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Zoonotic Diseases and Their Impact on Human Health

Addressing the Crisis in Zoonotic Diseases

Animals may seem like a trusted companion especially during times of trouble or even a necessity to feel a sense of solace in life. However, don’t you know that approximately 2.4 billion cases of zoonotic illnesses or 2.7 billion cases of death in humans per year have been recorded by the National Library of Medicine? This is absolutely concerning and is meant to place a large emphasis on, especially considering the severity of these diseases being transmitted to human-kind. Hence, despite the cuteness carried by lovely and exotic animals, let us explore the zoonotic diseases that are commonly transmitted to humans and how we as human-kind may identify whether we have been infected and the negative effects it brings to us.

What is Rabies?

I’m sure you’ve heard of the well-known disease, where an animal bites an individual and they become a victim of this illness. As well as the rapidity of the symptoms and their occurrence, hallucinations are also seen.Taking these factors into consideration, what is this phenomenon? You guessed it right! It’s known as rabies, affecting the nervous system, specifically our central nervous system and transmits a source of harmful infection to humans.What happens inside our nervous system, you may wonder? In the midst of suffering from this disease, there would indeed be possible scenarios of neuronal dysfunctions, or if severe, death. Inside our central nervous system, there would be evident mild inflammatory changes with few degenerative neuronal changes, specifically located in the brain and the spinal cord, resulting into eosinophilic illusions in the cytoplasm known as the Negri bodies, which is the cytoplasmic inclusion body in which RNAs are synthesised, found in the cerebral cortex, brainstem or hypothalamus. We can suspect cases of rabies by hallucinations as mentioned or even senses of tingling where you have been bitten or scratched according to NHS-UK.

Psittacosis : The Bird’s Disease

The next zoonotic disease is psittacosis, a disease that is caused by chlamydia psittaci, leading to bird diseases like flu or fever. We can indicate the infection of psittacosis by bird owners who possess fever, headaches, chills, muscle pains, etc. One would diagnose this disease by the detection of the bacterium chlamydia psittaci in the blood, affecting the respiratory tract as its first target and influencing other parts of the body if seriously infected. Psittacosis could be obtained by inhaling dusts or any elements like secretions from birds, thus it is vital to have frequent check-ups in veterinary hospitals to alleviate the chances of getting this disease.

Meat Lovers? Watch Out For Trichinosis

Last but not the least, are you meat lovers? Well, make sure that your meat is well-cooked as you may approach this disease known as “trichinosis”. Referring to the NYS Department of Health, it is a food-borne disease caused by a microscopic parasite called trichinella, if the meat is uncooked or raw. These microscopic parasites are round-wormed, and use a host body which one animal may possess, leading to the parasites living and producing certain secretions to the mammals like chickens, cows and so on and so forth. However, this infection is only applied to humans, resulting in diarrhea, which is when your stool is loose as one of the major symptoms, frequent occurrences of vomiting and terrible stomach pains.

Summary of the Impact of Zoonotic Diseases

Putting into consideration that there are almost 2.7 billion cases of zoonotic diseases being transmitted towards humans, we must try to stay aware by visiting zoos, encouraging zookeepers to regularly check-up on the animals’ conditions as well as check-up on our own pets too. Who knows, maybe they may play a prominent role in the next contagious epidemic?

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Look Inside, Not Out - KK.

Standing in a world full of mysteries and wonders, your curiosity circulates in a whole room full of people you don’t know. On the contrary, to even acknowledge someone’s qualities and weaknesses, could it be perceived in a way of positivity or negativity? As one wise person mentioned : “Different people, different views in life.”

If we take a stroll in a society where local culture endeavours to place a stereotypical ideology towards citizens to stick with, people would tend to “bias” with common opinions rather than to oppose to it. Take the “MBTI psychological test” for instance, people who possesses the cognitive function S thrive to be rule-abiding and focuses factual material. With this at hand, a thought of realisation passed by me, so do these individuals even consider the endless possibilities and the cave of the unknown once in a while? Why do we have to categorise someone in these types of cognitive functions? Have they actually brought an impact towards one’s lives? Could it be a potential mask for the first impression of a stranger? — “Oh she’s an ISTP, she doesn’t feel any emotions at all”

Apart from this aspect of personality tests, I reckon that you ever felt or encountered someone who was being OA, which refers to the Filipino slang that depicts someone being over-exaggerated and overreacting. K-Pop sensations shows a definite and genuine image on what the term OA illustrates, with their own term “aegyo” which is applied to demonstrate cuteness towards their fandom to the extent where they are being self-infantilizing. Treating idols as a child, fan-meets gifting their astonishing and versatile stars with childish toys seems somewhat cringey and brings out much trigger to my ideology of K-pop sensations making their fandom delighted. If these K-pop sensations were actually hiding with a mask because they were afraid to display their true identity, would that be the rationale towards the drastic rise of idols taking a hiatus due to personal reasons or mental health reasons? As what BTS Jeon Jungkook has stated once, “It feels like I’m wearing a mask when I am on stage” —Deep down, it hurts me to see these humans having to fit into standards, placed in a spotlight with millions of expectations from netizens and fans with their excessive amount of toxicity and negativity.

With all that has been said, let’s talk about something juicy, you guessed it right, “relationships”. Have you ever had the tendency to like someone in appearance-wise than personality-wise? Falling in or out of love? Coming from my perspective, charms and beauty are always “deceitful” and looking into someone’s heart before choosing a partner could really influence your thoughts and opinions about this interest of yours. As one Biblical verse states, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain” illustrates that our flesh that we have would eventually become ashes burnt from cremation or be sent in a coffin. I had an experience where my grandmother’s sister passed away and I thought to myself, she was one-of-a-kind in looks of course. Nevertheless, that was not my main focus but her donating to charity, helping 1,000 villagers in a campaign, becoming an incredible philanthropist indeed. Hence, what’s the actual point of the emphasis of outer beauty? Would you like to be known to be attractive or life-changing? Spending your time to do makeup would only last a temporary type of attraction but with a precious heart, it is everlasting and never fades.

I once say again, look inside, not out. Stereotypes may surround you, but I challenge you to look at the mirror, tell yourself that you don’t have fit into standards set up by the society, no matter if useless personality tests or worrying whether you are too overreacting. Absolutely, you would gain self-acceptance and have confidence in yourself. No matter what shape or size, personality, style you or others possesses, look inside, not out.

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Our Future Generation Crumpling? - KK.

One generation crumpled is equivalent to our world being crumpled.

I’ve had a discussion with a fellow friend of mine on how one’s environment could negatively influence a teenager’s life in plentiful aspects. Consequently, this discussion took a massive twist when I came across aghast headlines about the increasing suicide rates among teenagers, mental distress in education, and social influence. In an instant, it seemed like a dilemma that needed to be addressed as well as obtain the appropriate recognition, especially to the public viewers.

Before I proceeded to my observations and suggested measures to solve this “enormous” crisis, I had dealt with an episode likewise to this issue. As a student and daughter who takes account of a wide range of responsibilities, these were a spoke of the wheel for me to plan out events with my acquaintances. “I wanted to live like a normal person, but I hold tremendous obligations surrounding me like an optical illusion” — as I would like to say my typical mood was. I used to think if I was being too hard on myself, or if I would be in that distress as the students in those cases. But then it struck me like a lightning bolt, if I held these obligations, was I then molded by the environment and area that I was engrossed in every single day? Is it entirely my fault to sense that I was too occupied with my interests in life? I thus would like to answer this question straight to the point, with profound and insightful elaboration being made in addition to that.

We, as teenagers especially, tend to withdraw from our families and companions in the seasons of concentrating on our assessments, loitering around with several activities, and so on. By then, we do not have a complete acknowledgment of how balancing our time happens and may ask questions such as — “What exact procedures shall I take?”, “I never had a social life, how am I supposed to know?”. Generally speaking, this fundamental element of one’s life, or its commonly used sobriquet — “leisure time”, must be taught and explored further to other horizons. However, the fact that we don't have one could also lean towards the subject of where we've been placed. For instance, schools may give out daunting tasks for you to finish, leaving you with anxiety and distress. Our guardians may ask us to be more diligent and absorbed in one particular expectation of theirs, which actually may be sickening at times as we are just human-beings who sense curiosity with the world around us, not with the trauma of fitting into someone’s ideals.

According to the SCMP, the motive behind the scenes of the increasing rates of suicide is because of the transformation of post-pandemic life, which indicates that the “surroundings” bring out a large impact on a student’s life. Adaptation of post-pandemic life may not be the only source that delivers a sense of sorrow for students, but may also be for bullying or mocking incidents and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, wellness for a teenager is completely mishandled. The unfitting statistics and pie charts of certain psychological illnesses that one may possess, display that the understanding of mental health and counseling has not been deeply consolidated and learned from healthcare professionals, as teenagers could only achieve the so-called “temporary remedy” but have the trauma that sticks with them wherever they go. Noted from SCMP, healthcare professionals have paid close attention to the emotional needs of students and provided individual advice for healing. However, I suppose these aspects would not create a massive modification, especially with a “caught up and torn apart” student.

Putting all of these ideas into summary, we should have the acceptance that suggested solutions are not long-lasting, as we are being hauled to an imperfect life that has tornados and tsunamis along the way. This memoir I've written for today reflects on the 1960s prediction made where teenagers pointed out that by the 2010s to 2020s, life would be odious and a never-ending cycle of despair, all because of a world where the word “permanent balance and wellness” is never applicable to a teenager’s existence.

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“Essence and Allure of the Tranquil, Zen Nature” - KK

Close your eyes. Envision this in your head, entering a garden that includes a wide variety of plant types, smelling the aroma of fresh plants being watered in order for them to grow, listening to the birds chirping and chasing each other — the kind of “peace” that is the way of escaping reality.

Ever tried going outside, enjoying the fresh air and talking to trees about your day — problems, amazing experiences or your mother buying you a new phone? Trees and plants, in my perspective is an approach I would take to free myself from a close-minded and worrisome, sorrow world with dilemmas, circumstances that I do not want to face. By taking a short walk, it doesn’t really harm time nor your well-being, might as well, discover what nature can bring us and talk about its significance towards us humans.

Before I start with this brief discussion, to me, I don’t think we have ever thought about nature being a fundamental aspect of a human’s being. The majority of us would rather listen to music at home and stay “bedridden” for countless hours, or even days, don’t take the mickey out of me if you say disagree. Jamming to music could be one of the simplest initiatives you could do to escape from reality. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that “tranquility of humans” could be set in a broad and big-pictured way and I think people are just reluctant to look at it deeply, so music isn’t our only escape.

Let’s begin with my first point, nature connectedness with us humans are closely related to lower depression, anxiety disorders overall. Keisha, how do you know that it could help us? It’s just walking, how is the benefit possible? According to a study conducted by a medical association, walking for 90-minutes itself, specially in a calm meadow, shows that the activity of negative rumination has been reduced, which also means that our cortisol levels which is linked to stress hormones has been reduced as well.

My second point would be the control of emotions and behaviour, messed up feelings being bottled up inside you and you want to release it? Entering the world of nature or even watching trees from afar gives out an intriguing progress towards emotional control — nature actually transforms a time of distress, gloominess and frustration into a pleasant and optimistic state. Trees could be your message that dwelling on the negative wastes time and you must cherish your time by looking on the bright side.

Last but not the least, which I’m sure all teenagers could relate, nature could help us with our ability to concentrate and focus. As most students are having their term tests, students could talk a short walk outside during their break time as theoretically, spending time outdoors can trigger a physiological reaction which reduces stress and according to medical researchers, it could also help us recharge our cognitive resources, which results a greater ability of attentiveness and concentration.

To sum up, this short discussion, nature is such an underrated subject to state out to everyone. However, as we are all into our gadgets, why not take a time to have a break and look at your surroundings?

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The Taste of Childhood & Why Should We Cherish It. - KK

Envision a vibrant, bustling playground, full of tons of children playing around the swings and slides in delight and excitement that they bring towards the atmosphere. As a teenager who hangs out with children frequently, I tend to contemplate about why are we teenagers not feeling the same enjoyment and happiness as what these kids feel, do they enjoy the moments of spending time with friends, getting off of devices and gradually enjoying the essence of nature. These are the things I thought about after watching children play in the playground. To be fair, there are tons of things to think about of “everything” — we dive deeper into things, and learn from them.

Let’s start off with our main core and differences. All audience — toddlers, children, teenagers, adults and elderly, they each have their specialty and their worth in this society. Nevertheless, we will be deliberating on the subject of “the perspectives of children”. It all begins with toddlers — adorable yet lovable tiny creatures who tend to roll around and place a smile on everyone’s face, eventually gets into the early childhood by the age of 5 years old according to a study. Early childhood seems like a hassle for these youngsters as they must to develop motor skills, mould emotional expression and grasp the fundamental or prominent concepts of conversation, such as answering to questions that talks about themselves. If we think about the odds, to think that these skills do not come into existence during early childhood years, it would slow down their growth in several aspects of a human-being.

Once a child is equipped with these abilities, they go to a tunnel of middle childhood. What’s middle childhood, you may ask? Middle childhood is where they must expand their horizons and seek for new environments in order to enhance their skills, the ages of this phase varies from 6-8 years old. To emphasise on my point of “expanding their horizons”, it isn’t letting your 6 year old, go to a bar and drink illegally, extremely no! It is basically bringing them to different environments, going out of town with them because it is a way for them to allow them gain a sense of exploration and shows that the world is actually something to be worth for. They will be able to acknowledge the ethos of nature, cities, countrysides and so on, which is fascinating for them to see themselves.

Finally, they end up like a caterpillar’s journey into becoming an elegant butterfly, flapping its wings and flies to different plants, aka “adolescence” which goes to all of us tweens and teenagers. Becoming independent and exploring more further and chasing for opportunities and success, because we have mould all of those abilities and mastered them. What is there more to come? Improving ourselves and building a character of our own, having value in the community and contributing to our society.

To sum up what I have stated so far, envision once again a caterpillar in its growth cycle, I believe that is what we are as humans as well. The taste of childhood is temporary, and we tend to believe that the more you grow, the more boring life would be, because as kids we tend to see a wide range of possibilities set in-front of us. However, as time goes by, we must accept the fact that we are gaining a sense of rationality and independence and that life focuses on our own sake.

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What is the Science Behind Anxiety? Is it Normal for Us to Feel Anxious? - KK

Are you all having your daunting examinations, and there you are, blindly staring at a sheet of paper that hasn’t even been written, touched yet? Well, in this essay, I won’t be giving tons of useful advice for you but will emphasise on explaining why this happens all behind science and general common sense, which could explain this huge explanation on your worries with examinations, presentations, ceremonies and etc. Before we begin with our journey, I want you to envision your brain, close your eyes - and think about what is your brain packed with. It could be your missing assignments, the urge to complete plentiful work, the door to procrastination.. Let’s call these “mind blocks”, each of them add up positively or negatively to our brains but once it has been fully loaded or overloaded, it becomes chaotic and instantly turns into a “block-fill” - similar to a landfill. As a result, Mr. Anxiety comes along and brings up tons of doubts and questions, which builds a sense of negativity and stress to our wellbeing.

According to research conducted by Northwestern Medicine, the brain’s limbic system, comprised of the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and thalamus, is responsible for the majority of emotional processing. By separating both important parts that results emotions flowing, the amygdala and hippocampus, the amygdala helps process and regulate both positive and negative emotions as the neurons towards the front, which is the anterior region of the amygdala are the one that plays a prominent role in these regulations of behaviors tied to the negative emotional responses. On the other hand, we also have the hippocampus, now it's not hippo and campus together. We can't build a hippo campus together, what else would they be doing, spend their time in the water? No! The hippocampus is basically originated in Greece, where they thought that the part of the curved, tube-like structure of the brain looked similar to a seahorse, doesn't that sound intriguing? The function of the hippocampus plays a big role in emotional processing, to be specific, it handles anxiety and avoidance behaviors, and it also affects other fundamental elements of thinking like memory and spatial navigation.

With all of these scientific or neuroscience research at hand, we can tell the amygdala and the hippocampus do have critical factors in order to fully operate your emotions at hand. What these little creatures do is that they bring you either the best or worst emotions in you, the way that they bring anxiety is by being over-reactive or hypersensitive (amygdala specifically), which can certainly lead to fear and anxiety responses to situations experiences that are not really dangerous. However, it can affect our mental perception and overall health. On the other hand, the amygdala also stores the memories of stimulus related to fear and the hippocampus is the one that holds contextual stimulus about fear, which signifies that both of these structures possess complementary roles in fear conditioning.

To sum up, you may think that your ways of doubting and worrying is because of past experiences, but why not have a deep sense and understanding of the neuroscience of anxiety?

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Is The Internet Worth It?

I’m finally back after a while of busy, late-night study sessions and cramming for studies!

While I was waiting for a bus, I’ve thought about the aspect of “trusting” internet softwares, as I think that they could have both disadvantages and advantages in their own ways. Generally speaking, we can’t say that an apple has all the benefits for ourselves. Aside from their outer appearances, people perceive apples using this simple quote : “An apple keeps a doctor away.” They stereotypically place this mindset that an apple is red and juicy, it contains various amount of vitamins and nutrients for us to keep fit and healthy. When actually it could also have terrifying and shocking effects to our health. For instance, apples are full of carbohydrates that equips us with immediate energy. Nevertheless, if we eat too much apples, it may lead to weight gain! It also goes to the aspect of internet softwares, I would like to name people who labels the item or product in a specific way “Specimate”, Specific-Mate to separate the mix of words. Internet softwares gives people a sight of danger, satisfaction, insight and information. Before I begin, let me ask you a simple question, what do you usually search in the internet? Dogs wearing a purple hat, a compilation of cute cat memes, signs that I need to see a doctor? These all sound ridiculous when actually the majority of the population searches these things.

Now back to our main focus, Internet softwares contains several advantages and disadvantages in their own way. However, here is something different between apples and Internet softwares. In comparison, apples and Internet softwares both have positive benefits towards a human being just like us. Apples help people stay healthy and alive while Internet softwares help with our documents, assignments and gives videos about everything, no matter if it’s a ridiculous title or if it is related to something rational. But here is the catch : Apples do have their disadvantages but they aren’t as recognisable as Internet softwares are. Simply stating, apples are emphasised with their benefits, making them beneficial and good whereas Internet softwares are emphasised in both good and bad points, making them neutral. We can also categorise this using human beings like labelling good friends and bad friends. Based on Internet softwares, our major problem of Internet softwares should be trusting whether they will keep our privacy and personal data. Like in typical computer literacy lessons, you’ll learn about data leakage or the possibility of your data being stolen like IP addresses or phone numbers even though you aren’t a tech savvy. In addition to that, internet software may contain viruses such as the Trojan horse, worm, or some more malicious software (malware), which leads us to the point of the “mind-balance-beam”.

Now the question is, who exactly to trust?

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The Mysterious Connection to Every Human Being - KK

“The force of gravity acts on two objects to attract each other, it also applies to humans too.”

Have you ever thought of why humans are acting and doing the same thing? The word “inspiration” being equivalent to “replica”?

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The Importance of Cultural Diversity in the Whole World

Have you ever wondered or tried to examine how people try to face different kinds of cultures? To be seeing a fiesta, a Diwali or a religious celebration of a fellow heritage? Well, I’m here to tell you that you’ll experience it one day. In this world, we cannot expect the same exact form from everyone, especially when we live in a world, full of different races and ethnicity. Nevertheless, I reckon that people don’t realise what’s its key importance, why do we need to experience a wide range of races in our life. What’s its benefits towards us and how can it make an impact in our life? As I’m an ethnic minority myself, I’ve been sent in a local school where almost 97% of the students are full-blooded Chinese. And in fact, it is a rare occurrence to find a Southeast Asian, South Asian and American in my school as it seems difficult to cope with language barriers. On that account, you’ll see people go into international schools, getting government subsidies which only prioritises on their education or some may even go to a lower-reputation-school that tends to be the so-called first impression “full of chaos and mishap”. I sometimes don’t understand why was I placed in a local school, where I can’t enjoy freedom and must acquire the ability to learn their native language. Could I just go back to my home country and learn to adapt a language that is my own? In those case-scenarios, I seemed to me that I lost my cultural identity and understanding of myself and in all honesty, I don’t even know how to communicate with my people.

In spite of worrying about those areas, have you ever heard of the saying by Alice Hoffman, who is an American novelist? She has quoted that “Every problem has a solution, although it may not be the outcome that was originally hoped for or expected”. This quote is simply stating that we can’t just stick with our own expectations towards a problem but it will come by soon. Using what I’ve been focusing, we can’t just simply escape the maze of misunderstanding of culture but rather try to embrace cultural diversity and spread awareness to others. Before explaining the impacts of cultural diversity, let me be your Wikipedia site for a couple of minutes. Cultural diversity in our discussion for today refers to the respect that we have for each culture and individual, and try to embrace them and have the eager attitude about their values. Let me mention once again “Having the eager attitude to learn about their values”. See here is the thing about our generation now, a major ethnic group will not try to understand the minority but insult them because each of them are different, and this is a serious dilemma called “Racism”. According to the reports from worldwide, one of the most prominent social problems that we must address to save humanity is racism — The discrimination of racism if I have to be specific. In my short essay, I’ll be discussing and explaining why cultural diversity can make a strong influence towards our future generation and our current generation.

First of all, it allows people to truly acknowledge the perspectives and differences about the minority. Based on a study from the web, one of the key reasons of cultural diversity and awareness is understanding the dynamic values and benefits of different cultures. Simply saying, by understanding them more and participating in some of cultural traditions, you may see the true essence of their country and recognise the happiness that one’s culture has. Secondly, the stronger levels of social cohesion. According to the data collected by the National Institute of Health, they discovered that neighbourhoods with high levels of ethnic diversity have correspondingly lower levels of social cohesion. And this is all caused by what I’ve mentioned, the lack of mutual respect to one’s culture and insult actions by the majority, leads to social disaggregation. So how can we avoid the social disaggregation? To be implementing activities that can lead to harmony and peace, like cultural development days, individual embracing week, could help with this social dilemma. Hence, it leads to the possibility of higher chances of getting together and social cohesion. Another factor that makes cultural diversity extremely crucial is the advancement of exchanges for innovation and creativity. We all need further collaboration to strengthen our world’s future. If we had lower technological, social or economic development, would we just be living in the Stone Age? Without any wonderful and fascinating discoveries from famous scientists or engineers, it would not benefit the future generation but place them in the landfill of stupidity, which almost it gave me the vision of children having low motor skills. Last but not least, the most important one yet, the wider talent pool for talents. Have you ever realised that most of the outstanding prodigies are from different cultural backgrounds? If there was a massive diversity in a workplace, school place or even a community, there would be more talents available in an area.

To sum up all that has been stated, I believe that the impact of cultural diversity is extremely valuable and must be addressed and placed as a global priority.

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The Controversial Idea of Insecurities and Self-Criticism

Have you ever thought about the idea of girls and boys being insecure about themselves or think that they were in much better shape than they are? We start to set this mindset in our adolescent years and doubt the fact that we’ll ever change because puberty just gets slow. We get impatient for the glow-up season and the latest brands of make-up. On the contrary, these individuals never seem to analyse their perfections and stick with the imperfections that they have in themselves.

A while back, I was just on the bus when I noticed that there was a student, casually watching a video about how to do those trendy, ulzzang-douyin makeup tutorials and it made me wonder why are teenagers so keen in changing themselves in a young age. According to a parenting website, where parents get to share their stories on handling their children, especially those who are going through their so-called rebellion years, the classic teenagers. They’ve mentioned that adolescence is a time of big social and emotional changes, which can affect their lifestyle, their way of thinking and so on. Teenagers have their own independence to build up and have countless of opportunities to test their abilities. In our teenage years, we are used to explore in a mature way rather than we were just little, tiny kids who could only speak gibberish. In this way, parents are supposed to also supervise their children about what are considered as good and bad things in the society, so positive relationships between parents and teenagers are essential for one’s teenagers wellbeing during adolescence.

By the idea of exploring in the society, it’s easier for teenagers to gain disorders and worsen their own mental health because they have been exposed to the path of lies. What are the path of lies you may ask? The way that the society has build up standards for ‘pretty girls’, such as have an ideal weight, ideal face shape and structure or even their personality. When self-criticism stays in a day-to-day basis, it hurts us so badly because we are only concentrating on our flaws, similarly seeing a monster in the mirror. This self-criticism kills you inside and outside and causes you to have many doubts about yourself. The typical girls would tell theirselves : “I’m determined to skip 2 meals everyday, I’m going to go through the knife and even change by 6 months”. Can’t you see how horrible that is for some 11-14 year olds to even say that to themselves? It’s you against you and that’s the worse part. However, we never try to think about how to silence your inner critic and that is the strength you must acquire.

How exactly can we acquire this, you may ask? Take a deep breath and write about what you see yourself as. If you think about your flaws first, it alerts you that your mindset is full of negativity. As a teenager, I also believe that affirming your own value and purpose and having limitations to what is creating such a fuss of criticism are also important because it helps you to take a break from all the additional problems that is happening in life.

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, self-criticism is a phase of adolescence and will go away once you know the truth about the society and how it’s toxic.

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Research about Gaming Addiction - KK

5 vocabulary items :

viral (adj.) - spreading or becoming popular very quickly through communication from one person to another, especially on the internet.

mysterious (adj.) - strange, not known, or not understood.

irrelevant (adj.) - not related to what is being discussed and considered and therefore not important.

craze (n.) - an activity, object, or idea that is extremely popular, usually for a short time

linguistics (n.) - the scientific study of the structure and development of language in general or of particular languages.

Summary:

A former Reddit software engineer, Josh Wardle launched a world-wide sensation once-a-day word game known as Wordle last October, which has created a tremendous impact towards our society by inspiring millions of people to re-create their own versions of Wordle, such as Hong Kong's version of Wordle, Zidou and a mathematics-themed Wordle spin-off, Nerdle.

A reflection : Should gaming be limited?

To my perspective, I believe that it depends on how you treat this question. There are pros and cons while handling this question and I strongly believe that people would choose its cons. Let me explain more further about my statement.

Common negative points include poor relationships with family members and friends, damages health physically and mentally and etc. However, there could be tons of dilemmas in gaming if you are addicted to the game and can't control yourself as well as playing games that are not bringing the best in you, those games include viral games that contain violence, fighting and so much more, don't you think so too?

I would like to explain deeper into what I mean in one of the common cons I've mentioned "damages health physically and mentally", it has completely changed ways of a human being even their approach towards life, you can observe that people who are playing games, violent games as an example, could react in a wide range of emotions like an abstract painting with colours scattered everywhere. What a mess!

Although there are so much wild and awful points about gaming, I believe once we dig deeper to the gaming society, we can understand its pros! Let me list out 3 main ones, which could help us find gaming helpful and innovative, especially for our future generation.

First on the list would be that gaming could possibly be the next step in order to make teaching children a lot better, can't you tell? Schools in Hong Kong are implementing IPads in order for us to engage and enjoy the lessons instead of the old-fashioned way, like books and pencils. Gaming actually helps us to visualise and helps us understand a lot better because of the vivid and creative images as well as high-tech functions such as audiobooks, interactive games and most importantly the unique presentations that our lovely teachers present.

This point may sound pretty captivating, did you know that gaming can actually increase processing speed and trains our eyes to spot tiny details a lot quicker including reflexes! That's because you concentrate and focus on the game for hours, which leads us to training our brains and eyes more on visual information and details more efficiently. If you think about it, it could even help students who lose focus on some spots in a topic!

Last but not least, social activity and teamwork. It is crucial to be a good team player and cooperate well with different individuals as researchers say if two or more people cooperate in a task, it leads to better outcomes instead of being a clueless individual solving tasks with extensive brainstorming along the way. Gaming could be a good source to become an awesome team player. Many games provide a mic function. It allows players to communicate in order to solve challenges they face in the game, which leads to my statement about being cooperative and building up confidence into speaking up! Isn't that amazing? Technology these days!

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, setting up a limit for gaming may be the best for gamers who are addicted in their game, but it doesn't mean gaming turns our world into chaos. It brought us into a world where we could discover great potentials and talents.

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Research about Curry Fish Balls - KK

Would you like to take a scrumptious bite like a local here in Hong Kong? Well, let me, a food fanatic introduce you to one of our most well-known snacks that you may think it's mouth-watering! We have our Hong Kong sensation

curry fish balls! You may recognize them by the food vendors, food stalls and especially the aroma from the sauce, served to you like a food heaven.. If you haven't tried this popular snack, you are missing out! Get going and visit to earn your own fantasy on these awesome curry fish balls!

Curry fish balls may seem quite unhealthy, don't you think? But have you also looked at its benefits to us humans from head to toe? It promotes faster weight loss, as it has a fine source of protein, which makes your hungry stomach feel full when you are in a diet or trying to lose weight. Wait! Before we proceed, have you ever thought about your IQ (which means intelligence quotient)? Do you dream of becoming like Albert Einstein who has an IQ of 160?! Well, listen very closely as I might tell you his secret tactic!

FISH! Many researchers discovered that the strategy of becoming intelligent is by having better sleep. Omega-3 fatty acids could help in this case! A long time ago, a group of researchers found out that the kids who don't eat fish at all versus the ones who do at least once a week has a huge difference in the topic of IQ. Kids who eat fish at least once a week do better in IQ test than those who don't eat. Wow! Isn't that amazing! How can food make a kid level up to become like those popular businessmans?

If we talk about adding two of those important sources to food, then it would help prevent the risk of heart disease and stroke, which could be helpful for kids as I know kiddies are interested in cakes or biscuits, which is high in fat and cholesterol.

Last but not least, it adds a generous amount of turmeric. Could you guess what are the impacts of turmeric to our health? Turmeric is actually rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds, good for aid digestion and promotes heart health!

To conclude, I bet that curry fish balls are now worth a try! Don't you think? Comment below!

Vocabularies I've learnt:

1. anti-inflammatory - used to reduce inflammation

2. elasticity - feels like rubber

3. delectable - yummy, tasty or delicious

4. surimi – a fish paste consisting of cheap fish such as pollack, as well as sugar and chemical enhancers (Pretty cool)

5. wreak havoc - to cause great damage

[keishasknowledge]

What Changed During the Years - KK

Have you ever wondered what changed throughout the years? Is there a possible way to share the perspective of various human-beings?

Hi, I'm Keisha.

For the past years, I've been observing some peculiar patterns and puzzles for these past generations. Although I'm just thirteen, experiences, obstacles and moments of trials have been quite hard. Growing seems to be complex and abstract like swiggly and curvy lines or even a doctor’s handwriting.

In this current generation, it's difficult to keep up with people who spread countless varieties of opinions and point of views, that may perpetuate irrational debates or controversies. The level of disagreements, discrimination, hatred and so much more is quite undeniable, which is why I think we could label our world as “The Time of Seriousness or the End”.

“What's the latest news, fashion trends, entertainment, movies, art?..”

Ever since the pandemic was placed, we are don't seem to care about the world or pique interests that are related to the outside world. Why not stroll around the area with your friends, play with your dog in the park, plant a garden, enjoy the summer breeze? It comes to all civilians, citizens certainly, the expected question pops in their head. “Why not do it?” the verse from Loona, which is an underrated K-pop group who has the talent or potential to build up themselves just like worldwide sensations. Caught up by the song, I noticed that the lyrics gave out the sense of curiosity to really grasp our world’s progress these past few decades or even centuries. As I reminisce about one of the controversial topics from my typical History classes, the well-known violent wars, not having peace and destroying friendliness to countries in the world for almost 400 years. A thought of realization hit me. Will there be another war coming to our way in the upcoming, anticipated years? Sufferings and pain in our way too? Oh well, it perhaps could happen through conflicts with politics, which seems to be a sensitive topic to liaise about to certain individuals.

But what if I told you that we are in this generation war, that is quite dangerous than other wars encountered in past centuries, not quite affecting us violently? Instead, it's harming our mental and physical health as an individual. Let me briefly explain the process or so-called secret pattern of leading to this dangerous and sneaky war.

Frankly speaking, the pandemic has been making people’s lives MISERABLE in various ways by attacking your immune system, a crucial part of a human’s body. I may not be a doctor but I figure out what seems to be the dilemma that rises in this “secret” war. The covid pandemic begins with loneliness and self-isolation, seeing that there aren’t that many people strolling around the cities and areas anymore. Does that feel quite new to you or have we been experiencing this for a long time? If people feel lonely or feel like their lives are just unpleasant, who would they reach out to? The so-called escaping the real world, of course, you guessed it right, the Internet. Ever since technology has built up, people have started to use it on a day-to-day basis, not just for entertainment but for several other reasons. In this tragic event that happened in our generation, they use technology as a way to connect with people, talk formally about certain relations and concerns, have online classes, etc.

[keishasknowledge]

Hidden Tech - KK.

I’ve observed recently that there are countless varieties of YouTube Shorts, popping on my page and what I’ve come across would make you wonder : “In our next generation, do you think we would have this type or sort of technology?”

As I’ve come across the video, they had buttons, options, choices and decisions on top of their heads which made me wonder why would they place this? Is it because they want to be more creative than other content creators or are they giving ideas to such medical or computer science majors to create a massive impact to this world that is already captivated by all sorts of gadgets and simple technology? Could there be such explanation for this? As I contemplated during my walk, going to the city.. I slowly understood the full picture that puzzled me for a long time.

Let’s settle it in a not stereotypically-hard way. A group of content creators are creating these shorts, with the similar ideas like : “You get to decide what your best friend does for a day - POV”, “You can detect where you sense danger - POV”. After that trend continues to make its replica, it slowly passes to a businessman who wonders about how to start a business and obviously he encounters the POV videos, finding his path to make these real. Although it has its own advantages and disadvantages in an extent, you would rather be fascinated by its advantages. Let me tell you, young man, it isn’t always like that. If we can be so open-minded, thinking about what could possibly happen if this imaginary business takes over, people would think of whether we should have this in our world. This imaginary business is extremely strategic as they would like to be in your MIND. Mind as in real MIND.

Think about it. This imaginary business gives out chips that would input in our brains and by then we would have the ability to do anything we want.

As an example of a daily life scenario : “What should we pick for my outfit? *swipes and swipes*”, “Selected!”.

Is this world extremely blind to see that technology may take over this world very soon? A decision maker in your head and it becomes real? You may think that it sounds like magic from a Disney Movie, using a wand to transform things to animals but I bet that sort of magic will come true. However, it’s quite tough to get a vision on what will actually happen, as we are predicting the future..

Now, let me ask you.

Do you really want this to happen?

[keishasknowledge]

Think like a child to survive this chaos.

[keishasknowledge]

GenProblem - Chapter 1 : Mental Health & Well-being

Have you ever thought about what people thought about you and it became a distraction towards anything you do? Like what if they said “Oh, you look hideous today!”, it would make us feel bad about ourselves and make us insecure. These happen to children, teenagers, young adults, NAME IT and they’ve all been through this scenario once in their life.

What people don’t understand is how it really spreads all over the world, do you know how dangerous and scary that is? It’s similar to the pandemic but the way of tracing is way more menacing. This pattern goes secretly to every individual and causes them to do harmful things to themselves. As I was watching Social Media Dilemma, one of the former members of a social media platform mentioned that 11-15 year old girls were the main target of this crisis. Parents don’t seem to get the fact that their daughters may be in the midst of this “insecurity-influencing chaos”, because they don’t treat this as their number one priority. Talking to your children, asking them how they’ve been, spending time with them without social media is like treating Covid-19 by self-isolation.

[keishasknowledge]

Could Social Media Be Our Worst Enemy? - KK

Let’s start with a brief introduction about social media. To be straightforward, we use it in daily life, scrolling pictures and sharing, liking and commenting 24/7, it could even be used for interacting with individuals around the world. It has brought up a huge impact towards society ever since 1997 when Sixdegrees.com was founded and had several features such as setting up a profile page, creating lists of connections and sending messages within networks. As you can see, those are just the fundamental functions in our generation now. For instance, Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has new functions such as using different emojis for the like button or hiding posts that we dislike. Social media itself means applications, websites and platforms that enable users to create, participate in social networking. Of course, it does have its advantages like to help people socialise, to connect even when we are far away from each other and so on.

However, do you look at its drawbacks? Could it possibly damage the reputation of someone who has a high status? Could it lead to depression?

Before we begin, I would like to start off with the system that I will be following : the first on the list would be a question that I kept pondering “What is something that could affect a human by using social media for hours and hours?”, the second part would be a bit of scientific research by doctors and professors from impeccable universities and colleges, which talks about addictive substances and what impact does it bring to a human and finally, what can we conclude about this life-changing dilemma.

Let’s start with this question : “What is something that could affect a human by using social media for hours and hours?”. In my observation with the majority of teenagers and young adults using social media, I have observed countless varieties of pictures that are heavily filtered or photoshopped, not appreciating their beauty, which leads to poor self-esteem. Tweens at the ages of 11-15 as well could encounter being insecure by the way they compare themselves with attractive, eye-catching videos or pictures of girls who would fake their lives for views, another term would be clout. Parents should be concerned by the fact that your daughters who are tweens could be trying their hardest best on making themselves look pretty with makeup or sophisticated dresses and romanticising filters as their only hope to appreciate themselves and to be like their idols. As a result of this matter, this could lead to depression, fear of showing their true self, poor academic performance or memory loss because of the serious impact caused by social media. Another statement on how social media actually ruins our lives is cyber-bullying. We clearly don’t focus on the fact that being laughed at, teased, or harassed on social media platforms is similar to the feeling in real life, but more dangerous in my opinion. This is because teenagers or young adults could just hide the fact that they’re being bullied as it is just in social media where the bullies could just delete those abusive, mean comments towards an individual. It needs to be handled immediately for the sake of this generation, we need to have a clear mindset about social media issues, instead of labelling it as pleasure. Be more observant, not blind.

Aside from general dilemmas about social media platforms, we also have scientific research by professors in incredible and well-known universities like Harvard, Yale or MIT. Researchers, professors found that there is an addictive substance when we use social media which is called “Dopamine”. To keep it short, it affects our movement, memory and focus. Imagine this scenario in daily life, when you log in into your favourite softwares, dopamine signals in your brain increase.. Then, these neurotransmitters are closely related to pleasure, hence perpetuates addiction. Isn’t that shocking, that there is a literal chemical substance that perpetuates us into getting into this unhealthy addiction? By this research, it is pretty similar to tobacco which has a substance of nicotine. Smoking for a long time, engaging in social media excessively? Do you see the full picture?

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, I believe social media platforms make so much money but they don’t understand the harmful pitfalls it lands this generation into, which is completely absurd. It doesn’t bring any potential towards any individual nor improves an individual’s well-being, it tears them apart.