Cam's Blog

The TED Talk that I decided to watch this week is titled “A Pro Wrestlers Guide to Confidence”, which caught my eye because I was interested in seeing a TED Talk performed by someone who wasn’t a scientist. (I have had to watch multiple TED Talks for many of my science classes this year, most memorably one for biology titled “6 ways Fungi can save the world”. As the word confidence was in the title, I was also interested in how the speaker would present this rather abstract topic.

The man who gave this TED Talk, Mike Kinney, is a retired professional wrestler who used to go by the name “Cowboy Gator MaGraw”. He certainly didn’t lack any confidence or personality when presenting, becoming more of an entertainer than a source of knowledge. However, he captured the audiences attention (and mine) with his commanding stage presence and dynamic way of talking.

In his talk, Mike basically detailed his childhood obsession with wrestling and how he got into the sport and turned it into a career. It was very anecdotal, and Mike played to his strengths by being funny and also talking a lot about his close relationship with his father and how his influence gave Mike confidence to become a professional wrestler.

Based off of the title, I honestly thought that this speech was going to be more about tips on how a competitive wrestler mentally prepares himself for a match, since wrestling is a very mental sport, and wrestlers need a lot of confidence when they face their opponent. However, Mike’s speech focused more on his transformation into a professional wrestling persona. I am actually not too familiar with professional wrestling, but apparently it is much more about spectacle and entertainment than I initially realized. Mike began wrestling in shows as a teenager, and so as he grew up into a man he had to kind of create a persona for his character in the ring, and that was what he focused on in this speech.

The phrase that he used to describe how he created this big, unforgettable persona was by “turning up” his own personality. For example, he was always very comfortable with his body even though he was never the most chiseled guy out there, so to amplify his body confidence he decided to start wearing only speedos while in the ring. It was interesting to hear about how Mike carefully chose characteristics of his everyday personality and transformed them, because it does take a lot of self confidence to analyze your own personality and become something bigger than yourself. I do wish that Mike had somehow related this strategy to more everyday life, since most people aren’t really trying to be entertainers. Nonetheless, it was a very dynamic speech that was very enjoyable to listen to.

Not going to lie, I rarely read articles assigned for homework it depth. I usually implement my well-practiced skimming techniques to gain a feel for the article before writing a response. However, this article about the alarming increase in teenage anxiety was gripping from start, and enticed me to closely read the whole thing. The use of the personal sagas of teens that have struggled seriously with anxiety opened my eyes. Anxiety is an issue that is extremely prevalent, but somehow it is very vague at the same time.

I really appreciated how this NYT article is that it defined anxiety as more of a spectrum of conditions rather than a black and white condition. I agree with the fact that everyone experiences feelings of anxiety at different points, but that does not mean that a person suffers from anxiety. The teens highlighted in the article suffer from anxiety, which to me means that their anxious feelings have become so debilitating that they prevent themselves from participating in daily life.

The tricky part is that in today’s society the fact is that anxiety itself has become a trigger word. From personal experiences I know that many teens tend to hide behind the phrase “I’m so anxious”, and use it as a tool to make their workload or situation easier. In my opinion there is a difference between feeling stressed out and feeling anxious. Having stress (in healthy amounts) is a universal experience, and one that is basically unavoidable. By equating being stressed to having anxiety….

It is disturbing to realize that privileged youth are the demographic with the problem, because theoretically, they shouldn’t be presented with serious situations that could cause anxiety disorders. The fact that anxiety resulting from living in an abusive family and anxiety resulting from stressing out about the college admission process are viewed as equally serious seems preposterous. However, this is the current reality, because as showcased in the article this anxiety epidemic of privileged teens is serious.

My favorite idea that the article presented was the need for teens to learn resilience. The example towards the end of the article about how Roxbury High School treated kids with anxiety was almost painful to read because of how much the school was actually hurting these kids by treating them as though they were special needs. Catering to the comfort of someone who struggles with severe anxiety is just as bad as ignoring their problem all together. These teens need to know that they are supported, but they need to be pushed to find ways to cope with their anxiety so that it doesn’t become debilitating. The article did a good job of explaining this rational, providing examples of exposure therapy, and proving that there is a right way to combat this teen anxiety crisis.

I also appreciated that this specific article didn’t overanalyze the probable cause of this epidemic like the way the depression article that we read a few weeks ago did. It is hard to ignore the sharp increase in the use of smartphone technology and social media and the increase in mental health problems in younger demographics, but it is smarter to realize that multiple factors influence this issue. It was interesting to see how technology and social media affected different teens in the article differently. For some, like Jake, the internet was an escape from what they were feeling, and it was a procrastination tool that allowed them to delay confronting their problems. For Jillian, social media was the root of her problems. The role of the internet and technology in the issue of mental health is complex, so simply labeling it as the sole problem is preemptive.

Overall, this article shed a lot of light on the real life experience of having severe anxiety as a teen in today’s society. As an outsider looking in, it was disturbing to realize how prevalent this issue is, and how many schools and parents are handling the issue poorly.

The article that we read this week was interesting because of the fact that it was written over twenty years ago on an issue that is still prevalent, possibly even more prevalent, today. At first I was rather confused if the author was talking about state borders or the US-Mexico border. I actually ended up need google maps and a close read through to understand that the border patrol had traveled up from the international border and were patrolling the highways in southern New Mexico trying to find people that crossed the border illegally.

I could tell that this article is dated by the author’s perception of what border security should be. In her lifetime she had seen a clear shift in the attitude of border patrol officers, and in the 20+ years since this article was written America has undergone another shift.

It is common knowledge nowadays that you have to stop at the border and present your ID and your intentions for traveling. Border security is so ingrained in our consciousness that it seems weird when we hear old stories about being able to cross the borders of countries without all the hassle. Similar to how airport security has tightened exponentially compared to twenty years ago, border security has upped its game.

I personally have never crossed the US-Mexican border, but I have crossed the Canadian border. I know from experience how little it takes for a car to get detained. I had a teammate who was held for hours at the border because her mom had a jar of pepper spray in the car (granted it was kind of weird to be carrying around that much pepper spray, but this was the the most memorable detainment of someone I know).

I don’t know how different things are on the Southern border of the United States, but the author of this article seems to detail a more hostile situation than the Canadian-US border. She also describes the fact that minorities were targeted and deemed “more suspicious”, which sounds awfully familiar to certain social issues America is facing right now. It is almost a precursor to African-Americans being targeted by police forces with “random searches” and unfair treatment.

Obviously, the biggest claim that the author makes is the bold statements that borders have never worked, and will never work. Her imagery of the dozens of young, dark-skinned men riding north on the railroad was powerful and almost inspirational. Border security is still a prevalent issue that was spun into almost a joke during the 2016 election cycle.

The second anyone even thinks the word “Mexican border” the image of Trump standing next to a giant wall pops into mind. And frankly it is just as difficult to imagine this new wall working any better than any of the previous walls. The skeptical nature of the author regarding the purpose of border control is reflected in the sheer futileness in trying to physically block off that amount of land.

Overall, this article served as a reminder of how normalized border security has become, but it still strikes a cord by remarking on the bumbling nature of the government when it comes to trying to protect the borders.