Why I got social media

Sixth grade seemed to be the year when everyone got a smartphone.  By seventh grade, most people who had a smartphone used social media.  Me on the other hand…I had none.  I’m about to graduate from eighth grade, and I very recently introduced myself to Facebook and Instagram.  

I deliberately refused to obtain a smartphone and social media when I was younger.  I believed that it would somehow inherently, and inexorably, destroy my grades.  The idea of social media itself manifested itself to me as an addicting form of communication.  Afterall, whenever kids in my grade got on a bus, they would be on their phones, 80% of the time, on Instagram.  I’d also read cornucopian articles concerning too much use of social media and all the negative effects of it on the developing brain.  Apparently, it taught bad habits, encouraged less face-to-face communication, and could attract bad guys.  I’m not denying that any of this is false…I’m advocating for appropriate and safe media usage.

Yet recently, while watching a Boys Varsity Tennis match at school, I met a the chairman of the Board of Trustees.  Initially, we were discussing some solar power installation project I was proposing to the school with my elective, but our conversation soon meandered into other topics.  Knowing me, someone who takes pleasure in indulging in business books and other books of such topics, I asked him for some recommendations [the chairman is a businessman himself].  Simply put, he told me this:  “too often, business books are outdated.  The tactics may be outdated, especially since technology has such a major stance in the functions of our society.  Recently, a new book called Thanks for Being Late by Tom Friedman came out, and he focuses more on the “new” world we live in.  Or more, how can we make the most of the old tactics with the implementation of technology?  You should read it.”

Of course, I couldn’t stop myself from reading this book!  It sounded like exactly what I needed…tools, tactics and stories to help me engage the 21th century.  Ways and strategies to make the most of technology and to avoid the common pitfalls.  So I purchased the book and I started reading it.  

In the first chapter, this is what I learned:  Right now, the speed of the growth of technology is increasing exponentially.  The only issue right now, is that humans are not adapting to its growth at the same rate.  Friedman met a man named Gordon Moore, who miraculously predicted many technological improvements, including downsized computer chips that were portable on one device [aka a smartphone/laptop  Computers used to be HUGE and unportable], microchips becoming smaller, faster and cheaper to make, automatic controls on a car [which is why we press a button to roll down the windows] among many others evolutionary developments.  

The blue line is the growth of technology.  The linear line is the rate at which we're adapting to technology's growth.  Educational systems should be improved to incorporate this into the curriculum to enrich student's knowledge.  The yellow dot is where we are right now.  Yes, you can ignore the words on the image…

After reading that, I was inveigled.  I needed to encourage myself to move along at the rate at which technology is increasing.  Technology is here to make my life easier, and it would be to my disadvantage to avoid using it.  I was further thinking about in terms of business promotion and marketing for a new startup.  I’ve read countless articles about the importance of social media usage in promoting a new business.  Not only does a company’s social media grow at the rate you want it to [leaving you in total control], it is also free and accessible almost anywhere [instead of a billboard].  

In the past, I’d also read about people using social media to drive social change [I wrote my eighth grade homeroom speech about that!], but it didn’t seem convincing to me enough at the time.  I knew social could be used in a positive way.  I had certainly heard many cases of social media promoting worthy causes, yet these didn’t appear to outway the possibility of social media being my grade-crusher.  I had also thought about the negative comments on social media.  Too many kids were cyber-bullied through social media.  I was a bit…frightened?

But now, as someone who is endeavoring to engage more with technology and keep up with the rate at which it’s growing and developing, I am here to say that it’s all about self control, and making rational decisions.  I know that I am liable to fall into the common pitfall of becoming addicted to social media to the extent where my grades start dropping [I really hope this doesn’t happen], but I can also show self control.  I suppose it all on the person.  I’m realizing that social media is not an inherent grade-crusher and avoiding it at all costs like I used to do is certainly not the solution.  Remember Ava, it’s about self control.  You are proactive and you are the pilot that drives your plane.

Scars to our Earth

Yesterday in science class, I was inspired.  I was simultaneously shocked.  We watched a short film about climate change and more specifically, concentrations of plastic in our oceans.  I cannot find the video right now, but I found a snapshot of it on YouTube, called The World’s Plastic Addiction.

The positive sides to this short documentary we watched in class illustrated the efforts people have made towards improving the sanity of our oceans. It focused on the efforts of The Ocean Cleanup, talking about how this amazing of people calculated ocean currents and gathered data about where the plastic buildups in the ocean are. They installed miles of fencing to encompass the area that the ocean currents carried the most plastic to, and installed a central conveyer belt that would bring the concentrated plastic to a facility where it would be processed.  

The Ocean Cleanup.  Conveyer belt and surrounding areas with plastic.

Yet the video provided data that left me in consternation.  I still ponder how it is even feasible for all marine life to have some type of plastic in their systems [the video actually shows a dissection with scientists finding plastic in the systems].  Many fish have plastic in them and most birds are predicted to have consumed plastic.  The plastic is caught in their systems since it is indigestible.  It may leak hazardous chemicals into the animal’s system, which kills it.  The saddest, and scariest, part to this all, is that when we consume seafood, it is possible that there are chemicals from the plastic still in the fish.  I feel we may almost be endangering ourselves.  

I am part of the Young Voices for the Planet group at school which goes to show my passion for our environment.  This year, I have primarily focused on improving my school’s energy consumption and finding alternative methods for gathering energy that are more efficient and environmentally friendly.  Achieving “net zero” has been a goal for me.  However, yesterday in science, I was brought upon a different topic: marine life.  

This only reinforces my perception of the many ways the Earth sustains us.  Humans are given the power to dream…in fact, we can dream all we want, but in order for our dreams to even possibly become reality, we must help our Earth sustain us.  There are so many ways our Earth sustains us, yet equally there are cornucopian ways in which we are scarring our Earth.  We are harming temperature, ecosystems, oceans, leaving space junk, burning fossil fuels, poaching, using too much plastic, littering and the list goes on ceaselessly.  We are leaving an impact on our planet, though it’s not always a positive one; we are scarring our Earth.  

I believe change starts small.  It starts with people, then families, then households, then schools, then neighborhoods, then cities, then districts, then states, then countries and hopefully, this growth will spread to other places around the world and become more universal.  Protecting our environment is too often overlooked.  The real issue is that people are not directly seeing the effect of leaving our messes.  It is does not appear to be happening…climate change fails to make its appearance in people’s day to day lives.  Sometimes, people deliberately distance themselves from the issue, some believing they are matters for the next generation to attend to.  But I disagree.  I believe we are the generation that the previous one was talking about.  

Adam Gidwitz Interview

In March, we were introduced to our community read, The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz.  Mr. Gidwitz is one of the 2017 recipients of the prestigious Newbery Award for this

book and in April, Mr. Gidwitz visited BB&N Middle School to talk about this work of art.  Prior to speaking in front of the middle school community, Mr. Gidwitz spent lunch time with Lit Club and answered some of questions from its members.  I was given the pleasure of recording some of his answers.

1. What was the hardest thing about writing The Inquisitor’s Tale?

I’d say the hardest thing about writing any book is finishing it.  For any aspiring authors out there, I want to encourage you to finish whatever you’re writing!  And indeed, that may prove itself to be the greatest challenge.  

2. What was your favorite subject in school?

English was definitely my favorite subject.  The homework was relaxing.  The teachers would assign you a book to read, and you’d read it.  The next day, I’d come back and my teachers would say, “Good job” for reading a book and that was that.  In college though, I also found that I enjoyed history.

3. Why do you write?

The job is essentially just thinking about the coolest things, writing it down…and getting paid for it!  I don’t have to dress up or go to an office everyday.  I can run things more at my own pace and I enjoy just sitting down, thinking of something interesting to write, and writing it down.

4. What’s your Hogwart’s house?

Okay, so my results to the quiz were a little bit odd.  And, if you add up the percents, they don’t equal 100!  So I’m 68% Ravenclaw, 66% Slytherin, 64% Hufflepuff and I’m not at all in Gryffindor.  These results really astonished me!  I wasn’t expecting to be in Ravenclaw.

5. You have written books inspired by The Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Did you read the originals?

Yes, I have my own copy of the very original Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  To write the Grimm Series, I read all of the original versions.  After, I made a list of my favorites, the funniest, weirdest, and bloodiest stories.  Then, I made up a plot that could tie all of them together and that is what created the Grimm Series.

6. In The Inquisitor’s Tale, you mention stinky cheese.  What is the background implementation of it in the story?

At one point, I lived in France with my wife.  One day, I came home after running some errands and I smelt something repulsive in the house.  It literally smelled like a dead rat!  And I thought there was something dead in our house!  My wife came home and together, we searched the whole house for that dead thing we thought we’d smelt.  And soon we came to realize that it was actually the cheese in the refrigerator that we were smelling,

7. How much do you get paid?

It’s an interesting and valid question and one that I get a lot.  But I’m going to be completely honest with you; I get paid approximately $1 for every book that I sell.  To be exact, I am paid around $1.25 for a hardcover book and 75¢ for every paperback that is sold.

8. Have you ever stopped halfway through a book?

Yes, I have.  I was a teacher, and I was writing a book on Ancient Egypt.  I was teaching second graders and as most of you know, second graders love stories.  They asked to tell a story one day, so I went home and I wrote a chapter for them and read it the next day.  They loved it, so I went home and wrote another chapter.  Each night, I would go home and write the next chapter…since second graders will kill you if you don’t tell them what happens in the story!  What I remember very vividly was the memory of a second grade girl.  After I read one of the chapters I’d written the previous night, a second grade girl came up to me, pointed her finger at me, and looking very determined and assertive, she said, “That, was good.”  That was what motivated me to get my book published. So I quit my job and worked on revising what I’d written.  I sent it to a publisher and the Grimm Series was published; I’d stopped writing my book about Ancient Egypt.  

9. What do you do when you get writer’s block?

This is a sort of complicated answer, because I think there are at least 2 different kinds of writers block.  There’s the kind that I like to call “Painting yourself into a corner.”  Visually, think about it like you’re painting a room.  You start at the door and you work inwards.  You reach the last corner of the room and you’re just about to paint it when you realize that you can’t get out of the room anymore since the floor’s wet everywhere else.  In situations like that, I like to rewind a little bit.  I’ll reread what I’ve already written and take something out.  After that, I try to reroute of the path a little bit and find another place to take my story.  

The second kind of writer’s block is the kind where you stare at the blank page and have absolutely no idea what to write about.  In these situations, I like to steal an idea.  And no, this isn’t plagiarizing!  You can’t steal words, but you can steal ideas.  Just think about Star Wars and Harry Potter.  The plots and characterization of the two main characters two are very similar!  I like to think about stories that I’ve enjoyed, and I like to borrow a couple of ideas from different stories here and there.   

10. What are you writing right now?

Right now I’m writing the Unicorn Rescue Society, which is coming out next year!

Priceless

I’ve just come home from Science “Knight” [our school mascot is a knight] at school, which is a night of exploring different topics in science.  This year, since we’ve been studying chemistry, all the research topics chosen had to somehow relate back to chemistry.  This was my first time at a science fair.  In retrospect, sitting at my computer right now, I feel very fortunate to have an education that values both learning in the classroom, but that also supports exploring one’s own interests.  

That lead me to think about things that are priceless.  Yes, a private school education costs money but, if taken advantage of properly, can’t have a price tag.  I believe education is so precious since, like knowledge, it is abstract and can only be expressed through the power of expression.  I decided to brainstorm a list of things that I genuinely appreciate and that are priceless to me.

• Education
• Family
• Technology
• Health
• Friends
• Emotions
• Sports
• Love
• Leadership/Influence

I’d like to pause and thank my parents for having provided me with many things on this list.  They are the reason why I’m here today, as myself. I can't image who'd I'd be without them constantly cheering me on.

I’d like to appreciate all the people closest to me, my friends, teachers and other supporters who have provided me with a sense of being appreciated for being myself.

Departing question: What are you grateful for that can be both priceless or just something you appreciate?

Life is Now by Hollianne Boucher

It's National Poetry Month in April.  In recognition, I've been reading some poems that I receive daily in my inbox.  In two weeks, I will also be reciting my own poem during the Poetry Assembly at school.  For now, here's a poem by Hollianne Boucher called Life is Now. 

LIFE IS NOW
By Hollianne Boucher

Time flies, and memories fade.
People change and new friendships are made.
Only the true remain forever at our side.
Eventually the disappointment and pain will subside.

It is all about the journey and what has yet to come.
Life is what you make of it; you are what you've become.
Life is too short to hold onto regrets.
Forgiveness is key even though you may never forget.

Cherish the good and remove the bad.
Some people don't realize till it's gone what they've had.
Moving on is a way of life.
There will always be obstacles, pain, and strife.

You must believe that you are strong enough to fight.
You have to believe in yourself to do what is right.
Always do for YOU no matter what you do,
Because in the end the only one who has your back is you.

Never be afraid to take a stand,
And always be willing to lend a helping hand.
A little bit goes a long way.
All it takes is a smile to brighten someone's day.

Your chance to live is now, so what are you waiting for?
The world is yours for the taking and so much more.
Endless possibilities are forever at your disposal.
The chance to live another day is life's golden proposal.

Never let anyone tear you down,
And never let anyone steal your shine and make you frown.
So will you sit in the shadows and let darkness win again?
Or will you rise up and make the light your friend?

Here is your chance, so what will you do?
You've got this because I believe in you!

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/life-is-now

Big Sparks

Big sparks.  That what I saw in the janitor’s eyes today during my free after lunch.  Making sure all the students pick up trash every day after snack and lunch has consistently appeared to be a problem at school.  This is also an issue the Leadership Council has been tackling since October.  We’ve tried various solutions…in fact, one week in the Winter, snack was completely eliminated because students couldn’t clean up properly.  This past week was eventful in a different light…firstly, we decided to initiate a new incentive to encourage people to clean up after themselves, and leadership council hosted a school bake sale.

We hosted a bake sale in order to raise money and buy gift cards for the janitor, Ms. Carla, and the man who maintains our campus, Eddie.  The gift was an acknowledgment and appreciation for their work cleaning up our trash when it has always been each individual student’s duty to clean up after themselves.  In addition to purchasing gift cards, each homeroom representative in Leadership Council made a card to have their homerooms sign, appreciating the work of Ms. Carla and Eddie. In running a bake sale which revolved around the idea of appreciating others who’ve been picking up the trash and messes we leave on the ground, Leadership Council hoped that this would stick in the minds of our student body.  

I’m going to be completely honest…the power of what we had organized didn’t truly touch me until today.  During the free block, me and another member of Leadership walked up to the Ms. Carla and handed her the envelop with all the homeroom cards and the gift cards in it.  We talked about how much we appreciated her work cleaning up after us and that as a Council, we were trying really hard to improve the issue.  Ms. Carla reacted in a way I would have never expected…she teared up.  They were tears of happiness for being appreciated.  She gave me a strong and warm hug, on the verge of full blown crying.  She repeatedly said thank you and I replied thank you, because here was somebody whom very few people in the community talked to, yet still cleaned up after kids whom she barely knew.  I will admit, I did talk her prior to today, though I didn’t know her personally, nor did our conversations extend beyond a “Hello. How are you?” question.  

In the past, I’ve talked about focusing on the small things to appreciate bigger things in life.  Ms. Carla’s reaction to the gift reinforced this for me.  Leadership Council made cards which their homerooms signed, brought treats for a bake sale and we purchased gift cards with the money we’d raised.  When I think back, the Council is composed of 12 students and when we split up those jobs…each person is doing something small, yet nonetheless significant.  Yet every single card in that envelope will make a difference in Ms. Carla’s and Eddie’s life.  Respect the small things, and greater goods will arise from them.  I like how Gail Godwin put it [I believe I’ve shared this quote before]:

“The more you respect and focus on the singular and the strange, the more aware you become of the universal and the infinite.”  ~Gail Godwin

You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen

Yesterday I finished reading You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen, which may or may not be considered a “business” book, but can certainly be considered a member of the self-help genre of books.  Today at the pet store, I used one of the tactics Cohen mentions in

achieving mutual satisfaction when I was buying a moss ball for my science project at school.  I may be basking in my joy a little, but I feel pretty good that I got what I wanted, the store was satisfied that I’d made a purchase and I’m proud that I implemented a tactic from this book!

REVIEW

In You Can Negotiate Anything, Cohen truly promises that almost everything can be negotiated.  Marriages, financial related topics, family relationships, seller related topics etc.  Through reading this book, I think these are the three main ideas I’ve grasped:

1. Investment in time and energy. One of the keys to success in negotiation is having the other side invest time and energy into the negotiation.  Herb Cohen offers the following example in one of the earlier chapters in the book.  Let’s say I’m going to buy a suit at a special suit store, and that particular day, business just doesn’t seem to be going the right direction.  I go to the store and the salesman greets me and helps me find suits that would fit me in the colors that I want.  He lays them out after 30 minutes on a table.  I look at the collection he’s laid out for me and shake my head.  I tell the salesman that I’m looking for the suit perfect suit.  Then, I to the rack of suits [ the ones that are not laid out for me], and take my measuring tape and measure all the lapels, attempting to buy the suit with the perfect lapel length!  Meanwhile, the salesman continues talking to me, trying to convince me to buy perhaps the most suit in the store.  I keep measuring the lapels.  Two hours have passed and I’m still measuring!  This is a clear and overly exaggerated example of having the other side invest time and energy because when I finally find the suit with the perfect lapel length, I say to the salesman, “you know, I like this suit…but you know, it’s a bit on the pricey side”.  After spending two hours with you measuring lapel lengths on a day of poor business, the salesman will probably cut the price down without much hesitation.
2. When negotiating for mutual satisfaction, learn each other’s needs. Firstly, I’ve learned that people are multi-faceted, meaning they care about a wide range of things.  For example, let’s say I want to get a raise.  I am getting paid $50,000 a year right now, but I want $70,000.  I tell my boss this request.  He says he won’t pay me over $60,000.  The key here, is to negotiate needs, not conclusions.  Instead of focusing on negotiating the salary I’m looking for, focus instead on getting to know why I need a raise.  For example, let’s say I’m planning an exotic vacation, or I moved to the city where the rent is more expensive, or the company no longer pays my daily parking fees.  I could talk with my boss about over ways to be compensated.  Maybe I could get my boss to pay for my parking again and pay half my rent and keep my salary at $60,000.  In other words, the key to negotiating for mutual satisfaction, is to understand each other’s needs and focus on negotiating how to meet those needs instead of how to compromise on each others conclusions.  
3. Anything that was the product of a negotiation is negotiable. In other words, timelines, due dates, and prices are often negotiable since they were the product of a negotiation.  Something people do a lot is take signs and words too legitimately.  If the hotel says checkout is at 11:00 AM, they’re not going to punish you for leaving at 2:00 PM.  Cohen tells an interesting story about his experience at a hotel with a checkout time of 11.  At 10:45, when he headed back to his room to fetch his bag, there was no one in line at the checkout desk.  At 11:00 when he came down stairs to leave the hotel, there was a massive line waiting to checkout.  The hotel managers negotiated together when the hotel first opened that 11:00 was a suitable checkout time, thus, if you stretch it a few hours this way or that, they won’t punish you [since they could’ve determined that checkout time be 2 instead of 11 when they first decided upon this time].  This example is actually pretty personal to me as well.  I used to read the cards the hotels had on the desk describing the logistics of the hotels and I would always read the checkout time.  When I was younger, I took it too legitimately. I would rush my parents to make the checkout time.  Now that’s different.  

This book truly teaches you that You Can Negotiate Anything. I recommend this as a quick read.  It only takes the investment of time and energy into learning one tactic to make yourself a better negotiator!  Right now, I’m looking forward to reading Thanks For Being Late, by Tom Friedman, which was recommended by an acquaintance of mine.

The case of Kalief Browder

This past week in History was a little bit depressing.  My teacher spent a class period talking about the case of Kalief Browder, which took place in 2014.  The original article appeared on The New Yorker, but we read an excerpt for the sake of time.  I became really emotional about this case, and it has resonated with me.  Homework on that same subject was difficult, and I found myself angered in my writing.  Here’s the case of Kalief Browder.

***

10 days before Kalief Browder’s seventeenth birthday in 2010, Browder and his friend were returning home late one night, having partied.  They were traveling through the Belmont section of Bronx, New York City.  Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a police car stopped Browder and his friend in their tracks.  The police said that there was a man in the car who accused Browder and his friend of stealing a backpack.  Knowing he was not associated with a robbery, Browder and his friend allowed the police officer to check them.  The police officer found nothing.  The officer returned to his car to inform the man that accused the boys that they had no stolen property on them.  He then returned to Browder and his friend and said that they were now accused of having stolen the backpack two days earlier. Browder and his friend were handcuffed, and assured that they would most likely be okay and be released quickly.  Quickly turned into a few years in jail… all because someone had allegedly accused Browder and his of stealing a backpack.  

Browder’s record was not completely devoid of crime.  Earlier that same year, he had an encounterance with the police when he took a joyride truck for a ride and crashed into a parking lot.  

Seventeen hours after being arrested and thrown into jail, Browder went to court, where he learned that he was accused of robbery, grand larceny and assault.  At around this time, Browder’s friend was freed from the court and found innocent.  Browder meanwhile, had to stay in court.  To continue the case, the judge ordered that a bail of $3000 be paid.  Browder’s family couldn’t afford to pay this bill so he was sent to Riker’s Island, a jail.  

His parents couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer, so the court hired one for Browder.  O’Meara was his name.  O’Meara promised that Browder’s trial would probably be very quick and he’d be out in no time.  Unfortunately, that’s not even close to how it played out.  Browder was being tried in a Bronx court system, which had a reputation for having too many cases each year, that most were never even heard.  His case kept being adjourned by the judge for one week.  Soon, Browder learned that a “one week” adjournment really equaled six weeks or more of adjournment at this particular court.  That part is really shocking to me.  A one week adjournment stretching out to six weeks or more.  

Browder spent this time at Ricker’s, where he was treated poorly.  He was constantly beaten, and most of the time, for no apparent reason.  He witnessed his friends be beaten, blood gushing out their noses and eyes swollen.  Prior to this case, it wasn’t known how gruesomely Ricker’s treated the inmates.  In fact, Browder remembers being threatened if he reported the poor treatment at Ricker’s to the government.  

Day after day, Browder stayed in his jail cell and each day, he only hoped that his trial day was approaching since he knew at heart that he was innocent.  New York has a “ready rule” which states that a case must be ready for court within six months of arraignment.  Clearly, this rule did not follow through, as in 2011 alone, over 74% of cases were over six months old.  Browder’s day in court never came.  

After months of waiting, a compromise occurred.  No trial ever took place [considering how clogged the court system was, very few trials ever took place], but Browder could choose to spend the next 3.5 years in prison, admitting he was “guilty”.  Browder refused this at first, saying he wanted to go to court.  He was so confident in his innocence that he was willing to spend 15 years in prison if he lost the case.  But the trial never took place and 3 ½ years later, Browder was released from Ricker’s as a totally different man.

People say he came out different. The horrors of being in Ricker’s haunted him and he desperately tried multiple times to kill himself.  Finally, at age 22, having no complete high school degree and missing multiple years of college which he tried to make up after coming out of jail, he succeeded in hanging himself.  

***

We’ve been studying the Constitution this past quarter.  I believe just about all of Browder’s Constitutional rights were violated, especially the ones in the Bill of Rights.  The police had no idea whether Browder had actually stolen anything.  In Bronx at least, and in many places around the world, simply being sent to court to be tried almost guarantees years in prison due to the sloppy court system.  Regardless, the most saddening part of this story, is that a man who had potential, was allegedly forced into a position where he became so hopeless that his only resort was to kill himself.  It is this that resonates with me and at the same time, haunts me.    

How you react to it

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." ~Charles Swindoll

I seem to really need that quote today.  I've misplaced my math binder and I can't find it.  It takes patience not to let it worry me this whole night and it takes levelness to let it go tonight and wait to find it at school.  My teacher emailed me my score on a test and I can't seem to get over it.  That takes courage and fortitude not to let it ruin my entire weekend.