other men as his accomplices.  All three men were hanged without any further questioning, only to find out that the two alleged accomplices were innocent of all accusations, and had been wrongly executed.  The goal of torture is to extort information from the victim; often, information is received from the victim, however it is equally – if not more likely – that the information received from the victim will be false or unreliable. But is the entirety of the issue? That only false information can be attained from torture? If this were the case, there would be no debate on the topic, so there must be some truth to the information provided by these techniques. In order to find out, we need to get deeper into the issue.

The United States’ use of torture and “advanced interrogation techniques” since the attacks on 9/11 has brought scrutiny upon our nation, as many consider the practice a violation of natural-born human rights. In doing so, America, an outspoken supporter of human rights has complicated its agenda overseas. In an attempt to provide security for the citizens of the United States, has our government provided justification for other countries to partake in torture as well? The complexity that accompanies the controversy of torture often raises questions that can rarely be answered. The novel, “Torture, the Public Secret” begs the question as to whether there are “exceptional situations that warrant the practice of torture.” There is no singular answer to this question; however I hope that this essay will allow you to come to your own conclusions about the topic of torture, and its use as a legitimate interrogation technique.

Many of the sources that I have found while researching for this essay have been adamant about the ending of torture against any type of enemy, however the thesis statement of Edward Peters’ “Torture” seems to uphold the value of torture in a modern society, he claims that torture is “no less essential to the state’s notion of order” than legal procedure itself.  This is surprising as torture is thought of, by a mass majority, as a great injustice against human rights and dignity.  Peters states that the only real form of torture is judicial torture, other forms are merely a “juxtaposition” of terms in order to induce emotional response.  Peters’ reasoning of torture directly opposes the views of the majority of the population.

Since 9/11, torture has been on the tongues of high ranking officials not only in the United States, but across the globe. “Enhanced interrogation” methods have been reported to coerce vital information from suspected threats to national security. An article written by Seth Stern highlights the violations of human rights brought upon by torture. Human rights activists argue that torture is inhumane, and does not provide reliable information, as prisoners will provide false information simple to end their suffering. However, those in favor of torture argue that information gained from such methods have prevented possible terrorist threats and therefore has saved the lives of innocent people. To these people, those in the midst of attacking our home have forfeit their rights, and no longer deserve the rights that law-abiding citizens have the privilege of. Torture is an issue with historical roots dating back to the origins of human history. It remains an issue today, as clashes between human rights advocates and government agencies continue to occur. Asking that torture be stopped immediately would be like asking for world peace – in theory it sounds wonderful, and in a Utopian society may be possible, but it may never be achieved.

Greenfield, Patricia M., Gross, Eisheva F., Kraut, Robert E. and Subrahmanyam, Kaverl. “The impact of home computer use on children’s activities and development.” Children and Technology Vol. 10 No. 2 (2000). 

This article argues both sides of the effect computers have on children’s development. On one side it talks about the cons of having home computers. These include; the effects on physical well-being, displacement of other activities, and effects on social development and relationships. The main physical problems are risk of obesity, seizures, and hand injuries. When a child is playing games on a computer they tend to put off other activities  When a child puts off other actives they are putting off the exercise they need to grow big and strong. the last main con of home computers is that children that play a lot of online games they lack social lives and are not very good at relation ships. One of the Major things that home computer or any games can cause is aggression. There are not as many pros but one is the effects on cognitive skills and academic performance. Studies indicate that children who play computer games can improve their visual intelligence skills- skills that may provide them with “training wheels” for computer literacy. This can relate to my topic because technology has many cons to it but they also have pros to go along with it.

 

Brown, Damon. “study explores link between obesity, technolog” Journal of the american dietetic associaton. pg. 817. doi: 10.1053/jada.2003.50185

This study explores and digs into the link between obesity and technology. The theory is that it was thought that one of the main reason for weight gain was from change of food culture but they are not thinking that it has less to do with that and more to do with technology. The research that was conducted by Lakdawalla and philipson who works for the university of Chicago. The spent 18 months researching data collected from the national health interview survey and the national longitudinal survey’s of youth.  in the end the implications made is that many people seem to respond positively to the idea that today’s society makes weight loss more expensive, in the sense that food is widely available and exercise hard to come by.  This relates to my topic because it is showing that people turn to the easy thing to get rather then try to work for what they want.

 

Hiller, Amy. “childhood overweight and the built envornment: making technology part of the solution rather than part of the problem” ANNALS, AAPSS, 615, January 2008. doi: 10.1177/0002716207308399

This article shows me how technology can be a solution rather than a problem to the world. It does this by having technology help us and measure our activities and uses. Researches have produced many devices that can help us in living day today. for example, there is a part about having technology that can measure our physical activity. I think if people realized what technology is doing to them they would make a change for the better and use the technology that has been made to help not make things worst.  There are anything that you can do like there are ways to measure your cell phone use and these could help in reducing the amount of time in a day spent texting. This article will help the opposing argument I am trying to make but it just shows that we can change our ways if we put the time and effort into it.

 

 

  Bullying in high school.

  Bullying in elementary school.

  Cyber bullying

What is primary research? It is any type of research that an individual goes out and collects data for themselves. Some examples are surveys, interviews, and observations. These examples are all primary research. With this in mind, I choose to use interviews and analysis as my primary research methods for my TED Talk / Research Essay. To do the interviews I would select people that bullied other individuals while they were growing up. By doing this I can ask them questions about why they bullied, was there some enjoyment, or was it just for fun. I would also like to see what kind of influences lead them to bully in the first place so that I can see if there is a pattern or connection between behavior and bullying. These influences could be TV shows, movies, peers, parents, family, teachers, and the kind of environment that they grew up in during their childhood. Gathering this kind of information will help me to see what influences contribute to people bullying others. Another detail that I would like to ask is what types of bullying that they did. This is because in the world that we live in there are many different types of bullying that can occur. Some examples are cyber, gender, physical, verbal, indirect, social, and intimidation. The last question that I would ask is has bullying affected their behavior or has it lead to psychological problems in their adulthood. By asking this question I am able to see how bullying affects people whether it be the victim or the accuser. The other method is analysis. For this, I would like to organize the data that I would be collecting from the interviews of the individuals that have bullied people and look for a trend that appears between them all. By using the analysis method, I would be able to analysis each individual and see what certain characteristics and influences that lead them to bully individuals as well as see if there is a connection between bullying and behavior. Knowing these two important details will help me to answer my question of why people bully others and how it affects their behavior in the adulthood. It will also lead to hopefully a clear understanding of bullying for me.

Ferguson, Chistopher, “Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospectice Analysis in Adolescents.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 40.4 (2011) 377-391. Apr 2011.

Ferguson conducted a study on 302 young, mostly Hispanic children. Within the article he explains that many studies have been attempted, but few have yielded concrete results or evidence that violent video games indeed to affect the behavior of children. Ferguson states that violent video games nor television were true concrete triggers of violence, however when compounded with depression levels and antisocial behavior, violence was much more likely.

Wiggins, Lacey Chapman, and Matos, Jodien. “Violent Video Games versus Heightened Aggression in Children: An Analysis of Current Research and Community Perceptions.” Southern Sociological Society. (2003)

In the 1950s, the alleged effects of violent television on young children was waved off by the Surgeon General. However with increasingly realistic graphics and violent themes, video game companies have recently come under fire for the correlation between video game violence and negative traits in young children’s behavior. Wiggins and Matos explore what kind of research is occurring, and whether video game violence truly has any influence on child behavior.

Dumitrascu, Dinu Hanibal. “Consequences of Television on Children Development.” Sociologie Romaneasca 4. 2 (2006) 135-146.

Dumitrascu claims that of all current mass-media, television has the broadest reach and the greatest effects on the minds of young children. Every year, there are more and more “victims” as stated by Dumitrascu of TV programs that promote violence and aggression. Because of this increasing number, Dumitrascu believes there must be greater regulations for television in order to prevent children from witnessing increasingly violent programs.