5/16 Alzheimer's

Watching this movie depressed me and really really scared me. It made me think of all the times that my grandpa forgets his glasses or his keys. It made me wonder if those could be signs. It made me wonder if I would become a victim. And I'll never know until it happens. Until watching the movie I was really unaware that those diagnosed with Alzheimer's are fully aware of what's to come. They are forced to live every day knowing that on day they'll wake up and not know their friends or family or how to perform their once daily tasks. I could not imagine living with such a disease. I also could not imagine being the families who live with Alzheimer's patients. Hoping that the person will pass on just so the individual is finally at rest; that must be absolutely terrible. Thinking about it really scares me and I see now that all I can do is hope that a cure is found and quickly, before my loved ones or myself can possibly get it.

4/25 Bandura Blog

2. In a few sentences, list any and all specific media or cultural items that your parents or grandparents think are bad influences on you, and explain the impact that these items have had on you if any (i.e. specific types of music, video games, TV, movies, celebrities, specific sites on the internet, etc.)

My dad thinks that a lot of the music we listen to is "rap crap". My parents and grandparents are not fond of the violence and profanity that can so easily be found now in music as well as video games and television. No adult really thinks it is okay that we are exposed from such a young age to such inappropriate material. Especially with the internet at our fingertips always, now even with school computers, they all think we have too much access and freedom.


3. Reflect on the people you have imitated over the course of your life: family members, friends, or people in the media. Who have your “models” been? Identify and describe specific ideas, attitudes, fashions, habits, ways of thinking, behaving, and speaking that you have picked up through observational learning. BE SPECIFIC! Write a paragraph with plenty of examples from your own life.

My biggest model in my life has been my mother. I find her to be most admirable for many reasons. She is someone who is extremely driven. When someone tells her she can't do something, it makes her just that much more motivated to get it done. She was told upon graduating high school that she would not be attending college because her parents were unwilling to pay to further her education. Well, my mom wanted to go on to college so she worked long hours to earn enough money to put herself through Bergen Community College, commuting and paying for her own gas. She then graduated from there with a 4.0 gpa and moved on to Rutgers University. Now she is an extremely successful partial owner of an insurance agency. Her motivation, the way she talks and acts, I do my best to copy. I think I have picked up a lot of that drive an applied it to my life academically, athletically, and socially. Even when I was little, I would always watch her in admiration. She put makeup on and got dressed nicely for work and I would put on play makeup and try on and walk around in her high heels. After work she would go to the gym so I put on her running shoes and walked around like her. Then and now there are so many things about her that I want to mimic.

4/25 Carr

According to Carr, "the Net also provides a high-speed system for delivering responses and rewards- "positive reinforcements," in psychological terms- that encourage the repetition of both physical and mental actions." In what ways does the internet utilize operant conditioning? In what ways does using it every day change the way your mind works? To what extent do you agree with Carr's conclusions?

I agree completely with what Carr says. It makes total sense to me. The internet, among all our other new technologies, encourage multitasking. They allow for so many possibilities that our brains are really never given the opportunity to focus solely on one single subject. This is good because it teaches our brains to cope when many things are thrown at us, but like we learned in the beginning of the year there is no real such thing as multitasking. Multitasking is truly just doing all of the activities at once, but doing each one at a less sufficient standard than there would be if that item were done by itself. Because of this I think technology is good for many reasons, yet stunts the growth and full capacity of our brains. It’s not like we have the option of telling our brains to slow down or go back to the way they operated before the Internet, rather we are forced to deal with the increased speed of our minds. Like Carr says, I think this brain multitasking takes something away from learning and completing even everyday tasks.

4/11 (4th mp)

Compare and contrast the forces that motivate you to the motives of the individuals interviewed in the film. Which individuals were similar to you? Which individuals were different? How did being “born rich” affect their motivations? How do you think your motivations be different if you were “born rich” like them?

I think I am totally different from all of the people interviewed in the documentary. I think I am most similar to Georgianna Bloomberg. She was most easy to relate to because she seemed to be the most down to earth out of all of them. She said that she still enjoyed working hard and proving people wrong. She didn't like the way that people always see her and she said therefore she works to defy that stereotype. I was most disgusted by Luke Weill. He just had the most ridiculous attitude. He said that at Brown University he soon realized that no matter how bad he did, there was no way the college would kick him out solely based on who he is. He said he took LSD when he was in 6th grade. He was just someone so pompous and rude, totally impossible for me to understand. Being born rich I think affected all of them, with the exception of Georgianna, in a negative way. This gave all of them a sense of entitlement. Even coming from a well off town such as River Vale, these teenagers looked ridiculous. It is really unfortunate for them in the long run because it is so apparent that they are so out of touch. Especially after seeing this film, I know that I would behave more like someone like Georgianna. I could not allow myself to take money so for granted. I would have to work hard nevertheless.

4/7 Motvation Wrap up

Imagine that last week you won the Megabucks lottery last week ($319 million). What would you be motivated to do if money was never going to be a concern? What goals would you work toward? What would drive you? How would you live your life differently?

If I won the lottery, the first thing I would do is change my college path. As of right now I am narrowing down my college choice based strictly on finances. If there were no more financial concerns that would be the first thing to change. That aside, I think with all of this money so easily at my finger tips I might lose some of my intrinsic drive. If I had every material item I ever wanted and the extrinsic motivation was therefore gone, would I still have as much intrinsic motivation and push myself as hard as I do now? I don't know. It's hard to say. I would like to answer by saying of course I would still be as driven and as motivated to achieve success but I do feel that realistically some motivation would disappear because there would be fewer goals. Every motivation I feel would have to be driven 100% intrinsically. I think that would make motivating myself even harder than it is now because I can admit that now I have difficulty motivating myself occasionally and i have extrinsic motivation. Working hard without it would definitely take more effort.

3/16 Altered States of Conciousness

In what ways (if at all) do altered states of consciousness play a role in your life? After learning about all of the other non-sleep altered states, have you learned anything new that you may now use to improve the quality of your life? What steps do you think you can you take to experience more "flow" experiences?

As of right now, altered states of consciousness do not play a role in my life. After learning about the different types though, I do think it would be worth my time to look into some of them. I am constantly stressed out from school and sports and my social life so I think meditation or hypnosis especially might be able to help me relax and enjoy life more. I obviously have no interest in experimenting with any drugs to help me relax. I am a little skeptical still about the altered states of consciousness of part B in our project. I'm not so sure how much I really believe in out of body experiences, sensory deprivation, and biofeedback. I researched biofeedback and while it does seem like a really cool and helpful remedy, it does seem a little far-fetched. I do believe that a positive attitude can help one recover from some kind of illness or injury but I don't know how much a biofeedback therapist and computer monitor would help. I think in order to achieve more "flow" experience I have found that everything needs to be organized. I know for me personally I cannot get anything accomplished knowing that I have a million other things to do before the night's over. I do things like make a list to make sure I remember to do everything that needs to get done. Once everything is in order then I can fully immerse myself in whatever is in front of me.

2/14 "The Lost Hour"

Take out your reading from Friday: “The Lost Hour." What specific impacts does a lack of sleep have on the teenage mind and body? What surprised and/or shocked you in this chapter? How do you think this overall lack of sleep has impacted you and your peers? Be sure to quote several specific examples from the reading, along with your comments.

"Only about 5% of high school seniors actually get eight hours of sleep per night and 60% of high schoolers report extreme daytime sleepiness". It has been discovered that during sleep the brain shifts what it learned that day to more efficient storage regions of the brain. A lack of sleep does not allow this to occur. Memories are also processed during REM sleep. In addition, sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus the hardest and this is where positive or neutral memories are processed. Therefore, with a lack of sleep the brain can only recall negative memories. Overall sleep deprivation makes a teenager much less alert and positively functional in school. Our brains need this time to recuperate and prepare for the next day. I found it surprising that lack of sleep is also connected to obesity. It is also very interesting that our tiredness during first period is not our fault, melatonin is actually still being produced making us sleepy. I think the lack of sleep definitely impacts my understanding of material learned in school because I really feel the difference in alertness. I find that on days that I went to bed late the night before I am unable to concentrate on hard subjects such as calculus and statistics and cannot understand what is being taught to me. I think this is a huge problem for most people my age especially because with our full schedules and technology accessibility allows us to stay up later and later at night.