“With over sixty million images uploaded onto Instagram everyday, it seems we are all trying to find a version of ourselves that gets the most positive feedback—or the most ‘likes’.” As a young woman myself, I definitely feel the pressure of having to confine to society’s opinion of beauty. Since it is 2015, social media is now a basic use in everyday life. It made me wonder if how often we use social media is rising, if the negative effects of social media is rising as well?

Negative effects of Social Media

Pinterest has recently acknowledged that it is a big enough issue to ban “thinspiration” pin boards, where pinterest members would post links that would relate to extreme weight loss as it was damaging to the users’ self image. Dove published  a survey that showed “over half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic, which equates to a staggering 672 million women around the world.” This survey shows that it is clearly a big enough problem that social media has a great amount of effect on how women perceive themselves. Research from the University of Buffalo indicated that girls are now basing their self worth on their appearance, and are most likely to post pictures on social media for any sort of validation. According to a recent  Dove study “82 percent of women feel the beauty standards set by social media are unrealistic and almost three quarters of women believe social media comments critiquing women’s beauty are destructive to their self-esteem.” Also in the survey, Dove announced that with the twitter data they collected, women on twitter wrote over 5 million negative tweets in 2014.

Following Models and/or Celebrities on Social Media

According to some psychologists celebrities have created “highly charged24/7 cycle of unrealistic body images” that teens may aspire to be. Following celebrities can cause a teen to get Dysmorphia, a condition in which there is dissatisfaction with body appearance. Self-criticism has become a main thing in online media, and now with the factor of celebrities and models where their bodies are sometimes airbrushed or edited. The looks of models and celebrities realistically only fit a small percentage of girls and boys in real life, yet every teen girl aims for that look. In an interview with model Britney Kelleher (huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/celebrity-influence-on-your-teens-body-image_b_7233856.html) she says, “of course media makes you think you’re not good enough. Like if you don’t starve yourself, you are never going to fit in, be able to be a model. You’re not the ideal size or look.”

More than just Self esteems issues

In a study by the Keep it real campaign, 80% of all ten year old American girls have been on a diet. In an article “An Intervention for the Negative Influence of Media on Body Esteem” did an experiment and found ”that the association between initial risk for disordered eating and subsequent thinness expectancy endorsement was much smaller in an average-size model image-viewing group than in a controlled or thin model image-viewing group.” In the Effects of the Media on Body Image article they mention “national eating disorder Association reports that in the past 70 years national rates of incidences of all eating disorders have dramatically increased across the board . . . Bulimia in women between the ages of 10 to 39 has more than tripled.”

How to fix the problem

What we see on social media is just plain unrealistic and sometimes even unhealthy, and the majority of the women in America are the true idea of beauty. Recently, some celebrities have been posting photos with no makeup and photos that are pre edited to show the young women that follow them that you can still be beautiful without having to alter your look. Dove also has launched a campaign called #speakbeautiful dedicated to make social media a more positive

atmosphere for women and people in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cncxoJPwBw

I am the youngest of the three children in my family, or as my mom refers to me as “the baby,” the last one in the household to grow up. I love being the youngest in my family, but then it got me thinking what would it be like to be the middle child.

Middle Child Syndrome

•  The middle child syndrome is a condition in which children born in the middle experience feelings of emptiness, inadequacy, and/or jealousy. Many types of therapists and behaviorists have studied two main causes of this, which is identity crisis and lack of emotional support. It is a big issue when you are the middle child because the child has no idea where he or she fits in. “‘the middle child often feels left out and a sense of, ‘well. I’m not the oldest. I’m not the youngest. Who am I?’ says therapist Meri Wallace .”  Dr. Georgia Michalopoulou claims middle children tend to feel invisible and receive less attention in comparison to the older and younger children. The older children gain the benefits of all the “firsts” that they accomplish, and the younger children are usually spoiled because they are the “baby” of the family. In the grand scheme of things they wonder were they belong because they feel unimportant when growing up. Middle children may even grow resentful when the parents turn their attention to the oldest and the baby. Dr. Alfred Alder first brought the effect of birth order to life, suggesting that birth order has a strong affect on a child’s character.

Sibling Rivalry

Since the middle child in general has to fight for their parent’s attention, they tend to become jealous of their siblings. Dr. Sam Von Reiche has studied the sibling rivalry a middle child feels. The middle child wont get the same type of attention from his or her parents that his other siblings receive for their accomplishments. When he or she “learns to jump rope or hit a baseball, his parents aren’t as excited as they were the first time around with the older child.” There is a point where the middle child will just start to resent the other siblings and the feeling of invisibility will build up and make the middle child lash out in anger.

Personality traits

A mom Holly Schrock says her middle child Maggie is an “attention getter with a mildly rebellious streak.” Middle children tend to be “rebels” compared to their other siblings, an example being Charles Darwin, who was in fact a middle child. Other studies (http://www.everydayfamily.com/the-middle-child-syndrome/?pg=2&internallink=the-middle-child-syndrome#post-1968) look more into personality traits of a middle child. Middle children are usually more outgoing than the older and younger siblings. One theory about this is middle children learn from a young age they need to more vocal in order to get the attention turned onto them. Dr. Sam Von Reiche also states the middle child will probably end up having a well-developed social life and participate in more extra curricular in order to find a place to fit in.

Solutions to stop the Middle Child Syndrome

Obviously, not every single middle child feels this way, but there are enough studies to assume if the parents don’t put in effort a middle child might not feel he or she is getting the attention they deserve. Parents obviously do not mean to be unsupportive towards a child, but it may just happen that way. To fix this problem, the parents must be aware of it, and making sure they give the middle child extra attention to ensure they know that they feel loved. As the youngest, I have never had to suffer or feel this “syndrome” but it makes me wonder if my sister feels that way, and if my parents can do anything to stop it.

Have you ever wondered if you would be a different person if you had a different name? Would you be more successful? Would people like you more? It sounds a little strange, that your name can dictate your success and future, so I investigated more to see if it’s true.

Having a “white-sounding” name more beneficial?

Researchers have found that having a “white-sounding” name is worth as much as eight years of work experience, and you are 50% more likely to get a call back when sending out a resume.

Many experiments have been done to justify this theory. A study was done in 2003 that was called “Are Emily And Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal?” In this study researches sent 5,000 CV’s to job advertisements in Boston and Chicago newspapers. All the CV’s were the same, but half were given names like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker, and the other half were given names like Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones. The results were astounding, as the call back rates were 50% higher on the “white names” then the “black names.” In 2004, “20/20” ran an experiment with a group of young black professionals who doubted the “black-sounding” names on their resumes made a difference. In this experiment they sent out 22 identical resumes, with the only difference being the names. You would think that since the resumes are identical they would have the same results, but results showed that the white-sounding names were downloaded 17% more often by recruiters than the resumes that had the black-sounding names on them. Employers in both studies were using people’s first names to unfairly discriminate perhaps on an unconscious level. These experiments show however having a certain name can cause a barrier when looking for a job. An observational study done by Dave Figlio (http://www.nber.org/papers/w11195) showed more discrimination between having a “black” name. He analyzed the scores of 55,000 children in a school district in Florida, and created sliding scales once for example went from Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da’Quan. He found the further he went on his scale the worst the test scores were. He believes that “the fault lies with the expectations of school teachers and administrators.”

Although it is greatly unfair, people stereotype based on what name you have. If someone has more or a “black-sounding” name, you may have a disadvantage simple because people assume you come from a poor background. In a article by CNN, “people can make educated guesses about you gender, possibly your race or religion, maybe the era in which you were born and in some cases those educated guesses can lead to judgments being made about you, sight-unseen.”

The Position of your surname on the alphabet

Its crazy to think even where your last name lies on the alphabet can dictate how successful you are. A study by the Economics of Education studied ninety thousand Czech students’ last names and their admission chances at competitive schools. The results showed that students with lasts names that were low in the alphabet had higher test scores overall, those students with last names close to the top of the alphabet were still more likely to be admitted. The theory is that people with surnames at the top of the alphabet have gotten used to being first whether it was for school register or a job interview. Wiseman tested this theory also when he invited telegraph readers to rate how successful they thought they were in aspects of their lives. Over fifteen thousand people responded to this study providing information like their surname, and the results were that if your surname was lower in the alphabet it was less likely that you were successful. This correlation in the study was stronger in older age groups, which Wiseman suspected it was because older generations were likely to have been ordered alphabetically in the classroom. That means people with surnames higher on the alphabet were closer to the front of the classroom, which means more attention from the teacher and behaved better resulting in higher grades.

Is it true?

However, although people test this theory that your name can affect your success in a bad way, there are studies that have contradicted this. In “Freakonomics” they claim there is no evidence that your name determines your success. They backed up their conclusion with a true story of two brothers from New York, whose names were Winner and Loser. People would assume having those names, Winner would be more successful than his brother, but in the end it was the opposite. Loser went on to having a better life and Winner ended up being a criminal.

After gathering up this information, I do see where there is a correlation between your name and your success. However, I do not think having a name like Elizabeth will automatically make you successful, and I do not think having the name Shaniqua means you will never be able to have a high rank job. Yes, maybe having a certain name will make certain aspects or life easier or harder, but having a certain name will not define you life.

“Parents should give their children whatever name they want, but they need to recognize that names have consequences,” says Figlio. “Is a name 
a guaranteed ladder to success? Of course not. But can a name make your life a little bit easier? For sure.”

We all know picking a seat the first day of class can be nerve-racking. Where do I sit? In the front? Middle? Back? Side? I was always the student that picked the seat most convenient; usually the first one I caught my eye on or where my friend was sitting. Although now that I am in college where there can be 300 other students in the class, I wonder if I should pick my seat more wisely. Is there a certain seat in the classroom that allows you to do better in that class? Well, I intend to find out.

The Front Row

The front row can be a little scary for those who are shy since the professor is right in front of you, but it does have its advantages. College USA Today says “where students choose to sit in a classroom can have an effect on how professors perceive them.” It is a lot easier to develop a type of relationship with a professor when you are sitting in front of the class. Dr. Chris Hammons, interim dean of the college of arts and Humanities says, “I notice the more prepared and personable students sit in front rows.” Reported by HBU Collegian, Dr. Chris Hammons also states “students in the front almost always score higher on exams.” College USA also states that “students who choose to sit in the front may find it easier to maintain eye contact, and there is a greater likelihood that the student will be spoken to.” Dr. Paul S. Adams, vice president for student affairs at Wilkes University, studied the benefits of front row seating. In an article on creators.com he wrote that “students in the front row perform better because they become more engaged with the speaker, and this encourages better note taking, participation and study habits.”

Avoid the middle!

In my articles I have discovered, all of them agree on one thing: avoid the middle. Many claim the middle of the classroom is the worst place to sit because “in a classroom setting, a speaker’s eyes tend to go to the front of the room and the back.” Creators.com claims that “they don’t look at the center of the room as often or with the same amount of attention,” so if you were quite a timid person you should avoid sitting in the middle in case you get distracted.

Can you survive the back?

If you are in the back row you are at the maximum distance one can be between you and your professor. The major problem with being in the back is all the distractions. You can easily get away with doodling, texting, or talking to friends when you are in the back. Based on the College USA Today, “students attention tends to bottom out about 30 minutes into class, which is just when faculty are getting to the most important information.” Based on that information, “proximity to the professor does have an impact on that.”

What can we conclude?

Sitting closer to the professor does improve classroom engagement but it may not translate into having better grades then people sat somewhere else. Chris Hakala, a psychology professor at Western New England University says, “if you tell a bad student to sit up front, it’s not going to do a lot.” Although there have been many studies to prove that sitting in the front is best, Hakala says, “the data is hard to interpret because it relies on correlation.” The hbu collegian states that “Exceptions to the statistics, which state that sitting in the back of the class increases the probability of receiving a D or F by 23 percent according to The Journal of Economic Education, do happen, and some students are successful from the back”. So what does everyone think? Sitting in front makes a difference? Good students sit in front in general that’s why people in front do better? Does it even matter?

Hi everyone in SC 200! My name is Sammy Whitney. I am a freshman here at Penn State in the college of Communications hoping to major in Public Relations. I’m for Newport Beach, California. This is what it looks like if anyone is curious.

It’s about an hour away from Los Angeles known for its surfing (although I don’t surf).

Since I am a communications major I don’t need any science skills for my major. I figured this class would be perfect for me, since I learn about the importance of science without having to have background knowledge about the subject. I chose not to be a science major because I have never been passionate about science. I think you need to be passionate for what you major in because your major will get you a job in that field in the future. I am passionate about music, and I would like to use my PR skills to work in the music industry. Here is one of my favorite songs by Mumford and Sons   Hopeless Wanderer , it’s a great music video for you if you like Jason Bateman, Ed helms, Jason Sudeikis, and Will Forte.