Week 21: Growing Up Online

Last week I wanted to get another perspective on the whole steroids debate, so I started a long conversation with my German exchange student. He doesn't necessarily condone the usage of illegal steroids, but because he assumes that the majority of athletes use performance-enhancing drugs, we should just accept it and move on. He went on to say that there is going to be drug usage in sports whether we test or not, and plenty of athletes are just trying to keep up with the competition. Fans just want to see broken records, whether the athlete was juicing or not.

I have to admit, I disagree with almost all of this. First of all, though I don't deny some athletes uses illegal drugs, to say it's the majority is a brave assumption. To just accept it is as bad as the crime itself. We shouldn't just make exceptions and allow people to break the law; we need to take the best steps we can to prevent cheating in sports. Yes, athletes are trying to keep up with the competition, but that is all the more reason we need to crack down on drug usage. It'll prevent the pressure to juice up and feel the need to cheat to be able to keep your job. Fans do like to see record-breaking feats, but when they're accomplished through cheating, it completely destroys the excitement. When a record is broken honestly is when it's exciting and what the fans really want to see.

This week, we looked at growing up online, and what the pros and cons of living a life in front of a computer screen really are. With a large emphasis based in technology in today's society, lifestyle changes have been directly based on technological advancements. My parents' generation spent most of their childhood outside, interacting with others. When I look outside, all the front lawns in my neighborhood are typically empty. When I am outside, typically I'm isolated between a pair of iPod headphones as I enjoy nature, alone. Nowadays, most kids prefer all of their interactions to be anything but physical. Cyber relationships with God knows who is much easier than sparking conversation with someone face-to-face. And that's what society is constantly looking for, easier ways of doing things. I no longer have to call a friend from my house and hope he's at home to have a conversation. Instead, i can just shoot him a text while keeping up with five other simultaneous conversations. Want to see grandma but don't want to travel half way across the country? Teach her how to use Skype, problem solved. We used to look down on others for this addiction, citing them as nerds. Now it's the norm.

Most of us probably don't realize it, but there are certain important aspects of life that we miss out on when we choose to talk to a friend over AIM instead of meeting them at a coffeeshop to reconnect. I'm just as guilty as the next guy, but not a day goes by that I don't regret wasting my life in front of this stupid computer screen instead of going out and interacting. Sure, the internet provides us with plenty of information that we most likely wouldn't have found without page surfing, but what's not completely false is typically pointless anyways. I used to be able to give up stuff like the internet for the Lenten season, now I see kids struggling to give up Facebook for more than a week. Hell, I couldn't even type this blog up without checking my Facebook. The internet is a terrible, terrible addicon that most of us in class wouldn't admit that they have fallen victim to, yet the majority of us have. I lied about how long I'm on the internet a day during the class discussion. There were some other kids in class that I know did too, because I see them online everyday.

Next week, the only time I'm going to be on the internet is for homework purposes. Let's see how well I do. Hopefully, I'll be able to limit myself to e-Mail and Edline, but I doubt it. It'll be a struggle, but I'm interested in seeing what I do instead in my free time...

Sources:

Juicin' Photograph. Dangers of Steroid Abuse. Web. http://www.freewebs.com/ronat007/steroids-in-baseball.jpg.

Nerd Alert. Photograph. MJ On the Move. Web. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6yAtpK1cnUcTIPhgIU_hyphenhyphen46MKO0jUOoSg8PsHPqlwOnH6t26iCyn73XNLtIrMpToGtD5Nrlw2HpzDTnDkglYB_Yo8lBlSSEDDJwgGFLocZ4ntLltxJH9Nqarl9kCWBxQhKgVO6uXg7Gc/s400/nerd.GIF.

The Batcomputer. Photograph. Gamespot. Web. http://ui11.gamespot.com/1450/batcave_2.jpg.

Week 20: Cheater!

Last week I wanted to try to find some examples of proof that honor codes at school were either working or a waste of time. From what I could find, most statistics claimed that the Honor Code hinders cheating. However, there aren't any clear-cut statistics out there that show exactly how efficient it is in cutting back the amount of cheaters in schools. In my opinion, being forced to write the Honor Code on assignments makes it more difficult for me to want to cheat on them, however, students that have low enough morals to cheat have low enough morals to lie about it. The most effective aspect of the Honor Code is the fact that the idea of punishment is implied for any violation. With no punishment, it would most likely be zero percent effective. This article does a nice job at going more in depth into what seems to work at what doesn't.

So this week we focused mainly on cheating, the different forms of cheating, and why it's wrong. One of the main topics we looked at was cheating in sports using performance enhancing drugs. Should an athlete be able to get away with using drugs to make themselves better than the competition? After all, it is their job and they're just trying to keep up with the Joneses. No. An athlete cannot use the excuse that they were just "keeping pace with their competition," when caught with illegal drugs. When someone earns a trophy or medal, they should do exactly that; EARN it. Rankings are all about someone's natural skill level along with the amount of time they put into practice and working out. When someone deviates from this to unnaturally enhance their body, their cheating the system, their coworkers, and themselves. If I were to have a cheat sheet for a test, and the only one in the class who had one, it would give me an unfair advantage over all the students in the class, including the naturally smart ones and the ones who spent hours studying. The same goes for performance enhancing drugs. It's not leveling the playing field, it's manipulating it for personal gain.

Another discussion we delved into was about the case studies we looked over in chapter 2. It looked into various scenarios students might experience in college and provided a dilemma for each situation. Every scenario gave the reader in decisions that couldn't really result in the greatest good, because someone was always left unhappy, no matter what the decision was. The scenarios were more opinionated like who was right and who was wrong in the situation, and didn't have a clear answer.

Lastly, we started looking at the internet and how it's had a major role in the lives of kids these days. When our parents were growing up, private lives were actually private, and nobody knew what everyone else was doing every second of every day. However, with technology continuously changing at an alarming rate, society is forced to keep up. Now, kids can talk to their friends any time and anywhere, and even scarier, people can change their identities online. The video we watched interviewed one girl who hid herself behind lingerie and make-up online as to not expose who she really was. She looked like a 20-year-old at age 14. With increasing technological advances, social aspects of life have become less personal as people prefer to interact through technology rather than in person. Information can also be accessed at the snap of a finger, which also intertwines with the aforementioned topic of Honor Code violations.

So this upcoming week, I'd like to look more at the steroids debate and see what the other side has to say, if there even is another side.

Sources:

Computer Nerd. Photograph. 108 Red Stitches. Web. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vG4-JXzlYeU/R1C9-0bWeoI/AAAAAAAAAHM/hO1LcWOWRzE/s1600-R/computer%2Bnerd%2B%2B%2BLimpet%2B2%5B1%5D.JPG.

Got Juice? Photograph. Tony Sports. Web. http://tonysports.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/mcgwire.jpg.

"Honor Code Hinders classroom Cheating." The Reflector [Mississppi State University]. Print.

Week 19: On My Honor...

So last week I wanted to find out if there was any more evidence out there that support Zimbardo's theory that good people could be turned evil. Because experimenting with human interactions became illegal after Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment, there wasn't really any other way people could test his theory. However, it does explain many current events and how so many people deemed "the nicest guy" were able to commit murder.



This week we discussed the importance of honor codes at schools and analyzed the codes of a few colleges. Most schools had the same basic codes and typically a breach in the code was similar across the board. The most common was the violations based on cheating, stealing, and plagiarizing work. Basically, if it isn't 100% yours, it's against the school's honor code.

Penalties for breaking the code ranged from academic probation to expulsion. Universities hold their students and falculty to the highest expectations, and when someone doesn't live up to the expectations or hinders the community's experience, serious reprocusions occur. Because the campus works much like any other society, falculty and students are expected to hold the honor code to the highest regard in order to keep it functioning efficiently.

I found Liberty University's Honor Code particularly interesting and far different from all the others. Liberty bases its code solely off of morals, so any unethical violation of Christian morality is dealt with through punishment. Also, any students witnessing the breach in the Code are expected to report their classmate to authorities, or they will receive the same punishment. The college places most of the responsibility on the students to govern themselves.

We also discussed the internet's newly found role in cheating and loopholes. The internet serves as a great, convenient resource of information, but also makes cheating easier and provides less chances of getting caught. It scews the lines of what's acceptable and what's not and makes it more difficult to create a fitting honor code. Many students might not even realize the credibility (or lack thereof) of their sources and don't notice that their breaking the Honor Code.

In the coming weeks, I'd like see how effective the Honor Code really is. Does writing the code on quizes and tests really stop kids from cheating?

Sources:

Cadet Honor Code. Photograph. Over-thinking It. Web. http://www.blogger.com/Cadet%20Honor%20Code.%20Photograph.%20Over-thinking%20It.%20Web.%20%3Chttp://www.overthinkingit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/honorcode.jpg%3E.

Liberty University Logo. Photograph. Liberty University. Web. http://www.blogger.com/Liberty%20University%20Logo.%20Photograph.%20Liberty%20University.%20Web.%20%3Chttp://api.ning.com/files/NJlPIT6QVsx3PIwiUvQscKNObAq-zt-lYy95DmVWQl2snzQvfISOJCeN6l5AcEpsEP6UgOGsJLMv70innOfgJnY*XLgRNFwW/libertymonogramstda_cmyk.jpg%3E..

Week 18: More Experimentation!

Last week I asked myself why during the experiments, most people deviated from what we would consider the norm and found themselves conforming to the pressures set by the experimenters. There are plenty of in-depth studies that look into this, but what I found most interesting was the fact that the participants in the Asche experiment were comfortable performing their duties after the experimenter explained that he would assume all the blame. It seems like that wouldn't be enough to sway one's moral convictions, but history shows us that this is not the case. If we look at something like the Nuremberg trials, we see that most of the higher ranking Nazi officers claimed that they were just following orders. The experiment shows that conforming to an authority figure is not only the easier way, but the preferred way. As long as we aren't the ones to be held accountable, we can find ourselves doing things that we would never expect from ourselves. In the end, we really are the ones to be held accountable, but as the situation presents itself, we aren't aware of this until the consequences make themselves apparent.

This week, we took a deeper look into the psycological experiments we had been introduced to in the previous last week, focusing on the Asche and Stanford experiments. We watched a video where Primetime repeated the Asche experiment to see if the results would differ from its initial run. I found it interesting that they weren't, proving that a change in society hasn't affected human nature over the course of a few decades. It was also interesting that those interviewed afterwords were so quick to lay the blame on the experimenters, claiming that they were just following orders. Others claimed that they could tell the man in the other room was faking it. No one came forward and said that they handled themselves poorly in the difficult situation.

We also watched a speech given by Philip Zimbardo, the mastermind behind the Stanford Prison Experiment. His lecture looked deeply into the behavior of people and what classifies someone as good or evil. The experiment showed that good people can be driven to do bad things based on the situation they are placed in. In other words, the situation can show a person's true nature. The experiment also showed that authority can easily be abused. When Zimbardo placed the prison guards in the "prison" he gave them no instruction, yet they pursued the roles of violent, malicious guards. Zimbardo went on to explain the different ways people can be turned evil, but summarized it into three categories, either a person is naturally evil, they were persuaded by others, or they were persuaded by the environment they grew up in. He also explained what it meant to truly be a hero, which means someone that deviates from the norm for the betterment of others. The fallacies of superheroes and martyrs were exposed, and Zimbardo explained that these are horrible role models for children because their not realistic role models.

Zimbardo made a lot of good points. This week I'd like to look to see if there's anymore evidence out there that supports his theories as well as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Can good people really be turned evil?

Sources:

Escher, M. C. Angels and Demons. HNorthop.com. Web. http://www.blogger.com/Escher,%20M.%20C.%20Angels%20and%20Demons.%20HNorthop.com.%20Web.%20%3Chttp://www.hnorthrop.com/escher.jpg%3E.

Philip Zimbardo. Photograph. Altervista.org. Web. http://www.blogger.com/Philip%20Zimbardo.%20Photograph.%20Altervista.org.%20Web.%20%3Chttp://baw2008.altervista.org/DOCUMENTS/images/Zimbardo.gif%3E.