Mega Media

"The technique (of media) is wonderful. I didn't even dream it would be so good. But I would never let my children come close to the thing."

-Vladimir Zwory, developer of television, interviewed on his 92nd birthday.

Everyday in our lives, we interact with media-the ways of communicating or expressing information or ideas to people. There are many factors to how media has made our lives more simple; there are many advantages to it. However, not only is it helping us, but can also damage our lifestyles, and this is becoming a huge concern, especially for the teens and younger children. Kids and even infants are exposed to and interact with media, and this has bad effects on them on various ways. It's time we need to stand up and fight for the children's rights in being exposed to media which could be harmful to them.

The media which mostly boys make contact with a lot are violent video games, and studies have shown that playing violent video games can increase aggression. The brains of children who played and did not play violent video games were taken MRIs, and the results showed that the children who played violent video games showed a negative, lingering or permanent effect on their brains. Since violent video games can increase aggression if played, it is more likely that the use of violence will increase as children play more and more of it. It’s important to understand how risky it is to let kids get exposed to violent video games and how we need to fight for their rights to interact with the correct games or media.

The act of youth marketers marketing products more appropriate for teenagers to younger kids is called age compression, and this has brought a big impact to kids' lifestyles. Products which used to be marketed to 10-12 year olds are now being marketed to 7-8 year olds, and other products have also moved to be targeted to a younger level. One example is the magazine, Seventeen, which aren't read mostly by seventeen year olds but kids much younger than that. The bad consequences of age compression is that children get exposed to adult content, and that they develop ideas not about their childhood lifestyles such as playing outdoors, but worrying about their looks and what it means to be a man or a woman. Kids should be able to have freedom in their mental and physical ways until they grow up to be a certain age where they can grasp better knowledge of those things to apply it to their lifestyles.

As minutes, hours, days pass by, children are becoming more and more addicted to media, and the rate of health problems have increased massively over the last few years/decades. Too much interaction with media have caused many health problems such as obesity, hypertension, hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, attention deficit and diabetes for the kids. In addition, kids now lack the ability of creative playing, because when they play with toys linked to media products, studies have shown that it leads to less creative, imitative play. Their lack of creativity might later lead to weaker academic progress than other children, and their health problems also might continue on for the rest of their lives if they’re not careful. Kids who are exposed a lot to media have their rights to be healthy and bright like other children their age who aren't exposed to mega media; and their rights are what we should fight for in order to help the children live a happy life.

It is absolutely not fair that children all over the world have to pay the price just for the marketers to make lucrative profit and be able to sell their products. They have freedom to live their lives freely and not get tied to media all the time. To make this happen, we need to fight for kids' rights in interaction with media. Children's health is worth fighting for. Children's freedom in both physical and mental minds is worth fighting for. The bad consequences they go through because they get exposed to too much media; that's worth fighting for.


For more information about media and how it affects children, click here.

Fight for Colonization

Horrible Takeovers

Our land as precious as gold,
Was taken from us all of a sudden.

It is a story that must be told,
From generation to generation.

The British, they were called.
So white, so peculiar, so different.

At first they were friendly,
But then tore everything apart.

Cut down our trees while we screamed,
And put up new buildings.

Our people cried in pain,
For the loss of our children.

They did not understand our sorrow,
at their colonization.

Pleasant Strangers, Murderous Neighbors

Aboriginal men in police custody, 1906

1788. The British settlers land in Australia, and try to befriend the Aboriginal people, who also find interest in the newcomers and resources they see. Soon, both cultures interact with one another in a friendly way, but this doesn't last for long. Because of the British's goal of colonization of Australia, Aborigines are killed. Their land and resources are taken. They are treated no more than animals. The British in Australia spread their territory by force, and Aborigines try to fight for their people and land - this is what the Aborigines believed were worth fighting for.

During this era of colonization, Aboriginal people thought that their own people were worth fighting for, and one example of fighting for their people was their act against McIntyre. McIntyre was a British man who had a liking of hunting the Aborigines the same way he hunted for animals. He kept killing more and more of them, and so one of the Aborigines, Pemmeway, fatally wounded McIntyre as a warning telling him and the British to stop killing any more of their people. If the Aborigines hadn't viewed their people as being fought for, they wouldn't have tried to wound McIntyre or make him possibly die. This shows that they blieved people were worth fighting for.

As the white settlers spread across Australia, taking Aboriginal land and resources, the new governor, Governor Brisbane, gave land grants to British people without asking or even considering the Aborigines. For these unfair acts, a leader of one tribe, Windradyne, stood up for their rights by harming the British live stock, because with no animals, the settlers wouldn't have any meat to eat. Additionally, Windradyne lead his people to kill the whites and burn their crops, hoping that the British would stop taking away their land and would leave them alone for once and for all. Aboriginal people fought for their land, and believed it was worth all their troubles.

At first the British settlers were new, pleasant strangers to the Aborigines. They danced together and had good times of getting to know each other's cultures and ways. Then just like that, the British turned to their new face, their Mr. Hyde, and started mass murdering the native people living in the areas they wanted to colonize. The once pleasant strangers had changed into murderous neighbors. On the other hand, the important thing we also need to remember is that the Aborigines fought too. They believed that their land was worth fighting for. That their people, family, and tribe, were definitely worth fighting for. Even though the British accomplished their goal in settling in Australia, it is crucial to realize all the beliefs and hopes the Aborigines gave trying to save their land, people, and everything else they valued of.


I personally believe and agree with the Aboriginal people that land and people are worth fighting for. For example, if my family, cousins, or friends, need help in any case, I would indeed fight for them, even when it can be dangerous and arduous. In addition, I think that the Aborigines were right in believing that their land is worth fighting for, because they were the ones who lived there for generations and generations before the British first arrived in 1788. How unfair must've the Aborigines felt to have be taken their shelter and home all of a sudden to strange, murderous people? Of course I would have fought the same way if I were in their position. Hopefully, not only the Aborigines and I, but many other people now days, will concur to that land and people are matters worth fighting for.


For further information on colonization of Australia, click here.

The Miracle Worker

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

"People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved."
-Anne Sullivan
Born in a merry family, Helen was an intelligent young child who was loved more than anything by her mother and father. However, on January, 1882, the door of happiness closed and she was faced with the darkness surrounding her. Helen's eyes saw only black; her ears heard silence and nothing more. She had become blind and deaf.

Everyone knows the story of Helen Keller, and how she fought off her disabilities and hardship. However, without the work of the 'Miracle Worker', she might not have been able to accomplish all her dreams and become famous at all. The 'Miracle Worker' is noted as Helen Keller's lifelong mentor, Anne Sullivan. First recommended to the Kellers by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Anne took a step into Helen's life as a governess and gradually became her companion. Since her student could not look or hear, she had to write words into Helen's palm perpetually. The day that Anne said "My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed!" was the day she put one of Helen's hands under the water-flowing pump, and the with the other one wrote 'water' over and over again. Helen later explained that she suddenly understood that the cold streams of liquid she was feeling was indeed 'water'. That day, young Helen learned thirty new words. To Anne, Helen's learning was her own joy. Even though the child first threw dreadful tantrums and refused to learn anything from her governess, Anne didn't give in. She simply could not see the poor girl suffer in heart and mind. How Helen became proficient at speaking, writing, and reading were all due to Anne's unending efforts.

Anne Sullivan stayed at Helen's side until her death. While Helen's stay at Radcliffe College, every class,  she wrote lectures and notes onto her pupil's palm. Her own hand was full of blisters, red and sore, but Anne cared more about Helen's understanding of the lessons. The books that were not written in Braille was also Anne's job to read to Helen. For these arduous tasks were done 5 hours or more a day, as a result, she suffered greatly for her eyes. Despite Sullivan's declining health, both student and teacher chose to travel around the world, giving lectures and working for the American Foundation for the Blind(AFB). The support Anne gave to Helen as well as other disabled ones must never be forgotten, and how she made the closed door of happiness to open again will be told by generation to generation.

All throughout her years, Sullivan showed us that one has potential to do anything they want with belief. She showed us that types of difficulties can be turned into learning steps of life. She showed us that dreams are worth fighting for. Hopes and efforts are worth fighting for. Disabilities are worth fighting for.

For more information about Anne Sullivan, click here.

Invest In Belief

Believe strongly in the wrongs and rights

What generations will follow with determination

The truth that sparks the mind

Make the invisible break through

Why has society become so chopped down?

Into a tragic world-where no one stands out?

Challenge yourselves to fight for your wisdom

Let your sentences stand out

Declare and declare

Declare for what you care

Speak your thoughts

Please speak well

With conviction, with courage

All that can be

Belief is worth fighting for

And, it should be important for thee.

Belief is worth fighting for, because first of all, without belief, there wouldn’t be any dreams or set goals. The confidence in dreams will help you work harder with hope, and then turn the fantasies to existence. Soon, you would have reached a higher position, a higher level. Secondly, as said in the picture above, if you do not believe in yourself, chances are that nobody else will either. For example, if you say that you will not be able to accomplish this, nor that, there is no reason for others to have faith in you. Soon or less, they will leave you to find else companions whom they can truly trust-respect is earned by belief. Additionally, belief is a strong tool when you are ‘fighting for’. The strong conviction within you will have effect on others, and soon all will be ready to stand up against the wrong acts, such as freedom, or any other. Some role models are Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, etc. They believed that racism was cruel and wrong, and stood up for the blacks’ rights. Other African Americans thought in the same way, and this led to a boycott. The law was corrected later on; all were equal. These examples show how important belief is a part of our lives. Invest in belief, for it will bring you to a standard where you cannot imagine in your heart and mind. It is all that makes true. Belief is worth fighting for. Fighting for needs belief.

Palestine VS. Israel

An Israeli police officer scuffles with a Palestinian protester

during clashes at the Qalandia checkpoint, near the

West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 5, 2011

'As noon approached, about 100 Palestinians and sympathetic foreign nationals gathered on the main road between the Qalandia refugee camp in the West Bank and the Holy City and prepared to head to the separation barrier and tangle of steel, concrete and loudspeakers that make up the forbidding military checkpoint that Israel has erected to bar the way to Jerusalem. "Our goal? To bring down the wall," says Mohammed Slamyieh, 26, who made the trip from the southern city of Hebron. How? "Hope," he says. "Lots of hope." (Times Magazine)'

From 1948 to present day. Israelis fighting against Palestinians. Killing. Dying. Terror. This has all been happening in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, in the State of Israel. Ever since the founding of Israel, the Palestinians lost their homeland, and the citizens have been living in conflict and war.

Whenever a Palestinian idealist fights against the Israelis, they suffer serious consequences. Some are murdered. Guns are put on children who throw rocks at soldiers seeking revenge for their parents' deaths. Innocent men, suspected of dissidence, are taken from their families. Wives and children have to go on a ride for 6-8 hours just to have a five minute talk to their imprisoned husbands and fathers.

This conflict is a struggle for the citizens of Israel as well. Frustrated and oppressed, terrorists from Palestine are rising, and they bomb Israeli buses, buildings, and homes. For this reason, Israeli children are taught at school that Palestinians are dangerous enemies - and this leads to a new generation continuing the war. How can it be that children are being taught to hate?  For this conflict to be resolved, Israelis must come to realize that Palestinians have a right to their own land too.

Even this minute, this second, people are struggling in fatigue, desperate for hope. Many Palestinians fight. Many die. However, even so, they never give up the fight.  They wish for a better future, one where they are free and living on their own land. The Palestinians believe freedom is worth fighting for. They believe that a homeland is worth fighting for. They will continue to fight for these dreams, and never stop.

For further reading, click here.

Hoping For a New World

If I were given the chance to create a 'New World', I would hope for a sustainable society, where all natural resources are valued. It should be a non-polluted environment so that I won't need to create another New World, The people in the society would be very healthy and content, and we can take a benefit from our resources.

First of all, if we don't conserve our New World, we will need another New World to escape from the pollution. On the other hand, if we did take care of our environment and natural resources, there won't need to 'escape' again.

'Old World was polluted and crowded and dying from its own poisons. That's why we left, to find a better place, one we could do our very best not to wreck like we had Old World.'

-'The New World' by Patrick Ness

Since I was given the opportunity to be the creator, I wouldn't want to make bad of that chance and having to put together another new world. To prevent this, valuing our natural environment and resources are fundamental.

Furthermore, the people in the society would be in good shape and thriving in a non-polluted community. Pollution can easily damage your health; by breathing in gases from transportation, drinking water and eating fish which were both contaminated;, and if all of us aren't cautious with keeping our society immaculate, people will soon get diseases and the population may decrease.

Last but not the least, we can keep getting our resources from nature; but not more than needed. If the society doesn't save and protect its surroundings, soon, the natural resources we get, such as wood, food, and water, will disappear right in front of our eyes. The citizens should plant trees as much as possible and collect any materials just the amount they need, no more.

In conclusion, I believe that "hope" in the New World should be keeping it a sustainable society. By reserving it as one, our possible benefits to the world will be escalated by steps and be turned into a utopia. However, to keep it a non-polluted environment, I anticipate that it is me who should have to start the action, and soon others will follow, and then the world will.

"I am the circle and the circle is me."

-The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness