Straying from Stress for Students

 Stress is a common worry among college students around the world. Whether you are a freshman or a senior, you feel stress once in a while before tests, homework, or class. It's quite normal to feel this way and I know I have been stressed before. But thankfully I have a few methods that I would like to share with you all today!

One way I soothe my stress is by playing my Gibson Les Paul guitar. I've been playing guitar for a good portion of my life now and it's really nice to sit down and jam along to a nice tune that I've been listening to like "Whale & Wasp" by Alice in Chains, an instrumental track that makes me feel calm whenever I play the song. Without my Gibson guitar, I don't think I'd play or sound as good as I do with it. It's just so much fun physically playing my favorite songs on guitar and making it feel like I'm in the band playing it live. I highly recommend learning an instrument, there are hundreds of videos that can teach you to play if you want to avoid getting a teacher. It's a great skill to have and a great way to show off to your friends too.

Another way I deviate from stress is by listening to my record player. Listening to music off Spotify is a great tool to use but I usually prefer listening to physical media since it gets me to listen to songs I probably wouldn't listen to. For example, I have Sublime's self-titled album with me, and before I owned the vinyl, I only knew of their most popular song, Santeria, off the album. But once I listened to the vinyl, I was able to listen to so many more songs that I wouldn't probably have chosen before. Plus it's also cool having the vinyl and displaying it in my dorm room for everyone to see and ask about. Having vinyl is also good because if you can't sit still while doing homework, you can work for 20 minutes and once the side is over, you can take a quick break to switch sides or change albums and relax for a moment before working again. I find it so nice to be able to do that.

I also like to relieve my stress from school by reading books. I going to be honest, I hated reading growing up because in middle school, they chose some of the most grim and boring books known to man. There were a few good books but they're overshadowed by the numerous amount of bad ones. But in college, I needed something to fill my time so I picked up reading. The most recent book I've been reading is called "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a psychological horror book with a lot of confusion but I don't want to spoil it so check it out. Another series I've been reading is called "Berserk" which is a Japanese manga series I learned about during my time in Japan and it's got some of the best visuals and storytelling I've seen and I highly recommend it even if you don't think visual novels are good, it's so much more than that.

Here's another way to relieve stress, playing video games! More specifically single-player video games. You might be asking, Tim, why not multiplayer video games? Because a majority of them are so stressful playing and just unfun at some points. Single-player video games are much easier to just sit down and enjoy. A game I absolutely love playing is Metal Gear Solid, it's an action-espionage game with some great storytelling and I think it's one of the best games ever made. Nothing beats sneaking around an enemy base and stopping terrorists like Metal Gear. Being able to sit down on the couch, in a chair and just play games for a bit to relieve that stress built up is nice since it kind of makes you escape for a bit and feel like you're in the game.

I also release stress by watching sports like baseball! Baseball I think is the most interesting sport to watch today. Baseball has the most amount of games played in a season by a landslide. In football, for example, teams play 17 games a season, Baseball on the other hand, teams play 162 games a season which is mind-boggling to think about. Baseball is also a sport where you have to know how to play two positions instead of having a designated offense and defense, a player has to play both during the game, with exceptions for pitchers and designated hitters. I thought for a while baseball was uninteresting but recently I just can't stop watching it, it's so good and if you don't watch baseball, I recommend watching it, especially since there's Shohei Ohtani, the highest-paid athlete in any sport, he truly is a spectacle to watch. At the time of writing this, he currently has 47 home runs and 48 stolen bases on track to have the first ever 50-50 season which he'll hopefully obtain by the end of the season which has 12 games left.

Speaking of watching things, another stress reliever I've found is watching movies! I love movies, especially since my major is Media Production. Watching movies on Amazon Prime Video with videos on-demand and at a theater really help me relieve my stress because there's just so many movies out there to watch. Whether you're looking for more comedic movies like "Office Space" or "Naked Gun" or something more intense like "Whiplash" or "Fight Club" there's something out there for everyone to watch and relax to. Movies are something that we try to bring into our own lives and make them apart of our own characters because you feel a connection to them.

You can't enjoy a movie without some food too. Which leads to my next stress reliever, cooking. I enjoy cooking a lot, I like to say that it always tastes better when you're the one who makes it. I myself have a lot of cooking experience from working at Chick-fil-A, Jersey Mike's, and most recently Hearthly Burger which is a local burger joint back home. I always am trying to cook better and improve because sometimes you just want to stay home and watch movies or TV and not go anywhere. Using my Mitsumoto cutting knife, I'm able to cut ingredients up with precision and ease. Besides that smell of cooking food is so nice and calms me down a lot knowing that I'm about to eat some of the best food I've had. Cooking is a fun stress reliever, especially if you like eating food.

On the topic of making things, I also like to make mixed drinks. I know I know, what is a college student without drinking. But being able to create drinks to drink is fun, especially when doing tricks with the shaker before pouring out a pina colada. Drinking loosens you up and helps you relax after a stressful week. Friday after class and either cracking open a nice Asahi beer or pouring out a blackberry whiskey lemonade using Blackened Whiskey helps you relax and relieve that stress with a rocking taste for your mouth to enjoy.

When I was studying abroad in Japan, one of the ways I learned to relieve stress was karaoke! Getting a bunch of friends and going out to karaoke on a Friday or Saturday is one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a night. I don't think I've ever had a night at karaoke where I wasn't having a blast singing my favorite songs off-key or in a funny voice. It's just a great way to kick off a weekend and just have a grand time with friends and seeing each other's taste in music.

Key Phrases: Stress relief ideas for students, music to calm your stress, cook your stress away

EOTO #2: Mainstream Media

Mainstream Media are Media Outlets typically owned by large corporations such as Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, that report conventional news like Sports, Politics, World News, and Entertainment. Mainstream Media is delivered to us in many different forms today. There's the newspaper, television, websites, and most recently, social media. All of these ways of communication is for the companies to reach the maximum amount of people they possibly can. Social Media is the most effective way today because 4.9 million people are on social media and a lot of teenagers prefer social media over physical media also caused the shift in prioritizing social media over conventional.

A good thing to come out of Mainstream Media is that it spreads awareness very fast. Prior to the internet, it would take about a week for news on the other side of the country and even the world to reach us. But thanks to mainstream media, we are able to get the latest news instantly without having to wait. A recent example of this would be the wildfires in Hawaii that happened 2 months ago. Without mainstream media, we wouldn't have known about the fires for at least a week or two after they happened because a reporter would have to get on a boat or a plane. go to California to tell them about the news, then the people there would call everywhere else in the country to write up a story about it. With Mainstream Media we are able to get that information very fast and keep up to date on the latest about the fires.

But Mainstream Media also has its disadvantages such as being very biased depending on which outlet you visit. For example, Fox News tends to be very conservative in its news while CNN tends to be liberal in theirs. These differences in views have caused the public to be divided which sucks because we shouldn't be fighting over who's right and who's wrong, we should learn to get along and agree to disagree with each other. Just because someone else has a different view than you doesn't mean you shouldn't be friends with them. It's healthy to debate and have a civil conversation without hating the other person's guts which is now a norm for us today. Another disadvantage of Mainstream Media is that with such a large outlet to post on, there's fake news that can be spread throughout it. This was a major issue a few years ago but as of recently, I feel, it has decreased substantially but there are some instances here and there. A big takeaway from fake news would be to do your own research on the article you are reading and make sure that it's telling the truth and that the sources are reliable and accurate.

Mainstream Media doesn't affect people my age and younger because we don't look at mainstream media at all, it's mostly TikToks, Instagram posts, and celebrities that are our priority, not what's going on in the world so that demographic is not to worry about. But other segments should worry because of fake news, which is misinformation spreads through mainstream media and people believe it, it causes people to worry and put thoughts in people's heads about stuff and gives them bad ideas. My message to everyone is to always do your research when you see something insane said, check if it's taken out of context to pose the person in a negative light, check if the sources are reliable, and if it's an echo chamber or not. Then you can form your own opinion about the situation because you now have all of the facts laid out for you. If the article is lying then find out the truth and base your opinion off that instead of the fake news.

Sources:

https://byjusexamprep.com/upsc-exam/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mass-media 

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/how-young-people-consume-news-and-implications-mainstream-media

https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-communication/resource/the-pros-and-cons-of-mass-media

Privacy Online & Offline

 

It is very important nowadays to keep your digital footprint clean, especially as college students looking for jobs and internships very soon. The first TED talk I watched was Juan Enriquez's Permanent Tattoo. The Electronic Tattoo talk was very intriguing to listen to because everyone is affected by it. With everything we post, it's immortalized in a database and it knows who you are and what you like which is scary. I like how Juan talked about Greek mythology and related all of them to us posting online. But the most intriguing one was the Andy Warhol quote about how everyone in the future, which is now, will only have 15 minutes of fame. Quite scary for a quote said back in 1966 because it's pretty much become a reality with apps like TikTok and Instagram and people get that short-lived fame when their post goes "viral".

The Next TED talk I watched was Christopher Soghoian's How to Avoid Surveillance. I already knew that the government listens into phone calls all the time, that's a no-brainer. But what I didn't know was that iMessage and WhatsApp have message encryption which the government isn't happy about and the government is trying to get rid of that so they can view our messages. I think that's bad because most of the population are normal, everyday people texting friends and family. Just because there are a few bad apples in the pile doesn't mean we should compromise everyone else. But having that knowledge of the fact that the government can't see my text gives me ease that they're not always listening to what I say and reading what I write.

I think that the government should not be nosing into everyone's business unless there's an actual threat to someone or something that'll happen. There should be a trigger for their system when someone is planning something instead of having thousands of employees listening in on phone calls each day keeping track. Just have a robot do that and find out who is sinister. Spying in on normal, everyday people just talking about what they did that day to whomever they're talking to is eerie to think about. I understand the importance of government surveillance but it's a bit too much for people.

We can protect ourselves from privacy invasions by, as I mentioned earlier, using iMessage, FaceTime, or WhatsApp to communicate with each other as the most secure communication method. We should also be careful of what we post online which could potentially damage our reputation and prevent us from future employment. In my strategic communication class, we recently talked about how it's difficult to build an image but it's easy to take down. What that means is that it takes years to make a good reputation for ourselves but it can all come crashing down very fast with posting bad things online. So, always be mindful of what you're posting online and stay safe.

Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers explains how ideas and technology spread through a market share graph. This graph shows us the lifespan of a new product introduced to the market. In this case, it'll be a new piece of technology.

This article from the Corporate Finance Institute gives me a more condensed definition of each of the 5 stages of a product. Innovators are the first people to try out the new technology, early adopters are the people who are willing to adopt the new technology into their lifestyle, the early majority are the people who buy the new technology before the average man gets around to it, the late majority are the people who were skeptical about the technology at first but eventually caved in and bought it, and the Laggards are the people who don't care about it at all.

An example of a piece of technology that follows the diffusion of innovation is streaming services. Netflix was the first-ever streaming service for television with 1000 movies available in its catalog. But it was still early on when Netflix had thousands of DVDs with its rental service. 

Hulu was the next streaming service to launch and it came a few months after Netflix launched theirs. I would consider Hulu to be an Early Adapter.

Now for the longest time, there was no competition for Netflix for years, Netflix had a monopoly on the streaming service realm. The only other competition was streaming services like "Crunchyroll", a streaming service for Anime but it was only for anime while Netflix was for pretty much all popular media. That was until Disney released Disney+ in 2019, the first true competition for Netflix, and people for once had a choice for streaming services because all of Disney-owned IPs; Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, you name it were all on there whilst Netflix still had everything else. That was until all of the larger companies saw how much money Netflix and Disney were making from this and decided to cash in as the Late Majority during COVID.

A downside of all of this is there are way too many streaming services now. Prior to now, it was just Netflix with a $10-$15 subscription. Now you need a subscription for Netflix, one for Disney, Max, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount, and the list goes on and on where instead of paying $15 a month, you're now paying $500 for all of this stuff. It would be so much easier for everything to be on one service for like $20 and you'd get so many users but nope, all of these companies are greedy for your money and don't care about convenience. 

It's really hard for the positives to outweigh the negatives in this situation because streaming services have become oversaturated with every large corporation wanting a piece of the streaming service pie. My suggestion would be to figure out what show you want to watch on its respective service. Pay for it and once you finish the show, cancel it and move on to something else. It's tedious but it's the most cost-effective.

The Progressive Era

 

The reason for us having to scour the World Wide Web for these obscure websites is because the mainstream media we all know are being paid by the government to not talk about certain issues in our world. If you go onto CNN, for example, you're met with an article about Trump because CNN loves to bash Trump in the news, Ukraine being praised, and a bunch of other stuff that doesn't really matter all that much. But if you travel to Antiwar.com, you're met with a bunch of eye-opening sources that the media tries to push under the rug because it'll make the Biden Administration look bad. One article that really piqued my interest was "Senate Announces Stopgap Funding Bill That Includes $6.2 Billion for Ukraine"

. That's an incomprehensible amount of money being sent to a country that already has gotten billions in donations from us. We could be using that money to help out our cities, Hawaii, and our homeless problem. Nope, let's just keep funneling money to Ukraine because we don't need it whatsoever. 

Now, we don't hear about this at all in mainstream media whatsoever because, like I said, a lot of media outlets don't want to make Biden look bad. The Biden Administration pays many news outlets to not cover this stuff to make it look like they're doing a good job. That's why we have to resort to these smaller, more underground outlets to find out what's going on in the world because the mainstream media won't give us this stuff. They're more worried about celebrity gossip, Trump's indictment, and other useless information to distract you from what's really going on. It's like the Matrix almost, where everyone is in those pods in a "dream" and people are waking up to the real world where the truth lies.

I honestly hate this, I hate that we as people of the world don't have the truth given to us, it's usually tucked away from the public's eye to make people look good. I am genuinely frustrated about all of this. We shouldn't have to do a deep dive into the internet to find the truth, we should really be reporting on everything that goes on but we can't because of money. Money is the reason why we have to search for all of this stuff. Paying the media off to praise you and not defile your name is a great way for bad people to hide behind a facade. Bribing reporters is the reason for us having to look for the truth. I mean I don't blame the reporters for taking such a large sum of money to keep quiet about this. I'd probably do the same to make some extra cash. But since I don't, I'm gonna get on my soapbox and rant about how corrupt our government is controlling the media like that and how blinded by greed reporters can be for money. That's just how the world works I guess, money solves problems.

Technology I learned about from EOTO 1

 

The cassette tape was one of the more exciting technologies I learned about in the EOTO presentations. For me, cassette tapes have been a short-lived piece of media because they were very flimsy, didn't sound too good, and were replaced by CDs. But to my surprise, the cassette first hit the market in 1963 as a way to make listening to your favorite music on the go instead of having a record player bounce in your car skipping tracks with every bump you hit. I also thought that the cassette was an American invention but it turned out to be a Belgian invention. 

Cassettes were not only for listening to music but for recording stuff too. Blank tapes were also made and could record memos, custom answering machine voicemails, and recording riffs for your band so you don't forget what you made. But the cassette had its downsides being made of cheap plastic, causing them to break easily, any prolonged heat exposure caused the cassettes to melt or warp the recording on it, and after prolonged use of the cassette, they wore down and didn't sound nearly as good. Which, eventually, caused them to be replaced by CDs in the 90s as the best form of media to purchase

I own a few cassette tapes but I never really got interested in them. I really love vinyl and have a ton of records back home with a nice record player. But I knew a lot about vinyl already so learning more about a "phased out" piece of media. The reason I say phased out is because a few bands still use cassettes as a way of sharing their music. Metallica, for example, released an album back in April 2023 and one of the ways you could buy the album was by cassette. There are so many ways to listen to music now but I'm glad there is still a niche for cassettes. Cassettes served their purpose back in the 70s and 80s but the world moved on to more stable media like the CD then iPods, and then streaming services. And more recently, vinyl made a reintroduction to the music world but cassettes never caught on like vinyl. It's sad to see but that's the way life is sometimes.

EOTO: How the iPhone Revolutionized the Cell Phone Market Forever

 

The iPhone is Apple's smartphone line that people around the world use as a means of communication through texting, FaceTime, phone calls, and social media.

The iPhone first started development back in 2004 under the super top secret codename "Project Purple" with 1000 of Apple's employees working on the project. They wanted to tackle the mobile phone market with the most advanced piece of technology ever. Apple wanted to solve the problem of condensing your technology so you don't have to carry so much, but instead fit it in your pocket. Then, after 3 years of development, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple at the time, unveiled the iPhone to the world at MacWorld 2007 and completely revolutionized the cell phone market as we know it today as a phone with the ability to listen to music, call people, take photos, check the time, take notes and browse the internet from just one device. Using multi-touch technology, the iPhone has a touch screen that requires no stylus or input lag. Every input was responsive with no delay.

The first iPhone had a starting price of $599.99 and sold 300,000 units in the first weekend alone. People were still hesitant to make the switch to the iPhone and thought it would just be a fad that faded off so some just stuck with their Blackberries and Nokias. My dad still uses a Blackberry to this day because he likes the feel of the keyboard buttons. The iPhone at the time was years ahead of every other company and had every cell phone company scramble to catch up with the times of the iPhone. Some companies just weren't able to catch up and faded from existence. The only notable companies still in the smartphone game are Samsung, Android, and Google.

Every year with each new iPhone release, Apple has always found a way to one-up their last model with new features to stay ahead of the competition with technology such as Touch-ID being introduced on the iPhone 5, Face-ID, and a button-free screen introduced on the iPhone X, and most recently, the island notch on the iPhone 14 Pro.

Despite the impact of the iPhone on cell phones, the iPhone is not the leading phone used by people around the world. Many people around the world are using Androids because they can be cheaply made and cost less to buy which is a main selling point for many people who live in less fortunate countries.

The iPhone completely changed the cellphone and smartphone industry. People were now able to call, text, email, listen to music, and browse the web from the palm of their hand without the need for a computer by their side at all times to do such things. This has revolutionized the mobile phone industry and set the standard for all companies to follow. You would be crazy to think that the iPhone didn't have an impact on our world because it forever changed the way we communicate with people.