Selfies have become a world wide action and is probably now a verb in the dictionary as used by people all over the world. Selfie sticks and other objects have made it easier and more convenient to get a perfect picture of yourself taken and posted on Instagram in no time. Camera companies, phone users, and editing apps are realizing the importance of a selfie to people and are adjusting their own products to take the perfect selfie. What’s really behind a selfie?

Formal definition:

“sel·fie /ˈselfē/ (noun)- a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. (oxforddictionaries.com)”

One study wanted to show girls all over the world the true meaning of a selfie and what can be seen just behind their own pictures. The Residential College in the Arts and Humanities came up with a workshop that united girls in grades 7-12 and they were invited to learn about self-esteem through selfies and even how celebrities did so. The second part was to showcase their work and their ideas of self-esteem through selfies as a way to advocate for beauty for everyone. The workshop was planned to demonstrate that each person has their own individual selfie. This workshop was made to demonstrate the power of a selfie and the correlation between a selfie and feeling beautiful (confidence boost).

In another more analytical post performed in Ohio State University, researchers asked eight hundred men to answer a survey that covered how many selfies/regular pictures were posted on social media and then what their social behavioral actions seemed to be. The men group ranged from the age of 18 to 40. Those who edited their pictures the most were concluded to be the most narcissistic and a correlation between selfies and narcissism/psychopathy were found. Psychopathy, according to Jesse Fox, the study’s lead author, wasn’t a correlation to editing pictures and posting them because psychopathy is usually correlated to impulsivity. “They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don’t want to spend time editing.” Fox does make it clear within his post that this doesn’t mean that all people are narcissistic or psychotic but there is a correlation there.

Fox basically concludes that the speculation is there but not enough to prove the correlation any further therefore proving that the results could be due to chance or a third confounding variable. Therefore proceeds to tell his audience that selfies are okay. This observational study didn’t look at women, children, young adults (who take selfies the most), or any other group making it unreliable. The first study was also more of an anecdote which doesn’t have any date meaning no conclusion could be made. Therefore leaving the topic in the air. Do you think selfies are bad??

SELFIE SONG HERE IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A DISTRACTION 🙂

Today I had an exam and was filled with doubt and anxiety since I knew this test would be fairly difficult. I had studied for long hours and grabbed a quick bite before heading into the lecture hall to take the test. As the test began, I found my stomach growling really loud and turning. That’s the last thing I needed considering I was already so stressed with the exam and the material on it. I left the exam and was quick to grab some dinner. I could’ve just eaten a meal before my exam but in the rush of studying I decided to just grab a snack. That’s when curiosity struck – is there a specific food that could’ve made me excel or have the proper mindset to get a good grade on my exam? So here’s what I found:

As I proceeded to do some research on the topic, the first site I hit was obviously WebMD. Similar enough to my introduction paragraph they began with a similar concept to introduce the research: an anecdote. Surprisingly enough that’s what we learned in class. Anecdotes sometimes speak louder than just a bunch of data and therefore can engage the reader to furthermore read the rest of the article. The article specified that in order to receive the best outcomes to a test, one must maintain a healthy life long diet. Since for this instance, this is not the case, the article separated the foods into two categories but we’re only worried about one of them (foods for short-term boost and foods for long-term boost).

The three short-term boosts were:

1. Caffeine:

Caffeine can seen to be negative and many people love to fill it with flavors and tons of sugar but this article reassures that one or two cups can raise alertness and energy for ones body. Somer always warns the audience what most people tend to do and then end up having the opposite reaction to caffeine’s ultimate goal. “But if you keep going back for cup and after cup, you’ll be too rattled to think clearly. If you’re fueling your day with caffeine, it exacerbates the problems and adds to fatigue. You can go through caffeine withdrawal. It’s definitely a double-edged sword.” Therefore monitored caffeine can help with this problem.

2. “Good” Carbs:

Since I’ve learned that going into a test on an empty stomach just caused a distraction and was not the way to go, the article said that “good” carbs were also a good thing. The example of a good carb was an english muffin with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice instead of anything too full of preservatives and sugar like a chocolate bar or a cookie. This can fill up an empty stomach really quickly and can provide energy as well similar to the caffeine.

3. Glucose for Memory

In a small study discussed in WebMD, Somers concluded that testing older adults’ memory with sugary drinks found that the sugar “high” led to a better performance on a memory test. Some adults were given a sugary drink and some were given what seemed to be a sugary drink. The placebo group with the sugary drinks scored higher. The specific numbers on the study were not given therefore the full effect of this can not be drawn to certainty. Therefore maybe some quick sugar can help make the brain aware for whats to come.

What to avoid:

In another article, foods that were to be avoided were found. Contrary to the WebMD article this one suggested that students do not eat any sugar filled foods like cookies, muffins, or cakes considering they take long to digest. Anything that was made with white flour was seen to be a benefit if avoided. The article also informed the audience to avoid turkey. “Do not have turkey before an exam as it contains L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid which makes you feel sleepy. Also avoid certain food combinations such as protein and starch together. These substances require added time when they have to be digested together.” Turkey was not super obvious to avoid because many don’t know of this attribute of turkey yet even the obvious was stated in this article which was alcohol.Symptoms followed by drinking alcohol seem to have a negative affect on performance.

Power Score is another source which depicted which foods within fats, protein, and carbs that were the best choice. Similar to the difference between the last one, this article had many overlapping things mentioned and some things that they were against in opposition to what the other articles promoted. Simply from these three sources and zero studies, we can infer that this topic is still in the air. There are no exact proper foods to eat in attempt perform better on a test. All of these brain foods and the study behind why the certain ones were chosen could be due to chance. Since we have no studies to base this off, nothing should be changed by students unless they believe in something specific.

As time has evolved, the use of phones have become more and more popular. Dinners are seen to have less talking and more usage of phones and classroom time is being interrupted by constant phone vibrations and notifications. The convenience of texting and of having a cellphone is great. There are many pros to texting and the advancement that it has brought to the world of communication, but do the cons outweigh the pros. Texting is also seen to be having a negative impact on society through psychologists and medically.

How many people are texting? First we must examine our window of people we’re talking about that are being impacted by texting. According to The Pew Research Center, eighty three percent of americans use cellphones and the most avid users being young adults from the age of 16-24. That percentage is a huge number and is consequently increasing due to the demand for it in all areas of life. Therefore this also means that there is an increase of cons that come from texting.

Cons:

Relationship Issues-

In the Huffington Post, an article was found on the impact that texting has on relationships. It has been identified by scientists that texting can cut off that face-to-face confrontation which leads to limited communication. The impact effected specifically long-term, serious relationships. One study done at Brigham Young University studied the texting habits of 276 adults between the ages of 18 and 25. Thirty-eight percent were in a serious relationship, forty-six percent were engaged and sixteen percent were married.The 276 adults had to fill out surveys on technology usage and the stability of their relationships. “The researchers found that using text messages as a way to apologize, settle disagreements or make decisions was associated with lower relationship quality for women. For men, lower relationship quality was correlated with texting too frequently.” The observational results from this study demonstrated that texting as the central form of communication led to poorer relationships which suffered a lot of damage through fighting and arguments.

“Text neck” & other bodily harms-

Aside from the relationship portion of the cons, there are many medically impacts that come from texting. One of them is referred to as text neck. According to Dr. Steven Shoshany in spine-health.com, text neck is a “term used to describe the injuries and pain sustained from looking down at wireless devices for too long. The symptoms associated with text neck are:

• chronic headaches
• upper back pain
• shoulder pain
• neck pain
• increased curvature of the spine.”

Text neck is becoming more visible since more people are using their phones for longer periods throughout the day. On average, an adult’s head weighs about ten to twelve pounds and when the neck is looking down at about a 60 degree angle, it is seen to have a force to make it weigh about sixty pounds. This came from a study done by a spine specialist named Dr. Kenneth K Hansard.The study that they performed and the population of the study was not given but the results showed a correlation between texting and having text neck. Text neck is not something that happens over time but is looked at to be something that evolves over the restraining of the neck/spine. Text neck is cumulative and has an effect on stress and the degeneration of the spine according to the same study.

Communication Skills-

Texting is seen to do the obvious which is refraining from having to call or meet up due to its easy convenience. Texting cuts down on that face to face confrontation and allows for improper use of language, slang words, and small unclear messages to relay a point. Scientists are worrying that texting is becoming a method of communication that young adults simply rely on therefore restraining from other forms of communication. A Rutgers sociologists suggests that back in the day e-mailing and phone calls were also seen negatively but people just naturally adjusted to it, but she sees texting as a bigger negative issue than the simple phone calls or e-mails. Her thoughts of the issue are given in one article; “…they’re engaging in efficient and quick communication…Young people might not have a real sense of how to read emotion in others, or how to display emotion. And emoticon or a little smiley face doesn’t really convey joy versus minor happiness – and I think that might lead to a lack of empathy – if you don’t understand how someone’s feeling you can’t really empathize with them – that’s one potential problem.” The doctor suggests that texting is leading to too much convenience. People are expecting an answer as soon as they respond to a message which is not like the real world. Not everything is going to come back quick and be super convenient. Studies were not found on this topic but it “makes sense.”

These cons can be viewed as not enough information to support the fact that texting is bad and change people’s views but is something to be aware and pre cautious of. I understand the this information is vague and an exact answer with concrete studies are not exactly found but its interesting to see that there is a bad to every good/convenient thing. Therefore we should be aware of our communication skills and try to refrain from using improper language use.

Read More: Experts Say Too Much Texting Is Dangerous – Teens and Technology[SERIES] | http://nj1015.com/experts-say-too-much-texting-is-dangerous-series/?trackback=tsmclip

Its inevitable to avoid this topic and to think that having fun and drinking alcohol doesn’t correlate to poor exam grades/falling behind in classes. There is an exception to this correlation for those who drink fairly little and have the urge to fight missing class and not doing their homework. On another note, this site depicts that four out of five college students consume alcohol and half of these alcohol consumers binge drink. Further in the site it correlates alcohol drinking within college students to academic performance. “About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.” If this is so, why do so many people drink and are they not aware that alcohol consumption is radically reducing their performance?

The first study I found was found to look into the aspects of drinking having this correlation to academic performance. The University of Gloucestershire, UK wanted to explore through observational studies the effect that drinking had one one’s studying habits and overall grades therefore they surveyed students with healthy surveys after certain classes. Three hundred and seventy nine students opted to take these surveys with no incentives and were asked questions about they alcohol consumption and studying habits/studying goals for themselves. The study tried to cut any confounding variables in the study by setting different levels/groups. “This study assessed the associations between five alcohol consumption variables (length of time of last drinking occasion; number of drinks consumed during the last drinking occasion; frequency of alcohol consumption, heavy episodic drinking, and problem drinking as dependent variables) and three academic achievement indicators (importance of good grades, performance relative to peers, module mark as independent variables), whilst controlling for two socio-demographic variables (sex, age).” Results showed that only 3% reported zero alcohol consumption what so ever. 74% consumed at least once a week and 54% reported heavy episodic drinking; males were seen to consume more than females in a general basis. 64% answered that their academic performance was crucial for them and 62% claimed they were earning their set goals for their academic performance. The study also concluded though that those who had heavy drinking episodes were the ones who reported their poor academic performance. The biggest correlation between poor performance and drinking was found to those that reported heaving drinking many times throughout a week. These were the kids who suffered poor grades.

In another study, a Joe Savrock performed a study here at Penn State during the fall semester of 2008. The studies responses came from 28,000 students who seemed counseling in the 66 colleges during the fall. These students were asked about their grades and their alcohol consumption similar to the last study. “The report shows a definite link between the number of binge drinking episodes and grade-point average—the students who abused alcohol more frequently also had lower GPAs. Students who had not abused alcohol during the two-week period held an average GPA of 3.19; for those who had one occurrence of binge drinking, the average GPA was 3.11.” The study reported that the more alcohol consumed, the lower the GPA was for that group. Those with 6-9 drinking incidents had a GPA of 2.98, and those who drank more than ten drinks were found to have a GPA of less than 2.95. Therefore, the more drinks one consumed throughout a week, the less their GPA was found to be.

Essentially the two studies demonstrated the same thing. A correlation was found between alcohol consumption and poor academic performance. Because the two studies were found to be observational, we can not take out reverse causality and a third confounding variable as a possibility. Poor academic performance could correlate to the consumption of alcohol with college students or a third confounding variable could be causing both the alcohol consumption and the bad grades. Therefore a set and stone answer is not found in this case but can be inferred to be believable by adults and students. It could and could not be why the GPA of many students are low. Like most scientific studies, nothing can be set by certainty other than chance, therefore only a correlation is seen in this situation.

Throughout the course of my day, I find myself always seeing people rambling on their laptops or working hard on a notebook. Whether its early in the morning or late at night, the ground floor of my building is always filled with students trying to study. In my own observations, I find it easier for myself to study after dinner as a way to give my brain a break for the crazy lectures that I’ve encountered during the day. I have friends, on the other hand, that enjoy studying during the day/before dinner and find it difficult to do so when it gets dark out. This sparked some curiosity in me as I wondered which essentially was better or more effective.

In my situation my alternative hypothesis was that studying at night was better than studying during the day. My null hypothesis was that studying at night was not better nor worse. Therefore, I began doing some research in hopes to find some answers…

Instantly after googling the question, I found an article called “What Time of Day Do You Learn Best?”. The article described the same questions I was stating earlier in my introduction and then proceeded to demonstrate a key aspect in all of this which can effect when our body’s are most productive. The phases our brain has of high productivity and then becoming tired throughout are day is known as circadian rhythms. “Circadian rhythms are the 24-hour sleep-wake cycles that direct a wide range of biological functions—not just when we go to sleep and wake up, but virtually every element of our physiology.” This term has been studied for years by scientists and has seen to have a growing impact on human’s cognitive performance. The article talks about studies in which circadian arousal, time in which one is most alert during the day, has been observed. In most situations, elderly people have seen to have their circadian arousal in the mornings, decreasing during the day. For young students and young adults, the arousal has seen to be very low in the morning, increasing throughout the day, and having its peak late afternoon. In order to test this, younger adults and older adults were memory tested throughout the day and their memory performance has demonstrated this conclusion that as adults have a decrease in their cognitive performance, younger people have an increase throughout the day. This conclusion suggesting that older people should study or perform critical tasks in the morning while younger people should perform these tasks in the afternoon during their circadian arousal.

The Peak Time for Everything, an article in The Wall Street Journal also proceeded to explain how one should observe their high performance phases during the day and use those to fulfill important tasks or study and memorize material. Not only is it beneficial to work during your highest circadian rhythms but disrupting is also leads to diabetes, depression, and obesity according to Steve Kay, a professor at the University of Southern California. A psychologist professor here at The Pennsylvania State University was also written about as he confirmed that human’s lowest circadian rhythm is found between 12-4 pm and its lowest point being around two generally when a good time for a nap should be taken.

On the contrary case, a study observed 428 students and their ability to to solve an analytical problem and a novel thinking problem. The study led by Mareike Wieth, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Albion College in Michigan, proved that during the student’s most tired time of day (lowest circadian rhythm periods) they performed better in the novel thinking problem than when they were on high alert. On the other hand, the analytical problem performance didn’t change throughout the day. Therefore, Mr. Wieth concluded in this same article that fatigue can sometimes come in handy when studying.

Another study found in the same article measured the body rhythms of 25 experienced swimmers in 2007 at the University of Southern Carolina. The swimmers had to perform six timed trials while factors like sleep, diet, and others were being controlled by the scientists. It was concluded that the swimmers’ performances varied throughout the day but was exceptionally high in the late afternoon and very low at around five am. Therefore these various studies have shown contrary data that can conclude many different ideas and beliefs.

Through these studies and through the readings in these articles, a set conclusion can not be placed on when a student should study. Relatively, it is all based on when we feel alert and prepared to study anyways. Therefore students should focus on studying when they feel high in alert and ready to focus. Students should observe their studying patterns in correlation to the grades they get in order to know when the studying should occur throughout their day. Essentially this issue is more of a personal choice and the studies and information found in this post is not concrete enough to accept or reject my null hypothesis. Therefore science has not fully been proven yet in this issue.

As most of us are freshman in SC200 I felt it was appropriate to make a post on what good studying habits are in college. Most of my freshman friends, including me, are at a point where we’ve noticed that our studying habits from high school are killing our grades in a negative context. Cram studying and not reading the textbooks just aren’t going to work anymore… sadly. So how should we adjust? Hopefully this post gives more insight into raising your GPA.

On the Dartmouth college’s website there were five bulleted ways on how to study. The college site suggests solemnly these five things in order to succeed:

• Study in chunks
• Use daylight hours
• Rank your three classes
• Study actively
• Find the right place to study

Interesting enough, Penn State students aren’t the only ones with this adaptation from high school issue. Dartmouth College provides students with a site on how to adapt and how to start and these five points were listed right off the bat. Following these five points were links on how to improve each aspect in that specific school. Having this tool is probably helpful for the new freshman suffering through this.

On another site, educationcorner.com, there were ten studying habits for college students. I’m not going to list all of them as some of them seem like common sense but some of the tips included time management, constant retention of the material, setting goals, and using effective study groups. These few tips seem easy and not very different from what high school was like minus the fact that retention of material and constant studying is the most important and essentially found in every site I found with helpful hints. Why is retention so important and does it have an effect on the overall grade? One study I found was done by researchers on this exact theory. Interesting enough they performed a meta-analyses (which is what we learned in class). This study looked at 109 different studies but specifically looked at college outcomes in two viewpoints; the two viewpoints being a student’s achievements and retention. The meta analyses proved a correlation between the two throughout many socioeconomic factors, standardized testing, and high school GPAs.Psychological and study skills were factor into the studying when looking at the GPAs of students in the study. “Never- theless, for most of the PSF predictors (exceptions are general self-concept, social involvement, and social support), credibility intervals did not include zero, indicating that the constructs under- lying these PSF measures are positively correlated with GPA across most (90%) situations.” Therefore in this study the meta-analyses was based between the PSFs of students and college outcomes.

Even though the study was super elaborate, many things could be taken into the study. Basing some of the outcomes off of SAT/ACT scores seems unfair due to the fact that one can not confound other variable of the student’s energy or readiness for the test. Some could’ve gotten more of an advantage in even the little things like a perfect room temperature on the day of the test which improved concentration. Many little factors of evaluating SAT scores could’ve changed this study. What worked well in this study is the fact that many socioeconomic locations were being studied. This making the study even more reliable.

In another less complicated study, I found, 416,000 first year students and seniors were surveyed in 673 different universities across the country in order to find how much time is spent studying per week. The average was 15 hours per week outside of the classrooms. Off the bat, it is inferred that the study is observational and has room for error due to the fact that many people can lie about how much time they actually spend studying and what their studying habits are. Either way, most students in the study were known to take careful notes during the class and only one third was recorded to actually look at the notes again in order to review for exams. Half of the students were found to actually create study groups or seek extra help from professors. The survey suggested that students believe that most learning/studying is done in the classroom through the methods of teaching of each professor therefore raising the expectation for the professors to engage the students in active learning.

The study mentioned some room for error in the fact that many students with difficult financial situations find themselves working in order to pay for the education therefore having less time to perform good studying habits. The study showed that 22% thought paying for college would be very difficult and out of these 22% one third of them find themselves working about 10 hours as first year freshman. A higher value and importance of education was seen in these who worked and therefore found ways to manage their times and create better habits with the little time they had. This lack of time between some and the advantage of time between others didn’t differ the fact that the survey found that collaborative learning was found to be the best method in retention of material. Therefore, learning and studying alone isn’t always the best method.

I think it’s important to pinpoint that these studies weren’t bias in the fact that they were both observational and statistical. Both viewed many factors, not just studying habits, and concluded that the most important thing is that consistent retention of material is the best way to learn instead of cram studying. Therefore reading the textbook, comprehending the material, keeping up with the lectures, and fulfilling assignments is the best way to achieve the GPA we all desire.

Personally, I have a hard time studying in silence and I can assume that the girls on my floor feel the same way considering there’s music coming from behind every door when walking down the hallway to the bathroom. Sometimes I find it helpful to play music in order to get stuff done, other times I find myself having a karaoke/dance party with my roommate. It’s tough to say if it’s actually beneficial and I figured looking into it would be a good idea.

The first post I found wasn’t so much informative but gave some helpful tips for studiers who listen to music. There were ten tips given which gave basic help in order to reduce distraction. The first few highlight that listening to something classical, smooth, a set rhythm, or with sounds of nature is the best way to receive the most productivity while studying. The other tips were less about what kind of music and more of how to get the best out of listening to music. These tips included:

• making a playlist so that constant searching wasn’t necessary
• not listening to the radio to avoid getting distracted by ads/presenters
• making a set playlist of about 40-50 minutes in order to designate when it was okay to take a break
• putting the music at a moderate volume to play as background music
• listening to music before bed or an exam in order to feel relaxed and relieve stress

Hopefully these helpful tips can help improve productivity and benefit your studying habits!

The next article I found was a lot more informative and relevant to science since that is the point of this. This piece highlights the impact of listening to music while studying. One study found tested students that listened to their preferred music group while studying versus when they didn’t listen to music at all or listened to sedative or stimulative music. Results proved that students that studied with their preferred music taste did worse and were much more distracted and then listening to no music performed the best. In another complementary study, it was proven that listening to sedative music was better than stimulative music. Sedative music is smooth and has a flowing melody while stimulative music has an upbeat tempo that evokes the rest of your body to join in with it. Therefore iIt was predicted that tasks performed in silence would yield better results than tasks performed both in the soft music and the loud music conditions, demonstrating that music is a distracter to cognitive performance. (Dolegui, Arielle)”

In my opinion and through the studies, it can be concluded that not enough studies show that music is one hundred percent bad for you while studying. I do believe that it can sometimes be distracting but essentially both articles articulate the reader to listen to the right choice in music while studying instead of letting yourself get distracted. It is important that the right choice is made in order to produce the most work efficiently with our time. This should be researched more by scientists and students in order to diminish any theory that is wrong which may cause people to waste some time by listening to the wrong type of music. Basically, it’s important to be aware of what we listen to while studying and make sure that our minds are focused on the work and not on what is being played.

Considering I’m a business student, it’s essential that I have a business look in my closet for any upcoming events or fairs. It’s a norm nowadays to assume that the better you’re dressed, the more professional and approachable you look to people above you in the career field.We teach society not to judge a book by its cover but the first thing we judge is people’s appearance. Is there a correlation between appearance and performance?

In one article written by Robert Gluck, he describes his thought on this issue of dressing for success. Gluck is a surgeon in Long Island, NY. He says that the importance of a practice or firm should be it’s quality. The furniture, pictures on the wall, how one speaks, and your empathy level is what should matter. Instead society judges appearance and how we dress. “At the end of the day you want to engender a relationship built on trust. If as a surgeon, I dress sloppy and keep myself looking like a mess, this will negatively influence the perception of me by a certain segment of my patient population” (Gluck). Wanting to or not Gluck must put into perspective that his attire effects his patients and their trust. Gluck claims that how you dress effects other people more and how they perceive you which leads to greater performance in the business field. Gluck said that his colleague always told him the following expression: “Dress sharp, cut sharp, think sharp.”

Another article discusses a study that was taken at the Kellogg School of Management in Northwestern University by professors. This study tested various people and how much better they did while wearing a lab coat. The test was called the Stroop Tests “which asks participants to say the color of a word being shown on a flash card, rather than the word itself.” Those wearing the lab coat were seen to have done substantially better presuming that they were more cautious and caring to their surroundings. In another study, they gave people lab coats and told them that the coats were artist coats. Therefore many of those people did average. Consequently, scientists related that the jacket itself is what symbolized true meaning and psychologically made them do better.

Through all of this, I found another article that complemented these studies from the WashingtonPost and the article that Glunk wrote. This site tells readers what colors are best to wear during a presentation and what colors to avoid.

RED: “Red universally means stop, excitement, or danger, and one study suggests it might actually scare people a little.” Red is also seen to scare or worry people (related to blood). Therefore steer away from red or any colors around it.

BLUE: “Blue is typically associated with calming effects, and the same idea can be applied to clothing.” Blue shows presenters a stable, creative mind. Therefore blue is a good color to confine to.

DARKER TONES: “Darker colors like black, navy, gray or brown supposedly give off an authoritative message.” Darker colors demonstrate stability in what you are doing and kind of gives off an older look.

LIGHTER TONES: “Lighter colors like earth tones, pastels, or yellows typically appear less intimidating.” This means that people who wear lighter tones are perceived as friendly, kind, and gentle. These colors also help you blend in with other people typically used by shy people.

By these couple of hints, it has been tested and proven that dressing professionally gives out more of an image and says more about yourself then you may think. It is important that we dress to impress but also try and identify yourself and make yourself unique through your attire. Society sets up these norms and these norms can be studied to define you and your career level.

Since I was little, I’ve always been fascinated with dreams and why they even exist. How can you sleep and still put yourself in a situation or emotion while sleeping. Have you ever dreamt of yourself crying and actually woke up crying? Or have you ever woken up in a bad mood because of something you were dreaming about? Well why does this happen? Scientists till this day don’t know the exact answers to this question and what function dreaming has in relation to our lives. This controversial topic is still being studied today but some answers have been found already so here’s a little of what I found.

Let’s start with the basics!

Dreaming is usually performed during the human’s deepest sleep which is the REM cycle or generally from the hours of 2 am to 7am (dreamstop.com). Every person dreams, but whether we remember or it or not is an individual thing. In one article it says that dreams play a vital role in helping the brain sort all of the inputs from the day. Our brains have to organize thousands of inputs, from the colors of cars to who we spoke to. The brain works to figure out what to keep and what to throw away while we’re sleeping.

Another theory described in the same article says that dreaming is directly correlated with emotions. During the day our brain focuses so hard on aspects like solving a math problem, or finding our way to another class. The brain needs to make deep connections to solve each problem/challenge that is faced. Throughout the night the article relays that we don’t have to make these hard connections and the brain works on loose ones which end up being what is heavily weighing our brains. Therefore your dream may come from emotions that are felt or thought about too much.

The last theory, in the same article, is simply the most boring, in my opinion, and the one that scientists try to test. This theory basically describes dreams as having no function at all. This theory basically says that all other findings are useless and dreams are just a “pointless byproduct”. Some think that dreams are just meaningless in the way that your brain is just trying to let go and rest up for the next day. Unfortunately, the point of dreams and the determination of which theory is correct is not known and is kept a mystery.

Some do believe that dreams can be categorized into four groups which can relay the meaning of the dream that was dreamt. Here are the categories and their meanings:

Precognitive Dreams – Specific details in the dream will foretell an important event that is about to about or will happen in the future. These dreams appear to predict the future through the use of our sixth sense. Abraham Lincolns dream that foretold of his death two weeks before his assassination is a good example of a precognitive dream.

Warning – As the name suggests, these dreams will often tell of an impending danger that is going to happen to the dream if they don’t change a course of action or choose a specific action. A dream about being lost in the woods could indicate the dreamer is heading down the wrong path and needs to change make changes before it is too late.

Factual – These dreams are confirmation to the dreamer of what he or she already knows to be true. It can also emphasize a specific detail in someone’s life. Factual dreams can tell his hidden truths about ourselves with the various symbols that are represented in our dreams.

Inspirational – Any dream that is inspirational to the dream could represent some kind of a step or action one can take to resolve a personal or business problem that may be troubling the dreamer. Inspirational dreams can be used to motivate dreamers to make positive changes in their lives.

Wish Fulfillment – In our subconscious mind our desires can often take shape in become a reality in our dreams. If you have been dreaming about being rich your entire life, you could have a dream about winning the lottery. Wish fulfillment dreams help our minds cope with our inner desires that we have in our conscious mind.

Compensatory – Similar to the wish fulfillment, compensatory dreams occur as a way to satisfy something that is missing in our lives. If you haven’t had a sexual relationship for a long time, you might have a compensatory dream about meeting a new partner and fulfilling those sexual desires that you have.

Reconciliation – When we lose someone in our lives through a breakup or death, we can often have a lot of unresolved feelings towards those people. Reconciliation dreams is our sub conscious minds way of dealing with the loss of people who have made an impact on our lives. Dreams about getting back with ex lovers and reunited with lost parents are very common forms of reconciliation dreams.

These categories can help assert what the problem or situation is and why you are dreaming this. With further experiments, scientists must have to look into individual people’s lives, what they’ve gone through, and then what they dream about in order to pinpoint these meanings and the origin of dreams. The topic of dreams to some mean nothing and to many are seen to be interesting in the fact that one can make their own world within their dreams. This topic is controversial and is one with many questions and not enough answers yet.

It takes students a couple of college days to realize they’re going to need some extra energy to get them through boring lectures, homework filled nights, and long walks through campus. Most students resort to naps, energy drinks, and/or coffee. In many instances, adults and friends will say coffee is bad because getting used to needing caffeine is not the best route. We all know the rumors about caffeine’s addictive capabilities, but what we don’t actually know is that it can be beneficial and necessary for a college student.

In one article it explained that the world views coffee in two different ways, the good side and the bad. For college students though, the article explains a study done in October 2007 done where 51% of 496 students were seen to resort to coffee daily and when preparing for tests. It was proven that they tested higher since the coffee made them more aware of what was going on. On the contrary, the article emphasizes that too much coffee can bring more harm than good. “Neuron activity is increased during coffee consumption. When this happens, a student’s adenosine receptors — which trigger adrenaline flow — are disrupted. Brain activity functions at a higher level, but only briefly. Excessive use can cause the student to crash and burn, leaving him feeling jittery, irritable and dehydrated, as well as having a headache and not thinking clearly.”  In order for college students to get the most out of the coffee, one much drink moderately and only for its beneficial uses. Coffee reduces the risk of diabetes, gallstones, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease. This article was very descriptive as it exemplified the pro’s and con’s through the college student view point.

On another note, college students need coffee for less serious reasons. The Huntington Post describes eleven pivotal roles that coffee plays in a college student’s life. The more realistic ones seemed to be that coffee keeps kids awake during boring classes, cures hangovers, and motivates them to use that energy a little more in order to get things done. These factors are seen throughout schools every in the world. In the College Magazine they discuss a study at the University of Illinois; this study shows that coffee drinking leads to a beneficial biochemical change of environment in one’s brain. This change helps reduce the chances of dementia in one’s lifetime. According to google, dementia is the chronic disorder of the mental process. Coffee does more harm than good when balanced throughout a person’s diet.

According to the pros and cons of coffee, it can be concluded that drinking coffee moderately does more harm than good. Improved health, high test scores, and awareness are all aspects that come along with proper coffee drinking through college students. It is suggestive that we should all go against the “coffee is an addiction: stereotype and begin to drink so for the benefits of college students.

Every semester students reach the time when they’re scurrying to make their schedules for the next semester. As soon as the portals open, thousands of kids are picking the most convenient classes. Convenient for college students usually means later classes so that students can sleep in. There’s the problem, eight am classes are seen to actually be a lot more beneficial than later classes.

In the Huntington Post, many college students and the Health Ambition discuss the benefits of waking up early and getting your classes over with instead of waking up later. In the lecture that Andrew gave us on Thursday, September third, Andrew talked about how correlation does not equal causation. In this article, it discusses how there is a direct correlation between waking up early and getting good grades. Waking up early enhances productivity, produces better diets,  and gives you a better mental health. Students generally feel that waking up early allows them to have more time for naps, homework, movies, etc. In this post, Razma Mogharrab, a second year electrical engineering student, shows that her experience proved to her that waking up at eight for classes got her ready for normal work days which typically start at eight as well. This constant routine made it less difficult to get used to in the long run.

In another post, a study was released in the early fall semester of 2011 by psychology professors at New York’s St. Lawrence University that there was a slight drop in grade point average for each hour a class starts later. Pamela Thatcher told New York Times that per hour the difference equalled .02 of a difference. That can really add up! In another study mentioned in the University of Maryland, studies find a huge correlation with sleeping patterns and eight am classes. Students who have early classes generally tend to sleep early and avoid staying out late and partying. Those who have later classes, in the contrary, tend to party and consume more alcohol therefore causing them to sleep in and still wake up exhausted or even hungover.

On an opposite note, many may argue that waking up early isn’t the right thing to do and just makes you lazy and unproductive in the morning. This topic of whether waking up early to learn is very controversial especially in middle school and high school settings. In one article in The Wall Street Journal, researchers show that delaying the start of a school day by 80 minutes has improved teenage car accidents by 70%; that percentage is huge. Studies prove and increase in attendance records, ability to keep the class awake, and car crashes by delaying school time. Both waking up early and later have it’s benefits.

Putting all of this information together, studies can be done to prove which is essentially bad. Scientists can test learning patterns, attendance records, and grades of both kids who go to school earlier and those who start up later. Many outside variables may come into play but maybe testing the same subject with the same assignments and teachers can improve and cutting out these other variables that may come into play. I find myself personally wondering which is better. My high school started at 7:20 and I found myself struggling to wake up and finish the week off, i took constant naps and always needed a coffee. Now in college, I find myself feeling tired and unproductive when going to an 11:15. My days feel shorter and I feel as if I don’t have enough time to finish everything. It’s a tricky topic with lots of variables that can effect it but overall eight am classes seem like the right thing to do.

Hi Everyone!

My name is Marcella Santos, I’m a typical beginner freshman at PSU from a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts (not Philly for the first time). I’m taking this course because I needed it to fulfill some space in my schedule plus I thought the description of the course was the most intriguing out of all of the other sciences. As I showed up for the first day, I clearly did not make the wrong choice. I’ve never had a science class not be about facts or scientists and how they figured out some crazy things that you can’t even see. I prefer learning in a tangible way with visuals and I find myself having a hard time picturing atoms, chemical bonds, and all of that stuff, therefore I can’t find myself relating to the subject so much.

I’m in the business school and I plan to major in Marketing/International Business because I love the consumer world and analyzing consumer patterns. How each individual spends his or her money and how everyone’s actions just add to the world’s economy is extremely fascinating. Plus, business correlates with math which I do like. I’m very excited to take this course after viewing the topics and hope that it can only build upon my knowledge.

Here’s Newbury St in Boston, great location for cute food, dates, and shopping!

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