Recently, I became addicted. You heard that right. Friends, family, parents—I’m sorry. I’m an addict.

Not to heroin, or nicotine, though. As I adjusted my lifestyle to the simple ways of “coronacation”, I found myself playing more video games than ever. My sophomore and junior years of grinding AP exams and doing projects were over. I was (and still am) playing 8-9 hours of video games a day. 

This blog is inspired by my addiction. Sure, it’s going to be informative and fun, but I’m more-so writing this so that I can inform myself of the effects of excessive video gaming. Who knows? Maybe this blog will open my eyes to my unhealthy lifestyle and catalyze a change.

First things first: is video game addiction even a thing? Well, according to WebMD, “The World Health Organization added “gaming disorder” to the 2018 version of its medical reference book, International Classification of Diseases.” 

That’s not good. In fact, they even called video game addiction a “disorder” and classified it as a “disease.” As an avid gamer, that is not something that makes me feel good.

Sure. Video gaming really can be an addiction. But how about the effects? After all, you can be addicted to doing computer science and end up like Bill Gates. Or maybe math and end up like Terrence Tao. Addictions don’t necessarily have to be bad, right?

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case for video gaming. Excessive gaming comes with quite a number of effects; emotional effects including restlessness, isolation from social scenes, misplaced priorities, and physical effects ranging from fatigue, migraines, and poor personal hygiene (more can be found here). 

Now before all of you gamers throw down your controllers and pick up a book, I have some good news for you. As a person that’s very obsessed with the brain and whatnot, I had to do some research regarding video gaming and its effect and the brain. And lucky for us, video gaming does shine in that aspect.

More specifically, gaming can actually alter the brain. Medicinal News Today published an article over this topic specifically, and they highlight how “video game use is known to affect attention. The studies included in the review show that video game players display improvements in several types of attention, including sustained attention and selective attention. Furthermore, the regions of the brain that play a role in attention are more efficient in gamers compared with non-gamers, and they require less activation to stay focused on demanding tasks” (link here).

In my opinion, that’s not something you can just brush off. Sustained attention can be an extremely powerful tool, especially for studying or learning something new. Personally, I’ve struggled far too much during my junior year when I completely self-isolated from games. I couldn’t seem to sit down for more than 3 hours at a time—a feeling that I’m sure many of you can relate to. Nowadays, doing classwork is a lot more tolerable, especially after a couple rounds of games with my friends. I’ve yet to experience drastic changes in my attention span, but I’m hoping that comes in the future.

Different types of attention; gaming primarily affects sustained and selective.

As far as negative changes to the brain goes, the only major “brain side effect” of excessive gaming is addiction, with all of the regular side effects it comes with—reduced reward system, craving, etc. 

Video games are pretty special to me. I’ve been playing them since I was six years old on my GameBoy Advance, and I don’t think I’d ever be able to go without them. However, I do think video gaming is one of those things where they can only be positive with moderation. Overplaying may lead to all of the negative effects I mentioned, and underplaying… 

Well, that’s just not an option. 

On March 13th of 2020, something historically awesome occured at Naperville North. 

“In response to the rapidly evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, Naperville 203 will be closing schools and canceling all sports/activities for students beginning tomorrow, March 14, 2020, through spring break with a tentative plan of returning on April, 6, 2020.” 

Yup. We all wished for it, and Dan Bridges delivered. School was officially cancelled.

Initially, my reaction was far from mature. As my friends and I wandered through the halls and stumbled upon this message at random, our eyes and mouths widened in joy. As the people around us noticed us yelling in joy, the entire small caf erupted in relief and happiness.

But now? Sitting at home, waking up at 1:30pm to sign in for attendance, then playing video games until 3am, I’m not so sure that this was what I envisioned when school was initially cancelled. Do I enjoy it over school? Sure. It’s better than waking up in the morning and getting a tardy pass for AP Lit. But do I think it’s good for my education? Well, that’s a different story.

Here’s the thing with online schooling. I like it, for the most part; it’s flexible, objectively easier, and low-stress. My biggest problem with online schooling isn’t actually with the system itself—it’s the responsibility it puts on the learner. 

Let me explain. You guys know me pretty well from my blogs—senioritis-ridden sloth. I can’t even be bothered to go to the first four periods of school half the time. E-learning for people like me is… well… extremely difficult. It’s hard for us to log off League of Legends, pull up Canvas, and start working on homework. We enjoy lying in bed in peace, neglecting the burden of using our brains for education.

So that’s that. Let’s ditch the whiny rant for a moment here and truly analyze the pros and cons of elearning, and what I think of each of them. Sure, my opinion may be extremely skewed because of my personality, but where’s the fun in getting bombarded with facts? Everything’s always better when you have a relatable blogger to agree with. 

I think that the flexibility is probably the most controversial benefit/negative of e-learning, by far. For those that have incredible time management skills and self-discipline, e-learning is probably a walk in the park. They get up at 8am—no problem—and efficiently complete all of their work on time.

But what about the students on the other side of the spectrum? We struggle. A lot. I know I’ve already touched on this in the previous paragraphs, but self-directed e-learning is incredibly difficult. With that said, I’m not here to simply complain about how lazy I am. The way I see it, e-learning may actually be a turning point for many of us. After all, our grades depend on our ability to get out of bed and get to work. This may be the perfect opportunity to change our poor habits and finally fix our terrible work ethic.

However, with the flexibility of being able to access your courses whenever and however, comes isolation. Think about it—without the enforcement of attending classes at the exact same time each and everyday, the collaborative environment of school periods quickly disintegrates. For those that are social learners and love class discussions, they quickly find that they must adapt to an entirely different learning environment, driven by online textbooks and canvas assignments. For those that are introverted and naturally quiet? Well, it isn’t so bad.

To add on, what about tailoring to a student’s specific needs? I’m aware that many students regularly seek the help of their teachers, whether that’s before school, during lunch, or after school. They may be limited to the less-efficient realm of electronic conversation in order to receive the help they require. However, this isn’t to say that one-on-one help is impossible. Many teachers, such as Mrs. Trowbridge, are keeping this crucial aspect in mind as they reach out to their students through Google Hangouts throughout the day (props to you guys!). Honestly, I’ve never been a student to reach out for help outside of class, so it’s hard for me to comment on the difficulty of this situation. But I can only imagine how difficult it may be for those that lose such a significant aspect of their education.

With all of that said, I’ve only been through one week of e-learning. I still haven’t completely adjusted to the system myself, but I can confidently say that this form of education is different for everybody. For the introverted and naturally self-directed learners—it’s heaven. Regardless, everybody is suffering their own losses and benefitting in their own way. 

I’ll be back next week for an update to this whole e-learning dilemma. See you guys then!

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E-Learning Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons of eLearning

I sat down, 3 Pc. Popeyes Fried Chicken in both hands, and a big smile on my face. It’s a three day week and off-campus lunch time. Life is good.

*Cough*

Except for that. A killer cold that is destroying my throat with cough after cough.

*Cough* *Cough*

And, funny enough, all three of my friends came down with a cold.

*Cough*

I hear shuffling. And notice some weird looks coming my way. Then I hear big trays of fried chicken being lifted up. Then some stomps.

To be honest, it wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. I mean, think about it:

Coronavirus blowing all over the news. Virus memes all over social media. Four Asians sitting in a popeyes, coughing their lungs out.

On the bright side, however, we did enjoy the peace and quiet of eating in solitude. And we could talk about our typical, teenage boy endeavors in privacy.

With that said, it’s not exactly a good thing. I’d like to think of myself as a generally hard-to-offend guy, but I’m not invincible against stereotypes, which leads me to theme of this blog: is the coronavirus the start of a new wave of racism against Asians?

Personally, I don’t have an exact answer. Sure, look up “asians and coronavirus” and your search browser will be bombarded with stories of Asian people being treated poorly. And sure, I’ve experienced slight forms of discrimination myself, especially in packed public areas, but I don’t think it’s that serious in Naperville. But that’s not necessarily the case elsewhere, so I’ll leave that up to you guys to decide.

Here’s a relatively recent article that was published by CNN; titled “East Asian student assaulted in ‘racist’ coronavirus attack in London”, the title says it all. A student of East Asian descent, much like myself, but being physically harmed. Now that’s a little alarming, to say the least.

The attack was quite vulgar, to say the least. According to the victim, a group of white men swung multiple times, shouting things such as “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country.” The result? His “face exploding with blood” and “a few fractures in the face.” Ouch. 

Picture of the victim after the beating.

But let’s dive a little deeper. Mok, the victim, said “this was not the first time he had suffered racist abuse in the past few weeks.” He’s studied in London for the past 2 years and every year, [he] is subjected to racist remarks.” And here’s the thing: not only is he completely healthy, but he doesn’t even show symptoms of a cold (unlike me) when he gets attacked. In other words, he’s being assaulted solely for his presence as an East Asian student.

So, what do I think about this whole situation? Needless to say, the situation is nowhere near as bad in Naperville. I feel relatively safe, and I think it’s safe to say that my friends feel the same way. Regarding the situation outside of Naperville? Definitely a little scary–not going to lie. 

This is one of those situations where you don’t really know what it is like until you truly experience it for yourself. Not that I really want to be a victim of a coronavirus assault, but I feel as if I’ll never truly understand the stereotype unless it happens.

Sorry to disappoint, but that’s the POV of this whole coronavirus situation through the lens of an Asian. I know, I know. Probably a little disappointing since I don’t have much to say, but then again, it’s probably better that I don’t.

Sources

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/03/uk/coronavirus-assault-student-london-scli-intl-gbr/index.html

Let’s be honest here: we’re addicted to social media. 

And I’m sure we’re all aware of the new social media platform that’s on the rise. 

Yup. You guessed it. TikTok.

As someone who uses TikTok pretty much every day, it’s not hard to see why the app is so popular among people of all ages. Unlike YouTube, each clip is limited to one minute max, making the app super accessible.

Here’s what I mean. Whether we’re tucked in bed, walking through the halls during passing period, or hanging out with our friends, those short little clips find themselves within the gaps in our lives. Nobody likes to be bored, and watching those captivating clips is the perfect alternative to mindlessly scrolling through our phones. 

While my junior year was filled with Instagram and Snapchat breaks in the middle of my homework, I now ditch my homework altogether and lie in bed on TikTok for hours. Having accumulated 100+ hours in the past four months, I’ve watched creators rise from average highschoolers into every teenage girl’s fantasy. 

Josh Richards, one of those most famous TikTokkers

Chase Hudson, another famous TikTokker

To be honest, I’ve always been a bit jealous. TikTok not only gives you the satisfaction of worldwide attention, but it also pays you a pretty hefty amount of money for large amounts of views. According to igface.com, the biggest creators on the app are generating anywhere from $500-$20,000 per video, on top of brand partnerships that range up to $150,000. 

Short GIF of another popular TikTokker. To me, it seems like he’s not doing a whole lot for millions of views.

For the most part, it seems as if these creators are hardly putting in any effort to earn their money. Nowadays, it seems as if dancing for 15 seconds in front of a camera is more than enough to impress millions. 

Alright. I admit it. I totally wish I was in their position, and I know a part of you does as well. After all, who doesn’t like easy money?

With that said, I had to go ahead and strive towards TikTok fame myself. The trending page on TikTok is filled with over thousands and thousands of users, where their videos are shared with the entire community; in other words, the optimal place to get views. I spent every car ride thinking about creative ideas for clips, every weekend perfecting my dancing skills, every spare moment fantasizing about going viral. I posted video after video with high hopes.

Let’s see here… 80 views… 34 views… 70 views… What the heck? Out of 1 billion users, only a mere 0.000008% of them have seen my videos?

Needless to say, I was crushed. What seemed like an already grueling task just became one step closer towards impossible. How am I supposed to go viral when I can’t even get on the trending page? 

Obviously, posting as many videos as I humanly could wasn’t going to work—I had to change my approach. Rather than spending my time brainstorming ideas, I scrolled through hundreds of videos a week, analyzing the patterns of the trending page. Maybe there was an algorithm that certain people figured out, allowing them to appear on the trending page time after time. 

After visiting hundreds of profiles and thousands of videos, I had an idea. Excited, I called my friends with the plan. We got together, made the video, and posted it. Three days later, we went back and checked on it.

300k views. 

All hell broke loose. My friends were laughing hysterically in disbelief while I stared at the phone with my jaw on the floor. I have yet to receive any college admission results back yet, but I can imagine that’s exactly what it felt like. 

Call me mean if you will, but I won’t be sharing that brilliant idea in this blog (there’s already enough competition out there). What I’m actually trying to say is quite simple: go out and make your own TikToks. 

No, seriously. In the technology-driven world we live in today, new social media platforms are gaining more popularity than ever before. Just like how YouTube gave thousands of people an opportunity to make a living, there’s no doubt in my mind that TikTok will do the same.

Here’s a short clip on social media marketing as it becomes more and more relevant. Perhaps you can apply it to your own social media endeavors?

So take advantage of the vast opportunities that social media offers you. Why be content with snapchatting a couple of your friends when you could be utilizing those apps to their full potential? 

TikTok has offered me a great pastime activity and an excuse for procrastination, but more importantly, an entirely different perspective on social media. It’s undoubtedly a great way to remain connected to friends and family, but an even better way of preparing for the future.

The way I see it, gaining TikTok popularity is an accomplishment that requires the same skills as becoming a CEO or an entrepreneur. There’s no way to BS yourself to the top—creativity, innovation, and problem-solving is critical towards success.

And all of those skills can be honed, right at our fingertips. Social media is a limitless platform for us to get a head start on our future success. Sure, we won’t all get into Harvard Med School or whatnot, but we can all learn a thing or two by downloading a free app on the App Store. 

So what are you waiting for? Close that dog-filter and go make some TikToks.

Oh, and make sure to keep an eye out for me on the trending (For You) page.

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TikTok

https://igface.com/tiktok-money-calculator