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Perception of The Arts and Humanities, by Sarah Wright

Grasping Human Perception

What I’ve noticed throughout my lifetime is that most people tend to downplay the importance of a liberal arts education. To get a sense of how people in my everyday life perceive the role of the arts and humanities in our lives, I interviewed 2 people whom I am very close to and are from different backgrounds to see how their ideas stacked up with my own journey of discovering the importance of the liberal arts. These are the questions I asked each of my interviewees:

- In your own words, what is the difference between Liberal Arts and the Humanities?

- How are the humanities important in shaping a person’s perspective on a given situation?

- What do you consider to be the most important branch/area of study in the humanities?

- How do/did the liberal arts factor into your life/work/education?

- Final thoughts about liberal arts schools and/or liberal arts education?

Initial Perspectives

My sister was the very first person I reached out to for an interview. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from her answers because she is an engineer and went to an engineering school for college. In addition to being an engineer, Allison enjoys the liberal arts and grew up surrounded by music and theatre and learned how special the arts really are. However, I didn’t expect her to sound as critical of the arts and humanities as she did. One phrase that stuck out to me the most was her response to the final question; she said “In the modern era, it feels useless to groom someone for society the way a liberal arts education was originally intended.” At one point in my life, I would have totally agreed with this statement but now that I’ve attended a liberal arts college for several years, my perspective has changed greatly.

Current Perspective

While attending college, I’ve been able to meet so many people from all over the world who study all kinds of things; one of my closest friends is an international student who studies diplomacy. Had I not met her, I would not understand how important it is for someone to understand history, culture, and personal skills, let alone how to apply it all into one discipline and make a living off of it.

Additionally, I have been able to take classes such as Intro. to Drama and my sophomore research seminar which primarily focuses on how the liberal arts and humanities are important to learn. These classes have opened my eyes to the different cultures of the world and why understanding and respecting them impacts the way we live and interact with each other.

Future Perspectives

The second person I reached out to was my oldest friend, Sam. He had, by far, the most interesting opinion on the perception of the liberal arts. In fact, he considers philosophy to be the most important discipline to study in the liberal arts. His argument for this is that “Philosophy is the basis for all branches of thought, both scientific and social, and a thorough understanding of it can make it infinitely easier to problem-solve.” While I understand where he is coming from with this idea, it’s hard for me to conceptualize because my brain is hard-wired for math and engineering concepts, not so much for philosophical thoughts. That being said, I hope to one day be able to see how critical liberal arts are through his eyes.

Works Cited

https://pixabay.com/photos/human-observer-exhibition-2944065/

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Social Innovation or Tabulation?, by Sarah Wright

Tech Companies Know All

I was about 17 minutes into watching “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix when I became seriously creeped out and inspired all at the same time. Immediately, I had to turn to my Google Docs page to type my first draft of my blog before I lost my train of thought. However, when I came up with a working title and typed “by Sarah W” next to it, something interesting happened. The autofill suggestion instantly came up with my last name after I typed ‘W’. I’m lazy by nature so, of course, I let autofill do its thing and my last name appeared. Google Docs went even further with its autofill capabilities by automatically connecting my full name to my Gmail account, which is kinda creepy if you think about it.

The Transition of Social Media 

This kind of ‘magic’ that we see every day when we log onto our phones and computers is exactly what the former big tech CEOs and VPs were discussing in “The Social Dilemma.” When social media platforms like Google and Facebook were introduced to us in the 1990’s and 2000’s, millions of lives changed. Social media was able to connect people from all across the globe with organ donors, their life partners, and even long lost family members.

At the beginning of it all, social media companies were created to spread positivity. As it’s gotten larger and more powerful, these innovator’s ideas have backfired and are dividing people further than ever before. This is seen when Jonathan Haidt talks about the increase in teen and pre-teen girls admitted to the hospital due to non-fatal self harm. He says that since 2009, the amount of teen girls who were admitted to the hospital has risen 62% and that of pre-teen girls has increased 189%. He places the blame of this rise in depression and suicidal thoughts on the increase in availability of social media on mobile devices, beginning in 2009 (The Social 40:00-41:13).

Another perfect example of how the algorithms have backfired on us is seen in the current political climate. Now, I really didn’t want my blogs to be hyper fixated on politics but it’s imperative to talk about in order to recognize and solve our problems. For instance, computers have become so advanced that no matter how similar you and one of your friends are, you will not see the same things when you log online; that algorithm is selecting what is perfect for just you (The Social 55:54-56:12). This inevitably causes you to believe that everyone agrees with you because you are only surrounded by those who agree with you. Additionally, when you are now presented with information that contradicts your new views, you are unable to accept them. This is exactly how the Republican and Democratic parties have become the most divided they’ve ever been in a long time (The Social 57:11-58:14). In fact, we can see all of this happening right in front of us.

Connection to Liberal Arts?

I will once again argue that this is an important conversation to have for many reasons. First of all, social media platforms are manipulating us all by appealing to our psychological instincts. It has now become clear that we all need to take steps to understand just how much of a hold our media has on us and use that knowledge to combat the inevitable brainwashing. When asked what he was most worried about when it comes to the impact social media addiction and manipulation will have on society, the former president of Pinterest said that civil war was not too far away (The Social 1:20:09-1:20:22). When he said that, my mind couldn’t help but wander back to when I discussed the connection between the Beer Hall Putsch in 1920s Germany and the storming of The Capitol in January of 2021 in my blog. Our awareness of the facts surrounding us coupled with the recognition of our history will help us to create a world where the arts and humanities are valued just as much as science.

Works Cited

The Social Dilemma. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, performances by Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, and Vincent Kartheiser, Netflix, 2020.

https://pixabay.com/photos/code-hacker-data-security-707069/

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“No History, No Present, No Future”, by Sarah Wright

https://pixabay.com/photos/take-the-book-girls-the-study-532097/

History Has Its Eyes On Us

One of the biggest lessons I was taught in high school was by my social studies teacher/track and field coach. He always pointed out to his classes that if no one paid attention to history, it would repeat itself, as it so often does. In early January 2021, I was able to see exactly what he meant when the US Capitol was stormed and breached. The day after the riot, my mom and I were watching the 5th season of Downton Abbey together, specifically the episode when Lady Edith finds out that her lover has been killed in the Beer Hall Putsch. Naturally, I had to look up what this event was.

It turns out, the Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup d’etat led by none other than Adolf Hitler in Munich in early November 1923. Hitler was arrested days after the event, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was released in December 1924 after only serving nine months in jail. Of course, he then began his ascent to power in Germany and we all know how well that ended...

The moment when I realized what the Beer Hall Putsch was, I felt a sinkhole appear in my stomach. THAT SCENARIO HAD JUST HAPPENED IN MY COUNTRY YESTERDAY! How could that have happened again? Hadn’t the world learned its lesson from watching Germany spiral out of control in the 1930s and 40s? Answer: apparently not.

Making Connections

The only reason I was able to make these connections is because of human culture and having retained a smidge of knowledge from high school. In McFadden’s Remarks Upon Leaving Union College, he says that “the partial product of a liberal education [is having] acquired some tangible thing that you can point to with pride.” I’m not afraid to admit it: I’m really proud of myself for having been open to learning history and understanding politics even though my career will likely never revolve around the US political climate.

You might be asking yourself: just because you care about this, Sarah, why should I? You should care because historical events like this have and will continue to shape humanity. Now that history is beginning to repeat itself dangerously, it’s even more important that we as a society recognize that the liberal arts are pertinent to our lives and the well being of human kind for the foreseeable future.

This is seen in Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk. He says In his TED Talk: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” He says this in context that we are all taught from a young age that there is a stigma attached to being wrong and therefore killing our natural creativity. Robinson also states that kids were always steered away from the arts and humanities because that is not how society interprets educational knowledge; we’re always driven towards math and science because those are the fields in which you can get jobs.

What To Do Now

If we as a society continue to drive children away from their own creativity and passions, innovations won’t happen and the world will be full of depressed generations. It’s time to take action for this in some way or another. Personally, I challenge myself to rediscover my love of art by taking the time to draw and paint when I have a free moment. Later on in my life, I want to make sure I never lose my creativity and also advocate for teaching the arts to young children so they have many more opportunities than most of us ever did. So, what are you waiting for?

Works Cited

“Do Schools Kill Creativity? Sir Ken Robinson.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 7 Jan. 2007, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&feature=youtu.be.

McFadden, Tom. “Remarks Upon Leaving Union College.” Union College, Schenectady, NY. Keynote Speech.

The Knight Canney Group. “The Heart of the Matter.” YouTube, uploaded by The Knight Canney Group, 6 Jan. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui4piB7uuZo&feature=youtu.be.