Staying Motivated, according to Daniel Pink's Drive

            What motivates students? Is it objects or praise? What about grades or punishments? In the United States, we typically use these “carrots and sticks” to get us to do desired behaviors. The problem, however, is that they often don’t work in the way people want. They can even hinder development. In Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the theme of intrinsic motivation plays a central role in determining what gets us going. In the real world, like Uni, for example, the usage of intrinsic motivation is few and far between.            

            Which encyclopedia would do better? One written and run entirely by volunteers or one made by Microsoft with paid writers and managers? According to Pink, most economists would assume the Microsoft encyclopedia would last. However, Encarta, the vastly funded and incentivized encyclopedia by Microsoft, closed down in 2009, while Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia today. Why didn’t the paid encyclopedia work? With our modern idea of motivation, people need to incentivize workers with money and rewards to work properly. However, Pink explains, “open source depends on intrinsic motivation … ‘how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most persuasive driver’” (Pink 66). This concept applies to the day-to-day. Intrinsic motivation is the inherent satisfaction of doing an activity – it shines through our hobbies and passions but is everywhere, as it’s an innate human trait. In the long run, compared to extrinsic motivation, or carrots and sticks, intrinsic motivation produces much better results.

The most common way to utilize intrinsic motivation, according to Pink, is through flow. Flow, similar to being “in the zone,” is where someone feels extremely focused and immersed in the activity, and where the effort they put in feels enjoyable. In flow, “the challenge wasn’t too easy. Nor was it too difficult. It was a notch or two beyond [their] current abilities, which stretched the body and mind in a way that made effort itself the most delicious reward” (Pink 249). I feel this even with things that aren’t my hobbies. I experience it with school projects, chores, and even the most mundane tasks. We can turn work into play and harness intrinsic motivation by achieving flow, especially in our classes and coursework.

Flow can be hard to obtain at Uni, especially with anchor days. Breaking up classes into shorter sections, and cutting off work time with breaks at a fixed time can interrupt flow or prevent it from happening in the first place. Using carrots and sticks on activities that should be done out of good nature, like going to educational events or helping others out, smothers intrinsic motivation that would’ve drawn people in the first place. Flow requires having enough freedom to allow people to explore, while still providing goals that are a few steps out of reach. By giving people the chance to use their intrinsic motivation and contribute in a meaningful way, as shown through Pink’s Drive, they become more focused on their play, rather than their rewards.

-Max

The war built on lies

 

In the well-known book series The Hunger Games, and in this case, the third book Mockingjay, the war between the Capitol and the rebels isn't a normal war, in the end, there aren't many battles but the war still manages to break many people. The reason that this war has a major effect on the people of Panem is for one main reason, fear, this war, and many different wars thrive off of fear, the Capitol gives itself an image of power that has dominated all of Panem for many years which makes people fearful to rebel. But there is one thing that gives people hope, in place of that fear, Katniss, who managed to escape the Hunger Games with other tributes, who the rebels make sure to use. Katniss is a sign of hope to rebels and people who don't like the ways of the Capitol, so the rebels make sure to broadcast her existence all over Panem.

At first, the rebels try to stage and script Katniss's existence, they see her as a tool they can use in this war, which is why they take to her high demands when she refuses to be "the Mockingjay" unless they meet her demands, which is another thing, they see her as the Mockingjay, just like the rest of Panem, not Katniss Everdeen, but the Mockingjay, a symbol, a tool. But the Capitol has its own tool, Peeta, the Capitol feeds Peeta with lies that fuel him to let the Capitol record its own videos spreading propaganda, videos of Peeta pleading with the rebels to have a ceasefire he is the Capitol's Mockingjay. 

Most of the war is the recording of videos, which is all both sides seem to think about, Katniss is present at the site of Capitol destruction in District 8 until bombers come to kill any survivors that are still alive in the hospital that she is visiting. As soon as the bombers are spotted Katniss's bodyguards take defensive actions, protecting Katniss and leaving the rest of District 8 to die, but Katniss and her friend Gale help destroy the bombers. When the fight is over, instead of going straight to the wounded and weak, Katniss's team makes sure to record a video of her giving an inspirational speech about how the rebels need to stand up to the Capitol. The back and forth between Katniss's and Peeta's propaganda continues for a while until the rebels hatch a plan to free Peeta, the Capitol's number one weapon. Peeta is successfully rescued but he is extremely violent towards Katniss because of all the lies that the Capitol fed him.

Soon after Peeta's recapture the rebels plan to storm the Capitol, a small group is deployed to go into the Capitol, but after some complications of some of the crew members dying, Peeta is deployed to the group, although still not being mentally stable. There are a few complications between Katniss and Peeta during the mission, but one thing I like about this part is the game they play when both Katniss and Peeta are sitting awake: real or not real. The significance of this game is Peeta asking Katniss if something is real or not, I liked this because that was how I felt when I was reading the book, what was real at this point. But the worst part is coming when they finally get to the center of the Capitol where they plan to launch the attack, but President Snow uses the citizens to protect his mansion, calling them to his mansion, and putting the children at the front. Supply drops that were meant for the hunger games were then dropped on the children, thinking they were aid they went for them, but then the drops exploded, killing many, as I read I expected there to be a huge battle after this, but there wasn't the Capitol was incredibly weak and the rebels managed to take the Capitol with ease. There was no fight, all the propaganda and videos but nothing to show for it, this book really shows how much fear contributes to the deciding side of wars.

Are Youth Sports Too Competitive?

 

Cadence Scheunemann

    Youth sports have been impacting society's children for centuries. Youth sports are athletic events that people under the age of eighteen, and typically over the age of five, participate in. Kids can participate in a wide range of sports, including, baseball, soccer, horseback riding, running, and golf. Sports such as these give kids a chance to make new friends, develop emotionally, and allow them to cultivate sportsmanship. However, kids may end up developing streaks of competitiveness along with the development of their new skills. Competitiveness can be good and it can be bad, that is what we are here to talk about today.

    Competitiveness in youth is seen as good by many people, that's why so many parents put their kids in organized sports! Through participating in sports, kids' abilities academically, socially, and emotionally increase rapidly. This can lead to a better life for those children later on. One study has even found evidence that "former competitive high school athletes earning 5%-15% more [money] across their careers, than students who did not participate in organized sports [as kids]" (Oberschneider). If kids are guaranteed a better job, just from playing a game when they are young, why wouldn't someone want to put their kid in a sport?

    Youth sports can give incredible benefits to the kids participating in the sport, but the downsides to participating in high-demand situations are many. As children begin to move up in the ranks of their sport, more will be required of them. Moving up leaves them with less time for themselves and the fees continue to rise. According to Oberschneider, "families are spending as much as 10 percent of their incomes on their children’s sports.  With... [up to] $20,000 annually"! Some parents aren't willing to hurt their fragile finances just to increase their kid's chance at a job by a mere 5%. To continue, pressure on kids to perform well in sports situations, "can lead to a host of larger psychological problems and harmful behaviors such as anxiety, substance and alcohol use, steroid use, and eating disorders" (Oberschneider). Kids should be playing a sport to have fun, and if the game is stressing them out, it isn't a game anymore.

    Youth sports competitiveness isn't just in the youth, the parents get competitive too, and the ways parents react to a lost game can be a real problem. Many parents scream at their kids from the sidelines, letting them know all too well if they made a bad pass, or messed up the score. Some parents are just trying to help their kids out, thinking "sports will be... [my kid's] ticket to college, even though only 1% of high school athletes get full-ride college scholarships" (Elliott). Encouraging their kids to get into a good college by doing good in sports isn't really encouraging them.

    In all, I believe youth should show competitiveness in sports, it's what makes sports fun! For kids to have the chance to think positively about themselves winning a game or scoring a touchdown is super important. However, parents shouldn't be competitive! Too much pressure from parents can cause a kid to not learn the valuable skills that are being applied in youth sports.

Works Cited:

Elliott, Sonya. “How to Handle Extremely Competitive Sports Parents in Youth Athletics.” Stack, 12 Nov. 2021, www.stack.com/a/how-to-handle-extremely-competitive-sports-parents-in-youth-athletics/.

Oberschneider, Michael. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Competitive Youth Sports.” Blue Ridge Leader & Loudoun Today, 29 Apr. 2021, blueridgeleader.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-competitive-youth-sports/.

The Character Evaluation of Pip - Good Girl, Bad Blood

 

The Character Evaluation of Pip

Good Girl Bad Blood

By Emma Hendricks

To start off, Good Girl Bad Blood is the second book in the series, so I’m going to make some connections from the first book to the second book. So, getting into Pip’s character. In the first book Pip decides to try to solve a murder case that went cold for her senior capstone project. She is a really smart kid and has always had near perfect grades with no trouble. When she first takes up the task it seems harmless and she seems to enjoy the thrill of following each clue she finds. But as she continues she begins to get threats and doesn’t tell anyone which puts her in danger. And eventually she starts putting herself in dangerous situations with little thought about herself because she is so immersed in the case. 

After the case and all the danger she put herself through, her parents have her promise to focus on school and not get into any more trouble. But as you can guess she is not great at listening. Pip is very determined and in moments sneaky and conniving. As we start the second book we can tell that Pip isn’t really the same since the case, and others see her differently because she was so willing to do whatever necessary to solve it. She does happen to make a friend, Ravi along the way that helps her and they become inseparable. Though as the case is over she is still getting the occasional threats from people and just continues with school feeling a little less passionate about it.

A few chapters later one of Pip’s best friends goes missing and she has to really contemplate whether the emotional and physical pain is worth it. But, in the end she doesn’t want to let down her friend and starts to work on the case. It begins to concern her parents as they are still upset about last time and she doesn't want to listen to what they say. As she continues with the case and some things go wrong she starts to distance herself and gets angry at others, including Ravi who’s been with her and helped her through everything. Later, she even tried to fight one of her close friends at school resulting in suspension. Her parents start to get scared for her, as she lets her grades slip and comes late to school. Her mom is the most concerned because she knows how long Pip had been working to get into Cambridge for college.

In the end Pip has already gone through so much and is shaken to her core from everything she witnessed and dealt with. With all the knowledge she has and trauma she got from both cases it’s obvious she isn’t the same as she was two years ago. Overall Pip now doesn’t push herself as much in school, has lasting trauma, and also has made many enemies in her town whether purposeful or not. She was considered to be a pretty quiet and attentive. But this changed to her being quiet in a new way kind of hiding a bit and only being loud to speak out about cases. I think Pip has grown as a character to be more defensive and isn’t seen as a little kid anymore because of everything she has done.  

Was Life Harder 200 Years Ago Than Life Now?

 

A picture of Atlanta, Georgia. 1889 compared to today.

Was Life Harder 200 Years Ago Than Life Now?

It’s difficult to compare two completely different periods; there were different trends, and people saw the world differently. To answer this question you first have to define ‘harder.’ Because if we look at the past from the 21st century's point of view, life would be harder. But kids 200 years ago probably didn’t define their ways of life to be hard. It was normal to work from sunrise to sunset, it was normal to wash your clothes by hand and then hang them to dry. If we look at life 200 years ago; there was no internet, the life expectancy rate was 40-50 years, and people's way of life was completely unalike. If COVID-19 had hit 200 years ago it might have wiped out a good chunk of the population because medicine was very underdeveloped.

 

200 years ago, people had to work for themselves from morning to night to survive. Child labor laws were not invented yet, and the use of technology to make life easier was just starting to appear. But how would people 200 years ago look at the 21st century, most would call modern people lazy. If we compare people born in the 1800s to people born in 2020, life is probably easier for 2020 babies. Death during childbirth and the death of infants was very common in the 1800’s. So life was a survival game. Simple technologies like candles or even dyed fabrics were not common because it was too expensive for the average family. Now you can go buy a pack of 100 unscented candles for 10 bucks.

So was life harder 200 years ago? Yes, most people would agree that it was harder for the average person to grow up in the 1800’s. As time goes on, hundreds of people invent new things to make life easier. In the past, there were no cell phones, and no way of documenting your life unless you were dedicated enough to write in a diary. People couldn’t capture a memory with the tap of a button or shoot an “I can’t come into work today.” text to their boss. Every day can be labeled as a struggle, but if you define the entire 1800s as a struggle then that would completely strip all the happiness people felt. So how do we know that they thought of their lives as hard? We probably will never know. 

Citations:

Munk, Karen Pallesgaard, 'Transitions in Later Life', in Nancy A. Pachana, and Ken Laidlaw (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Geropsychology, Oxford Library of Psychology (2014; online edn, Oxford Academic, 6 Jan. 2015), https://doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199663170.013.006, accessed 2 Feb. 2024. 

Steinbach, Susie. "Victorian era". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Jan. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Victorian-era. Accessed 2 February 2024.

Picture from:

https://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/TheBLT/ThenandNowYouWontBelieveWhattheseCitiesUsedtoLookLike.html

What are your earliest memories of music and how have they formed what you listen to now?

 

What are your earliest memories of music and how have they formed what you listen to now?

By Emma Hendricks

I’m known to have a really bad memory but there are lots of songs that I still listen to that were introduced to me when I was younger. The most popular music I would listen to when I was younger was almost every 2000’s pop song. My mom was the one who introduced music into my life so most of my music taste is the same as hers, besides the occasional country song. There were artists I grew out of like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, even Justin Bieber (we all went through the phase). But for the most part pop music stuck with me. My mom still tells stories of me mistaking words in songs when I was little. Like when I would listen to “Moves Like Jagger” I would say “move my jacket” and she still jokes about it to this day.

But the artist that stuck with me the most since I was little was Bruno Mars. I listened to every song of his on repeat and learned every lyric of every song by heart. So, because my mom new how much I loved his music she saved up to get concert tickets for my grandma, her, and me. I got the concert tickets on my birthday and is was the best thing ever, hands down. I waited till it was concert time and was stoked to be going. We drove up to the hotel and then to the concert. It was my first concert ever and I expected it do be amazing, but when we got there we had to wait because Bruno Mars came on late. But once he came on the music was awesome, everything was going great and I was loving it besides it being extremely loud. Then two women in front of us managed to spill their beer behind them and onto me. That ruined it for me and I asked to go home. We went home and I was disappointed but I got over it.

The concert never affected how I felt about Bruno Mars it just wasn’t a great experience. But music in general was always a way for me to connect with my mom even more than we already did. Every car ride we listen to music and it’s our thing. My whole family has extremely diverse music taste but when we all want to get along we put on 80’s music. I see music as a way that I can connect with my family even if we aren’t in the best mood or if we’re angry at each other. Though sometimes we do argue about who has the better music taste and it gets heated.

Besides all that, my music taste has changed a little over the years. Maybe the reality of life hit, I don’t know but I started listening to songs that meant something to me for often. So I listened to the upbeat and happy music a little less. So I think the music that you are exposed to when you are younger really does affect what you listen to later on in life but you still grow and begin to choose new pathways along with the old ones. It’s cool to look back and see how I grew to dislike some music and figure out new music that I enjoy now, it gives a sense of character. And I’ll probably change more of my music taste as I grow up more, who knows.  

Are You the Same Person on Social Media as You Are in Real Life?

 

There are many concerns and different ideas surrounding social media, one of which is your identity online, who you are online can vary from who you are in real life. The internet has many tools that can be used for good and for bad, photoshop and filters, for example, can simply be used to change the background a little, maybe there was a leaf in your face that you wanted to get rid of, or a tree in the background looked particularly ugly, there are tools online that allow you to fix those things to edit out a simple mistake that you could've fixed by yourself but it was easier to fix online. Now there is a dark side to these tools, maybe instead of getting rid of that ugly tree, you completely change the background, making it look like you are somewhere that you aren't, maybe instead of getting rid of the leaf in your face you change the way your face looks, or change the way your facing.

These tools can be a problem, being able to change things about yourself and things around you can lead to misleading posts and pictures. These posts can lead to people making themselves look better than they are, whether it is physically changing the photo, or changing it in a way to make you look mentally or emotionally better, this can cause people to feel that they are below this person, which can lead to mental instability and depression. It can also be degrading to the person who posted it, people will have unreal expectations of them in real life, making them stressed about whether they're living up to their online profile, which can cause them stress.

But these tools aren't all bad, you can use them to change something that doesn't matter but could make something more appealing overall, you might also edit out something that some people might find to be offensive or disturbing, and you save them from looking at it. It can also be useful in consideration to other people if you have some random person in your photo and you like the picture but that person has explicitly said they don't want to be in the picture or you just want to respect their privacy you can edit the photo to not have them in it.

The urge to do this might be part of the reason it happens so much, maybe you took a picture that you look back on and see how you could make it so much better with a few tweaks. It might be such a small difference that nobody notices, but it means something to you. You also might not care and won't cause any detriment to anyone else, making it completely harmless, and maybe boosting your self-confidence at the same time. Overall you can become a completely different person online, using online tools, but it isn't always a bad thing.

- Erik