In the article “Studies Are Usually Bunk, Study Shows” by Andy Kessler, he summarizes the idea that any scientific study can usually show what the researcher wants it to show and that a lot of them can be biased. His main idea? Correlation does not prove causation, an idea that is often overlooked by researchers. I definitely agree with Kessler’s point. When students are researching for papers, or people are looking up statistics on the internet, there is always a chance that the phrase “studies show” is falsely used. Since a lot of science can be prejudiced, it is hard to know whether your research is 100% accurate.

This idea is important to consider when writing the paradigm shift essay. A lot of the essay centers around research from the past in comparison to the present. Also, some paradigm shifts may not be as obvious as others, so there may be some opinion involved. Therefore, it’s important to know all of the true facts when it comes to doing your research. For me, I’ve been looking into a lot of different sources that revolve their research around the same time period. Because of this, I’m able to see if the facts are lining up to each other. It’s also important to have trustworthy sources. You can’t simply take a statistic someone said on yahoo answers and paste it into your essay. All of your sources must be reliable.

One bias that is likely to occur when researching a paradigm shift is when scientists select subjects that are more likely to generate a desired result. Some researches may twist their findings to result in something readers want to see, rather than what the actual results are. Another bias that can arise in paradigm shift research is culture bias, or assumptions about influences that are based on a cultural lens. This is something I’m especially looking out for because a lot of my topic has to do with culture and the way society views women in sports.

Overall, for me, research bias is something that I need to look out for. While there are statistics about women’s involvement in sports, it may be hard for me to find valid opinions about why women involvement has been so low in the past.

For my paradigm shift essay and TED talk, I plan to focus on the history of women in athletics and sports. I would like to expand on the paradigm shift seen in the importance of gender roles in the past and present. The involvement of women in sports began early in the 19^th century and continues to prevail to this day. Legislative milestones have been made, including Title IX, stating that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”, the Basic Act on Sport, and so many other actions that lead to the way women are seen in sports today.

In my essay, I plan to focus on multiple characteristics of the paradigm shift seen within my topic; the history behind women in sports, the Olympics, cultural shifts, social shifts, and present-day differences. The shift seen throughout history of women in sports is enough to merit my analysis because there are so many ways to go with the essay. So many things have changed in so many different aspects that it is important to briefly touch on all of them. I think my topic is something that people don’t think about all too often; maybe because women have become extremely accepted into the athletic community. But I think it’s important to educate myself, as well as my audience, on the struggles women had to go through to get to now. While most audiences know about women’s suffrage and other past legislative struggles, not a lot of people know the full story behind women in sports, including myself. For my TED talk, I would also love to touch on my experience in sports, only because I’ve been engaging in them for so long. Up until I was 16, I played on an all-boys ice hockey team and I think I can relate some of struggles of women in the past to my own experience in a stereotypical male sport. However, overall, I don’t want to get too broad with my essay and talk, only because my topic isn’t extremely specific. Nevertheless, I think my topic is about something that a lot of people should hear about, and recognize the difference between years ago and now.

A paradigm shift is prevalent when a certain practice or way of thinking has been altered since past times, replaced by a newer or different way of doing things. The article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a generation?” by Jean Twenge describes exactly that. Twenge elaborates on not only a generational shift, but a freedom, independence, responsibility, and overall mental health shift in teens as well.

The overarching generational changes that Twenge describes can most definitely be considered a paradigm shift. Things are obviously not the way they were 20 years ago.

The introduction of smartphones on its own is a shift in technology, simply because no one could have ever imagined a pocket-sized computer being a realistic invention until it was released. This innovation brought along serious side effects, such as mental health and societal changes.

Twenge describes that “it’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones”. Lots of teens have experienced serious mental health effects since the introduction of smartphones and social media. Obviously, screen time is taking a serious toll on teens’ overall happiness. This effect is a paradigm shift because before smartphones, social media wasn’t as popular as it is now. Therefore, more teens weren’t spending as much time alone, glued to a screen. Because of the increased use of social media, mental health states have been seriously affected. Research has shown that “Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy”. Therefore, before social media and smartphones existed, teens were generally happier and more sociable. The paradigm shift in technology has caused a social shift in the way teens are using their free time, which is ultimately causing the average teen to feel more unhappy on a cellphone than teens who, growing up, didn’t have access to the internet as easily as most do now.

There has also been a paradigm shift in the way teens carry out adulthood responsibilities and independence. Before smartphones, there was a significant number of teens who had a job during their years of high school. Now, many don’t. According to the article, “in the late 1970s, 77 percent of high-school seniors worked for pay during the school year; by the mid-2010s, only 55 percent did”. This is seen as a paradigm shift because younger teens have changed the way they spend most of their free time. Instead of working, earning their own money, and learning what it’s like to make (somewhat of) a living, teens are now spending more time on screens and replacing their opportunity to work with time on their cellphones.

Overall, the creation of the smartphone has caused a tremendous societal change. My parents and I often talk about what is was like to be in high school when they were young compared to what it has become today. They like to tell me stories about going to the park to hang out with friends, riding bikes around their neighborhoods with a big group of people, or things simpler like having a face-to-face conversation with someone, rather than texting them to see how their day went. My experience as a teen compared to theirs is extremely different. There has ultimately been a change in society, the way people think, how people spend their free time, what people see as important, and overall how happy people are. The paradigm shift from when our parents were kids, to the life we live now is most likely one of the largest that has existed in society.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ

For my civic engagement essay I have chosen my other artifact to be Beyoncé Knowles’ music video/song “Formation”, released in February 2016. She essentially created the music video to sheds light on the more relevant police brutality cases in the past, as well as the history of racial oppression in earlier American history. The song, and eventual music video, marked Beyoncé as not only an entertainer, but an activist for African American rights as well. Her music video is among the most politically direct work she’s done in her career, with implicit commentary on police brutality and black financial power. This video is arguing that African American culture needs to be more accepted in America while she also urges viewers to take an action against the horrific forms of police brutality that have recently become more prevalent nation-wide. I am drawn to this artifact because it fits perfectly with Childish Gambino’s “This is America”. Both Gambino and Beyoncé are extremely popular black artists who have had the courage to speak out about problems in America. Beyoncé’s video has the potential for an in-depth analysis because, like Gambino’s video, she has multiple symbols that can be applied to past and current racial oppression in America. Beyoncé’s video also dives deeper into black history and culture, which I also think will add to my analysis. I expect to explore more about the reasoning behind her standing on top of a sinking New Orleans police car, the line of riot-gear-clad police officers surrendering, hands raised, to a dancing black child in a hoodie, and the graffiti that sprawls a city wall reading “Stop Shooting Us”. I’m also interested in exploring more of the meaning behind Beyoncé’s lyrics. She talks a lot about her heritage, her family, and what her fame means to her. Unlike Gambino, who sticks to one main message in his lyrics, Knowles branches out and covers more about black history, rather than current political situations. Overall, I’m excited to uncover more about the true meaning behind the release of Knowles’ video and the message she spreads to her millions of viewers.