Youth Radio - Topic: Society

technology has taken over the world

Kpellum — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:54:29 -0500

In the twenty-first century, technology has impacted the world and has become a major need in our society. It is now impossible to go through life without depending on some sort of gadget, this has made humans lazy. For example i can now earn a masters degree without leaving my bed or walk long distances for exercise without leaving my house.
Technology has inhanced the capabilty of people which has made production of products faster. It also allows long distance communication and travel. Technology has helped saved many lives through the advancement of medical technics and intruments and information.
Joining me today are:
16 year old sarah champan
16 year old mohammed aledlah
And 18 year old jonathon anabo
We’ll be back after this.

Welcome back

Questions
1.) Do you think we need tech as much as we say we do?
2.) What kind of technology do you use?
3.) How has technology impacted you?
4.) Some of the things that you use tech for can u do it yourself with out the help of tech?

technology has taken over the world

Kpellum — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:54:37 -0500

Welcome back

Society Effect On Childhood

Schapman — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:59:04 -0500

From the second you come out of the womb, you’re affected by society.

If you’re a boy, you’re wrapped in a blue blanket. If you’re a girl, you’re wrapped in a pink blanket. As you get older all the girls wear dresses with pretty sandals, the boys wear overalls with jordan’s. When i used to watch commercials as a kid, i remember wanting barbie dolls with pretty dresses, polly pockets and princess outfits. The media didn’t always affect me; whenever i went to the gas station i always bugged my mom to buy me a toy car. My family used to go to the auto show every year. Typically in today’s society, girls aren’t allowed to like cars. I love cars! But boys, they are frowned upon if they wear a necklace! They have to be manly and tough! Where do all these rules come from? Who made them up? I’m starting to get sick of them. Why can’t i get up and throw on some basketball shorts and a baggy t-shirt? Why can’t boys wear make up? In high school, i see people finding it hard to be themselves. I find myself to be in that position. I don’t wear toms, high waist shorts and keds. The “popular” people, all wear the same type of clothing, really short black pencil skirts, just above the ankle jeans and american apparel and f you dare and try to talk to them, they look at you up and down and dismiss you. All just because you walk against society and their petty rules. I think people should try to have their own perspective and make their own choices.

Gaming for Life

skhan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:21:19 -0500

Being the sister of a serious gamer and video game artist, I’ve grown up digital entertainment. So you could say that rapidly pushing buttons to control digital characters on a a screen is in my blood. I recently saw "Gamer" (2009), and let’s just say that I felt like I was with family. Directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor of the ever-expanding “Crank” franchise once again bring the intensity of the home arcade to a theater near you.

The film features two main games: Society, which is a version of Second Life, except that the gamers pay to control real people, who are then compensated for their participation; and Slayers, in which players control death row inmates who have to fight to the death numerous times to win their freedom. The main character, Kable (Gerard Butler) , is the reigning champion of the Slayers game and is controlled by a young boy named Simon Silverton (Logan Lerman). Meanwhile, Kable’s wife (Amber Valletta) is controlled by players in the game Society. A group of dissenters, led by a character played by rapper Ludacris, tries to fight the mastermind behind the games, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). Needless to say, things get pretty hairy for everyone involved.

Disappointingly, a lot of critics either canned the film or barely tolerated it for being squarely within the genre of the loud, fun, and plotless summer movie. Others blamed the film for being unoriginal, especially this fan, who found the movie to be a mashup of “Running Man”(1987), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and "Death Race" (2008), a recent remake of a 1975 cult classic starring David Carradine of "Kill Bill" fame.

Sure, the film might veer toward your stereotypical adolescent male fantasy full of nudity and violence. But despite all that, I thought “Gamer” raised broader questions about how our forms of escape can affect our (and others’) real lives.

Most see the virtual reality of the gaming world as having only a unidirectional effect on the player: games either corrupt or educate. But “Gamer” raises the possibility that the player influences other people’s real lives through the game. With communities like Second Life, this concept is not that far-fetched anymore. In fact, recently, sex toy manufacturer SexGen sued someone who started creating and selling virtual versions of their products under the same name on that virtual community. But virtual reality need not be the seedy underworld for actions deemed too scandalous for the real light of day. Recently, simulation games have been used to help the blind navigate unfamiliar real-world spaces.

With all these real-world examples of the interaction between the real and virtual worlds, there were moments in the film that made me think about our own society and what our forms of entertainment say about us. If an alien from outer space were to land on Earth and observe us huddled in front of our TVs (or movie screens, for that matter), killing people (or watching other people kill), they might think we enjoy what we do in our spare time. And if that alien from outer space were to see us watching players playing Slayers, they might conclude that we specialize in killing the most misfortunate of our society, prisoners.

Watching this film might make gamers rethink why they play games. Whenever I watch my brother play first-person shooter games, I always think about the number of people who die over and over and the few who survive, indulging in a killing spree. Of course, at the end of the day, it’s a game, but I still wonder how many gamers would do what the young boy in the film does-- gambling with others’ lives while making others rich.

The scary part is if we indeed had that choice how many would be more than willing to do so. The scene in the movie when Kable’s wife enters Society after he’s wrongly imprisoned in Slayers makes we think about whether we are really free. When stressful things come into our lives, we often escape into another world to cope—be it through alcohol, drugs, gambling, games, or other substances that fuel addictive behaviors. We forget what it means to live freely.

I think the film’s portrayal of the game Society and Slayers comments on our own escapist tendencies and forces us to ask ourselves some serious questions: what does it mean to be controlled by human beings and/or substances? Is it like being a puppet? Or a willing slave? And if you had a choice, which would you be? The puppet slave or the master? And what would that choice say about you?

Previously:

The Negative Effects of Rap

jpatrick — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:01:34 -0500

By Dominique Sade Brown

Music has had an effect on society, since the beginning of time. For many years music has helped different people in different ways. Music has a strong impact on the media as well. There are so many different types of music, effecting different cultures, religions, house holds, and personalities. A lot of cultures are affected in different ways, but the African American culture is effected more then any other culture. Music has a much more negative effect on the African American society. There are many music genres, let’s start with rap. Rap can have a very positive message, but other times it can have a really negative message. Fortunately the only negative thing about rap is the words that are used, and the message that is portrayed. Such as the really cruel names they call individuals, or the message they set for young women. For example, in order to be beautiful you have to be half naked. Rappers tend to tell their fans that it’s okay to call all young ladies, sexually explicit names. Realistically it’s not okay and it’s not true. It makes young women who have a low self esteem and women who may not have a mom or dad feel worse. Then their going to think its okay for a boy or man to disrespect her, given the fact that all “the cool” rappers call girls those names. It makes young ladies, have a lack of self respect, and a loss of self worth. Not only does it affect our young ladies, it also affects our young men. It affects a lot of the young men who don’t have a father figure who sets a positive example. Forcing them to look up to the very famous rappers who made it out the “hood’. Making our future citizens, have a lack of respect. I’m sure other cultures listen to rap, I’m sure rap doesn’t only affect the African American culture. It has a very big impact on a lot of other cultures. That’s why we have to come together and find ways to prevent our society and our future generation from the horrific content of our music. For youth radio. I am Dominique Sade brown. You can hear this commentary and more at WWW.YOUTHRADIO.ORG

West Hollywood Then and Now

jmonroe — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:58:54 -0600

I’ve called West Hollywood home for the past two years. It reminds me somewhat of my original home in New York, minus the eternal overwhelming crowds. WeHo is a community built around historic landmarks, preserving the pedestrian’s right to walk to their favorite coffee shops, thrift stores, and bars. The area is a melting pot of time periods, ideals, and the revolutionary movement of gay and lesbian rights. It is home to many Jewish and Russian refugees, and remains a major advocate in maintaining rent‐controlled apartments. West Hollywood shelters relics like the Chateau Marmont, Formosa Cafe, the Whiskey a Go Go, and the Troubadour. During the 1960 Ciro’s, a popular movie star hangout during the 1940 and 50s, became a rock and roll club and held the city’s first gay night. Sunday nights became known as “Tea Dances” and perhaps it would be noteworthy to mention that at this point in history, two men dancing was still illegal. By 1975 the design and decorating industry had entrenched itself into the vital center of WeHo. The glowing and changing lights of the Pacific Design Center remain a beacon in the night.
Although 3000 miles separates New York’s Greenwich Village from WeHo, both cities saw the birth of and nourishment of artistic cultures incorporating civil rights, and gay movements into their core, but also remaining a vigilant force in preserving them. On June 28th 1969 a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village, was the first time that gays and lesbians began to riot and protest against continued harassment by the NYC police.
The Stonewall Inn was reportedly owned by the mafia, and catered to a majority of citizens the police department enjoyed harassing. It took the police over two years to get a warrant issued to shut down the bar on the grounds that it was being run as an illegal membership club without a license, and had no license to serve liquor. The raid on Stonewall Inn lasted between the hours of 12 am and 2 am, 13 arrests were made, and four police officers were reported injured. The patrons of Stonewall Inn fought back against the police raid; throwing anything they could get their hands on including compacts, projectile lipsticks, and stilettos aimed as missiles against the police. According to neighborhood accounts, the raid left the Stonewall Inn as if it had been devoured by a tornado.
Shutting down bars catering to homosexuals was a routine exercise in police brutality in New York, but this time, the residents of Greenwich Village quickly united to form activist groups concentrating their efforts on establishing venues where gays were allowed to express their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested. Only a year after the Stonewall ignited riots, both New York City and Los Angeles commemorated the anniversary of the events by creating The Gay Pride March. The yearly march has grown tremendously, and is a major event on the calendars of anyone living in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where people from all over the world flock to celebrate their sexual freedom.
The Stonewall riots also played a major role in having a vast majority of gays move to Weho. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept patrolled WeHo, and they held a reputation for being less offensively brutal than the homophobic LAPD. The neighborhood continues to develop as a community where outcast and creative activists reside. It was in 1984 that WeHo was able to carve itself out of the greater Los Angeles area, and became the City of West Hollywood. A pinnacle point in the formation of the City of West Hollywood was created by the fact that by 1984 Los Angeles began escalating plans to dismantle rent control. In creating the City of West Hollywood, the locals, mostly renters who would face eviction without the rent control laws, with the help of the Community for Economic Survival (CES), established West Hollywood as a city with one of the nation’s strongest rent control laws.
Present day WeHo is Los Angles’ answer to the Village in New York, and the Castro in San Francisco. It is a city where men can walk hand in hand, and display affection openly without the neighbors casting malicious glances, and possibly calling the police. Women don’t fear walking the dimly lit streets, and your neighbors greet you. The City of West Hollywood was home the short‐lived marriage ceremonies for gay couples last June, and the many rallies before and after the passing of Prop 8.
One has to wonder how WeHo fares during our current economic state. While brightly populated local bars and restaurant like The Abbey, Eleven, Rage, Here and others along the Santa Monica and Robertson strip continue to remain packed to capacity, there are also places disappearing off the map. The Court Yard was an amazing Spanish/Mediterranean tapas restaurant, a staple on Santa Monica Blvd. It served mouthwatering food, great sangria, and welcomed both locals and tourists alike into its open courtyard. Walk by its locked gates now, and the night air scented with rich aromas, burning candles, and countless conversations taking place, are only memories. The lease would have been up in April, but revenue no longer leveraged the cost of staying open. Half a block east of the now closed Court Yard is Famima .A modern, Japanese take on your local grocery store. Famima in WeHo was the first of its kind to be opened in
Los Angeles on June 20th, 2005. Bright colors and imported goods smiled backed at you from the racks, not particularly overpriced. It was last weekend, while coming in through its back door, that I was greeted by a large 50% off sticker. I’ve bought a variety of Kambucha drinks, Pocky, sushi, salads, and even neat Japanese notebooks here. Famima would remain vigilantly open until 2 am, nourishing and feeding hunger, thirst, and nicotine addictions. I use their ATM, and buy a pack of gum, because you can never have too much tropical gum to offer. The gum only costs me $.64, a bargain, but also a reminder of the fact that by the end of January, Famima in WeHo will be no more. I have to ask the clerk why they are closing, and he points out that they plan to open another location in downtown LA, but states that in the last year business has slowed down to a point where a profits are no longer afforded. Kim’s nail salon is also located on Santa Monica Blvd. I’ve been a religious devout since my fist manicure. Kim, a Vietnamese refugee has owned the salon for the past twenty years. When I first started going to Kim’s, I would spend a good half an hour waiting my turn. Lately, I can spend a full hour getting a manicure and pedicure without ever seeing another customer come in. I asked Kim if she has witnessed a decline in business, and she smiles as she looks outside through the glass front. Kim has seen much of the neighborhood change. Many of the regulars, despite the city’s efforts to maintain low rents through rent control, have migrated to Silver Lake, because the cost of living continues to mount. Rents soar making it difficult, if not impossible, for the locals to remain. Smaller houses have been torn down and have been replaced by condominiums, and overpriced supermarkets. Kim’s regulars do not come in as often, she admits. Where once her clients may have come in twice a week, now they come once. It is the homey atmosphere and kind nature of everyone who works in Kim’s salon that brings everyone back. We sit and talk over a cup of Vietnamese tea, as I wait for my manicure to dry, and we catalogue the outline of the houses and trees on the street. I wonder what it will look like in twenty years.
Like all inhabitants on this earth, I am caught in a place in time, a history ever changing. I am elated to witness what the present and future hold, while trying to withhold casting my judgment. It makes me proud to know that WeHo has emerged as a diverse metropolitan area in Los Angeles, one that continues to house and nourish humanistic ideals. There is much that is born during trying times, and the world economic crisis is no different. As neighbors, activists, artists, humanists and consumers our choices speak for us with every dollar spent. We are active agents in shaping the political and economic landscape of our futures.

YR Europe: A Tight Knit Community Where "The Troubles" Began

nishat — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:20:07 -0600

(Produced with the assistance of Ardmore Sound)

Derry, Northern Ireland is a small town that packs a militant punch.
In the early 1600's, the seeds of its rich history were planted by the early clashings of English and Irish men. This piece of land that sits on the banks of the Foyle river played host to what would be known as "Bloody Sunday," the 30th of January, 1972.
Modern day Derry is just as militant as it was when the 17th century architecture of this small town was erected. The wall around the town's center creates a central area primarily used for tourism and shopping, while the land outside of the gates is a divided community of low income Protestants and Catholics who have historically been at one another's throats.
During an interview with the head of a local organization called Cresco Trust Ltd., which promotes youth employment and entrepreneurial opportunites, she warned that at nightfall it'd be best to stay away from the road where the headquarters of her business is located. She said there have been recent flare-ups related to the "Troubles," as they call the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, in the interface areas. Now dusk marks the hour when she and other business owners close their shops in hopes of returning in the morning to an intact building.
In one of Cresco Trust's entrepreneurial projects, low income residents and incarcerated individuals use quilting to take out their frustrations and cultivate art that is both beautiful and functional. On one gloomy Friday afternoon at the Mission Hill Quilts store, a young college grad named Jenine was selling cloth and completed quilts. Jenine said this was her way of doing something constructive in this conflicted village.

No Tests, No Homework, and No Finals

denise — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:29:07 -0600

Can you imagine a school, where there’s no test, homework, and finals? Neither can I. But according to the San Francisco Chronicle there’s a new school for New York City teens who might be in danger of dropping out of school. Lafayette Big Picture High School, where students spend two days out of their regular high school to create their own learning plans, set their own goals and spends quality time with their mentors. The students learn “real world” skills through internships, portfolios, oral presentation, and working closely with students, advisers and mentors.

This school comes at the right time because now these young people can learn how to survive financially during a recession.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more on this story

A Country With No Homelessness

dwesley — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:34:09 -0600

Going to school and getting a lot of information for free is the best thing ever (it's up there with having a lot of money). This is my last year in school, yes, I'm finally a senior, and I'm going to be free at last. I will be free from waking up extra early to get on BART to be on time for school. But the hard part about being a senior is that you have a senior project to do - 20 written pages, three interviews, and a 15 to 20 minute presentation. While it may sound easy, it's not, because you have to plan your project early on. I started planning my project when I was in the 11th grade. My senior project is on homelessness and why homelessness occurs in the United States.

My biggest question is why, if the United States is one of the richest countries in the world, are so many American people homeless. What is the government, federal, local, and state doing to prevent this? What is going on in American that the Government is not doing much? I picked this topic to show the problem and show possible solutions. There are many things that need to be done in America to solve homelessness because there are many people who don't have a home and haven't for a long while. Many people think that homelessness is homeless people's problem. But it's all our problem and we can do something to help out because homelessness isn't caused by one thing. Nobody wants to be homeless and what if that was one of your family members? We should all help out and every little bit helps. Me, I'm going to Glide Memorial Church every Wedesday and Sunday to help out as much as I can.

Selling the Army to You

dwesley — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:17:40 -0600

Joining the military is a big thing because you are fighting for the Untied States and representing your country, but you are also putting your life on the line. The good thing is that it's a choice and it remains that way even though the U.S. Army is doing everything they can do to get young people to join – movies, ads in video games, on street billboards, and going to schools as early as middle school years to start branding people. Now they've got a whole new set of commercials called "Army Strong" to get young people to sign up. Will you be one of them?