For my last blog post, I wanted to write about my reading habits in college. I have noticed as I have started to get into a better head space that my need for reading has gone down. While I am sad that I am not reading as much I am happy to know that I do not need an escape from the real world as much as I used to need. Instead when I am feeling upset I have the courage to tell people in my life what is going on and what I need help with.

This is a huge step for me and I know that little me would be so proud to know how much I have grown as a person. Every once in a while I do still pull out a book to read when I have free time. As college has picked up I have noticed my free time has been a lot more limited with more assignments which I think also impacts my reading time. However, one book I have read this semester is Spare by Prince Harry.

I think that reading romance novels began to make me bored so I needed to spice up what I was reading. This book was one that I was so excited to read as I had been following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle since they have gotten married and was very excited to know what was going on and the whole story. This book did not disappoint my expectations at all.

This book was a tell-all tale of what it was like growing up as the Royal that was not needed by society and rather there just in case. Prince Harry shined a light on how he was only needed if his brother had died, and other than that he was forgettable. One quote from the book states, “My family had declared me a nullity. The Spare. I didn’t complain about it, but I didn’t need to dwell on it either. Far better, in my mind, not to think about certain facts, such as the cardinal rule for royal travel: Pa and William could never be on the same flight together, because there must be no chance of the first and second in line to the throne being wiped out. But no one gave a damn whom I traveled with; the Spare could always be spared.”  The only person he had was his mother, and after her death, his world came apart. He was addicted to drugs and had stories leaked from other members of the family to keep their names out of the tabloids.

It is also important to note, a common phrase used was he did not want history to repeat itself. He did not want his wife to fall into the depression that his mother had, by the family bullying his wife and making her out to be a monster to the public. He wrote, “I’d traveled the world from top to bottom, literally. I’d hopscotched the continents. I’d met hundreds of thousands of people, I’d crossed paths with a ludicrously large cross-section of the planet’s seven billion residents. For thirty-two years I’d watched a conveyor-belt of faces pass by and only a handful ever made me look twice. This woman stopped the conveyer belt.” His love for Megan is and was so pure. Knowing how much he loved her and wanted to protect her made my heart swell. I hope one day someone loves me as much as he loves her.

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In my last post, I talked about how I found my love for reading again during quarantine, but after that, I had to return back to school. If I am being honest I was so scared to return as I did not know how I was going to be able to readjust after not being in school for so long. However, seeing my friends and teachers again was nice as I had been separated from them for months. The return took place my junior year of high school. Everyone had put a huge emphasis on what was expected as a junior in high school and it was safe to say I was very overwhelmed.

In my junior year, I fell into a deep depression. It felt like I had the whole world on my shoulders and the pressure was really getting to me. People always said I seemed so happy that no one would have known how messed up my head was. I was very good at hiding how I felt and no one could have picked up on the differences. However, one thing made me feel like I could breathe. These were my books. At this point, in time I was reading for at least three hours every day. Some people called me crazy, but I felt like this was the only thing keeping me sane. I could lock myself in my room and read. During this time period, I was reading so many different books I could not even keep up with myself. Instead, I would read and then move right into the next book.

It was during this time that I found Colleen Hoover. She is an author that went extremely viral on TikTok for her books. I had never heard of her but I was happy to find her. One book in particular that I found the best was “It Ends With Us”. This book follows the main character Lily who struggles with an abusive husband and how she is able to escape and hopefully find happiness. While reading this book I was able to understand how easy it was to get trapped. She was in a relationship and I was in my own head. While they seem very different to me I made the connection.

One quote that always stuck out to from It Ends With Us was, “Sometimes we have to share it with the people who love us so we don’t come crashing down from the weight of it all. But I can’t help you unless I know you need it. Ask me for help. We’ll get through this, I know we can.” This made me realize that I can not keep fighting this battle by myself, instead, I needed to find a support system to help me.

This book made me realize you can not fight every battle alone. Instead, sometimes you need to find people to help you. After reading this book, I finally told my parents and my best friend about my struggles and was able to get the help I needed. I learned it was okay to feel, but sometimes it is hard to feel alone.

Finally, my book journey arrives in high school a place where I was still trying to figure out who I was as a person. I think that was hard to do when I was constantly being told what books I was supposed to be reading. There was no way for me to express myself through these books or find characters I related to. This was the part of my life that made me hate reading. Up until my sophomore year when Covid hit, I thought of reading books on my own time. Through this process of reading books on my own time, I found the genres that I appreciated and what I loved to read.

The first book to ever really make my love for reading come back was The Goal by Elle Kennedy, and yes it is a cheesy romance story. However, this was the first book where I fell in love with the people I was reading about. This book made me laugh out loud, and not feel so lonely when I was in quarantine. It was not a book that I had to write about, it was not a book that I had to listen to it be broken down it was just a book that I got to enjoy. The lack of emphasis on the book made me want to continue reading until I had to go to sleep. It felt like in a time when I could have no interaction with people I still was able to read about those interactions.

Covid was really hard being separated from everyone but my family. However, I came to realize that it was okay when I was with my books. As everyone else did I struggled with my mental health because I felt so alone. Books allowed for me to open myself back up and escape the reality of my world at that moment in my life. If it was not for Covid I do not feel like I would have ever gotten my love for reading back.

High school is not an easy time to navigate for anyone. Especially when you have to go through a worldwide pandemic but I will say that books have allowed me to step out of my shell and become happier. At times when I felt like no one heard my voice, I knew the characters of my books had people who did not hear them either. They allowed for me to know that everyone feels alone and it was okay to feel like that.

From Covid on I have read everyday, while I still enjoy a romance novel once in awhile my favorite genre has still shifted. But it was these types of books that made my love for reading to come back to me. When I started reading again, and choosing those books I felt like that 2nd grade Kaila who loved to read. I brought my love back and it has stayed with me through all my hard times.

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When I hit seventh grade I got to the point in my schooling career where I started to get assigned reading. At first, I was so upset that my teachers were telling me which books I had to read and what books I had to enjoy. It made no sense. How would they know the books that would make me feel a certain type of way? Turns out they were right because I ended up getting assigned to one of my favorite books of all time The Giver. Due to this book, I was able to understand why teachers want us to read certain books as they allow us to understand different lessons.

One major lesson this book taught me was that it is okay to second-guess things. Jonah the main protagonist seconded guesses his whole life and is able to see the truth. This lesson to me was so important because there have been so many times I should have seconded guessed something and put it into perspective. The determination of his character to be himself really help me realize that I should try to be myself as well. It is clear that he had to face hardships to be himself and it made me realize being yourself is never easy. You have to second-guess things and have to have courage which he taught me as well.

Another huge thing this book taught me was my hate for movie adaptions. After this book, I had to watch the movie (it was assigned) the movie was terrible in my eyes. It lacked all of the important thoughts and the characters did not look like how I thought they did base on the book. For me, it ruined the story and the development of these characters I so deeply thought I knew. These movie adaptions do no more than good when it comes to who I believed to be the characters. Movieweb.com wrote, “Ultimately, it comes down to the idea that no author writes their book with an adaptation in mind; otherwise they’d just write a screenplay. That’s why it’s always important to keep in mind the fact that not everything will translate perfectly. An author can have long-winded dialogue that helps set the scene or tells the important pieces of the plot. Movies don’t often have the luxury for long conversations, not without something else happening to keep the audience entertained and the dialogue from dragging on.” There is a reason that these are books not screenplays and many directors do not think they could get it exactly right.

Overall, the Giver is a book that taught me many different things. A lot of them at the time I did not even realize that I was learning such key details about myself. Books are a way that you can learn life lessons not just through characters but the reason you picked up the book. My hope is through my life that I continue to gain lessons through books and continue to find love in all the books I read even the assigned ones.

Work Cited:

McDougald, Katelin. “Why Movies Rarely Live Up to the Book, and Why That’s Not Necessarily Bad.” MovieWeb, MovieWeb, 15 Jan. 2023, https://movieweb.com/book-adaptations-bad-movies/#:~:text=Books%20Are%20Never%20Meant%20to%20be%20Films&text=An%20author%20can%20have%20long,the%20dialogue%20from%20dragging%20on.

Movie Poster:

Kaila Kirkpatrick 

3/28/2023

Coral Reef and Beliefs 

Introduction: 

Over the past fifty years we have begun to see a large decline in our coral reefs around the world. The Florida Keys are one of the few places we have seen such a scary and large decline within coral reef ecosystems. With the increase of tourism in areas such as Key West, Marathon, Islandmorada, and Key Largo the coral reefs are even more at risk. Due to the aftermath of the CoronaVirus the numbers of people visiting the Keys has been continuing to increase, due to the limitations of travel to other countries. Many of these tourists do not understand their trips to the reef leave such a large impact on the ecosystems. While there have been policies put in place in the Keys to stop the mass destruction of coral reefs, there is one that has not been proposed yet. This policy is required for anyone wishing to travel to a coral reef to take a mandatory course in the protection of coral reefs. This would allow for less harm to come to these ecosystems and more knowledge on the topic overall. 

Why are Coral Reefs In Harm’s Way: 

It is constantly heard that we are destroying the Earth through climate change and global warming. We hear about the ice sheets melting, and animals dying, but yet Coral Reefs are rarely acknowledged in these situations. Coral Reefs are declining at a significant pace that can become very large problems for our oceans. The question we need to ask ourselves is why? The UN environment programme stated, “Coral reefs are under relentless stress from myriad global and local issues, including climate change, declining water quality, overfishing, pollution and unsustainable coastal development.” Coral reefs play an essential role in marine life, harboring over twenty five percent of the fish in the ocean (Rolls). If people continue to destroy these reefs with debris and inconsiderate actions it is going to become an unsolvable situation. Within the past year tourism in the Florida Keys has increased significantly. In 2019, the total number of tourists that flew into Key West was 482930 according to the Key West travel guide. That number in 2022 reached 737975. Traveling to the Reef is something so beautiful, but yet the respect people have for the reef continues to be on the decline. People continue to throw garbage and plastic into the ocean while on these trips. Many people know this is wrong but yet continue to do it. However, a large majority of people have no idea what they are doing is causing a decline in these reefs. In February 2019, Key West was the first city in the mainland USA to ban sunscreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate which are harmful chemicals to coral reefs. According to WLRN after this law was passed the state legislature decided to overturn the decision. They stated that Key West “banning sunscreen” was unethical and dangerous to the working class. However, if people were aware that these sunscreens exist before going to the reef, they could be less inclined to want to purchase them for use. The lack of awareness from people is what the large problem here is. How are people supposed to know what to avoid, when they are given no knowledge of the topic? Furthermore, if people were able to know the topic and express it to other people, more people would know about the destruction of coral reefs and how to put a stop to it. Whether you are the person visiting the Keys, or the people who generate income from tourism, you would be affected. If you are not from the Keys, you could be asking why it matters to you, well truth be told is that coral reefs do more than you think. For one, they stop beaches from eroding away, and two they keep natural wildlife. This is important to remember because everyone wants to enjoy the beach, but if this continues there will no longer be these ecosystems to save the beach. 

This is a diagram representing the loss of coral reefs in the Florida Keys. As you can see over time we have continued to see a decline in coral reefs. (MCCLENACHAN) 

The Policy:

The policy that is being proposed would require anyone who is going to the reef to complete a course. In order to board the boat, you would need to show a certification of completion to the company taking you out, or on your own personal boat you would need a copy of the course with you at all times. It is known knowledge that in order to legally drive a boat in Florida you need a boater license. With this it gives you access to travel on the water. There is also something known as a temporary license in Florida which allows you to have a temporary license to drive boats for one year after taking the twenty question test. If we were able to implement a similar system in this policy, you could take a longer permanent coral reef course, or a temporary cheaper version. Through this it would be to some people unnecessary, it could drastically change the future of coral reefs. One major effect we have seen of our coral reefs is bleaching. This can occur from touching or different chemicals coming in contact with coral. “Bleaching can be thought of as the ocean’s version of the ‘canary in the coral mine’ since it demonstrates corals’ sensitivity to dangerous and deadly conditions” (Rolls). Due to this, some questions that could be presented could be, “What are the main chemicals that affect coral reefs?”, “What is the number one reason for coral destruction?”, “How can you prevent the destruction of coral reefs?”, “How many acres of coral reef are destroyed every minute?”. Through these questions we would be able to identify if people know the risk that comes with visiting the reef while also building respect. 

Pictured above is a photo of a Boater’s License in Florida. It requires a course and it lasts for the rest of your life. The intended policy would create a license that permits you to travel to coral reefs in Florida. 

Stakeholders Within The Community: 

With this big of a change of course there could be people that are affected by this change. One mainly are the large companies that take people to the reefs. This new policy could directly affect their income as some people may not want to pay to have to receive a license to visit the coral reef for a day. Along with this other stakeholders are people who would like to come to the Keys to see the reef. This could be a direct obstacle that may not make it as accessible for some people. Another huge stakeholder is the Government. This is because they could have create and keep up with these licenses. This task would take time away from the workers who may have other jobs to do. Along with it would also take taxpayers dollars to start up this policy, which could potentially lead to higher taxes, this affecting all citizens in Florida. Due to this there may be a potential push back against this policy from tax payers, especially those who do not live near the ocean or coral reefs. However, if these workers would like to keep these companies running they need to make a change. Without one they would not have a reef to take and make money from. 

Conclusion:

It is clear to see that there needs to be a change in how we treat coral reefs. The rate at which they are declining is very alarming and should show how urgent this matter is. If we are able to push this policy, it could lead to a relief to the reefs that hopefully allows them to flourish again. The problem is not people doing this on purpose, instead this problem is about awareness. People not from the Keys would not know the harm they are causing to the environment. It also might be the case that locals are aware as well. This course would provide the key information people should know about saving the reefs. It is up to our locals to save the environment. This policy resonates with locals whose families depend on this type of income to be able to support their families. However, it should also be able to resonate with non locals as many people love the beach. Without the reef none of these desired places will be to be visited as they will be destroyed. At the pace the reef is dying, there are only a few more years left before there is nothing that can be done to save the Earth. This policy must be incorporated fast because there is limited time to make a change. 

Works Cited: 

Klingener, Nancy. “As Key West Tries to Set Precedents, Tallahassee Lawmakers Say: Not so Fast.” As Key West Tries To Set Precedents, Tallahassee Lawmakers Say: Not So Fast, WRLN, 16 Mar. 2021, https://www.wlrn.org/news/2021-03-16/as-key-west-tries-to-set-precedents-tallahassee-lawmakers-say-not-so-fast.  

“Key West Tourism Statistics, Key West Travel Guide – Visitor Information for Key West, FL in the Florida Keys.” Key West Travel Guide – Visitor Information for Key West, FL in the Florida Keys, Key West Tourism Statistics, 2021, https://www.keywesttravelguide.com/key-west-tourism-statistics/.  

MCCLENACHAN, Loren. “Ghost Reefs: Nautical Charts Document Large Spatial Scale of Coral Reef Loss over 240 Years.” Science Advances , 6 Sept. 2016, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1603155.

“Visual Feature | Status of Coral Reefs of the World.” UNEP – UN Environment Programme, UNEP, 30 Sept. 2021, https://www.unep.org/interactives/status-world-coral-reefs/?gclid=CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7K2uSufsDoHkFkD8DQbvU5ZxMMm6NZaXX83qXwxk0XxPMZ1MGkcG3yRoCKcQQAvD_BwE.

Through both of my past posts, I have talked about how social media has become so polarized but never explained why. The truth is there are multiple different theories on why social media has become such a hateful and polarized environment over very recent years. It was not until the most recent elections that I have been able to observe such hateful comments from one side to the other. I have only been able to participate in one election, but I have been observing different debates for awhile. I have seen an increase in hateful comments made by people young and old.  In this blog post, I will be going through the multiple different theories that could potentially be the cause of this problem.

The first major indicator of polarization could be seen once the pandemic hit. There was a clear divide between the belief in covid and what was to be expected of them. Many people felt that staying home and quarantining was the best way to handle covid and stop the spread, while others believed it was not as bad as it seemed. Once it hit social media that these polarizing sides existed the issue took off. It was often seen that each side was calling out the other. The leftists say the reason covid was so bad was due to the conservatives not listening to the government. The conservatives stated the reason for the economic failure was due to the fact that people were being forcefully kept in their homes. The New Yorker wrote, “In a Marquette University Law School poll from November, seventy per cent of Democrats said that they considered covid a “serious problem” in their state, compared with only thirty per cent of Republicans”. It was clear after that, that there was a change in the dynamics of how citizens from each side treated each other. Along with this, the leaders of the nation from each side of the party began to use social media to come at the other party. The New Yorker also wrote, “Representative Ronny Jackson, a Texas Republican, labeled the newly detected strain a Democratic trick to justify absentee voting. “Here comes the MEV—the Midterm Election Variant,” Jackson, who served as Physician to the President under Trump and also under Barack Obama, tweeted.” these tweets allowed for citizens to believe it was okay to attack the other side and from their tension began escalating.

Another theory dates much further back to the 1970s. It is believed that due to major political parties becoming aligned with specific ideologies. Brown University wrote an article that stated, “There’s evidence that within the U.S., the two major political parties have become more homogeneous in certain ways, including ideologically and socially,” Shapiro said. “So when you identify with a certain party and you’re looking across the aisle, the people you’re looking at are more different from you than they were a few decades ago.” As time has continued it has only made the political parties more separated. We are unable to see the other side as people instead of only looking at them as the other party. We have seen the conservative side lean more into religious views and are typically “white men”, while the democratic party has begun to represent more people of color, and fewer income families. This divide has created a system where each side does not recognize the other. This then creates a more hostile environment and more polarization in politics. As different parties make their political agenda aligned with more specific traits, it cuts off the connection people see within each other. Instead of seeing someone as a person they see them as the other side. We need to realize that we are all people and citizens of the same country. Not only this we also need to learn and respect those with different opinions.

Finally, the third theory that has been presented has to do with the 2016 and 2020 elections, in these elections we saw countless arguments that went for one’s character rather than what one could bring in the elections. One prime example of this was President Donald Trump making comments about President Joe Biden’s dead son. In previous elections, comments such as this would have been career-ending. But in this day and age, it was accepted in a presidential debate. When people see this action as accepted it creates a space in which opposite parties believe that rude and cruel remarks are accepted. When we see leaders of our country are allowed to make those types of remarks and get away with it, it is a bad example for the citizens of our countries. How are we expected to act towards each other when the leaders of our country do not act as an example?  In this day and age the whole idea of democracy is about winning, not about who is the best candidate. A famous quote from President Donald Trump states, “We’re going to win so much, you may even get tired of winning.” It is clear to see the angle that is taken at politics over the recent years. What matters is what we as citizens can do to stop this before the polarization gets too far.

If you were to ask me what I believe is the reason for such a polarized political environment I would have answered all of the above. Personally, I do not believe we can pinpoint one reason why we have seen such a shift in our politics. We have to take into account that since the 1970’s there has been a shift, that has been amplified in today’s day and age. As the years go on my worry is there will not be a change for the better. I am scared that my grandchildren will live in a world where everyone is at war and there is no peace. We have seen what hate has done in the past, and the effects that it has on people so why do we continue to repeat history?

Works Cited:

Kolbert, Elizabeth. “How Politics Got So Polarized | The New Yorker.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/how-politics-got-so-polarized.

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Being the first group to go during the deliberation was something I saw as a challenge. It did not allow my group to see the mistakes that other groups made and learn from them. Instead, we just had to try and hope for the best. I do believe we did a good job editing the video and making the slides very informative. However, I do believe the one thing we lacked was the preparation of more questions to continue during the deliberation. It was hard at the moment at least for me to come up with questions that could help further the deliberation, and I felt a little underprepared in that aspect.

Another thing I believe was a struggle was the fact we did not implement the criteria that was needed for the deliberation. I do believe if we implemented strong criteria our deliberation was have gone a lot smoother as it have allowed for the audience to understand what advice we were looking for. Along with this, I do think that having a criteria written up would have also allowed us to ask more concise questions. My group could have asked if they believe our approaches fit that criteria instead, we lacked that part in our presentation.

However, I do believe my group and I did a good job with using all the time we had to talk and deliberate our problem and approaches. Our deliberation ended with only five minutes of class left which I believe makes it clear that we had enough information to keep the conversation following. I also do believe that our videos were to the point and did not allow for the viewer to get bored as we made our point and moved on. We did not allow for the over explanation that was not needed.

After completing all the I Survived Books, I was in the fourth grade. One day I went to the library and saw there was a book on display called, The Hunger Games. I picked it up and began reading, and once I started it was hard for me to stop. I am pretty sure within that year I reread the series about five times. The Hunger Games was my transition from children’s books with happy endings, to books where it took a deeper read to understand all of the different scenarios that took place within the story.

The first time I read The Hunger Games I remember being so enchanted that it was in a whole new society. It was not a society to which I could look up, because it was made it. It consisted of the author’s imagination and storytelling. Previously I had kept my book reading to historical fiction, where the events happen and I could do further research. After reading The Hunger Games I realized that all the information I looked at was written by other fans. This introduced me to a whole new community that made theories and also loved the books as much as I did.

These books also introduced me to the understanding a book did not have to have a happy ending. Before reading this book I just assumed that I needed a book to have a happy ending for me to love it. However, this book some may say was “happy” but to me, it was not. Sure both the main characters lived, but the story of how they got there will forever be heartbreaking. She even addresses these feelings in the last sentence of Mockingjay, saying that Peeta and Katniss both still have nightmares all these years later. It was a key part of my book growth that I read a story that had such a deep and meaningful unhappy ending.

This book also grew my passion for reading in general. After reading this series, I watched the movie… big mistake. While the movies were amazing in their own right, all I could do the whole time was compare them to the book. While this might have been a mistake on my part, I still do think this made me so much more passionate. Every time they left out what I believed to be an important part of the story, I brought it up to my friends. It got to the point they told me I needed to stop talking so much.

The Hunger Games introduced a new type of genre of book that I still read to this day, which is dystopian novels. These books do allow me to have an escape, and I know I wouldn’t have loved it the same if it was not for The Hunger Games. I connected to these characters more than I had ever connected to characters before. I felt their pain and their struggle. When they cried I cried, and I believe that’s why it was so life-changing for me.

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As stated in my last post social media has created a polarized state when it comes to politics, however, it has also threatened our whole democracy. One major thing I have seen when looking into politics is memes and the undermining of the government. This is dangerous because we are supposed to be able to trust and look to our government to make huge decisions in our lives. As time continues, it becomes evident that we have no trust or respect for our government which makes me worried about our democracy’s future. Along with memes, this social environment created by these memes allows women in congress to be attacked, and stereotyped. This creates an environment that makes it hard for men and women in the government to do their jobs successfully and represent us how they should be.

Whenever I see clips of political gatherings I never see them as something informational, instead if see clips of people mocking the other side. One major event of this happening was during the 2020 election when the fly landed on Mike Pence’s head. I remember trying to find actual information on what was discussed. Instead, I saw memes of people mocking Mike Pence and not posting any clips of what was talked about. This is dangerous because it shows people care less and less about actual politics and more about what can be made into something to get views. The public not caring about what needs to be heard, but rather what can be laughed at, creates an environment that allows for no information to be spread. Another incident that I can recall was during the “migrant crisis” in 2014-2015. During this time thousands of memes ended up on the internet which resulted in misinformation and completely mocked what our democracy was going to do about the problem. Vice.com wrote an article on this and stated, “Almost all of the messages in these were false or greatly exaggerated, but packaged in an inherently shareable form they made their way around online for thousands of people to believe at face value, reinforcing pre-existing prejudices, or sparking anger in people who were previously on the fence.” As stated, this created such a bad image that made it harder for congress to complete their jobs.

Along with this, the use of social media to create memes of important events creates a problem with how congressmen and women choose to present themselves to the public. Since the use of social media, they seem to have become more active in bashing other leaders in congress on the internet. An article by Yahoo.com wrote, The research, published Thursday in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found that the level of incivility in tweets by members of Congress increased by 23% between 2009 and 2019 — a change the study’s authors attribute in part to how Twitter’s “like” and “retweet” buttons reinforce the spread of toxic content.”. As time has continued we have seen an increase in how members of congress, and other political roles believe it is okay to attack other people on social media. The increase in media shows how we believe it is okay to express how we believe we can act toward others. This also allows for people to not have to watch what they are posting as there are no restrictions to what can be posted, instead they can speak their mind. However, things such as hate speech should not be used to help build a platform, instead it should be help the people they were elected to help.

Not only have we seen this on social media, but we have also had an increase in attacks in person as well. I remember recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s and the congresswomen for New York had to explain how congressmen got in her face and called her rude names trying to make a mockery of her. However, I feel that back in the time before social media interactions like this would not have occurred as often as we see them today. We also see many times men in the government calling women out for their gender rather than their work ethic. In August of 2022, congresswomen around the world issued a statement towards Facebook to remove all posts threatening congresswomen and posting untrue information. Following this a group called Times Up, launched a campaign called #WeHaveHerBack, calling for news stations to stop stereotyping women when covering the 2020 election. Social media has allowed women in congress to be stereotyped and belittled for their gender.

Women in congress are usually the targets of these hateful comments, and this shows how little Americans feel toward women. This opens a whole other conversation about why it is harder to support women who work to get into the government. Another instance of this is the meme of Kamala Harris when she and President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. When she stated, “We did it Joe” in the celebration it was taken and put to the media as something else. Social media turned it into her threatening the President and how she was going to assassinate him. The media projected her as someone violent when she was just expressing how happy she was. Why at such a moment in history do we have to make women the violent ones? Instead of celebrations, the media jumped to how someone could kill another. Why is this the conclusion the media comes to first, and why did it happen to women?

Overall it is clear to see how the media has become a way to mock our government, allow violence, and stereotype women who have worked hard to get to where they are. Allowing social media to hold such a large presence in the government is scary and it needs to be put to a stop. We need to learn how to trust the people we elect to represent us and how congress needs to respect the others in their branches. The public seeing these interactions allows for a more polarized environment and an environment that makes people feel unappreciated.

References

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When I got to about third grade I started venturing into a new book series called I Survived. This is a collection of twenty books written by Lauren Tarshis. It follows kids who lived through various disasters, such as the sinking of the Titanic or the earthquake of 1906. These were the first books that led me to love the genre of historical fiction. It also was the first book that was not all rainbows and butterflies. Instead, these children who were my age were trying to survive and fighting for their lives. I know that sounds morbid, however, it was written in such a way that it allowed me not to be scared. Instead, I had myself captivated, and when I was done reading I would go look up more information. Through this, I was able to learn so much about history without even realizing that I was learning.

I think it is also important to note how these books allowed for me to learn better in school. This introduction to history made me realize that learning could be fun instead of boring. Previously I thought that the only time of the day at school I enjoyed was recess. From this series, I was able to understand my love for learning and more importantly my love of history. Ever since this series I tended to watch more documentaries and learn more about history on many different topics. I do pride myself on knowing various topics and understanding many different historical events that have made huge impacts around the world.

During this time as well, I was struggling to make friends in school and books allowed me to find an escape when I felt alone. It also allowed me to put myself in a story to take my anxiety away from going to school. It made me excited to go to school because I was not scared of being alone. Seeing the books were only in my classroom, I was excited for reading time every day because I knew I could escape reality for a little bit. I could imagine myself in these books and think that I was also trying to live through these disasters.

One important note as well is how much credit this author deserved for being able to capture these events in a way that did not scare children. Many times these types of books can become too graphic and hard for a younger audience to read. However, the way she described events did not scare me, instead, I was eager to read more. It created a nice way to present such a horrific event to a child and not make them want to put down the book. I believe this is important because I want other children who are now in third grade to experience and find this love for history as I did.

Overall, this book series allowed me not to feel alone at school, make me interested in history, and allowed me to better understand many different events that occurred that I otherwise would have been too scared to read about.