2016 Election

Today in class, we watched the Republican debate.  Before last year, I knew nearly nothing about politics, but now that I'm 18 and will be able to vote in the next presidential election, I feel that it is my obligation to follow the presidential campaigns and develop a greater sense of politics.  I have been intending on watching each debate, but they were all scheduled at inconvenient times and I have not found the time to watch them.  Prior to today's class, just about all of what I knew about the election came from the media, which I knew I couldn't completely trust because it is usually biased in some way.  I probably will not have much time to watch many of the future debates until AP exams happen, as my schoolwork will significantly decrease at that point, so watching the debate in class today was important to me because it showed me first hand what to expect to see when my schoolwork lessens.  I do not have much experience watching politics, but I know a few things about general etiquette, so I was amazed by how some of the republicans acted towards each other.  The one candidate that stands out from the rest in the area of offensiveness is Donald Trump.  I know that he is an outlier and does not represent the Republican candidates well, but it is amazing how he can tell other candidates that they are stupid and that their ideas will never work.  Donald Trump reached an all time low when the crowd started to boo him, and he reacted by telling the crowd that they support terrorism.  Also, Trump proposed that the United States should kill the family members of terrorist, which is absurd, and is, as Rand Paul states, against the Geneva Convention.  So, what I learned from today's class is that Donald Trump is as bad as the media says, and that the Republican debate can be very funny.  Hopefully the Democratic  debates end up just as funny the the Republican ones.

White Christmas

As we are approaching Christmas time, it feels as though the weather is getting warmer and warmer.  Although it is not rare for it to not snow at this point in the year, it feels wrong to go skiing in a tshirt in almost the middle of December.  Personally, I would not mind if this trend of not-so-cold weather stayed for a while, as it means less shoveling and that I do not have to do track workouts in the field house.  However, according to accuweather, the high for December 25th is 52 degrees, which would bring a strangely warm Christmas.  As much as I want warmer weather for the winter time, the feeling of comfort from being inside a warm house within a bitter cold environment is a huge part of the greatness of Christmas and we need snow to cover the leafless trees so that New England can be pretty again.  Then again, we should enjoy being able to go outside without a winter jacket, because in the middle of February, when it gets below zero degrees, many will be wishing that spring comes as soon as possible.

Phones

Today, my stats class started off the day by analyzing the statistics of phone usage.  According to the data, increased phone usage correlated with less sleep, lower GPAs and higher depression.  Although correlation does not mean causation, it is easy to tell how increased phone usage can lead to such bad effects.  For example, many people use their phones so much that they constantly expect to get a notification, so when they go to bed it is harder to fall asleep because they still expect something from their phone, and (according to Skehan) even when they finally fall asleep, it takes longer for them to fall into a solid REM cycle because their subconcious is expecting a notification from the phone.  

There is only a correlation between phone usage and these adverse effects, so by no means does it mean that you will become depressed or develop sleep apnea because you use your phone too much.  However, it is important to learn how to use a phone and to get the best out of it.  As technology increases, we get introduced to more and more distractions, and because of the pleasure principal, our brains would much rather play candy crush than study for calculus, so it easier than ever for us to procrastinate and slack off at school.  If we did not have these distractions, we would perform better in many aspects of life, but just because we are addicted to our phones does not mean we are doomed.  If there was anything I was convinced of today, it was that phones are amazing inventions, but many people use them in a way that could promote adverse effects.