Ok so, I don’t really watch TED Talks. There, I said it! I think I briefly remember putting them on to fall asleep to when I was in middle school? So, given this, I don’t have a favorite TED Talk because I have not watched any (that I can remember). In order to find a favorite, I looked through the titles of many different videos and searched up topics that may be of interest to me. I didn’t watch many, but I did notice in my search on YouTube that one video already had the red line on it indicating I started watching it at some point. I was very intrigued. This video was…

Honestly, as you may remember, my interests are anything happy and meaningful. Whether that be traveling, cats, crafts, or saving the environment, these are the things I lean towards. However, this video, upon watching (or rewatching?), I was intrigued. As the title states, it is about the mother of one of the shooters in the Columbine shooting that took place on April 20, 1999. The topic of mental health, gun control, and school shootings have never been more prevalent than they are today with issues regarding them being ongoing. Seeing this one mother’s courage to speak up about her feelings to crowds of people is amazing. I think it is always assumed that those who do bad things must have had something happen in their childhood or family issues that lead them to have mental issues. Here, the mother was just as affected as the child and had no clue what was happening. After the shooting, she questioned herself and began to have mental issues thinking that everywhere she went, someone would be from the family of a victim of her son. However, instead of succumbing to these thoughts, she started to speak out. 6 years after the shooting occurred, she decided to speak out about the affects of mental illness on not only the one afflicted, but the loved ones of those afflicted. She is advocating for more mental health awareness through her own experiences, which is so powerful to me as she exposes her own family’s problems in order to help others. So, while I can’t say this is my favorite TED Talk, it is definitely interesting to see this view point and inspiring to see how one victim is making strides for the greater good.

Ok, for the Paradigm shift paper, I still have no clue what to do.  My only idea (surprise), has to do with the environment. I think there has definitely been a shift in society becoming more aware of the environment and wanting to be more sustainable. This can be seen in restaurants and chains serving more than one type of milk, having veggie or Impossible meats, trying to limit their plastic usage, etcs… I think this has also been seen in the uprising of brands that promote their sustainable manufacturing and shipping and base their brands around being eco friendly. Although, greenwashing is definitely an issue, but that also means industries are recognizing that their customers are interested in being eco friendly so they are trying to “follow the trend” and be eco friendly too (when in reality they are not). This can also be seen in pop culture such as the VSCO trend of being a vsco girl with a reusable water bottle and metal straws to sksksk save the turtles. Hilarious, but I think looking at how the young generations act definitely shows this shift in social thinking. There have also been very popular art pieces and music released that have to do with saving the planet or exposing what is happening. This is all I have for now, and I will definitely keep thinking about it, but at least it’s a start!