Week Two: Mindfulness: How Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Communication, and Your Life

Humans living in the 21st century, especially in the United States, lead very busy lives. We feel constant pressure to work, or else risk falling behind our peers. I am not an exception to this. I wake up, instantly check my phone for notifications, and then get my day started. I go to class for about three to four hours daily, followed by an equal amount of time on schoolwork, an hour or two of exercise, and constant movement in between each activity. When I have a spare moment, I spend my time on YouTube or Skillshare, researching Ted Talks or other videos on topics where I want to learn or expand my skills. I do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. If I'm lucky, I might get a short nap in the middle of the day, but when I am not constantly busy I habitually pick up my phone to mindlessly scroll through social media. Many days, I wake up at 5am and my brain doesn’t get a true break until I fall asleep, around 11pm. This lifestyle is a recipe for unnecessary stress and I feel the impact on my mental health when I do not give myself breaks. The pressure I feel to constantly improve makes me feel sick about wasting time. I notice when I am at a level of heightened stress, my communication skills are the first to suffer. I become more agitated and communicate my thoughts poorly with friends and peers. This becomes a nasty cycle, as I am then stressed because of my inability to communicate, which then leads to worse communication. My schoolwork suffers as well because of my inability to elaborate on my thoughts.

It is only when we are able to identify there is a problem, that we can then clue in on a solution. For me, I felt myself spiraling early last semester. My brain was so clogged by stress that I did not have the headspace to even recognize there was a problem. I was spending too much time worrying about my friends when I was doing schoolwork and then found myself worrying about schoolwork when I was with my friends. It was difficult to be in the moment and enjoy an activity while I was doing it. That is when I was introduced to a video on mindfulness, from Vox's Netflix series: The Mind Explained. It talked about how a person can practice mindfulness by purposefully bringing their attention to the present moment. A monk in the Netflix video spells out the many benefits of mindfulness. He compares it to a workout for our brain. Just like going to the gym to strengthen our muscles, we can practice mindfulness to strengthen our minds. All of this information was backed by research, including one study that even shows that expert mindfulness practitioners had a higher tolerance for pain than others.

Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, protests his government by setting himself aflame. While he was burning he was so at peace that he did not move or make a sound during the incident.

There are many ways people try to give their brain a dose of mindfulness. You can achieve it through yoga, listening to music, playing sports, or doing any activity that allows you to achieve a "flow" state, or being in the zone. The most common way to practice mindfulness is through the act of meditation. Taking five or ten minutes to sit still, and do nothing but focus on your breath, has drastic benefits to your health. I started to practice meditation after watching the video, and I have noticed fantastic results. I became particularly interested in this video because of the ability to calm your "monkey mind", as monks like to call it. The monkey mind is when our mind is chattering non-stop and we cannot control it. The monkey mind wants to pull our attention out of the present moment to focus on the stresses in our life. By practicing to tame the monkey inside us, we allow our brain to stop worrying about the past or the future, and to live free from worry in the present.

All of this got me interested in how I could become a better, happier version of myself. As I said, my biggest issue with stress is the handicap it puts on my ability to communicate with others. I now understand that the idea of mindfulness can be implemented in everything we do, including, in my case: becoming a mindful communicator. When I am speaking with friends or peers, I try to eliminate any distractions, such as being on my phone, to focus solely on what the person has to say. I have noticed that when I actively practice this, I have higher emotional intelligence, greater empathy, and an ability to pick up on more social cues than before. Science has proven that being mindful helps improve communication and even relationships. A study done by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that after couples went to an eight-week mindfulness training, they experienced higher satisfaction in their relationships.

I really would encourage everyone to try to practice mindfulness, especially through meditation. I ideally like to practice in the morning, about fifteen minutes after waking up, and fifteen to thirty minutes before going to sleep. Set a timer for three minutes when starting out, and only focus on breathing in and out. Allow the air to reach deep into your diaphragm, and then exhale slowly. Acknowledge any passing thoughts or distractions, and bring your attention back to your breath. Allow your brain to do absolutely nothing. Do not feel worried if you have a hard time focusing. It will be difficult, and you may even feel quite stupid at first. Afterward, take a moment to assess how you are feeling. Most likely you will at least feel a bit more relaxed. As you become better at the skill, expand the time to five, ten, and eventually twenty minutes. My life has been positively affected by this practice, and if you are struggling with stress or overwork, you may find this helpful. I truly believe if everyone would give themselves a few minutes of mindfulness each day, the world would be a much brighter and better place.

Here are some links that you may find helpful on your journey toward mindfulness!

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/meditation-for-beginners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyj8l9miy4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq6j9uWrcfg

Week Seven: iPhones: How the Introduction of Smartphone Technology Has Impacted Our Society

Can you remember what life was like before you had a smartphone? How did you spend your free time? When you were bored, what did you do when you couldn’t pull up the entire internet with a few touches of a button? How has this invention changed your life, and where do you think you would be if the smartphone was never invented? The king of all smartphones, the iPhone, was first announced on June 29th, 2007, and the world was forever changed. While it wasn’t the first smartphone, the iPhone 1 ushered in the technology to the mainstream public. It had only 4GB of space, a single two-megapixel camera, and was 3.5 inches thick. Thirteen years of innovation and fifteen models later, the iPhone 11 can now hold up to 512GB of data, shoot video front and back with a twelve-megapixel camera, and is now 8.3mm thick, less than ⅓ of an inch. There are now over two million applications on the App Store. The iPhone has undoubtedly made an indelible impact on society. My question is: has it changed the world for better or for worse?

Of course, the iPhone, and smartphones in general, offer so many different advantages. All the information we could ever possibly need is right there in our pockets. Running late to work? Mapping apps like Waze can find the quickest route possible to your destination by avoiding traffic. Looking for a place to eat? Yelp will help you find the best spot for whatever you are in the mood for. Certain innovations even save lives. In the Health app on iPhone, you can put any information that may be necessary for an emergency, such as medical issues, medications, and blood type. So if you are having an allergic reaction, vital information can be easily accessed by first responders, without them having to unlock your phone. Life 360 allows you to see the location of anyone you connect with, as well as other safety information. My family mostly uses it to tell me to “SLOW DOWN!!” when they check my driving history. Phones allow rescuers to pinpoint exactly where to help during an emergency, connect people on opposite sides of the world, and bring ease to business life. They have allowed for better communication, easier sharing of information, and overall convenience for all of humanity. 

A recent study shows that around 80% of the population uses smartphones daily. Never before has the world been more connected. But what effect does all this phone usage have on our society? For me, my iPhone has become an addiction. What would I do without my phone for a day? I have friends who go crazy if they forget their phones outside of the bathroom. It is the first thing I grab in the morning and the last thing I look at before sleep. Endless scrolling on Twitter provides me with zero benefits, yet I do it so often because my brain craves the dopamine that a funny meme or update on LeBron James provides. My screen time application says that this week I have averaged three hours and five minutes on my phone a day, and I pick it up an average of 114 times daily. The average human spends three hours and 15 minutes a day on their phone. Imagine what you could do if you had three extra hours a day. What if instead of picking up your phone 114 times a day, you picked up a book 114 times instead? What could you do with all of this extra time, all of this extra knowledge? Now imagine if you multiplied these numbers out on a scale of years, decades. Multiply that number onto the rest of the 80% of the population. Based on this calculation, approximately 150 trillion man-hours are spent on the phone a year. Where would our race be with this much more time off our phone? Would we spend the time being productive, or would we find another way to waste time? What advances would have occurred? Would we already be mastering interstellar travel, or be in the same spot as we are now?

Obviously, these are very hypothetical examples. Smartphones have become so ingrained in our society, and there are far too many variables to account for, that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how the world would be different without them. But the list of negatives they bring is alarming. Studies show that addiction to smartphones is very common. People are spending less time in the real world and more time on the little rectangle in our pockets. I have more friends with Nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, than without. Spending excessive time on the phone has been proven to have a negative impact on sleep, happiness, and health. Unfortunately, it seems that companies do not care about this. They specifically design their apps to act like a slot machine, psychologically designing it so we spend endless time on the phone. 

The current way we use smartphones is a detriment to society. The wasted hours, loss sleep, and reduction in happiness it has brought me outweighs any benefits I can think of. Unfortunately, I have found it hard to find a way to beat the addiction. Our society has moved toward making smartphones more mainstream by integrating it into daily life. While this means it is more convenient for those who have smartphones, it makes leaving them behind almost impossible. So how can you fight your addiction?

The first thing I would suggest is to track how much time you spend. The screen time app will allow you to see data on your phone usage, including how much time you were on the phone, how many times you picked it up, how many notifications you have on average, and which applications you use the most. You can set restrictions on how much time you can spend on the phone, and on specific apps. My next solution would be to not keep your phone in the room when you are trying to sleep. Charge it outside of the bedroom, and use a designated alarm clock to wake you up. Turn on Nightshift, which reduces the amount of blue light, the type of light that keeps us awake, your phone emits after a certain time. I would also say delete apps that are not essential. If you need your phone for work, only use your phone to make calls, check emails, and keep anything else that helps with business convenience. If you struggle with this, do what I call “Zero Dark Thirty” mode, an idea I copied from basketball star LeBron James. During the start of every NBA Playoffs, James will post a black picture with the caption “ZERO DARK THIRTY Activated” on all of his social media platforms, and go quiet online until the playoffs are over. James, who is known for stepping up his already ridiculous basketball production in the playoffs, has always been someone I look up to. When I am especially busy, I adopt his philosophy in order to cut out distractions. I delete all nonessential apps, like Instagram and Twitter, so that my phone is only used when absolutely necessary. I would recommend this to anyone who has trouble focusing. Other solutions would be to turn on Grayscale, making the phone much less interesting to look at, or turning off notifications except calls and texts. 

I am grateful for the invention of the iPhone. I do not believe the creators had malicious intentions when it was invented. But I believe our society has a problem with the way we use it. Overuse has led to widespread addiction, mental illness, and loss of patience. As humanity progresses, we will need to learn how to overcome phone addiction. I believe that those who recognize the problem early and actively take measures to reduce their time spent on the phone will be the most successful. I urge everyone to give the steps I outlined a try, and snap out of the spell of phone addiction before it's too late…

https://blog.rescuetime.com/screen-time-stats-2018/
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/6/21048116/tech-companies-time-well-spent-mobile-phone-usage-data

Week Three: Founding Era: My Thoughts On The Supreme Court, The Constitution, and How to Survive In An Always Changing World

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States and believed to be the most powerful judicial body on Earth. It derives its power from the Constitution, and is incredibly important to society, as it has helped to shape our country's laws. Many other courts around the world have modeled their judicial system after ours. The public trusts the nine justices to remain impartial on issues, and preserve the legitimacy of the Constitution by ruling on cases based on what our Founding Fathers wanted for our country.

While learning about this, a question arose in my mind. Should we still look to the Founding Fathers to uphold our democracy? Should we read their words as literally as possible? Or should we strive to maintain the ideals they believed in? The ideals of forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing liberty, freedom, and justice for all. As influential as they are to shaping our country, and the modern world in general, should the Founding Fathers still have an impact on how we make laws? The last Founding Father to die, James Madison, passed away in 1836, nearly two hundred years ago. Society has changed so much in this time, could the Founding Fathers even imagine the world we are living in now? It would be impossible for them to prepare for every single scenario.

Now I am not calling for the entire Constitution or Supreme Court to be thrown out and changed. Far from it. The ideas of innovators such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were far ahead of their time, and these men should be immortalized for their accomplishments. I believe the system as it stands is in a good spot, I just question looking to these men, who lived during the 1700s, to guide over how we live in the year 2020. The world was much different back then. In order to continue to make advances as a species, we need to adapt to our current standing, and not take the exact words of a document written in a much different era as law. If we do not continue to improve upon our current problems, our progress will stagnate. Evolution is the survival of the fittest. Those individuals who overcome challenges and grow from them will be the most successful. I think this belief holds true for our country as a whole. 

One case study for this would be the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment grants us the right to "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". Certainly, this amendment was of importance during the time period. We were just coming out of a brutal war. People who felt they were being wronged by their government rose up to fight the tyrannical British Empire. This amendment was put in place so that people could feel safe, and it ensured to the people in charge that if they made laws that infringed on people's rights, the populace could fight back.

But looking at the amendment in a modern-day perspective is much different. There have been significant advances in weapon technology. In the 1770s, the weapon of the time was a flintlock musket. The reload time was anywhere from 15-30 seconds for each bullet. A rifleman needed to manually go through all of the steps to reload, including pouring gunpowder down the barrel of the gun. At peak efficiency, a rifle could be shot anywhere from 2-4 times a minute. After two hundred years filled with war, and billions of dollars poured into warfare innovation, a typical rifle now can fire as high as 150 rounds a minute. These weapons have been designed to kill many people as efficiently and effectively as possible. The rise of gun violence in the United States poses the question: Should the Second Amendment be updated? Could our Founding Fathers have anticipated these types of advancements? What would be their opinions be if they were here now? The United States by far has more gun violence than the rest of the world, and I believe that while the Second Amendment is important, we should look at it from a 21st-century lens. Certain weapons, such as the AR-15, which is used in many mass shootings, should have stricter rules on who can acquire it, and when/where it can be used. I certainly believe that Americans should have access to protection in the form of guns, but there should be a strict training process and screening period, in order to ensure only good people have access to them, and they understand the damage that can be caused. 

This is why looking at the Constitution, and the Supreme Court's rulings, through the eyes of our Founding Fathers can be dangerous in certain cases. The laws have not changed, and because of that, there were more mass shootings than days of the year in 2019. Fortunately, Article V of the Constitution addresses this issue. The most forward-thinking piece of the Constitution, Article V allows Congress to amend the Constitution. Since then, the Constitution has been amended a total of twenty-seven times.

It is my belief that we need to view the Constitution as a living, breathing document that should be updated based on the IDEALS of the Founding Fathers, and less on the exact wording of what was written in 1787. The Founding Fathers provided an amazing framework for how our democracy should be run, now it is up to the Supreme Court to validate their document, and update it to modern standards. The Supreme Court should strive to uphold the Constitution in order to advance the United States, and all of humankind, in the most efficient but fair way possible.

https://constitutionus.com/

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/08/05/743579605/how-the-u-s-compares-to-other-countries-in-deaths-from-gun-violence

https://qz.com/1212809/compare-us-mass-shootings-and-gun-control-to-germany-china-russia-switzerland-and-australia/

Week Four: The First Amendment: Where Do We Draw The Line?

A man, Brandon Fleury, has recently been sentenced to 66 months in prison. His crime: posing as the Parkland, Florida school shooter on social media and threatening the family members of the victims through direct messaging (DM) and Instagram posts. The shooting, which occurred on February 14th, 2018, saw 17 innocent people lose their lives and sparked fierce debates about stricter gun regulations. Brandon Fleury, age 22, was convicted of sending DMs to Jesse Guttenberg, the brother of victim Jamie Guttenberg, with messages like "I stole your sister's future, with the power of my AR-15”. Fleury claimed he only was trying to "troll" the survivors, and that his messages were meant to be seen as taunts, not threats toward those who are grieving. He claims his actions were to fight those who push for stricter gun laws, and intimidate the families to back off the fight. Since the shooting, the Guttenberg family, as well as many others, have been at the front of the March For Our Lives movement, pushing for more gun control. 

During the trial, Brandon Fleury tried to claim that he was within his right to speak freely and that he is "entitled to special protection under the First Amendment". His lawyer claimed "He never thought what he did was illegal. He believed he was just being a troll, which is what so many people do on the internet. He never intended to scare anybody, so for him, this is obviously a nightmare". But during the police investigation, alarming discoveries were made about Fleury. Federal agents seized his tablet, which contained thousands of pictures of infamous serial killers, including Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, as well as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Fleury had access to thirteen different Instagram accounts, including the handles @the.douglas.shooter, @nikolas.killed.your.sister, and @nikolas.the.murderer. Fleury, initially charged with two counts of cyberstalking and one count of threatening to kidnap, was sentenced to more than five years in a minimum-security prison. 

I agree with U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz's decision to sentence Fleury to prison. The actions of this man should not be allowed. If Fleury wanted to show support for the Second Amendment, he could have achieved that goal in numerous other effective, non-threatening, and public ways. If he disagreed with the victim's family's stance on gun control, he should have advocated his opinion civilly, perhaps by supporting the National Rifle Association, or spirited but polite debates on social media. Instead, he elected to twist the knife of grief that these families surely still feel, as well as threaten them physically. The way he handled this situation was wrong, and frankly, in my opinion, it delegitimizes his stance on the issue because of the evil methods he chose. As a person who advocates for stricter regulations on gun ownership, I am more than willing to listen to other opinions. I realize I may have a limited scope on the issue, and I am all for expanding this perspective by hearing the opinions of others. This is where the First Amendment is at its strongest; when people can express the experiences they have had, and expand society's understanding of complicated topics, such as gun control. It loses its legitimacy, however, when individuals like Brandon Fleury claim they are allowed to emotionally torment victims under the guise of "free speech". Judge Rodolfo Ruiz did his part in helping to solidify what the First Amendment should stand for this week, and I am grateful for his ruling.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/brandon-fleury-gets-prison-sentence-for-harassing-parkland-victims-11578987

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/man-who-cyberstalked-and-threatened-families-parkland-victims-sentenced-prison

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/us/parkland-shooting-brandon-fleury.html

Week Six: Drones: Combating The World's Newest Pandemic

It seems that every time I log onto Twitter or scroll through Facebook, I see an increasingly scary update about the spread of the Coronavirus. The headlines read, “The World Health Organization announces Coronavirus is now deadlier than the flu”, “US Coronavirus cases climb past 120”, and most recently “First North Carolina Coronavirus case”. The stories get worse the more you read. It does not help my conscious that the Panther Plague, the student-given name for the cold that spreads easily at High Point University, has been running rampant the last few weeks, causing many of my friends to fall ill, while my blood pressure skyrockets. The scariest headline I’ve seen is “Steve Wozniak believes he is ‘Patient Zero’ for COVID-19 in the United States”. I honestly gasped when I read that headline, after all, I just met the Apple co-founder when he spoke at HPU last month, this is not the type of news I enjoy seeing. I have now gone to the length of muting the word “corona”, “virus”, and “pandemic” from my social media pages.

Believe it or not, something that did calm my nerves was doing my communication timeline project for my Media Law and Literacy course. The topic researched was how drones have become useful as a communication tool. During my research, I found that drones are now being used to fight the new virus and stop the spread of disease. Gone are the days of needing to stick a thermometer in your mouth, or needing a mother’s touch on the forehead to find out if you’re sick. The quadcopter Draganflyer X4-ES is being used to save human lives, with a built-in thermal measuring device that can detect a person’s facial temperature from up to 100 yards away! The camera on the drone, paired with AI, can monitor people to see if they exhibit signs of coronavirus, such as watery eyes and high blood pressure. With this new technology, we can identify what people need assistance, and deliver medication to afflicted people, without having to expose doctors, nurses and first responders to the disease.

This type of technology and innovation in surveillance and communication is what has inspired me to become a communication major. Innovations like this will save lives and make the world a better place. While it does provide benefits, there is an ethical dilemma that this creates. Although this technology is extremely beneficial for this purpose, in the wrong hands it could be used for malicious purposes, such as spying on people without their permission and violating their privacy. Where do we draw the line on what technology is beneficial, and what is harmful? Is it okay to use this technology without people’s expressed permission? These are the questions that the next generation of humanity will be faced with, but for now, it is being used for good.

Self-proclaimed "patient zero" of the Coronavirus in the United States Steve Wozniak and I, when I met him last month.