Is College Necessary? (I'm Back!) [Article] [Internet]

So, I'm back.  I don't know if I'll continue to update, or how frequently, but I'm back for now.  Anyway, here's an article.  This was written by an American about American schools, so this may or may not apply in other nations.
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College is considered by many to be essential, and something that you can’t get a good job without.  They are right, but there are some exceptions.  Before I tell you of these exceptions, allow me to tell you why college is important, and it would benefit you.

College is one of many deciding factors in what job you get.  65% of jobs in America require at least some college, and 35% of all American jobs require a bachelor’s degree.  As for the other 35%, most of them will still favor someone with a degree over one without.  Unless you want to work as a fry cook at McDonalds, it is within your best interest to get a degree.  

I shall also acknowledge the expense of going to college.  College is expensive!  So expensive, in fact, that 44 million Americans owe a total of $1.48 trillion in debt from student loans.  It is possible to reduce the cost of your student loan through scholarships and such, but full scholarships are rare and hard to obtain.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there are ways to get a good paycheck without a degree, but these methods are not for everyone.  The first and most obvious of these workarounds is the Military, which does not require a college education.  However, you still need to do well in high school in order to join the military, as uneducated people should not be trusted with firearms and the lives of others.

Then, for those that are artistically inclined (and even those who aren’t, in some cases), you could become self-employed.  Many artists work for themselves and are paid through the internet, living a generally happy life doing what they love.  However, this is a very competitive field due to the number of people who want this type of job and are skilled with art.

YouTube is probably your best bet if you don’t actually draw on paper or with a tablet, as you can make videos of just about anything and get a decent following if you upload regularly and are passionate and unique.  At the bare minimum, you can make a Vlog channel, although you need to live a life interesting enough for people to want to watch.  Or, with the proper gear and software, you could make a gaming channel.

So, you’re probably wondering, “what’s the verdict?  Is college necessary?”  I say it depends on the individual, and you must decide for yourself.  Are you already talented with a certain craft that others may benefit from?  Do you have good work ethic?  Do you get along well with other people?  Are you prone to procrastination?  Are you willing to be stressed, and fail many times before you hit it big?  If you answer a strong yes to most or all of those questions, then you might be able to skip college.  It is still risky, so I would really evaluate yourself before making a decision.  College may be expensive, but you may be able to make money to compensate thereafter.

Thank you for reading, I will try to update more frequently in the future (no promises though.)

Sources:

https://www.ocregister.com/2012/06/14/robert-samuelson-college-is-not-for-all/

https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Recovery2020.ES_.Web_.pdf

https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/

Logic, reasoning, and personal experience.

Update 001 [Update] [Question]

So, as you may have noticed, I now have a new color scheme as well as a poll on the right side.  I chose this color scheme and background because it looked cool and I thought it was fitting for my blog.  The poll is because I have a few ideas, but I don't know wich to do first.  So please, vote on the poll if you have the time - it's completely anonymous and it helps me know what you guys and girls want to see.

-Nick

Why the Hate? [Article] [Science] [Internet]

*DISCLAIMER:  I AM TRYING TO BE AS UNBIASED AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO ALLOW OTHERS TO FORM THEIR OWN OPINION.  I AM ONLY TRYING TO INFORM, NOT TO PERSUADE.*

Also, this is a long one…

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                No matter what, every fandom gets its share of hate.  Even big fandoms, such as the anime community, first-person shooter fans, and others are disliked, usually from competing fandoms or by people who are against what that fandom stands for.  But there are some fandoms that seem to receive a larger amount of hate than others.

While it is hard to find an agreement on what the most disliked fandom is, Bronies seem to be pretty high up on most people’s list.  Some dislike it for the “un-manliness” of it, others hate it for, as several people have said, “shoving ponies down everyone’s throat” (not literally, of course).  One of the complaints I have heard most is the pornography, but that comes with every fandom.  Even Jurassic Park and Call of Duty have pornography located somewhere on the internet.  As for shoving ponies down everyone’s throats, every fandom does this to an extent.  Bronies do, however, do this more than most other fandoms.  As far as the lack of masculinity in being a Brony, most people involved in the fandom consider “manliness” as a stereotype- something that doesn’t apply to everyone in all situations.

Five Nights at Freddy’s, abbreviated as FNAF, is arguably the second-most hated fandom.  The main complaint with this one is that it is “taking over the internet” in chat boards, fan art and fiction websites, and other web media.  However, Bronies are doing the same thing and have been for some time.  While this does not excuse FNAF, it shows that it’s not unique to this fandom.  It’s really just an annoyance to people who don’t like the fandom to have FNAF and My Little Pony fan art appear whenever they google anything.

Now that we’ve discussed why people hate fandoms, let’s talk about why people get into these fandoms in the first place.  Why do people find interest in “cosplay” or “shipping?” Why do we get involved with these fandoms in the first place?  According to one researcher, it has to do with empathy.

Abby Norman of http://www.themarysue.com/ and http://www.notabbynormal.com./ says that “One thing that helps us empathize with family and friends, no matter what our baseline capabilities to do so are, is trying to fill in the details of what we don’t know about their situation. Interestingly enough, this is also more or less what we do with fictional characters; in fact, it’s sometimes easier to empathize with them because we are often given, expositionally, far more detailed and intimate knowledge of a character than we would ever know about someone in our real lives. And, as in life, it’s our nature to fill in the blanks when we’re presented with a character that we haven’t gotten to know very well yet. Fanfiction is one way that we do this on a community level. Headcanons, a term in fandom that refers to what an individual believes to be true about a character, even though it’s not “canon”, are another way that we flesh out the details of these character’s lives as we attempt to understand and, ultimately, feel for them on some level.”  Later in the article (I’m referring to the fifth link under “Sources”), Abby goes on to state that we can often connect with these written or drawn worlds almost as much as with the real world.  The example she used is that “When we read about the scent of coffee, for instance, the olfactory center of our brain lights up. We can’t really smell it, but we’re familiar with the scent and we can conjure it up.”  While we, in our thoughts, know that it’s just a bunch of pixels on a TV or a bunch of words on paper, our minds interpret it as if it’s actually happening.  This is especially true with TV and other visual media, as we can actually “see” what’s going on instead of imagining it based on written words.  This could explain why movies and TV seem to have more fans than books.

Another point, made by philosopher Kendall Walton, is the idea that emotions we experience during the viewing of a film or book are not “real” emotions, but more like “quasi-emotions,” based not upon reality, but make-believe.  For example, when a father pretends to be a dragon or a monster to play with his children, the children have little trouble “believing” that he is a scary beast, but they will have forgotten about their “fear” within an hour.  These quasi-emotions are what allow us to have a good laugh after watching a horror film; we almost enjoy being scared, saddened, or whatever other emotions we get from a fictional work.

Tamar Gendler, another philosopher, theorizes that we have two levels of consciousness:  Belief (what tell us that fiction is just that- fictional.), and “alief,” the ability to suspend disbelief and tell our subconscious that it is real.  This explains why we get so attached to fictional characters; to our mind, they are real.

Anyway, I’ve explained what some common complaints with fandoms are and why people get involved in fandoms, so I’ll just leave it at that for now.  I may or may not make a part two to this article, as there is a lot to cover on the topic.

Sources:

https://houseofgeekery.com/2013/05/21/10-most-annoying-fandoms/

http://www.thetoptens.com/worst-fandoms/

http://www.thetoptens.com/most-annoying-fan-bases/

http://www.thetoptens.com/worst-fandoms-groups-internet/

http://www.themarysue.com/the-psychology-of-fandom/

Why Can't We Think? [Article] [Science]

Why can’t we think?  Let’s face it… people are dumb.  Not all people, but most people.  People just don’t know basic facts or common sense.  Why are people so stupid?  Researchers have documented that the average human I.Q has been dropping at a steady pace since around 1980.  It has been projected to be at approximately 85.9 (pretty low, given that this is an average) by the year 2050.  There are several hypotheses as to why this is happening.

                The first suggestion has to do with the cold war.  During that time, the Soviet Union forced schools to teach much more advanced subjects to their students in an attempt to “outsmart” the west.  The west did the same, trying to keep up with the Soviet Union.  This brought human I.Qs up higher than they had been for some time.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, these measures were done away with.  Since then, the average I.Q has been declining.

                However, while this explains how it may have started, it doesn’t explain why I.Qs are still declining.  One explanation that scientists are debating over is that we have reached our peak intelligence.  This ties back in with the cold war; the theory is that we are “leveling out.”  In other words, after World War Two and the Cold War, we had undergone some major technological developments as a race.  We now had jet engines, space flight, new music (including disco, metal, etc.), computers, and more.  With that comes knowledge and intelligence.  However, while we have had some big developments recently, we haven’t been changing as significantly and quickly as back in the ‘40s and through the early ‘90s.  This means less knowledge gained; we are now going backward.

                Now that that’s established, what can we do about this?  Is there any hope?  Yes.  The main way would be for people to learn more.  Go to the Kahn Academy.  Take an art class.  Learn an instrument, or a foreign language.  If something interests you, learn as much as you can stand about it!  If everyone could do this, we could boost our I.Q to new heights!  If not, we’ll just keep going backward, and who wants that?

Typed and researched by Nick @ http://internetscientist.blogspot.com/

Sources:

http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/BRBAKER/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2730791/Are-STUPID-Britons-people-IQ-decline.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html