prejudice

     I think prejudice is something natural because of the social norms that are enforced as we grow up, but I think it's how you react to these prejudice thoughts that shows how you are as a person. I remember a class discussion I was present for a couple weeks ago. We were shown the TedTalk about the Feminist Paradox. Speaker, Thisari Randunu, discusses how she indentifies as a Feminist. But goes on to explain she "doesn't want feminism". For example, she doesn't like the types of labels that are associated with one gender. Oftentimes, people will try to compliment a woman on how good she is at lifting weights by saying "You're pretty good at lifting weights for a girl." She explains that this is why she labels Feminism as a paradox. Another example she gives is women will often do their makeup to make them "look better". However, she points out that if men don't need makeup to "look presentable", why must women continue to do this. 

    I see her argument and respect her opinion, but I think I see it differently. Although makeup has a negative history behind it, I think the reason why it uplifts and empowers so many people across the world is because they have the choice to put it on. For example, I am completely fine with not wearing makeup that much because that's my choice to do so. However, I think it's also completely fine to choose to wear makeup if you'd like. At the end of the day, people are going to do what they want and I will always respect their decisions. Makeup is a tool people use to express their identity which I think takes a lot of time, effort, and skill to do. 

    

why we choose to suffer

    For class, I was assigned to listen to an episode from Speaking of Psychology, Why we as human choose to suffer. I think the reason why people do it, myself included, is because it's addicting. Once you continue to go down that path, it's hard to stop yourself from continuing it. I think there are so many things I do in my life to purposefully suffer. One of the things listed was to listen to sad music. I think the reason why I will often resort to listening to that genre of music specifically is because I can relate to a lot of the things being talked about. 

    

    I've never realized how often I would do this until someone brought it up in class, but I'll listen to sad music or watch sad movies because I am so used to that feeling. This is the way I try to cope. I think that because I'm familiar with this feeling, I'm more drawn to trying to re-live this emotion. I decided to look into it to see what other people think on the matter. I was surprised to find that there are so many people who are in the same position as I am. Sam Dylan Finch states "Depression is predictable. While depression isn't an ideal state to be in, it's not necessarily full of surprises, either. I had a therapist once tell me that people who are dealing with depression can sometimes feel draw too it, even unconsciously, because its familiarity and predictability feels safe. It makes sense, then, that we might engage in activities that sustain our sadness or keep us numb; we might feel afraid of the unpredictability that comes with doing something differently." Basically to protect ourselves from getting our hopes up, we remain in this bubble where we constantly keep ourselves from feeling this way by doing things that'll keep us sad or numb. To be honest, this makes so much sense to me. I tend to always space out or think to myself based on what I've experienced in my life. A lot of the time, I'll often recall "bad experiences" I've had which will purposely get me sad and I start to go down this path of self-deprecation. It's a never-ending cycle that I need to fix, but I've always left myself wondering how could I break it? Because for me, once you go down this path, it's incredibly hard to stop. 

human relationship

    For class, I watched a video called Evolution explains kindness-even when it kills us spoken by Paul Bloom. I had to watch the video multiple times just because I was not really understanding the message of the video. But once I understood what he was saying, I realized why he may be asking this question. This video spoke about how we've evolved the way we think as in morality. Many people would rather risk their life for someone they just met than do nothing. I think the reason is because growing up, at least in my household, my family often would tell me to speak up if someone else needed help or try to do what I can in that situation. Being older, I now realize that the reason I try to lend a hand for someone in need is out of instinct. 

    

    I think I can resonate because I try my best to volunteer when I can. As a freshman at ICA Cristo Rey, I would volunteer with a couple other students for Meals on Wheels. I felt like I wanted to do this out of the kindness of my heart.. which honestly sounds extremely cheesy. I think I feel like there are so many people out there who are always overlooked, so if I'm able to help in any sort of way, I will. 

the music industry

    For class, we were assigned to watch Never Stop Never Stopping. NSNS is an American mockumentary  musical comedy about a former boy band member played by Andy Samberg who goes solo attempting to maintain his stardom and popularity by any means possible. 

    Honestly, I didn't know what to expect out of this movie since this was my first time hearing about and  watching it. I thought it was so funny to see so many recognizable actors all in one film mocking the music industry today. Someone who appeared that made me laugh was Justin Timberlake as he was a former band member turned solo artist. 

   I don't think I ever realized how much the music industry had changed so much especially within the past couple of years. Social media has definitely influenced society by a lot, including the music industry. The app TikTok has definitely changed the way we popularize songs. Most trending songs that we hear become trendy songs because of popular sounds off of TikTok. Although he was already a known artist before TikTok, Steve Lacy grew more of an audience because of his songs trending on the app. He recently released an album, Gemini Rights, this summer which caught the eye of many people. One of his most popular songs being Bad Habit. I bring this up because he recently went on tour where he would sing his most popular song, but after the chorus, the audience was unable to sing the rest of the song. This stood out to so many people because once fans found out he was going on tour, many tried to purchase tickets but were unable to because others got them before they could. I just think it's so crazy that people will attend this concerts or popularize these songs without knowing the full song.  

    Something else I noticed is nowadays songs don't have to be "good", just catchy or grab a lot of attention. Not to say this is a bad thing because I may be guilty of doing this.. but it's something I've noticed within the past couple of years. So many songs and sounds have gone viral because they are upbeat and catchy.