The Mask Project:
Project Description:
Throughout the last couple months of school we have been learning about sociology. Before we actually wrote our essays and created our masks we had to learn about different aspects of socialization such as, The looking glass self, then we started the reading, The Cycle of Socialization, we also read a book titled “American Born Chinese” we did a Socratic seminar on the book, after this we started on watching varus short videos of socialization in the media as well as watching a documentary called “Miss Representation,” we also watched Mean
girls and we had a write up about the movie. We talked about implicit bias and finally, we read The Cycle of Liberation. We watched videos on race and ethnicity In the looking glass self-project witch we a mini project we created memes of how we see ourselves and how everyone else sees us. and We read The Cycle of Socialization and The Cycle of Liberation both by Bobbie Harro.
Project Effort:
In this project, it proved rather hard to write about something that
was really meaningful to me because of this is I wrote my essay on the effects of video games which is underneath this reflection, titled “From Pong To Battlefield V:
The Effects of Video Games in Our Society.” This essay was something that I was pretty proud of I know that I could have done a better job on it but overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. In project-based learning, we are supposed to push ourselves and get out of our comfort zones. I don’t think that I did that as much as I could have. This is because I know that if I did my essay more on a personal reflection to The Cycle of Socialization that I would have done a lot deeper into how I have been socialized and how those experiences have affected me. I’m a pretty introverted person so asking for help is something that I struggle with. Because of this, I didn’t ask Stephen as many questions as I should have to fully understand the project. I understand the project but I didn’t know exactly what direction I wanted to go in, because of this I went in the direction that leads me to writing about video games. This was something that I was still very interested so overall I enjoyed the project. I did not advocate for my classmate as much as I have in other classes I think that this is because the project was something that everyone has to advocate for themselves even though I could have in some ways I don’t know how I would have. I didn't give up when the project was getting hard because I’m not someone that likes to give up on something easily. I work through it even when I don’t want too. During the whole project, my perspective changed on what it means to be socialized. People are socialized by everything around them when I learned this I was astonished because I have never thought of that before. Overall I’m pretty happy with how my mask and essay turned out even though I know that it could have been even more refined that is was.
Personal Growth and Development:
I developed throughout the project because of the refinement that I did particularly on my essay and some on my mask. When I first started my essay I was not happy with it at all because it didn’t sound right and there was too much information to know what was going on. I had to rewrite and add and restructure my essay until I was happy with it. On my mask, the struggle that happened there was that I was going to transfer newspaper onto my mask to show an aspect of the media. This didn’t work though because it just stuck to the mod podge and wouldn’t transfer the words onto the mask. I still wanted to have words on my mask so I just typed them onto a google doc and then printed and cut them out so that I could mod podge them on after. I wanted to have something extra on there so I added the wax rainbow to symbolized the range of people that there are. Everyone is different. I wanted to show that and that everyone is going to cross paths with someone else so that’s what the wax streams are supposed to show.
Throughout the last couple months of school we have been learning about sociology. Before we actually wrote our essays and created our masks we had to learn about different aspects of socialization such as, The looking glass self, then we started the reading, The Cycle of Socialization, we also read a book titled “American Born Chinese” we did a Socratic seminar on the book, after this we started on watching varus short videos of socialization in the media as well as watching a documentary called “Miss Representation,” we also watched Mean
girls and we had a write up about the movie. We talked about implicit bias and finally, we read The Cycle of Liberation. We watched videos on race and ethnicity In the looking glass self-project witch we a mini project we created memes of how we see ourselves and how everyone else sees us. and We read The Cycle of Socialization and The Cycle of Liberation both by Bobbie Harro.
Project Effort:
In this project, it proved rather hard to write about something that
was really meaningful to me because of this is I wrote my essay on the effects of video games which is underneath this reflection, titled “From Pong To Battlefield V:
The Effects of Video Games in Our Society.” This essay was something that I was pretty proud of I know that I could have done a better job on it but overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. In project-based learning, we are supposed to push ourselves and get out of our comfort zones. I don’t think that I did that as much as I could have. This is because I know that if I did my essay more on a personal reflection to The Cycle of Socialization that I would have done a lot deeper into how I have been socialized and how those experiences have affected me. I’m a pretty introverted person so asking for help is something that I struggle with. Because of this, I didn’t ask Stephen as many questions as I should have to fully understand the project. I understand the project but I didn’t know exactly what direction I wanted to go in, because of this I went in the direction that leads me to writing about video games. This was something that I was still very interested so overall I enjoyed the project. I did not advocate for my classmate as much as I have in other classes I think that this is because the project was something that everyone has to advocate for themselves even though I could have in some ways I don’t know how I would have. I didn't give up when the project was getting hard because I’m not someone that likes to give up on something easily. I work through it even when I don’t want too. During the whole project, my perspective changed on what it means to be socialized. People are socialized by everything around them when I learned this I was astonished because I have never thought of that before. Overall I’m pretty happy with how my mask and essay turned out even though I know that it could have been even more refined that is was.
Personal Growth and Development:
I developed throughout the project because of the refinement that I did particularly on my essay and some on my mask. When I first started my essay I was not happy with it at all because it didn’t sound right and there was too much information to know what was going on. I had to rewrite and add and restructure my essay until I was happy with it. On my mask, the struggle that happened there was that I was going to transfer newspaper onto my mask to show an aspect of the media. This didn’t work though because it just stuck to the mod podge and wouldn’t transfer the words onto the mask. I still wanted to have words on my mask so I just typed them onto a google doc and then printed and cut them out so that I could mod podge them on after. I wanted to have something extra on there so I added the wax rainbow to symbolized the range of people that there are. Everyone is different. I wanted to show that and that everyone is going to cross paths with someone else so that’s what the wax streams are supposed to show.
From Pong To Battlefield V: The Effects of Video Games in Our Society:
In our day and age, I have noticed that people are always on some sort of electronic device, whether that be a phone, computer, television or tablet. I know, that I am, guilty of this as well because I’m on my phone or computer a lot for school or just to watch Netflix. To everyone around us, this is a normal thing, because we live in the age of electronics. This is a topic that is close to me because I believe that us as the younger generation of this world needs to get off the screens and read a book or go hiking. We need to make sure that we can put the screen down and just enjoy life in the real world. What would happen if young people were on their devices for extensive amounts of time what can that do to their bodies and how they develop naturally? I wanted to dive deeper into learning more about this and how it works specifically with violent video games and any of the connections that might or might not be there. Video games is something that everyone needs to have awareness of the effects that they can have, even if you don’t play them.
Violent video games have been around for some time. The first violent video game wasn’t invented until 1976, 18 years after Tennis for Two. At this time a game called “Death Race” was manufactured and put into arcades. Death Race was an arcade game that ended up having a lot of controversy due to the sound effect that happened when a Gremlin was run over with your car. This game was similar to Pong, during the game you had to run over gremlins with a car to get points and when you did hit them there was an ‘ahhh’ sound effect that occurred and then a grave would them pop up. As historian Steve L. Kent says, “This game had a lot of controversy because it made that ‘ahhh’ sound effect when a gremlin died”. (ncac.org).
There are many reasons to play video games, it might be that you find it enjoyable to play and spend time with people or just to chill out after a long day, some people may play competitive games or strategic games also for the thrill of if. There are many different kinds of games that a person can play if they choose to. Some of the games that a lot of my friends play are Fortnite, Rainbow 6 Siege, Destiny 2 and Battlefield 1 and V. Personally, I have played Fortnite a couple times but I didn’t even know what all of the other games where. I learned that all of them are either first or third person shooters. This is one of the most common types of games that people play.
Often parents don't know what kind of game their kid is playing because they might have just told them to “go play something and stay out of my way” if you have ever said this to you kid please think again and don’t just tell them to do that, tell them to go outside, or go read or, maybe pay attention to your kid. Kids need positive experiences with their parents especially at a young age. I say this because fresh air is good for you and I get that some parents might need their kid to just get onto the screen because that's what works.
Most of us probably already know that many people play video games. Young children will play a specific game just for the thrill of it because they like the way the game works or they are just really good at it. This isn’t a bad thing it just means that they could also get addicted to it if they play constantly. This is the point that children will have problems when a parent tells them to get off and do something else this is where that behavior piece can come in. If a kid is acting differently and that kid has been playing a violent game for an extended period time then this can start to become a problem. Kids need to have healthy experiences with and without video games. This means that even if you play a violent video game and you can still get off the screen and do something active then this is still healthy. I say this because I know that playing games is fun you just have to know when to stop and take a break.
When I was doing research about video games and how many people play them and what their ages are I was extremely surprised at what the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) did in 2017 they did a study about the computer and video game industry. Throughout this survey, they uncovered that about 72% of gamers 18 or older made up the gaming population, and this is what surprised me the most is that the average age of a gamer is 35 years old. This was surprising because I thought that only younger people played video games 10-19 years old. Something else that was astonishing about this survey is that adult women make up 31% of the gaming population compared to the male population which was only 18%. I have been socialized around many different kinds of people from many different backgrounds, and most of the women still don’t play video games while most of the men do play video games. I knew that this wasn’t true because women and men can do the same things but I didn’t know that the percentage of women that play video games was so high.
Everyone is socialized to think one thing or another. For me this was that women just don’t play video games, which is absurd because I know women in my life that play video games and they are pretty good at it too. In Boobie Harro’s “Cycle of Socialization” there is this cycle that repeats over and over as you are socialized throughout your life. When we read this article I was shocked at how accurate it was to my life and the different aspects of it. From the beginning of it “The Beginning” to the end “Actsons” and “Direction for Change” In the beginning we are a blank slate we don’t know what stereotypes are, we don’t know what the “Norm” or “Status Quo” is. There is a quote from the article that states being a blank slate. “These identities are ascribed to us at birth through no effort or decision or choice of our own: there is, therefore, no reason to blame each other or hold each other responsible for the identities we have” Yet people still judge you for who you are. In the end men and women are the same they just have a different physical make up. Due to this men and women can do the same things, such as playing video games. Even tho I say this I still stereotype people.
My mask Symbolizes how I have been socialized throughout my life specifically what my personality is like. All of the words that are scattered onto my mask represent aspects of me. The wax rainbow that was put top of the words represents how wide of a spectrom there is for a person. For me I believe that most people will be one color at school and many colors at home. This is because people are socialized to act differently at school so that they can fit in. I have all of the colors on my mask because I don’t act differently in or out of school I just be who I am. I don’t try to fit in because i believe that people need to be who they are and not what the status quo wants them to be.
There have been studies that connect video games with the nervous system and the heart. For instance, standing up rather than sitting down puts less pressure on the spine which is connected to your nirvustysem. When a person puts a lot of pressure on their nervous system this leads to discomfort and further injury. Psychology Today says that this young 9-year-old boys heart rate would jump from 80 to 100 beats per minute. The blood pressure of the child rises from 90/60 to 140/60. The thing that I immediately thought about was that all of these things were happening while this kid was just sitting on the couch. This is a sign that when people play these kinds of games they psych themselves out and when they do that this can lead to unhealthy things. Some of these things could be that when they experience things in real life that their bodies think that they are playing a video game so all of these symptoms start to occur more and this can then lead to more violent behaviors. However this doesn’t happen to everyone, it is just an example of what can happen. People can play violent video games and be completely fine this is just something that can happen, but it doesn’t mean that it will.
When we first started this project I thought that it was going to be just exploring ourselves in the sense that we were going to learn about how we have been socialized. At the beginning of this project, I thought that it was going to be really boring if we were just trying to learn about ourselves, but after we looked at Bobbie Harro’s reading about the cycle of socialization. This article had a great impact on me with some of the things that the reading was talking about. Some of these things were about having the ability to change when there is a great change in your life. An example of this is at the start of the cycle where it says “waking up” when I first saw the cycle I took this as when people experience something that is very close to them that they will “wake up” and start to try and understand why this thing happened. For me, this experience was realizing that my family and I are always on some electronic device and I know that being on these devices at all times is unhealthy at a point. This realization inspired me to write this essay to try and bring more awareness to myself and the people around me about video games and what devices can do to you.
Violent video games have been around for some time. The first violent video game wasn’t invented until 1976, 18 years after Tennis for Two. At this time a game called “Death Race” was manufactured and put into arcades. Death Race was an arcade game that ended up having a lot of controversy due to the sound effect that happened when a Gremlin was run over with your car. This game was similar to Pong, during the game you had to run over gremlins with a car to get points and when you did hit them there was an ‘ahhh’ sound effect that occurred and then a grave would them pop up. As historian Steve L. Kent says, “This game had a lot of controversy because it made that ‘ahhh’ sound effect when a gremlin died”. (ncac.org).
There are many reasons to play video games, it might be that you find it enjoyable to play and spend time with people or just to chill out after a long day, some people may play competitive games or strategic games also for the thrill of if. There are many different kinds of games that a person can play if they choose to. Some of the games that a lot of my friends play are Fortnite, Rainbow 6 Siege, Destiny 2 and Battlefield 1 and V. Personally, I have played Fortnite a couple times but I didn’t even know what all of the other games where. I learned that all of them are either first or third person shooters. This is one of the most common types of games that people play.
Often parents don't know what kind of game their kid is playing because they might have just told them to “go play something and stay out of my way” if you have ever said this to you kid please think again and don’t just tell them to do that, tell them to go outside, or go read or, maybe pay attention to your kid. Kids need positive experiences with their parents especially at a young age. I say this because fresh air is good for you and I get that some parents might need their kid to just get onto the screen because that's what works.
Most of us probably already know that many people play video games. Young children will play a specific game just for the thrill of it because they like the way the game works or they are just really good at it. This isn’t a bad thing it just means that they could also get addicted to it if they play constantly. This is the point that children will have problems when a parent tells them to get off and do something else this is where that behavior piece can come in. If a kid is acting differently and that kid has been playing a violent game for an extended period time then this can start to become a problem. Kids need to have healthy experiences with and without video games. This means that even if you play a violent video game and you can still get off the screen and do something active then this is still healthy. I say this because I know that playing games is fun you just have to know when to stop and take a break.
When I was doing research about video games and how many people play them and what their ages are I was extremely surprised at what the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) did in 2017 they did a study about the computer and video game industry. Throughout this survey, they uncovered that about 72% of gamers 18 or older made up the gaming population, and this is what surprised me the most is that the average age of a gamer is 35 years old. This was surprising because I thought that only younger people played video games 10-19 years old. Something else that was astonishing about this survey is that adult women make up 31% of the gaming population compared to the male population which was only 18%. I have been socialized around many different kinds of people from many different backgrounds, and most of the women still don’t play video games while most of the men do play video games. I knew that this wasn’t true because women and men can do the same things but I didn’t know that the percentage of women that play video games was so high.
Everyone is socialized to think one thing or another. For me this was that women just don’t play video games, which is absurd because I know women in my life that play video games and they are pretty good at it too. In Boobie Harro’s “Cycle of Socialization” there is this cycle that repeats over and over as you are socialized throughout your life. When we read this article I was shocked at how accurate it was to my life and the different aspects of it. From the beginning of it “The Beginning” to the end “Actsons” and “Direction for Change” In the beginning we are a blank slate we don’t know what stereotypes are, we don’t know what the “Norm” or “Status Quo” is. There is a quote from the article that states being a blank slate. “These identities are ascribed to us at birth through no effort or decision or choice of our own: there is, therefore, no reason to blame each other or hold each other responsible for the identities we have” Yet people still judge you for who you are. In the end men and women are the same they just have a different physical make up. Due to this men and women can do the same things, such as playing video games. Even tho I say this I still stereotype people.
My mask Symbolizes how I have been socialized throughout my life specifically what my personality is like. All of the words that are scattered onto my mask represent aspects of me. The wax rainbow that was put top of the words represents how wide of a spectrom there is for a person. For me I believe that most people will be one color at school and many colors at home. This is because people are socialized to act differently at school so that they can fit in. I have all of the colors on my mask because I don’t act differently in or out of school I just be who I am. I don’t try to fit in because i believe that people need to be who they are and not what the status quo wants them to be.
There have been studies that connect video games with the nervous system and the heart. For instance, standing up rather than sitting down puts less pressure on the spine which is connected to your nirvustysem. When a person puts a lot of pressure on their nervous system this leads to discomfort and further injury. Psychology Today says that this young 9-year-old boys heart rate would jump from 80 to 100 beats per minute. The blood pressure of the child rises from 90/60 to 140/60. The thing that I immediately thought about was that all of these things were happening while this kid was just sitting on the couch. This is a sign that when people play these kinds of games they psych themselves out and when they do that this can lead to unhealthy things. Some of these things could be that when they experience things in real life that their bodies think that they are playing a video game so all of these symptoms start to occur more and this can then lead to more violent behaviors. However this doesn’t happen to everyone, it is just an example of what can happen. People can play violent video games and be completely fine this is just something that can happen, but it doesn’t mean that it will.
When we first started this project I thought that it was going to be just exploring ourselves in the sense that we were going to learn about how we have been socialized. At the beginning of this project, I thought that it was going to be really boring if we were just trying to learn about ourselves, but after we looked at Bobbie Harro’s reading about the cycle of socialization. This article had a great impact on me with some of the things that the reading was talking about. Some of these things were about having the ability to change when there is a great change in your life. An example of this is at the start of the cycle where it says “waking up” when I first saw the cycle I took this as when people experience something that is very close to them that they will “wake up” and start to try and understand why this thing happened. For me, this experience was realizing that my family and I are always on some electronic device and I know that being on these devices at all times is unhealthy at a point. This realization inspired me to write this essay to try and bring more awareness to myself and the people around me about video games and what devices can do to you.